20 years ago I learnt how to manage my inner voice..

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The anxiety I often felt leading a Vendée Globe project to the start line still makes me sweat even today. The setbacks, the money worries, the self doubt all took there toll.

On the morning of the start, 10th November 2004, I walked along the pontoon for the final time wishing the 20 other skippers luck. A young boy approached me and gave me this note. I smiled, signed his poster and put his note carefully onboard Hellomoto (the IMOCA 60 I was racing)

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I can't describe the relief and the emotion I felt being towed down the Channel. I sobbed.

As the race got underway, the critical inner voice returned...

- you're not sailing well

- you're lazy

- you missed that shift

That inner voice never said "Well done"

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400 miles west of Cape Town, I collided with something in the water a broke my rudder. I thought my race was over. I remembered this note. I read the words over and over.

-Good luck

-I hope you have a good time sailing

-FINISH

The noise in my head went quiet

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I replaced the broken rudder and left Cape Town in last place 500 miles behind the next boat.

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The self doubt crept back in asI headed into the Southern Ocean

But now my race was different. I had one simple goal to FINISH

-I plotted a new course

-I learnt how to say well done

-I learnt how give myself the occasional hug

-I learnt how to manage the inner voice

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Sometimes that critical inner voice can be the spark that drives performance. It's well documented in sports people and high performers. Use it to fuel performance, but learn how to control its influence on your wellbeing.

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This article by Rachel Cooke in the Guardian is very good https://lnkd.in/ez6BggMe

Read: Chatter: The Voice in Our Head and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross