*All quotes in this article are from Conor McGregor.
Motivated McGregor
Motivation underpins everything.
Without motivation you won’t put in effort.
And without effort you won’t fulfil your potential...
- McGregor has mega amounts of motivation to train:
when I get home I often shadow box in my room.”
- One method McGregor clearly uses well to boost his motivation is having long term goals. Used properly long-term goal setting has been found to boost motivation by 12-25%:
- McGregor has a vision of what these goals will look like and he visualises it coming true:
- As soon as McGregor achieves a long-term goal, he sets a new one to keep him motivated:
Having a clear vision of what we want for the future helps us put a hold on our immediate desires. For example, when we are on a diet many of us hold a vision of ourselves looking slimmer. This image can help us resist the immediate enjoyment that would come from eating the extra sweet-looking chocolate bar in the cupboard. For all of us however, there is a huge distinction between daydreaming about what we want from life and having a vision that excites us enough to take the steps necessary to achieving it.
Not only do we need a vision to keep us motivated, we also need to know how we are going to reach this future, by filling in the blanks in between. We can do this by coming up with short-term goals. Make these short-term goals clear, measurable and relevant to your long-term goal. Finally, think of any barriers to these goals and how you will get around them. For example, not buying the chocolate bar when you are at the supermarket so it never makes its way to your house, could be really helpful when you are raiding your cupboards looking for a quick snack.
Finally, create a checklist of these short-term goals and monitor them weekly. Praise yourself after completing each short-term goal and you will have the best chance of achieving your dream.
Resilience - any situation.”
“I can adapt and overcome Mid-way through the fight with Max Holloway, Conor took a serious injury to his knee. When injured, many athletes go through physical and emotional pain. However, Conor's mindset allowed him to see the situation as a challenge:
“I wasn’t afraid. I knew I could conquer it. George {St Pierre: retired UFC welterweight champion] conquered it. That was a big inspiration for me. I saw how he conquered it and I spoke to him and I also had a competition. I was always asking how was George doing, where am I at?"
Avoiding problems (no matter how large or small) can cause a negative emotional spiral. However, viewing problems as challenges can really help. Once you see it as a challenge, you can then begin to deal with the problem practically. Or if the situation is out of your control, you can look to deal with any unwanted emotions by exploring the physical sensations that these emotions produce. Once you realise emotions are just physical sensations it is much easier to relax and accept your feelings and this can cause a dramatic shift in your outlook of any situation.
The Confidence of Conor
Confidence is one of the strongest predictors of winning in sport. There is no doubt that Conor is confident, but there are many aspects to confidence. There are three key areas which Conor McGregor seems to use to his advantage: (1) He has a growth mindset. (2) He keeps excellent body language (3) He uses visualisation effectively. |
“Each day I’m learning, I feel like I’m growing each day.”
Furthermore, people with growth mindsets do not let set-backs affect them negatively:
“It’s not really that much of a big deal – you brush it off and you come back! Defeat is the secret ingredient to success.”
There is science involved here: we know that holding certain postures (like raising your fists high above your head as if celebrating, for just 2 minutes a day) can decrease levels of the stress hormone 'cortisol' by 25 per cent and increase confidence-boosting 'testosterone' by 19 per cent! Whereas, if you have your head down and shoulders slumped, your brain's chemistry changes for the worse. Now imagine holding good posture all day, every day. How would you start to feel?
*See ‘change your body language, change your mind' article on the previous blog page for more info.
“I see myself as the champ already. I visualise everything; I visualise this conversation, I visualise the walk out, I have the shots picked out. If you see it in your head, you see it before your eyes."
Visualisation is very common and we all already use it automatically when we are daydreaming about our future plans. If we want to improve this area, all we need to do is practice.
Here are a few Top Tips for visualising effectively:
(1) Close your eyes and clearly make an image of what you want to happen (e.g. in your next fight). While doing this begin to use all your senses (see it, smell it, hear it).
(2) Make sure you also use your ‘kinaesthetic’ sense (how does it physically feels to perform the movements?).
(3) Engage your emotions and really imagine how the movements feel internally and externally. This can make all the difference when training your brain for future success:
“I can feel that gold belt strapped around my waist."