We all know that friction is bad in endurance sports. Wet suit collar—chafing. Heels and toes—blisters. Tri shorts rubbing in the wrong places—chafing again—all bad.
Mental friction, though, can have some very positive uses. Let’s look at mental friction and how to use it for good.
Friction makes things more difficult. Some things are easy for us, little mental friction, some things harder. So, why would you want to make things mentally harder by increasing the mental friction?
Let’s just say that you are spending more time than you want on social media. One click and you are in, more clicks lead to more clicks and there goes minutes (hours?) that you could have used more productively. It’s smooth, fast and easy to get in and then get sucked in. It is, by design (not your design), frictionless.
What if you made the whole social media process rugged and studded and strewn with friction? If it became difficult to log in in the first place, and difficult and chafy and blistery to stay logged in? Not easy, not smooth. Friction-y.
How would you make it difficult to log in? Hmm, let’s see…could make the settings so that FB or whoever does not remember me. So that you have to go and mechanically log in. And set a password that no one could ever, ever remember, so that you have to look it up. And hide that passcode in an inconvenient place so that it’s annoying to go find it . And maybe set your browser so that it automatically deletes your browsing history, which makes it all that harder to get back in to where you were on your preferred social media platform. All these things, tiny as they are, add steps, irritating steps, to the process, and the more irritating the more friction.
Mental friction can work in the opposite direction also. There is something you want to do more of or initiate more easily. Say, getting to the pool as your workout prescribes. Then you can add lube to reduce or remove the friction to make it easier to get in your laps. The night before your swim workout, get all your swim gear together and put it by the front door. That removes one source of friction and makes it a little smoother to get out the door. You might also tell a few folks that you are going to swim in the morning and imagine what they will say afterwards when you tell them that you did your swim workout. More lube, less friction. List the things that cause you friction from getting to the pool, and lube them.
Here is your assignment:
If you find yourself forgetting to do this, no problem, just reinstall the friction.
For inspiration, if you have trouble coming up with ideas for creating friction, recall the last time you had to renew your driver license, file an insurance claim or apply for a mortgage—
all massively high-friction experiences. That should give you more than plenty of ideas.
But for mechanical friction (wet suit neck, tri shorts) don’t be stingy with the lube.
Will Murray is a USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach with specialties in mental conditioning, trauma resolution and youth coaching. Will is an eight-time Ironman finisher and is co-author with Craig Howie of The Four Pillars of Triathlon: Vital Mental Conditioning for Endurance Athletes, author of Uncle: The Definitive Guide for Becoming the World’s Greatest Aunt or Uncle and co-author of three scholarly books on psychology.
Mental Skills Performance Coach Will Murray often hears triathletes saying that the sport is at least 50% mental and 50% physical, but he has come to notice that athletes spend very little (if any) time doing mental training. Fortunately, it’s easy and fast to train-up your mind to help you achieve your triathlon goals. He’s been lucky enough to bring mental conditioning techniques to first-time athletes and Olympians, kids and seniors, triathletes who want to finish the race, and those who are gunning to win.
Will is a USAT Certified Coach, holds a practitioner’s certificate and more than 100 hours of advanced training in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a certified administrator of the Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories Protocol. Will is co-author, with Craig Howie, of The Four Pillars of Triathlon: Vital Mental Skills for Endurance Athletes and Uncle: The Definitive Guide for Becoming the World’s Best Aunt or Uncle.
