Wrestling Blogs - Halston Kirkpatrick
Lie, Lie, Lie by Mike Tamillow
January 17, 2008
LIE, LIE, LIE
January 8, 2008
I have to admit it; I never actually reached level 70. In fact I didn’t even reach level 30, I got stuck on level 24 and ended up quitting when I got a life. So I have to admit, Dustin Fox, you own me in World Of Warcraft. Heck I didn’t even know how to use my animal ranger skills until you told me. I’m considering trading my life in to get started again so beware.
World Of Warcraft is a lifestyle; it’s a world that a computer made. I’ve taken several classes in the past few years that compare the human mind to a computer. The human mind can store and process information similar to a computer; this is the most widely used analogy for the human mind. If you don’t understand why this is important let me rephrase it. The computer creates the world / your mind creates your world.
If you know how to use your mind you can create a world you want to live in. I make a lot of outlandish comments sometimes and this could be considered one. However, I intend to show you how. I’m going to break this into three parts, one for each week. The fact of the matter is you probably don’t believe this statement now because it would be detrimental to. To think that you’re in full control and still subject to reality would be contradictory. This is my guide to mental skills Part One:
The gambling odds of me winning nationals last year were 7.4 to 1. I wanted to bet on myself. I wanted to raise every last penny I could and bet on myself. Of course I wasn’t allowed to but it may have made the difference. A study done on people at a racetrack showed that people were much more confident of their horse after placing a bet than before they did. These people knew how much they wanted to bet, they knew what horse they wanted but it was only after placing their bet that their opinions had strengthened. The way these people change their minds, beliefs, and actions in accordance to their former thoughts, beliefs, and actions is called cognitive dissonance. This is why I said invest in wrestling, you are subject to reality, if you know how and why this happens you can tap into it.
Cognitive dissonance starts with someone who is satisfied with his thoughts and beliefs. Then something comes along that challenges what that person believes. It is in either an action he does or any other evidence to prove his thoughts faulty. (It’s strongest when it challenges what the person believes about himself.) This person experiences dissonance, something is not right somehow and must be changed. How can he change it? He can either change his thoughts, beliefs and actions to reflect what he just learned. Or he can add a new thought that doesn’t contradict what he thinks already. Contradicting himself gives him an unstable identity making this person uncertain how to act and what to support. This is what causes dissonance in the first place.
The important thing to understand is that almost all the things you think are beliefs. We are much more biased then we would all like to believe. People who are reasonable gather up evidence and then form a belief based upon it. People who are intuitive form a belief based upon their feelings and then find evidence to back it up. The strength of your belief is in its evidence and it’s pervasiveness, how many different areas of life it extends to. Even evidence can be denied; the evidence of social proof (the beliefs of others) has been stronger throughout history than any actual evidence. With all the ‘proving’ you are doing you never actually prove anything to anyone, all you do is supply evidence until cognitive dissonance takes control. And NO, I can’t actually prove any of this to you but a little birdie in my head told me it. (suddenly my argument doesn’t seem so valid anymore) There are ways to convince people of things but what I’m telling you is don’t worry about convincing people of anything yet, try to convince yourself.
LIE, avoid any evidence that might prove you wrong. This is only if what you want to believe gives you hope and helps you stay positive. For instance, in my interview I say, “Just tell yourself wrestling is easyâ€. You probably have a lot of evidence to the contrary. Wrestling practice certainly doesn’t seem easy. All the weight cutting and focus would prove the opposite. Dan Gable said “Once you’ve wrestled everything else in life is easyâ€. Great! so the first thing I would do is reframe the evidence. Dan Gable is comparing wrestling; let’s compare wrestling - to death. I think, “As long as I don’t die, which I know I won’t, it’s really not that hard†Wrestling becomes easy and everything gets even easier. Mike Tamillow-2, Dan Gable-0
This is the job of the best therapist and psychologists. If they are doing a good job then all they are doing is simply adding a new belief. Since they aren’t going to convince you all at once, they’ll get you to slowly concede to a belief that is more beneficial for you psychologically. This is the basic scenario, you come to them with a problem. First they get you to confess why your problem is a problem at all. (Nothing is a problem unless you are dissatisfied with it.) Then they try to get you to convince yourself that it’s not a problem at all, and why it’s not a problem. If you can’t convince yourself then they suggest actions you can take. It seems like you are talking your problems out but in reality you are getting a subtle push to find a healthy way of looking at it. Psychoanalyzing people and telling them what’s wrong with them solves nothing.
LIE, create a world where you manipulate the evidence. Steve Fraser focuses on mental toughness. It could be a simple thought such as “I’m the most mentally tough person in this room†or “I never breakâ€. When he goes through a practice and it wears on him he may start to think, “Am I still the most mentally tough person in the room?†And responds, “I never break†This is cognitive dissonance, he has provided more evidence to his belief and it becomes stronger. If one day he gets the tar kicked out of him, and asks himself this question, he may respond negatively, but more than likely he will think “I had a bad day, I am the most mentally tough person, it will never happen again†It is fuel for the fire. No matter what evidence he’s provided with he won’t back down from his belief that he’s mentally tough. In this case the belief is more important than the evidence and the evidence can be explained in several ways in order to maintain that belief. Mike Tamillow-2, Steve Fraser-0
A lot of what we believe is really a matter of trust. Close your eyes, suddenly you’ve lost one way of learning. Hold your ears shut and you’ve lost another. It’s difficult to even imagine being in a vegetative state. We all have a world we are used to interacting with and we form beliefs from that. We form beliefs based on what people tell us and you’re probably forming some kind of belief based on reading this blog. If I’m having any success than the beliefs your forming is simply that you can control these beliefs by finding evidence or denying evidence and you can do this in a way that maximizes how you want to feel and what you’d like to think about yourself. Very often I will find myself arguing a point that I don’t truly believe to try to prove this. But once I begin arguing for one side, cognitive dissonance sways my beliefs stronger towards the side I’m arguing. I unintentionally lose my neutrality. Almost everything is subjective. You can only ever experience the world from your viewpoint so understand there is always another way.
LIE, make your own evidence. Let’s be honest here (I like to keep the theme of contradicting myself. If you noticed I said ‘hard work is a cure all’ and ‘hard work is not a cure all’ in two different posts) eventually you are going to have to back up all these lies with some evidence. If you don’t then cognitive dissonance will tell you not to believe yourself. John Smith says that you’ve got to jump levels. There is exponential improvement, which means somehow you got better fast. The best way to do this is what is called the transitive property of wrestling. It says if I beat John Smith and he beats Cael Sanderson then I can beat Cael Sanderson. It starts simple, I watch Jake Herbert beat everyone. Then I get one takedown on Jake and defend one takedown on Jake. Now I realize if I can get one takedown on Jake, I can get every takedown on Jake, and if I can defend one takedown, I can defend every takedown. Where I otherwise might have lost my hopefully vigor I suddenly realize that I am the best in the nation. I am only jumping levels in my performance; my mentality has remained the same. All the evidence I need points to me to determine, yes I am really that good. Mike Tamillow-2, John Smith-0
So right now the score is Olympic Champ To Be-6, Olympic Champs-0.
Lesson #1 – You can choose what you believe, so fuel the fire.
January 8, 2008
I have to admit it; I never actually reached level 70. In fact I didn’t even reach level 30, I got stuck on level 24 and ended up quitting when I got a life. So I have to admit, Dustin Fox, you own me in World Of Warcraft. Heck I didn’t even know how to use my animal ranger skills until you told me. I’m considering trading my life in to get started again so beware.
World Of Warcraft is a lifestyle; it’s a world that a computer made. I’ve taken several classes in the past few years that compare the human mind to a computer. The human mind can store and process information similar to a computer; this is the most widely used analogy for the human mind. If you don’t understand why this is important let me rephrase it. The computer creates the world / your mind creates your world.
If you know how to use your mind you can create a world you want to live in. I make a lot of outlandish comments sometimes and this could be considered one. However, I intend to show you how. I’m going to break this into three parts, one for each week. The fact of the matter is you probably don’t believe this statement now because it would be detrimental to. To think that you’re in full control and still subject to reality would be contradictory. This is my guide to mental skills Part One:
The gambling odds of me winning nationals last year were 7.4 to 1. I wanted to bet on myself. I wanted to raise every last penny I could and bet on myself. Of course I wasn’t allowed to but it may have made the difference. A study done on people at a racetrack showed that people were much more confident of their horse after placing a bet than before they did. These people knew how much they wanted to bet, they knew what horse they wanted but it was only after placing their bet that their opinions had strengthened. The way these people change their minds, beliefs, and actions in accordance to their former thoughts, beliefs, and actions is called cognitive dissonance. This is why I said invest in wrestling, you are subject to reality, if you know how and why this happens you can tap into it.
Cognitive dissonance starts with someone who is satisfied with his thoughts and beliefs. Then something comes along that challenges what that person believes. It is in either an action he does or any other evidence to prove his thoughts faulty. (It’s strongest when it challenges what the person believes about himself.) This person experiences dissonance, something is not right somehow and must be changed. How can he change it? He can either change his thoughts, beliefs and actions to reflect what he just learned. Or he can add a new thought that doesn’t contradict what he thinks already. Contradicting himself gives him an unstable identity making this person uncertain how to act and what to support. This is what causes dissonance in the first place.
The important thing to understand is that almost all the things you think are beliefs. We are much more biased then we would all like to believe. People who are reasonable gather up evidence and then form a belief based upon it. People who are intuitive form a belief based upon their feelings and then find evidence to back it up. The strength of your belief is in its evidence and it’s pervasiveness, how many different areas of life it extends to. Even evidence can be denied; the evidence of social proof (the beliefs of others) has been stronger throughout history than any actual evidence. With all the ‘proving’ you are doing you never actually prove anything to anyone, all you do is supply evidence until cognitive dissonance takes control. And NO, I can’t actually prove any of this to you but a little birdie in my head told me it. (suddenly my argument doesn’t seem so valid anymore) There are ways to convince people of things but what I’m telling you is don’t worry about convincing people of anything yet, try to convince yourself.
LIE, avoid any evidence that might prove you wrong. This is only if what you want to believe gives you hope and helps you stay positive. For instance, in my interview I say, “Just tell yourself wrestling is easyâ€. You probably have a lot of evidence to the contrary. Wrestling practice certainly doesn’t seem easy. All the weight cutting and focus would prove the opposite. Dan Gable said “Once you’ve wrestled everything else in life is easyâ€. Great! so the first thing I would do is reframe the evidence. Dan Gable is comparing wrestling; let’s compare wrestling - to death. I think, “As long as I don’t die, which I know I won’t, it’s really not that hard†Wrestling becomes easy and everything gets even easier. Mike Tamillow-2, Dan Gable-0
This is the job of the best therapist and psychologists. If they are doing a good job then all they are doing is simply adding a new belief. Since they aren’t going to convince you all at once, they’ll get you to slowly concede to a belief that is more beneficial for you psychologically. This is the basic scenario, you come to them with a problem. First they get you to confess why your problem is a problem at all. (Nothing is a problem unless you are dissatisfied with it.) Then they try to get you to convince yourself that it’s not a problem at all, and why it’s not a problem. If you can’t convince yourself then they suggest actions you can take. It seems like you are talking your problems out but in reality you are getting a subtle push to find a healthy way of looking at it. Psychoanalyzing people and telling them what’s wrong with them solves nothing.
LIE, create a world where you manipulate the evidence. Steve Fraser focuses on mental toughness. It could be a simple thought such as “I’m the most mentally tough person in this room†or “I never breakâ€. When he goes through a practice and it wears on him he may start to think, “Am I still the most mentally tough person in the room?†And responds, “I never break†This is cognitive dissonance, he has provided more evidence to his belief and it becomes stronger. If one day he gets the tar kicked out of him, and asks himself this question, he may respond negatively, but more than likely he will think “I had a bad day, I am the most mentally tough person, it will never happen again†It is fuel for the fire. No matter what evidence he’s provided with he won’t back down from his belief that he’s mentally tough. In this case the belief is more important than the evidence and the evidence can be explained in several ways in order to maintain that belief. Mike Tamillow-2, Steve Fraser-0
A lot of what we believe is really a matter of trust. Close your eyes, suddenly you’ve lost one way of learning. Hold your ears shut and you’ve lost another. It’s difficult to even imagine being in a vegetative state. We all have a world we are used to interacting with and we form beliefs from that. We form beliefs based on what people tell us and you’re probably forming some kind of belief based on reading this blog. If I’m having any success than the beliefs your forming is simply that you can control these beliefs by finding evidence or denying evidence and you can do this in a way that maximizes how you want to feel and what you’d like to think about yourself. Very often I will find myself arguing a point that I don’t truly believe to try to prove this. But once I begin arguing for one side, cognitive dissonance sways my beliefs stronger towards the side I’m arguing. I unintentionally lose my neutrality. Almost everything is subjective. You can only ever experience the world from your viewpoint so understand there is always another way.
LIE, make your own evidence. Let’s be honest here (I like to keep the theme of contradicting myself. If you noticed I said ‘hard work is a cure all’ and ‘hard work is not a cure all’ in two different posts) eventually you are going to have to back up all these lies with some evidence. If you don’t then cognitive dissonance will tell you not to believe yourself. John Smith says that you’ve got to jump levels. There is exponential improvement, which means somehow you got better fast. The best way to do this is what is called the transitive property of wrestling. It says if I beat John Smith and he beats Cael Sanderson then I can beat Cael Sanderson. It starts simple, I watch Jake Herbert beat everyone. Then I get one takedown on Jake and defend one takedown on Jake. Now I realize if I can get one takedown on Jake, I can get every takedown on Jake, and if I can defend one takedown, I can defend every takedown. Where I otherwise might have lost my hopefully vigor I suddenly realize that I am the best in the nation. I am only jumping levels in my performance; my mentality has remained the same. All the evidence I need points to me to determine, yes I am really that good. Mike Tamillow-2, John Smith-0
So right now the score is Olympic Champ To Be-6, Olympic Champs-0.
Lesson #1 – You can choose what you believe, so fuel the fire.
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