Today is a special day, because Alpe d’HuZes is taking place! Tomorrow marks already 3 years since I participated for the $3^\text{rd}$ time. A wonderful event where togetherness is central and a lot of money is raised for cancer research.
Challenges
When I look back at the challenges I have undertaken in my life, Alpe d’HuZes is high on the list of challenges outside my comfort zone, and I have learned an immense amount about personal leadership. How do you manage yourself so that you get the maximum out of yourself? Every edition I participated in, I faced new hurdles to overcome. For instance, the third time in 2016, when shortly before the big day I heard that a tendon in my knee was inflamed and I might not even be able to participate at all.
Get yourself into a ‘peak state’
When I recovered from the shock after the news about my knee, I decided to make a plan to at least be able to climb the mountain 1 time. After all, I had raised money and wanted to contribute my share in that way. One of the components of that plan was managing your own state or mood, nicely called ‘State’ in English. This is of vital importance to how you feel, your emotions, and ultimately also your performance and application in many areas of your life.
After I had done everything I could in the preparation to prepare my knee for the big day (rest and taping), on the day itself I applied the technique to get myself into a ‘peak state’. This is based on Tony Robbins’ model. For this, I used the following things:
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Physical: on the day of Alpe d’HuZes, from the moment I woke up at half past 3 at night until I went back to bed in the evening, I had a smile on my face from ear to ear. In addition, I kept my breathing under control and didn’t let my head hang down even though at times I was completely exhausted. Your physical posture largely determines how you feel. Just go sit upright in a chair with a big smile on your face and try to feel depressed at the same time. That doesn’t work!
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Focus: where focus goes energy flows! I had my focus entirely on the result, the mountain to pedal up! And therefore not focusing on what I couldn’t do or what my knee pain was doing. It was a cold day with rain, causing many cyclists to have to dismount. I thought of 1 thing: up! And up I went. So if you want something, focus on that and not on what you don’t want!
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Language: I said only positive things to myself all day: you can do it, everything is great! How great are all those people cheering me on! But also things like: I am so glad I am here, because what a gift that I am allowed to cycle the mountain and can help people with cancer!
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Meaning: which meaning you give to events determines how you feel. I didn’t go and sit in a victim role because of my injury, but saw it purely as an extra challenge. With that, I didn’t feel it was heavy or negative. Later, I even got flat tires twice in the descent… not very nice when you are riding at 45 kilometers per hour on thin rims. Some darts or stress thoughts shot through my head….. why is this happening to me now….. and I’ll be fine. But immediately thought after it: oh this is an extra challenge that comes my way, it will be fine! Because of this, I didn’t lose my peak state and climbed up the bike again with a smile.
The result of this strategy was that I got wings and suddenly could do much more than I had expected in advance. I felt so strong, as if nothing could get me off that bike. Where the expectation beforehand was that I might be able to climb the mountain 1 time, I eventually managed to cycle up the mountain 4 times! Only then did my knee start to swell thickly and it was time to stop. But the 4 times was already much more than I could ever have imagined beforehand.
Applying ‘State’ in your life
The beauty of this strategy is that it can be applied on all fronts of your life. You can get yourself into a good ‘state’ every day in order to achieve so many better results. If you start applying this, you will notice that you feel more energetic, more result-oriented, and more positive. Ultimately, this will allow you to achieve your goals more easily and lead life the way you want!
