FINDING THE RIGHT WORDS

Self-talk’s a proven performance tool, but what should you talk about?

---

We’ve discussed the benefits of self-talk before, the idea being that taking control of your inner voice can lead to a more positive outlook when you’re in a pit of pain and so you’ll perform better. Well, a recent study has shifted the self-talk debate on to determining whether negative self-talk slows you down or positive self-talk speeds you up.

The scientists in Newfoundland gave 29 subjects self-talk training. Around a third ran on a treadmill at a moderate pace using their positive self-talk training. The next group did the same run but were assigned negative self-talk like, ‘I want to quit’. A third completed the run while listening to the ‘neutral’ audio documentary Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe.

What did they find? There was no difference between the positive and Hawking groups, intimating that distraction is just as effective as positive feedback. But the negative group found the effort harder with higher levels of cortisol. The take-home? Try to keep things positive – or listen to the musings of the world’s greatest physicists.