Pop Quiz: If you took three athletes of similar skill level and lined them up in a row: one athlete has all positive thoughts, the other athlete has all negative thoughts, and the last athlete has no thoughts (in essence, lights are on, no one’s home), who would win? If you are like most people, you would assume the positive thinker would win. You fail the pop quiz! Don’t worry, everybody fails the first pop quiz, all the time. We know the negative thinker wouldn’t win. But the positive thinker would lose to the non thinker.
If you think back to your best performance in competition and think what was going on in your mind during the competition…go ahead, think back…If you are like most people, you are probably saying, “I don’t know, I just__” In other words, you probably did not have much going on in your mind. While, you want to be the positive thinker walking around every day, to fill your head with empowering confident thoughts, during a performance you do not want to have any thoughts in your head. You should just be acting and reacting to the present moment.
OK, so how do you compete with a clear head? One of the best things you can do to clear your mind is putting together a specific pre-competition routine. Great performers do this instinctively. Jason Kidd blows a kiss to the basket before taking a free throw, many pitchers do the same thing before each pitch, many golfers do a certain number of practice swings each time before hitting the ball. You can modify this to your sport. Comprise a specific and detailed pre-competition routine, and practice it several times a week on your own (apart from competition). You will find that the more you do this, the more of a home feeling you will get as you perform it. When you concentrate on your pre competition routine, you will phase out all distractions including the crowd, expectations, pressure, and self conscious thoughts.
Gene Zannetti
Peak Performance Specialist
One-on-One Consultation and Motivational Speaking
(908) 337-6143
genezannetti@gmail.com
Visit My Blog- http://genezannetti.blogspot.com/
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