The power of positive thinking

“Positive thinking creates positive actions, and negative thinking creates negative actions.”
“Positive thinking, Positive outcome”
“How you see your future is much more important than what has happened in your past”
“A positive mind finds a way it can be done”


There are hundreds and thousands of sayings about having a positive mind set. Telling someone to think positive is very easy, but how can we break it down to a particle level to help them really apply it to what they are doing? How can we make them take it in and help them truly change the thoughts they are thinking?
You may think you cannot change what goes in in your brain, but there are strategies we can use to not only help ourselves, but also those around us, to have a brighter outlook on the task which is at hand.

• Be open and trust in others
  • Trying new things can be hard. But, especially gymnastics, trusting in the process (of skill development) and those around you (coaches) is a key factor to being able to achieve new things. People want you to succeed. The advice and help they offer you is to assist you through continual growth and development. Believe in yourself and those around you when trying new things.
• Observe your thoughts
  • Are you focusing on the positive or the negative? You should be focusing on what you want to happen. Negative thoughts will create negative outcomes. “I’m going to fall off the beam, I’ll wobble and then fall off” This thought process will more often than not result in a fall, even when the skill could have easily stayed on the beam, because the mind will attract to it the thoughts it is having. Instead think “I have done this skill before, I will pull tall in the landing and stay on the beam.” This is more likely to create a positive outcome.
• Create a turn around
  • The turn-around is the way we can turn our negative thoughts into positive ones. There are many different turn-around methods and different ways will work for different people. But here is one of my favorite ones. It’s called the S-B-V-GO! method.
    • STOP – the first moment that you notice a negative thought stop!
    • BREATH – breathing can bring you back to the present. Take a breath and focus on it, this will draw your thoughts away from being stuck in past or future fears. After staying STOP inside your head, take a deep breath.
    • VISUALISE – After your breath, change your negative thoughts to either positive or motivating thoughts and visualise your desired outcome.
    • GO! – Once you have finished the visualization, say GO! in your head. This may either be a direct instruction, telling yourself to do a skill, or a more indirect one which is telling you to move on and forward with your positive thought process. At times GO! may bring you in a full circle and take you back to STOP! so that you can move through the turn-around again.

It is important to remember that a positive thought pattern and activities like the S-B-V-GO! are learnt skills and they take practice. The more time you spend working on a positive mind set the easier and more natural it will become.


It is possible to change your mindset.
Choose to be happy.