The voices in my head are out to get me!

Or at least wreck may golf score.
Our Easter weekend was spent with the family in Herefordshire, what a fantastic weekend for weather. The added bonus was that we never got caught up in any of the usual traffic snarls ups synonymous with bank holiday weekends.
My brother in law further added to his DIY skill by constructing a wooden Summer structure on the site of the old green house (wrecked by winter gales, another victim of global warming). It acquired the title of "Nigel’s incredible erection". You can't begin to imagine the sorts of suggestion as to what he could do with an erection of this magnitude, actually you probably can.
I had a couple of rounds of golf over the weekend. My expectation is never great as I only play a few times a year. It never ceases to amaze me how your mind can so totally dictate your performance in the real world. I deal with the inner voice or self talk as both a trainer and a coach as it is exceptionally powerful both in success and failure. Learning to recognise and master inner talk or self talk can be key to mastering personal performance in all aspects of our lives. For most of us we take it for granted, or don't even notice it as it is so familiar, such a natural part of us.
So there I was on the first tee, I have read the "inner game of golf" by Tim Gallwey so know the importance of mastering the self talk game, I put my first ball straight into the driving range. No great disappointment, teed up and put the second exactly where I put the first. My inner chat suggested I "don't do that again" so I dutifully followed the command "do that again" (the brain cannot process a negative command). One nil to the voice in my head.
The same happened on the second, two nil to the inner voice". On the ninth I put my first ball out of bounds. Despite the lost balls I still put together an enjoyable round.
The following day things had improved until I put my first ball on the ninth out of bounds (3 nil to the inner voice).
What this did was remind me that mastering any skill takes practice. While I had dutifully grooved my swing, practiced my putting and chipped to every corner of my garden I had failed to practice the inner game. Like any muscle maintaining control over what and how you are thinking requires discipline and practise if you want to perform well in any aspect of your personal and profession life.
Cast you mind back to the last time you excelled in anything, you can bet your inner coach was at its best! Shame you can't do that all the time isn't it?

Happy as a pig in ...it

Old adages fascinate me. An old family friend had a comprehensive library of old wives tales that he was happy to trot out at the most appropriate time year in year out. You could set your watch, and calendar, by his cheery announcement of "never leave off a clout til may is out". If he were alive today he would repeating it in all sincerity followed by a huge I told you so. Yesterday was glorious so I left off a "clout", I tried to do the same today and am sitting here freezing!
I have always dismissed this "wisdom" as uncorroborated wives tails, today at my peril.
I could also be equally misguided about "being happy as a pig in shit"! Scientists at Bristol University have found a link between a friendly bacteria found in soil and increased levels of Serotonin. A lack of serotonin can be the cause of depression, there could also be a link between mood and the immune system. I guess it could account in part for why me and my cohorts laugh uncontrollably when one of us falls of our bike into (what we hope is) mud on our regular jaunts across the Berkshire/Oxfordshire countryside.
As a coach I am acutely aware of the mind body link in that what you think or feel has a direct relationship to how you behave and that a change in behaviour effects how you think and feel. I have learnt to calibrate minor changes in behaviour, physiology and language to help me get behind what could be blocking clients, it now appears that it might be worth developing a scanner for both friendly and unfriendly bacteria that could be having an influence on the success of my coaching sessions?