Thread by @jvmenon

It isn’t the load that breaks you, but the way you carry it - A THREAD

Even when you do something trivial, like trying to lift something off the floor, make sure to rehearse it in your mind first. Why ?

Here is why. But before that, what is this thing called 'mental rehearsal' ?
This thing called mental rehearsal or “visualization,” is a process of continuously running an activity in your mind., so that when a situation occurs, you are better equipped to handle it.

The way you lift a load off the floor works in a similar way., handle it first in your mind before you go about lifting it.

Here is an example of Michael Phelps: Few people know that he trains insane. That throughout his years of training, Michael Phelps followed the same routine over and over again, with precision.

From getting closer to the pool, to fixing his goggles, to stepping onto the diving board, then the jump, the first contact with water, each hand movement, and so on—all of these coordinated so accurately that he knew them as if they were a part of him.

Phelps’s coach used to name this routine “the track.” Now, in this track, Michael basically confronted all the scenarios that could possibly occur.

It was the fateful day of the finals for the 200-meter butterfly swim at the Beijing Olympic games. Phelps was prepared. When his coach saw him enter the arena, he shouted to him to plug-in the “track.” Michael was plugged-in.

Everything seemed to be in place, the way he knew it by heart: the diving board, the water, hand movements.
But — something went wrong. Water started to enter into his goggles. He could not see.

When you hear the story till this point, You might wonder that it would probably have a sad ending. However, Phelps was trained for this. He already had a scenario in mind when such a thing should happen.

Sight would not be a problem for him because he knew by heart how many hand movements he needed to make until reaching the wall. He played “the track,” and he won the gold, finishing 0.66 seconds faster than Laszlo Cseh, who finished second.

There is tremendous power in that simple process of mental rehearsal. Confronting a situation in your mind over and over again so that 'the track' will play out so naturally when you face it for real. Know that, It is never the load that breaks you, but the way you carry it.

And in this anecdote is a life lesson ~ it is seldom the situation that breaks you, but the way you handle it.