I want to learn mental skills: But where do I start?
As sport, exercise and performance psychology becomes increasingly popular, I’ve noticed a huge jump in the amount of free information available online for athletes, coaches, trainers and professionals. While this is awesome, I’m a huge believer in self-educating and taking charge of your own learning, it can also be a tad overwhelming! How do we know where to start? What techniques are the best for us? How do we pull them together into a personal mental skills strategy?
While a certain amount of trial and error is always necessary when building a new skill set, I’d like to lay out a road map for you to follow in this post. Having a clear starting point allows us to dive in with confidence, knowing that our energy is being put in the right direction.
I want you to think about your mental skills development as a building process. We need to build sturdy foundations before we start throwing up walls and extra floors. This blog will outline the three foundational elements of mental skills psychology and how to get started on constructing your personal foundations.
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STEP ONE: FIGURE OUT YOUR MINDSET
You may not be aware of it, but your beliefs about yourself and your ability to improve, learn and succeed are shaping your experience of the world, your thoughts and your actions. Mindset is STEP ONE. If we don’t become aware of our beliefs and their influence on us, much of the techniques you will learn in mental skills training will be a waste of time because you won’t implement them.
If you are serious about leveling up your performance through mental skills, you have to ask yourself some important questions:
Do you believe that people are born naturally talented? Or can we all develop our skills through practice and effort?
Do you believe things getting hard is a sign that you don’t have what it takes, or a sign that you are growing through challenges?
Do you avoid mistakes and failures because you feel they define you as a person, or do you seek out challenges because you see mistakes and setbacks as learning opportunities?
Do you believe you’re good enough to succeed in your chosen area of performance? If not, why not? Where did this belief start for you?
You’d be amazed how many of us hold beliefs of not being good enough. The problem with this limiting belief is that it actually prevents us from taking the actions we need to take to succeed, therefore becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. To really dive into the fascinating world of mindset, read “Mindset” by Carol Dweck (there is a link for this book under Resources-> Recommended Reads) and sign up for my upcoming free mini-course on Recognizing and Changing a Fixed Mindset (link under Courses).
STEP TWO: START LISTENING TO YOUR THOUGHTS
We all say thousands of words to ourselves everyday. This narrative is usually fueled by our beliefs and mindset and is a powerful tool, when harnessed, to build self-awareness. Once we become aware of what we are saying to ourselves, we have the opportunity to disrupt those thoughts with something more helpful.
Pay attention to the thoughts that pop up often for you in relation to performance, or when things get hard. Are these thoughts helping you move forward, or giving you an excuse to hold back? Ask yourself: is this thought about what I’m FEELING, or a thought about taking ACTION? Thoughts about what you’re feeling are rarely helpful. We want to replace those thoughts with action thoughts. Do this by asking yourself the following two questions:
What do I want to accomplish right now?
What do I need to do to accomplish that?
Asking these thoughts redirects our focus to action thoughts and gets our brain working on providing solutions instead of spiraling in negative thinking.
STEP THREE: MASTER DIRECTING YOUR FOCUS
Just like watering plants will make them grow, paying attention to thoughts gives them growing power. Picture helpful thoughts like flowers and unhelpful thoughts like weeds. We want to water the flowers, not the weeds, with our attention. Now, this is easier said than done, because the unhelpful weed thoughts are loud and demanding and emotionally-charged! Never-the-less, the more we practice watering the flowers, the weaker the weeds will become.
My favorite way to start practicing this is learning to focus on what is IN OUR CONTROL. Make a list of the things you truly have control over in your performance and notice how small it is! We don’t control other’s thoughts, actions or opinions. We don’t control competitors, judges, weather conditions, crowds, our boss, our coach or our team-mates. We have control over our own thoughts, actions and choices. Let go of the rest and place your FULL focus on what you can control, and notice how much more head-space and brain power will be available to make the most of those controllable elements.
So there you have it!
Figure out Your Mindset
Start Listening to Your Thoughts
Master Directing Your Focus.
Take your time in each of these three stages, seek out resources that will expand your understanding of these three concepts and building the skills you need to implement them! Once these three steps are strong, you will have a solid foundation from which to build your mental skills strategy.
Remember- simple is often better. Look for the ideas that resonate with you and build your system around them.
Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions. I am currently booking one to one coaching for August, so if you’re interested in developing your mental skills strategy contact me here!
Happy mental skills training!
Annika