Train your brain: How to
“You have to train your mind like you train your body.”
Just like physical training, training your mind takes practice, consistency and conscious effort to improve and strengthen your mental game. We have seen the publicity of professional sports teams, like the Philadelphia Phillies, hiring sport psychology consultants, certified mental performance consultants (CMPC) and mental health specialists to help aid their athletes in this part of their game. Training the brain is the key concept that separates the good athletes from the great ones. For an athlete, the biggest gain from mental skills training is increased self-awareness and regulation of thoughts and emotions, resulting in optimizing the control, growth and recovery in performance
The first step to training your brain is to build self-awareness around you mind-body connection in certain experiences and situations. Common questions to ask yourself:
How do you feel when you play your best and worst (nerves, excitement, calm, on edge)?
What are your triggers (making a mistake, trash talk, external factors)?
What do you like to focus on pre-performance?
What is typical self-talk?
When you identify the mindset you want to have to reach your optimal level of performance, then you can start taking the appropriate steps to develop strategies and techniques to help you accomplish elite performance consistently. As an elite performer, you develop strategies to help you recover from mistakes, calm your nerves, regulate the feeling of pressure and motivation - all leading to improved confidence, motivation and ability to perform at your best.
Do you want to explore how to optimize your performance? Sign up for my contact list so you can get monthly newsletters with tips and tricks. Remember, you are your only limit. Let’s work together to uncover and unlock your limitations so you become limitless in performance.
