Today I went to a Mental Toughness Seminar hosted at Kombat Arts. I am going to compete in the future and being ready mentally is just as important as being ready physically. The idea of mental toughness also applies to everything we do in life as well.

The workshop was taught by Rob Schinke, a sports psychologist who has worked with a number of professional and amateur athletes at the highest levels of competition.

My interpretation of the seminar was that the main point is this - “Self awareness is mental toughness”. This works out in a few ways:

• be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses to know what to focus on
• be aware of the things you do that cause you to have good and bad training days - then evaluate these items so you know what to repeat and what to avoid
• be aware that your posture and the way you carry yourself controls the way you feel and the way others feel about you, which in turn becomes your reality

Rob also talked a lot about the importance of keeping a training log. The way he discussed it was to have it in a very point form manner to really show the nuts and bolts of what was done during a day. The idea is to make it easier to review at the end of the month to see what has been working and what hasn’t. I’ve been keeping this journal updated pretty faithfully, but one thing I haven’t been doing a lot is going back and reviewing it. I am going to review more often in the future to see what has been working for me and what hasn’t.

Another point that was stressed is the importance of being positive. Rob explained to us how even a minor negative thought can lead into a downward spiral as the negativity perpetuates more negativity and self-doubt. This is something I strongly believe in and try to apply in my day-to-day life.

On the topic of goal-setting, we were given an exercise: write out 3-4 specific goals in the past tense as if you have already achieved them. The goals should be written on index cards and put up in places where you will see them multiple times a day. The idea is that by seeing the goals constantly, we are thinking about them a lot more often which leads to taking action to achieve them.

After the seminar and a quick weight workout, I went over to Staples and picked up a pack of the most garishly-bright neon index cards I could find and wrote out these goals:

• I am 180 pounds and in excellent physical shape
• I am skilled enough and have a high enough conditioning level to fight competitively
• I am confident and assertive
• I am taking my career to the next level and improving my skill set

I’m going to put them up on my bedroom/office door, nightstand, bathroom door, home office desk, work desk and fridge, plus wherever else I can think of.

There was a lot more to the seminar, but I’d be writing here forever if I went through all of it. I learned a lot of new ideas and reinforced some existing ones. The seminar was definitely worth it and I’m glad I decided to check it out!