When the Saints made their way to the Super Bowl, most people asked, “Who Dat?”

The Saints finished their Super Bowl debut on February 7 with a stunning victory, beating the Indianapolis Colts with a solid score of 31-17. The team had had a long history of losing and almost didn’t hang around in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina wiped out the city.

“Four years ago, who ever would’ve thought this would happen,” Drew Brees, the Saints quarterback said. He himself called it “a calling” when he made a decision to return to New Orleans.

Brees, now branded the MVP – Most Valuable Player – made one of the most decisive moves toward the end of the game. He zipped through the gaps of the defense lines and made a mad dash toward the goal. As he ran, he pointed his finger toward the goal and said, “Go! Go! Go!”

He was not reciting a mantra. He was doing self-coaching as he ran at lightning speed toward the goal, unhindered, uncompromising, determined and totally focused. As he was running like a gazelle, he kept his eyes on the destination, his body moving, and his verbal cheering of “Go! Go! Go!” loud and audible to himself.

Brees might not have known this. He was doing self-coaching by tapping into the visual, audio and kinesthetic parts of his brain. Like three legs of the stool - the visual focus on the goal, the audio cheering of “Go! Go! Go!”, and the kinesthetic movement of running – the visual, audio, and the kinesthetic parts of the brain all worked together to motivate him to reach the goal with lightning speed. This self-coaching has created a stunning success for Brees and for the Saints.

This causes me to wonder how often I can tap into my potential abilities and turn them into a reality by self-coaching. There have been so many times I look around at the obstacles and the opponents, I begin to feel intimidated, and I decided not to make my dash for the goal. When I decide to give up before I even get started or before I get to the goal, I am really self-sabotaging, predicting failure before I even get started.

Brees has given me a model for self-coaching.

1.Harness the emotional energy by keeping my eyes focused on the goal. (Visual)

2.Find the gaps in the defense lines of the opponent and take advantage of these.

3.Keep on running toward the goal until you get there. (Kinesthetic)

4.Craft a verbal cheering slogan to cheer myself on as I head toward the goal. (Audio)

Have you ever tried to coach yourself through an important project, a crisis, a conflict or a competition? How did you do it? What worked and what didn’t? What were the results? How might you do differently the next time?

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