Years back when I was just starting down this triathlon road I spent a weekend in Pueblo with our good friends Michelle, Ron and Sam. I believe I spent a portion of the mini vacation drunk on Pomegranate Liquor, getting the sprinklers turned on me, and enduring a horrible puking session. Not my finest moment but there are always positives that come out of extreme puking sessions. One thing I took away from the weekend, other than the fact that getting drunk is just not for me any more was my friend Ron’s term “PMA.”
I love it and use it ALL the time, a gift from him to me.
PMA…Positive Mental Attitude.
Some people just have it and for some it’s work. People think I am one of those who just have it and I guess most the time I am, but other times not so much, like when I was praying to the porcelain gods and wondering why I spent $40 on a bottle of pink booze that was now headed to the sewer.
That weekend cemented the concept of PMA into my heart and mind and I’ve been running (and riding and swimming) with it ever since.
I’m reading a great book right now that CV suggested. A quote, if I don’t mind myself:
In every pursuit, focus drives consistent high-level performance. The recipe for high-quality focusing is simple – stay positive and stay fully connected.
– Terry Orlick
It’s true that your ability to remain positive in all situations will give you a leg up on your competition, and even if it doesn’t….at least you will have a positive outlook on things. See, I just think the happy route is definitely the way to go. If you are fast and happy, you’re good. If you are slow and happy, still good. But if you are fast or slow and unhappy…no bueno. If you are slow and unhappy, I’m pretty darn sure that shifting to slow and happy will give you the best chance at becoming fast and happy. See what I mean?
But how does one just develop a happy positive attitude? What if you are a pessimistic person, or worse yet, a pessimist who says “I’m not a pessimist, I’m a realist.” I say “You’re in denial.”
Frist things first, I think most of us would agree that our lives are a series of choices. Even if you are prone to making excuses, deep in your heart, you know that with everything that happens to you in life, the reaction you have is a choice, an active choice on your part.
Choose to focus on the positives rather than the negatives. Choose to focus on the opportunities rather than the obstacles. Choose to bring a fully connected focus to your practices and performances. Choose to focus fully on the step in front of you rather than on distractions. Chose to live and perform closer to your potential.
– Terry Orlick
Sometimes we make mistakes though. Sometimes it’s not all hearts an flowers. Having a positive attitude doesn’t have anything to do with what happens TO YOU. Yes, it’s not always peaches and cream. But your REACTIONS, the way you process the stimuli that comes into your sphere of influence, well that, my friends, is entirely on you. Have some PMA.
If you want to keep your snowball of postive results rolling, then process each day by revisiting the positive parts of the day, the stuff that rocked the house. Also take time to assess the parts of your training or performance that can be improved, take stock, make some adjustments and move on. If you are to “dwell”, then dwell on the positives. But dwelling is best done when we are in our graves…plenty of time to sleep then as well.
“Grow from setbacks by channeling their lessons and energy towards improvement”
– Terry Orlick
We can all be a little bit better in all that we do. If we wake up each day, ready to attack it with PMA and a new plan to learn from the lessons of yesterday, then before we know it those days have piled into massive amounts of fun, fitness, and joy. Rest assured, results will follow, and if they don’t, you’ll be too busy having fun to notice.
PMA…think about it.
Feel like this one has my name on it… ( ;
From George Carlin, an opposing view, but yet poignant…
I’m happy to tell you there is very little in this world that I believe in. Listening to the comedians who comment on political, social, and cultural issues, I notice most of their material reflects an underlying belief that somehow things were better once and that with just a little effort we could set them right again. They’re looking for solutions, and rooting for particular results, and I think that necessarily limits the tone and substance of what they say. They’re talented and funny people, but they’re nothing more than cheerleaders attached to a specific, wished-for outcome.
I don’t feel so confined. I frankly don’t give a fuck how it all turns out in this country – or anywhere else, for that matter. I think the human game was up a long time ago (when the high priests and traders took over), and now we’re just playing out the string. And that is, of course, precisely what I find so amusing: the slow circling of the drain by a once promising species, and the sappy, ever-more-desperate belief in this country that there is actually some sort of “American Dream,” which has merely been misplaced.
The decay and disintegration of this culture is astonishingly amusing if you are emotionally detached from it. I have always viewed it from a safe distance, knowing I don’t belong; it doesn’t include me, and it never has. No matter how you care to define it, I do not identify with the local group. Planet, species, race, nation, state, religion, party, union, club, association, neighborhood, improvement committee; I have no interest in any of it. I love and treasure individuals as I meet them, I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to.
So, if you read something in this book that sounds like advocacy of a particular political point of view, please reject the notion. My interest in “issues” is merely to point out how badly we’re doing, not to suggest a way we might do better. Don’t confuse me with those who cling to hope. I enjoy describing how things are, I have no interest in how they “ought to be.” And I certainly have no interest in fixing them. I sincerely believe that if you think there’s a solution, you’re part of the problem. My motto: Fuck Hope!
P.S. Lest you wonder, personally, I am a joyful individual with a long, happy marriage and a close and loving family. My career has turned out better than I ever dreamed, and continues to expand. I am a personal optimist but skeptic about all else. What may sound to some like anger is really nothing more than sympathetic contempt. I view my species with a combination of wonder and pity, and I root for its destruction. And please don’t confuse my point of view with cynicism; the real cynics are the ones who tell you everything’s gonna be all right.
P.P.S. By the way, if, by chance, you folks do manage to straighten things out and make everything better, I still don’t wish to be included.
May I ask which Orlick book you’re reading? I have “In Pursuit of Excellence,” but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.
Fantastic Post Sonja! I am a true believer of PMA. In races I use it, which mostly makes me look crazy because people are like “Why is that dude smiling while he is running?”
Great post, Sonja. I’ve always had trouble with PMA, but when I have it, I try as hard as I can to hang onto it because of that snowball effect (the good one). (Lately, I’m even trying to force myself to smile while racing to induce the PMA.) My biggest problem is I allow other people to kill my PMA – but when I read this, it reinforced the fact that it is me who “allows” them to do that. Thanks for the reminder!
Ha! I totally have a friend that uses the “I’m not a pessimist, I’m a realist.” line. Cracks me up every time because he focuses on the negative of every person or situation. I know I”m an optimist and I am proud to fly my positive smiley face flag. Life is much better with a PMA!
“I’m not a pessimist, I’m a realist.” I say “You’re in denial.”
…
“Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt” – Mark Twain, is what CV would tell me!
Funny, I just wrote about positive attitude while writing a grad school statement of purpose paper, and how important it can be.
Good stuff!
Don’t forget. It takes a special kind of PMA to puke on weekend, and go back and hit the bottle again the next weekend.
I have really been working on PMA during my entire work trip to Asia…it has definitely made the 2 weeks a lot more manageable (though I am still really looking forward to being home in CO on Sunday!!). Thanks for being such a positive influence
I made a typically confident comment to Michelle about my race this coming Saturday and she replied “Did you read Sonja’s blog today?” I hadn’t but I have now
I am glad to have given you a gift as you have given me and so many others SO many gifts. I am equally happy to be remembered for PMA as for turning on the sprinklers.
Thanks R
Veronica,
you have it correct, get to reading!
This was awesome Sonja! You know what is funny, I remember when I first started working as a whitewater raft guide I kept getting this feeling that the girls in the office rolled their eyes when I came in and said hello as I filled out my time card or did whatever (at the time, I was one of 2 women who were guides, so maybe there was more to this as I look back) and I found out later (when they finally started talking to me and I asked what the deal was) that they didn’t like me because “We couldn’t figure out why you were so happy all the time. We didn’t trust you because you were always smiling and positive, no matter what was going on. It is kind of weird actually.”
Uh. WHAT?
I know, crazy right?! I remember it so well, it really stuck with me. It was a real eye-opener to me about attitude and . You do not have control over everything that happens, but you do have control over how you DEAL with what happens.
PS
I heard a great quote yesterday from Darren Clarke, who just won The Open Champioship “Don’t let your golf (insert your sport in here) dictate your attitude but let your attitude dictate your golf.”