149: The Mental Edge: Programming Your Mind for Victory

Your nervous system holds the key to championship performance. While most competitors focus on physical training and technical skills, the true differentiator in motorsports is what happens between your ears.

The mid-season slump hits everyone – fatigue builds, focus wavers, and mistakes compound. We've been taught that pushing through requires more willpower, but that's fundamentally flawed thinking. Willpower depletes like fuel in your tank. Champions understand that sustainable excellence comes from programming your subconscious mind, which controls 95% of your daily actions and reactions.

Clinical hypnosis – not the stage entertainment variety – offers a science-backed method to access and upgrade your subconscious programming. This isn't fringe psychology; it's been employed by Olympic athletes, military special forces, and NASA astronauts for decades. When your conscious mind fatigues under pressure, properly conditioned subconscious patterns take over, delivering precision performance automatically.

Through our NeuroSpeed methodology, we've distilled these techniques into practical tools that work trackside or at home. The three-step micro-practice shared in this episode takes just 60 seconds but can immediately shift your nervous system from stress to focus mode: controlled breathing, power statements, and feeling-based visualization. When practiced consistently, these techniques build the mental resilience that separates champions from competitors.

Ready to experience the difference? Download our free Race Ready Focus Guide through the link in the show notes – a limited-time resource designed to help you build a reliable pre-performance routine that locks in focus whenever it matters most. Because when you align your biology and neurology, you don't just compete – you dominate.

Chapters

• 0:00 Focus Is About Programming, Not Willpower
• 2:03 Introduction to High Performance Health
• 3:30 Why Willpower Is a Myth
• 4:54 The Truth About Clinical Hypnosis
• 7:07 NeuroSpeed Performance Training Method
• 9:25 Who Uses Hypnosis for Performance
• 12:48 Three-Step Focus Micro Practice
• 16:02 Free Race Ready Focus Guide

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You can have the best car, the sharpest team and the most advanced equipment, but in the heat of competition, there's only one thing that makes or breaks results your mind. And here's the truth. Most people won't tell you. Focus is not about willpower, it's about programming. Take, for example, the world's top performers. They don't leave winning to chance. They train their nervous system and their subconscious mind to deliver on demand. And that's exactly what this episode is about Proven performance programming. By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly how to stop fighting distraction. By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly how to stop fighting distraction. Reclaim focus and execute with the precision that separates champions from the rest. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1: 1:02

Hello, I'm Jeffrey Morton. If you're like most in NASCAR's top tiers drivers, crews, owners or executives while you're busy chasing podiums, have you fully considered who's taking care of you? Right here, you're about to start transforming your mind and body for peak race day performance with High Performance Health designed exclusively for the demands of NASCAR. As a certified high performance health coach and consulting hypnotist, I've coached elite entrepreneurs and athletes to higher energy, sharper focus and greater resilience naturally, safely and backed by science. And right now I'm bringing that same engineered approach to the best in motorsports. Here you'll find no wasted time, just a unique blend of integrative health, mental conditioning and proven recovery strategies, delivered in plain language that you can use right away. Imagine a season without burnout, brain fog or the costly crash of your health. Because the truth is, the real race starts within. I'm grateful you're here yes, always grateful for you joining me here on the Breaking Boundaries for Champions podcast, and be sure to stay to the end. This is a very important detail right here. Stay till the end to unlock the special experiential gift that I created just for you. And, of course, also be sure to subscribe to the program so that you don't miss out on weekly pro tips on naturally fueled high performance health.

Speaker 1: 2:43

So, mid-season here in the nasc series the top three well, basically in any racing series in the Northern Hemisphere and fatigue and distractions are starting to show up. Talking about mistakes, talking about tempers, talking about frustrations. Now let me ask you have you ever paused to wonder what's causing these? Maybe it's the long travel, maybe it's the constant pressure, maybe it's that burnout creeping in, and what happens then is the reaction times get slower and mistakes are made. So maybe you're just going to try harder. Now how often does that get you what you need?

Speaker 1: 3:28

Here's a shocker that most people don't realize. But willpower is just a myth. It's finite. It's like the battery on your cell phone or the fuel in your fuel cell, and that means that grit alone doesn't sustain peak focus over a long season. You also may not have realized it, but your subconscious programming is running 95% of your daily actions, your thoughts, your beliefs and your habits, which all drive your outcomes your beliefs and your habits, which all drive your outcomes. If that programming is scattered, if it's stressed or survival-based, you're competing with one hand tied behind your back.

Speaker 1: 4:14

Now you might be wondering, jeff, how exactly do you reprogram the subconscious? Well, the answer is simple Clinical programming, hypnosis. Now I know what you might be thinking. Maybe you picture a stage hypnotist making people cluck like chickens at a comedy show. That was my first experience with hypnosis and I got a doozy of a story for that I'll probably share in another time. Or maybe somebody in a movie stuck in trance, and honestly, you know, I thought the same thing decades ago when I first saw it. It seemed like a trick, something just for entertainment and not for performance. But here's the truth. That's not what clinical hypnosis is at all. I call it clinical hypnosis because it was actually recognized as a medical procedure by the American Medical Association back in the 1950s, because it is a science-backed method to access the subconscious, the part of your mind that's running that 95% of your daily thoughts, your reactions and your behaviors, and making lasting upgrades.

Speaker 1: 5:23

Now I want to clarify a few things here. Now I want to clarify a few things here when a person is under hypnosis, you don't lose control, you don't get manipulated, you don't do anything against your will. A person who is not a bank robber cannot be hypnotized to go out and rob a bank. Does that make sense? Happens is this Hypnosis creates a focused, relaxed brainwave state where resistance drops away and the subconscious is open to new, powerful suggestions, suggestions you've chosen. It's like upgrading the software in your race car's ECU so that the system runs faster, cleaner and more efficiently.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Hypnosis has made such a profound impact on my personal and professional life over the last decade and it's why I went back to school I'll say in air quotes years ago to become a National Guild Certified Consulting Hypnotist, so that I could help extraordinary people just like you achieve extraordinary goals. And that's exactly why we built NeuroSpeed around it. A little bit more about that in a minute, in just a minute. Because when you need race-ready focus under pressure, you can't just hope your conscious willpower holds up. You need your subconscious programmed to be able to deliver. Now NeuroSpeed is our proprietary performance training method within the Champion's Edge and Pit Precision programs over at Victory Lane Wellness for a proven mental conditioning system. It's built on clinical hypnosis, it's built on neuro-linguistic programming and it's built on sports psychology. We're going to talk a little bit more about sports psychology in just a second. It's also designed to reprogram subconscious patterns for more confidence, for more clarity and especially more focus. And the beauty of it is that it works trackside or at home, anywhere.

Speaker 1: 7:33

Precision and recovery matter. So think of your brain like your team's data system. If the software is buggy and glitching out, the car won't perform, no matter how good the hardware is. So NeuroSpeed is how we upgrade and streamline that software so the driver or the crew can deliver with precision. Now allow me to break it down in plain language. You may have heard the word neuroplasticity before. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to rewire pathways based on repeated focus. You can look that up and learn more about it if you want, but in its simplest form, that's what it is.

Speaker 1: 8:13

And then brainwave management. That means shifting from survival, which is fight or flight mode, to optimal performance calm, focused and present. And then subconscious priminging. This is executed using guided sessions to lock in race ready focus before an event. Think of this just like going to the gym on a schedule. So you're probably wondering, okay, jeff, who actually uses hypnosis for performance? Is this just for people trying to quit smoking or get over their fear of height? Well, the truth is, hypnosis has been used for decades by some of the highest performers in the world, including athletes. I'm talking about Olympic teams, pro golfers, nfl players and, yes, even drivers have used hypnosis to sharpen focus, recovery and maintain calm under pressure.

Speaker 1: 9:15

Now, who else? Military and special forces elite operators train their subconscious the way they train their body, so their reactions are automatic when the pressure is highest. And this is actually uh. Somebody in the military special forces was uh, somebody that actually turned me on to hypnosis. Now, yes, I had my, my, um, my experience back when I was in my 20s with the uh comedy show and the stage hypnosis. But, um, when this army ranger asked me if I had ever considered, uh, using hypnosis for overcoming some issues that I was going through in my life and and getting the success that I wanted. I laughed and I said, jim, let me share my experience with hypnosis. And he's like that would not be here telling me the story today had he not been hypnotized on a regular basis when he was on the front lines of um in actual wartime. So I won't go any deeper into that um.

Speaker 1: 10:24

And then who else? Who else is using this? Entrepreneurs and executives, boardroom leaders. They condition their minds to stay clear and decisive when million dollar deals are on the line. Did you know that some of the top performing world poker champions attribute their success to hypnosis? That's right. And then, of course, nasa astronauts have leveraged hypnosis for years and guided mental conditioning to manage stress, enhance focus and prepare for the extreme demands of space travel.

Speaker 1: 10:53

Now think about motorsports for a minute. Every driver has the same tires, the same pit window, the same aero package and when the field is that equal, the real difference is inside the cockpit the driver's ability to regulate stress, lock in focus and execute with precision under pressure. The same's ability to regulate stress, lock in focus and execute with precision under pressure. The same can apply to the athletes that are on pit road. And here's the kicker those top performers don't always announce it, because the competitive edge is just too valuable. Why give away your advantage? And again, that's why I created NeuroSpeed to bring these same science-backed mental conditioning protocols into motorsports so that when fatigue sets in, when the car's too loose, when the playoff bubble is on the line, you've already trained your subconscious to stay calm, stay precise and stay relentless. That's how races and championships are won. Top athletes don't just visualize, they program, they rehearse the same neural pathways until execution becomes second nature. That's not luck, that is neuroscience.

Speaker 1: 12:03

There's actually a study might have been from Stanford or from Harvard where they took two groups, one group these were athletes. I believe they were basketball players. Might have been from Stanford or from Harvard, where they took two groups, one group these were athletes. I believe they were basketball players. Let's just say they were for the sake of this conversation. They were basketball players and one group was hypnotized to visualize making the baskets consistently, shot after shot after shot, and then the second group put in extra practice to go out and actually practice shooting this same shot, shot after shot after shot, and then the second group put in extra practice to go out and actually practice shooting this same shot, shot after shot after shot. And then they put these two teams together in a head-to-head competition and the hypnosis group far outperformed the regular training group, the extra training group, I would say. So there you have it.

Speaker 1: 12:48

So I want to give you something actionable here today. I'm going to give you this three-step micro practice that you can actually put into practice today. So number one, your pre-performance breath reset. You may have heard about a breath work before I want you to take. You don't have to do this right now, but anytime you can do these three practices within 60 seconds. Three deep breaths, call it five, 10 or seven, 11, as long as the exhale is twice as long as the inhale, or I should say longer than the inhale. So five, 10, the exhales longer um 10 seconds, the exhales 10 seconds, the inhales five seconds. So five, 10, breathing twice as long. Or if you just want to do seven, 11, it doesn't matter if it's 6, 7, as long as the exhale is longer. The longer, the more the exhale is longer. So 5, 10, 7, 11, the better off you're going to be, and this actually signals central nervous system safety.

Speaker 1: 13:45

Now, number two a power statement, a single sentence that primes your subconscious. Just find something that works for you. It could be three words. It could be one word like calm, clear and fast, right, so let's go back to um. Let's go back to the cars movie, the first one. You know, disney does some major research on all of their productions, especially in their pixar movies. And remember when lightning the queen at the very opening of the of the program, it was in the first scene where he was in the back of the hauler and he was whispering to himself I am speed, what do you think he was doing there? Like, there's clinical research behind that statement, and that's what disney was bringing out was the research that they did on clinical hypnosis for winning races.

Speaker 1: 14:34

And then, third, a micro visualization picture, the very next task hitting the line, gaining the position, nailing the perfect pit stop, or even giving a presentation, if public speaking. Um, you know, get your nerves riled up and picture all that going smoothly. But not only visualizing but coupling them, coupling that with the feeling of it actually happening in present tense, positive and first person. So that's the important part. So, you know, first person. Back to that I am speed, I am calm, I am clear, I am fast, right, first person present, tense, positive statements and then visualize it with feeling. So that's your three-step process the breathing, the power statement and the visualization with feeling and the stack takes less than 60 seconds, but it shifts your nervous system into focus mode and, when practiced consistently, it builds the same foundation we train deeper within neuro speed.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Now, if you're ready to take this further, I put together a free resource for you, not just the one I gave you, but a really deep dive the Race Ready Focus Guide. Deep Dive the race-ready focus guide. It's a free, guided two-part audio tool to help you build a reliable, repeatable pre-performance routine that locks in focus whenever it matters most to you, whether you're in the cockpit or in the pit box. This is your edge. The page is set for a limited number of downloads, so grab your free copy right now, in the show notes or through the link in the bio. Now, final lap champions aren't just born, they are programmed. The difference between breaking under pressure and executing with calm precision isn't luck. It's training your biology and your neurology to work for you, not against you. So take today's lesson, practice it. Then grab the race-ready focus audios to go deeper. Not against you. So take today's lesson, practice it. Then grab the race-ready focus audios to go deeper, because when you align your biology and your neurology, you don't just compete, you dominate. We'll see you next time.