At the beginning of every race I tell my middle school cross-country runners to think to themselves that “no one else is there.” You can imagine this gets a few chuckles. I do this because a great deal of anxiety that I’ve seen over the years comes from the worry that everyone is watching them. My runners, like many athletes, become self-conscious instead of task conscious when pressure is applied. So, I go on to say, “No one’s there if you choose to only focus on yourself, your performance.” The chuckles lessen. Some of my runners may be staring off into the sky, perhaps wondering why they let their parent’s sign them up in the first place (give me your tired, your angry, your, well…bored 😉 ). But, then there’s the ones that are still there looking curiously at me; that look of, “What is this guy saying? Is he serious?!” And the most important part rattling around in their brains… “Can that really be?”
The answer is, yes.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to go around the field kicking out all the spectators so there are no distractions for my runners (that would be the end my job, right there). The ‘yes’ refers to the fact that you choose what you put your focus on, because it is your focus. It’s your mind. How you choose to think, determines your reality.
A movie I had shown my runners this past season, on a 95-degree day, was called “RACE.” It’s the story of Jesse Owens: his difficulties getting better as a runner, and as an African American man trying to run in college and in the Olympics. One of the greatest scenes in that movie is when Jesse’s coach, Larry Schneider, brings the track team into the locker room after a practice. The all white football team and their bigoted coach come into the locker room wanting to kick the track team out. I will never forget what Coach Schneider tells his track team while the football players AND their coach shout obscenities at them:
Coach Schneider – “You can’t get distracted”
Football coach and his team shout louder at the African American runners, so coach Schneider raises his voice enough to be heard, paying no attention to anyone but his team.
Coach Schneider – “People are going to show up for the Big Ten meet; not all of them are going to be on our side, do you understand that? Do you!?”
The football crowd behind him gets more hostile. Coach Schneider brings his voice up more, but keeps his anger in check.
Coach Schneider – “You got to learn to block it all out! It’s just noise!”
The anger and shouting are now out of control. Jesse can barely hear his coach over the hatred, until he makes the effort to put his focus solely on what his coach is saying…
Coach Schneider – “They will love you or they will hate you; does not matter. Either way when you are out there, you are on your own! Jessie. Jessie, do you hear me!”
The room has gone almost to a muffled silence for Jesse. The loud fighting and hateful words are a mere murmur. All that is left in Jessie’s mind is his coach’s even-toned voice that he is mindfully focusing on.
Jesse Owens (smiling) – “Yeah. Yeah, Coach, I hear you.”
Sometimes you cannot remove yourself from the equation of your external environment, but you can always choose what you let in; what you focus on. And I don’t use the word ‘choose’ lightly. It takes a considerable amount of dedication, practice, and intention to achieve such mindfulness. But once you do, you no longer need to block out the external environment’s noise, it just falls away (there’s no one there but you 🙂 ). You then have the ability to live a truly authentic life. A life without avoiding certain situations. Instead, you will have a much greater tolerance for other’s opinions, beliefs, and personal truths without having to defend yours. After all…it’s just noise until you decide to let it in.
