I have been a competitor in karate for a long time. After realising I could motivate myself best with mental images that had great emotional depth, my success rate rose instantly and dramatically. I advise everyone to use the “mirror of the mind” technique this way: painting mental pictures that let you overcome with joy!
I have been competing in my chosen sport, WKF karate for several years. I had some success, but never a breakthrough: a couple of podium finishes in the Hungarian National Championship, some fights won in international tournaments. I also used the Silva Method to improve my results: mainly the mirror of the mind technique. I visualized myself scoring points, winning matches and tournaments, standing on the podium. However, in the beginning of 2011 during a relaxation, I asked myself: “How could I significantly improve my results…?” The answer came then and there on level: I should try to get a hold of what gives me the most joy, what inspires me most about competing. I needed to add emotional depth to my programming. So I started visualising these images: – getting a really important point in, and being overcome by joy, screaming and pumping my fist – seeing my trainer get really excited and happy, having him congratulate me, and hug me dearly after a win – seeing my teammates and the kids in my class cheering for me as loud as they can – seeing not myself on the podium, but the other way around: trainers, teammates, kids, friends all cheering as seen by myself from the top of the podium I started programming these images, and because I thoroughly enjoyed them, imagining them as if they had already come true in reality, it was not hard at all to do it regularly. Every day, sometimes more than once, at home before practice or on the subway I painted these mental pictures vividly. Most times I could not stop myself from smiling during, because of all the positive emotions it brought up. So that was already a win. But the best part came in the National Championships that year. I had been programming for a couple of months then. The preliminary rounds went pretty well, and in the semifinals, I defeated a fighter I had a narrow loss to the previous year. In the finals, I managed to block out every background noise and felt completely in the moment. But after a while one thing came through into my ears: a loud chanting of A-RON, A-RON – it was all the friends, teammates, children from my club. At that time I knew I could not lose. Even down 2-1 with only five seconds left I was feeling no doubt, so I scored the point and went on to win in overtime. It was an incredible feeling, going through all of what I had visualised on level. Seeing the happy faces from the podium exactly as I imagined. And the best part was the next day: a photographer caught those exact images: me pumping my fist extaticly, hugging my coach, high fiving with my teammates. So the mental images became actual pictures as solid proof of this technique in work. I feel like I have elevated my skills to a new level. Since then I was able to reach the finals in three international competitions and plan to continue that streak. I am very thankful to be able to share this experience with others.
Aron Domjan
