Mental Performance step four to reaching Elite Level skill.
Self-control and discipline.
High-level performance takes effort. There is no avoiding the effort you must put in. The hard work is what's needed to excel in anything.
The demands of competing put a strain on one's mind, body, and emotions.
You must practice self-control and discipline, when you do you will notice that you're better able to concentrate and deal with the challenges that will inevitably come your way, such as a poor performance or the anxiety before a big game, critical remarks, unfavorable expectations from others, or simply when you veer off the rails of a diet or exercise plan. You'll be in a position to objectively assess various difficult situations and decide on the best course of action moving forward.
Instead of letting your emotions rule your decisions, you must learn how to make rational decisions under pressure. Accept the process, good and bad, and look at it as an opportunity to develop.
Your true potential can be realized through the development of self-control and discipline. So let's discuss how to acquire those skills.
Make your bed as the first strategy.
Make your bed consistently and thoroughly every day.
Why?
What connection could there be between making your bed and performance on the field?
It is an exercise where you complete a task immediately when starting your day.
Champions must consistently engage in three behaviors to advance.
Paying close attention to the little things, controlling your behavior despite how you're feeling, and keeping your word long after your initial motivation has faded.
A good place to start is by making your bed. It's a regular routine.
To develop your mental muscles, practice regularly.
Technique 2: Start, Stop, Continue.
Development includes a lot of reflection. These are good questions to ask: "How am I doing?" and "How can I do better?".
You'll see that there are things you are doing well and things that could go better when you give this some thought.
What actions do you need to take first?
What habits must you give up?
Which actions must you keep up?
Most importantly, how?
How will you initiate, terminate, and maintain those behaviors?
When responding to those inquiries, be specific.
The land of specificity is where winners reside.
Game plans are detailed. Make a detailed plan for the actions you'll take to begin, stop, and continue each action, and then carry it out.
Approach three: flush it.
You must have the ability to move on when bad things occur.
You must be able to flush it though before continuing.
All of the unfavorable emotions and thoughts that result from unfavorable events cannot be carried around with you. They must be flushed.
How?
It takes three steps to flush.
1. Have a motion you associate "flushing it" with physically. You're always engaging in physical activity. The towel that quarterbacks are carrying is touched. Baseball players are always adjusting their batting gloves. Identify those things as being related. Tell yourself that you are flushing it when you do those things.
2. Get a good, long deep breath. You should exhale to let whatever just happened go. After taking a deep breath, expel the last bit of negativity from your body.
3. Say something that brings you back to the present. Move along. Better yet, say something that gets you locked back into the task at hand. Whatever you want to say is acceptable. However, that verbal cue will bring you back to the present. For optimal performance, you must be in the here and now.
Stay away from LA-LA LAND. Not everything is always good.
There will be unfortunate events. There will be challenges.
You must therefore be aware that you are capable of handling challenges and negativity when they arise.
We don't live up to our expectations; instead, we live up to our training.
Therefore, you must keep moving up the training ladder so that when things go wrong and you fall, you do so at the level for which you have prepared.
Discipline equals freedom and the ability to succeed.
"Achieve Greatness"
