This is my third in a series that I’ve done, influenced by the book “With Winning in Mind” by Lanny Bassham. Lanny was a 1976 Olympic gold medalist and the founder of Mental Management Systems, a program for helping high-performers reach their potential and change their self-image or modify their self-image.
I was so struck by the self-image thing because I’ve been very interested in “self-talk” and what I call “self-listen.” The self-image thing really struck me, and I wanted to share it. I’ve done two episodes before this one in the series. The first is called “Self-Image – Building a Better You.” The second is “Understanding Your Self-Image.” And now today, I’m going to talk to you, again out of Lanny’s book, about changing your self-image.
Full transcript below.
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Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
self-image, coach, imprinting, attitude, reinforcing, change, mental, free throw line, starting, habits, solo, episode, call, chance, poor, lanny, misses, book, performance
SPEAKERS
Mike Malatesta 00:03
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show. And thanks for joining me for this Friday solo episode. This is my third in a row in a series that I’ve done, influenced by the book “With Winning in Mind” by Lanny Bassham. Lanny was an Olympic gold medalist; in 1976, he won the gold medal, and he is the founder of Mental Management Systems, which is a program for helping high-performers reach their potential and change their self-image or modify their self-image. I was so struck by the self-image thing, because I’ve been very interested in self-talk and what I call self-listen. And the self-image thing really struck me, and I wanted to share it. So I’ve done two episodes before this one in the series, the first is called “Self-Image – Building a Better You.” The second is “Understanding Your Self-Image.” And now today, I’m going to talk to you, again out of Lanny’s book, about changing your self-image. So, mentalmanagement.com is how you can find out more about Lannny and his work. So here we go.
Changing your self-image; we’re going to walk through an actual example that he provides in the book:
Remember, your self-image is the current state of you. It is not the final state of you. Be aware that your self-image is evolving in the direction of your imprinting. The better you control your imprinting, the better Captain you will be of the submarine that is taking you to your goals. [And by imprinting, he means the things that you’re paying attention to, what you are reinforcing in you. We talked a lot about that in the last solo episode.] So, nothing is going to change unless you change. If you possessed everything that you needed to succeed, you would have reached your goal already. As an example, Donnie was a fine young basketball player who had a chance to make his high school’s starting squad. His defensive ability was solid. He was a good shooter. But his percentage at the free throw line was poor. So poor in fact that the coach hesitated to play him in critical situations. You know, he’s easy foul to not make any points right your mark. The coach knew that Danny’s deficiency was a mental attitude about the free throw line. When questioned about his starting, Donnie would say the coach just likes the other players better. I just don’t shoot free throws well, I never have. With that attitude, Danny had no chance to start. Also, Donnie has a bad habit of getting mad when he misses a free throw, thereby reinforcing his error or imprinting it. Donnie needed to change his self-image. His attitude needed to be “I am the best free throw shooter on the team.”
So step one, of course, from the previous episode, you must be willing to change. One day, Donnie approached the coach. Okay, Coach, I’m ready to do whatever it takes to make the starting squad. What do I have to do? Are you ready to change your attitude about making free throws? the coach asked. Yes, coach, I’m ready. That’s a willingness to change.
Number two, you must identify the attitudes and habits you need to change. How do you identify which habits and attitudes you need to change? It’s easier than you think. Simply look at the problems you’re having and start there. If you turn your weakness into strengths, your performance will surely benefit. In this regard, problems and frustrations are valuable keys to your success. For skilled athletes and business professionals. Most of the time, their problems are negative attitudes and poor reinforcement. In our example, Donnie needs to change one attitude and one habit. The attitude that needs changing is his opinion of himself. I’m not a good free throw shooter. Also, he must eliminate reinforcing his missed shots.
Step number three — set up a new self-image that is in direct conflict with your old habits and attitudes. Johnny’s new attitude is, I am the best free throw shooter on my team. His new habit is each time he makes a free throw, he must say, that’s like me. Each time he misses, he must forget his error. Olympic athletes call this technique, feast or forget, feast or forget. He must run a mental program on each free throw to maximize his chance of making every shot. He should reinforce his successes by recording in his performance analysis journal. [He’s got a whole chapter on this performance analysis journal, you can buy one from him as well. He is a very big advocate of not coaching anyone who’s not willing to write down everything that they do in as they move toward the self-image that they want.]
And step number four, exchange your old self-image for the desired new one. Replacing an old self-image with a new one is no simple matter. Our habits and attitudes were instilled over a long period of time and are not easily dislodged. The mental process that I endorse is both safe and extremely effective. It is called the direct affirmation. [Then he goes into direct affirmations in chapter 14 of his book, and maybe we’ll do one of these in a future episode. But I think three in a row on self-image and Lanny’s book “With Winning in Mind” is probably enough for now. Maybe I’ll get back to it later.
But I do hope that the 15 minutes or 20 minutes that you’ve spent listening to these last three weeks of solo episodes have been impactful because they definitely were for me reading it first. And then, you know, putting the planning for the podcast together and sharing it with you this self-image thing, there’s really something to it, and I’m going to incorporate it into my thinking and my doing and my coaching. And I think it might make sense for you to do that, as well.
So thank you for listening. I hope you got value and I look forward to catching up with you on the very next episode. Thank you
