One of the most crucial aspects involved with playing any sport is your mindset. Your mindset is more than just a thought that goes through your mind. Your mindset refers more to the position your mind takes in any given athletic scenario. For example, maybe you are a basketball player and you have some skills. You are not afraid to play the game and try things out in a competitive scenario. When you play with your buddies, you are on fire. In practice you are lights out. But, when it comes to the game you struggle. Why is that? Obviously something takes place in your mind that changes the mental environment from fun to serious; from lighthearted to heavy; from relaxed to stressed. Maybe it’s the fact that practice is just practice, but the game is for real. Whatever it is that is occurring, your mindset changed for some reason. In order to be the competitor you really want to be, you have to work on your mindset. You need mindset management.
Much of your mindset is made up of the things you think about yourself. How you see yourself functioning in the world. What kinds of pressure do you put on yourself to perform. Pressure often leads to a lack of ease and when you are not relaxed, you are not at ease. How many times have you heard a coach say, “Just relax and play football?” This happens at every level. In other words, your own head is working against you. You are assigning too much to your performance and playing porrly as a result of it. Don’t get me wrong, everyone gets nervous before a game or a competition. You want to play well and the outcome matters. But when stress and insecurity kicks in, it all goes south. Many people experience this phenomenon when playing golf, at least at the amateur level. You go to the driving range and can’t seem to miss. Twenty perfect drives all in a row. Then, you get to the first hole and drive the ball slicing into the woods. What happened? What changed? Your mindset changed. In your mind, it matters now and because it matters so much, you are no longer relaxed. Same person, same mind, same skill level, same swing, well maybe. In a sense, you did something to yourself that changed your outcome. You changed your mindset.
As an athlete, as a competitor, your first priority is your mindset. You have to learn to get beyond your own self; those defeated thoughts or limiting beliefs that are holding you back. You have to learn to train your mind to think differently. If you will notice many professional athletes, those at the highest levels, they do not think that way. They rarely predict success or guarantee a win. They know that kind of thing will end up working against them, unless they have so trained their minds or put in enough work that they cannot see themselves losing. But for most, they say things like, “I’ve put in as much work as I can, I have prepared myself the best I can and hopefully we can get a win. This is especially true in group sports. The method behind it is simple, do not add pressure to yourself. Perhaps some people thrive under pressure and these rare souls are usually the elite of a sport. (Mamba Mentality anyone?) But, for the rest of us, it doesn’t help. Therefore, mindset management is something that takes place before you compete. It is part of your preparation. It is eventualities you have thought through before the moment arrives. No matter how talented or skillful you are physically, your mind is still the governing factor. If you can see yourself doing well in the moment, you are significantly more likely to perform in the moment. Have you ever seen a track athlete going through the race before the race starts? What are they visualizing? They visualize themselves doing the proper technique all the way through the race. Chances are they are not picturing themselves just winning the race. They are approaching it step by step, doing what they know to do, which will lead them to the best possible outcome. All of these mental behaviors are learned. If you can train your mind to maintain a certain mindset, you will be that much better off in the competition or when it really matters. Learn to maintain your mindset.
Much of competing at a higher level involves remaining in the moment at hand. You cannot allow yourself to stay mired in the last mistake or missed shot or mishit golf ball. It already happened and it is in the books. You can’t change it, take it back or get a mulligan-in real competitions. Your only thought has to be on the next play, the next shot, the next swing. That too is mindset management. It is an eventuality for which you have already prepared. You have to be able to let it go completely and focus on what’s next. Much of what you do next will be based on how you have learned to think. If your default mindset is to get down on yourself or worse, that is exactly where your mind will go when you are under pressure. If you have fear or worry or doubt about what you are doing, it will manifest itself in the game and it will happen when you needed a good result the most. Some folks call it choking. But, choking doesn’t happen in the moment. Choking already happened in your mind and you did not correct it appropriately. Mindset management will help you eliminate the negative tendency.
At IntentOne, we developed a mindset management system that allows you to directly shape and reshape your thoughts. We call it the “Next Level Mindset.” We have devised a way to produce an audio recording, based on your honest and thoughtful input, that feeds your mind thoughts about yourself that are positive, present tense and the opposite of the wrong limiting beliefs you have been holding onto about yourself. Your mind is a very fluid instrument, breathtakingly fluid. Neuroplasticity refers to the way your mind adapts and has the capacity to change. Your mind is not stagnant nor stuck in certain wrong thought patterns. It is not just the way you are! What you think about yourself is exactly what you have learned to think about yourself. And, accordingly, you can change what you think about yourself. Remember when you first started playing your particular sport? Chances are you were not very good at it. But, now maybe you are pretty good. What happened? Obviously you learned better techniques or became physically stronger etc., but what changed most was your thinking about yourself. You saw yourself doing it and became convinced you could. Well, the next level is simply more of the same. However, unlike when you first began, you now know how much your thinking plays into the equation. If you are good, chances are you have mainly good thoughts about playing. If you are excellent, chances are you have excellent thoughts about yourself playing. Mindset Management is here to help you think and maintain those excellent thoughts about yourself. Indeed, to learn and maintain your own personal Mindset Management program. Are you ready for the next level mindset?
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