With all the fun of New Year celebrations way behind us, and summer a long way off, it can be quite hard to keep up levels of motivation during February.

One man who knows a bit about motivation is Olympic gold medallist, Adrian Moorhouse, whom I was lucky enough to interview for TJ (see page 26).

Adrian won his first medal for swimming as a 12-year-old. Inspired by Olympic swimmer David Wilkie, Moorhouse trained hard, collecting an impressive array of European and Commonwealth medals. In 1984 he represented Great Britain at the Los Angeles Olympics and was hotly tipped to win. Instead he came fourth – still pretty good considering the level of competition – and was devastated. It took him several months to shake off the self-limiting belief that he was “never going to win this”.

When he lost at the Olympics, it was a damaging setback that undermined his belief in himself. Working with a sports psychologist helped him understand what he was good at and what he’d achieved. He was then able to begin to rebuild his confidence by setting himself achievable goals. He said: “If somebody’s in a big hole you don’t give them a ladder with a rung at the top, you give them a ladder with a rung at the bottom.”

Standing at the top of his personal ladder, he won gold in Seoul in 1988.

It is amazing how the scourge of self-limiting belief can stop us in our tracks, and the effect that kind of negativity has on those around us.

While my own experiences in the pool were a million miles away from the world of competitive swimming, negative self-belief still had an influence.

My childhood friends were all swimmers and would often take me along to the pool where, as a non-swimmer, I could only wade while they splashed confidently through the water.

So I enlisted the help of my mother as swimming teacher. In hindsight, this was a poor choice. She is a non-swimmer who almost drowned as a child. Her fear was palpable. Needless to say, despite her efforts, I just couldn’t summon up the bravery to trust the water to support me.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too long before mandatory school swimming lessons were given. Over several weeks the number of non-swimmers dwindled to a mere handful. Anxious not to be the last to learn to swim, I put the polystyrene flotation device aside and completed the required width of the pool unassisted to assume ‘swimmer’ status.

Later on, as a reasonably strong swimmer, I attempted to teach my parents to swim. Mum never really gave it a go, but dad was a much better pupil. His philosophy that if you tried, you would probably succeed, meant there was not a self-limiting belief in sight.

As trainers, helping people believe that they can succeed is important. What’s also important is finding the right way to get your message across. The TJ Online Daily Discussion Digest can help. It’s a great way to network informally with trainers or anyone involved in L&D, and this fantastic group of people can help you banish limiting beliefs from your training room once and for all. Come to think of it, they’re pretty hot on anything at all to do with L&D, so why not join the discussion? Send your postings for the Digest to discussion@trainingjournal.com

This month’s Digest

Ros Baynes asked: “Does anyone have any specific definitions of what constitutes bullying (as opposed to bad temper)?”

Ros received many replies, all of which you can find on the archive. Many of them include urls for those helping organisations put policies in place to deal with bullying or provide
help for those being bullied.

Mike Morrison provided a succinct definition: “To me, the difference between bullying and an aggressive style is when the behaviour is aimed at only one individual or group, then it is bullying. Neither is, or should be, acceptable. Bullying can only be truly defined by the individual receiving the ‘behaviour’.”

Dianne Davies wrote a little more expansively: “Bullying can be defined as offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour; an abuse or misuse of power intended to undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient.

“Bullying must be distinguished from vigorous debate or the actions of a manager making reasonable (but perhaps unpopular) requests of his/her staff, including the need to manage performance effectively.

“Examples of bullying are using offensive/abusive language; unreasonably removing areas of responsibility; continually ignoring or excluding an individual; deliberately undermining a competent worker by overload and constant criticism; picking on one person when there is a common problem; frightening someone with physical or other threats; shouting at or humiliating an individual in front of colleagues or in private; preventing individuals progressing by blocking promotion or training opportunities.

“This list is not exhaustive and is intended to act as a guide to illustrate unacceptable behaviour.”

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