“Your words promote your thoughts - your thoughts promote your actions - your actions determine your outcomes” – According to this analogy (and the transitive property), in order to reach great outcomes, it starts by having great words. The more you say something, the more you believe it. Once you have belief in something, your actions will correspond according to that belief. This is something the Benton wrestling team took to heart and focused on during the 2021-2022 wrestling season.
Coming into the season our team had an identity problem. We had a room full of dedicated athletes and hard workers, but we needed to have more wrestlers. In order to act like wrestlers, we needed to believe we were. Our goal was to intentionally ingrain this belief into our minds by saying an original statement, “I am a Benton Wrestler.” So, at least twice a practice, led by a teammate, we would recite this phrase, and over the course of a season, we verbalized this over 150 times.
At first, it seemed awkward. Why would you have to say what people can clearly see? Seeing something and feeling something are two separate things. The real question is, “did it work?” We will have to see if the results really speak for themselves; although, there has been a noticeable uptick in mat burns and cauliflower ear in the Benton schools.