Have you ever poked yourself in the chin or lip with a fork while attempting to place a bite of food into your mouth? Of course not. Have you ever thought about how many muscles your brain needs to send proper commands to for your hand to hold the fork, carefully place the food upon it, balance it as the wrist, elbow and arm raise it up to your mouth and then place it into your mouth perfectly every time, and all this without you even being able to see your own mouth?
Think about that for a second. The fact of the matter is, this is an amazing feat and yet you have done this and will continue to do so all of your life with perfection. Just imagine how awesome this would be if you could drive a racecar around the track with such ease and perfection. Well, guess what. You can.
When I was training to become an Olympic marksman, I was taught how to use psycho cybernetics, the concept of learning/teaching the psychological methods to training elite athletes, which combines the cognitive behavioral technique of teaching an individual how to regulate self-concept. In turn, this teaches the mind-body connection as the core in succeeding in attaining personal goals. The job is to get your goal into the subconscious mind — to put your imagination to work. I call this “setting the autopilot.”
Each time we perform a repetitive act, our subconscious remembers it. After we have performed that act enough times, the subconscious is more than capable of performing that act when the conscious mind calls upon the subconscious to perform. This is if we allow the subconscious to take over. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not and here’s why. Our subconscious only deals with facts and truth, better known as positive thoughts, but the conscious mind is filled with “Gee, what if I fail?” or “What if I can’t do this?” — better known as negative thoughts.
As a student of psycho-cybernetics, I can tell you this is where things get complicated. As soon as the subconscious knows it can perform flawlessly, it will do so every time — but you cannot lie to the subconscious. Every time we perform an act repetitively — think practice — the subconscious is remembering not only how, but also is remembering hundreds if not thousands of commands necessary to perform that act being called upon. As long as we think negative thoughts — I might not make this corner — the subconscious mind will not allow itself to perform. But if you can perform an act and at the same time believe without doubt that you will succeed, the subconscious will and can eventually take control and succeed.
The fact of the matter is the subconscious is a lot smarter than the conscious. The reality of this is we are a lot smarter than we think we are. Surely you’ve heard the phrase, “Go with your instincts.” The truth is, that’s exactly what you should do. However, don’t follow your conscious instincts but rather your subconscious instincts.
You can never get too much seat time when learning to develop great car-handling skills, but it’s equally important to get good mental time behind the wheel as well. The next time you’re practicing at the track, start “allowing” the subconscious to guide you through the corners. Believe me, your subconscious already knows what works and what doesn’t, and the more track time you get, the more your subconscious can help you if only you trust it to do so.
