Many of you have heard the story of Alisa Camplin. But for those that haven’t, Camplin was a professional aerial skier from right here in sunny Australia.
She was set to compete in the 2002 Winter Olympics for the Australian national team when she had a rough landing on a jump at practice two weeks before the event and broke both of her ankles.
She was sidelined, and the doctors told her she would be unable to compete. But Australia doesn’t have a lot of skiers, and Alisa was competitive, so she intended to heal in those two weeks and try her best to do the jump.
But with two broken ankles, Alisa would also be unable to practice. That would give her competition an advantage. In order to stay competitive, Camplin tried something unique – she closed her eyes, focused, and visualized herself skiing over and over and over again. She wasn’t able to practice physically, but she could still transport herself there mentally and train her mind as if she was practicing in person.
After two weeks, her ankles healed. She competed, and she won gold.
Despite two broken ankles, her body was actually in better shape than many of her competitors, because she hadn’t been rigorously training it to exhaustion and had mostly been at rest. She spent her time training her brain, giving it the tools it needed to thrive.
Visualizing Your Successes
People think that mental wellness, toughness, and control just happen, or are something we learn over time. But our ability to control our emotions, thoughts, and mind are no different from a muscle. Use it and it thrives. Let it sit, and it wastes away.
You can’t wait on your mind to grow stronger. It needs exercise. It needs practice. It needs training.
What are you doing to challenge yourself?
How are you training your mind to help you prepare for the road ahead?
Stop believing you’re an Imposter
When it comes to Imposter Syndrome, I recall feeling frustrated by it.…
