Are you mentally tough when the pressure is really on? Are you your own biggest opponent? Do you concentrate effectively? Do you get nervous when the competition gets tight, or perhaps you really don’t believe in yourself? In sports such as tennis and golf, it is said that the game is as much as 90% mental. So what is holding you back? A measurement of an athlete’s psychological skills will help the coach determine areas for improvement.

One of the questions I often ask athletes when doing presentations is just how important do they rate psychological skills for an athletes performance? Invariably I will get answers as much as 90% or higher. Then comes the next question. How much time do they spend training and practicing for their sport each week? That is always varied between 10, 20 and sometimes 30 hours or more per week.

It is the answer to the next question that always disturbs me. I ask how much time do they spend practicing the mental aspects of their performance. More often than not, it is usually only a matter of minutes and for those that are honest, not at all! And yet they will always agree with you how vitally important the mental strategies are to their performance. In fact, I hear it daily from parents, coaches and athletes.

They are great athletes but when it comes to competing, they cannot perform the same way they do in practice. Of course there are many reasons that may contribute to this such as lack of performances under pressure situations, but usually they have not learned the mental skills to handle different scenarios, much less practiced them on a daily basis! And they wonder why they are not performing and not really believing in themselves!
What beliefs are holding you back?
The Four–Minute-Mile Story

The Ancient Greeks and Romans tried for Centuries to break the barrier of the four-minute mile. No one had ever run the mile in four minutes. It could not be done. Humanly impossible said the experts. It remained unbroken until a young Englishman named Roger Bannister decided he was going to do it. And he did on May 6, 1954 in 3 minutes, 59.6 seconds. He was hailed a hero and later received a knighthood.

It was a fantastic feat but what happened afterwards is even more important and fascinating. Over the next four years, more than 40 people ran the mile in less than four minutes. The ‘unbreakable’ was now being easily broken. The belief had been changed. That is the key. What you believe you can do. What you do believe can severely hamper your progress or it can help you reach amazing goals?

What are the beliefs that are holding you back? What is your four- minute- mile barrier do you have to break?

It is so easy to help athletes improve their mental games and believe in themselves. The key is to firstly make them become more aware and identify all their limiting beliefs. Then to break down those beliefs, it is a matter of improving the specific skills needed as well as developing a daily mental practice plan to improve them too.

I have seen athletes achieve some spectacular successes early on having started on a program, only to regress back to their old habits a few months later. They think they have learned the skill and thus have it! Sorry – not so simple as that. Just like practicing your sport, it is something you must do daily! That is what champions do – day in and day out. First of all, you need to know where you are at, so find a sports psychologist and if possible, one that really understands your sport, and have an evaluation.

Motivation Techniques: Creating Your Vision

There is no magical formula to believing in your dreams and becoming Extraordinary.

It requires hard work and knowing and understanding you and what you have to do to reach your goal. It is much like building a house. Before you start building, you have to create the vision of what the house is going to be like, its structure and design, and that is exactly what we are going to do next.
Step 1: Dream Time – Create your Vision

Now it is time to dream!

What would you really like to achieve? What do you want to win? Dream Big! Normal is not something you want to aspire to! That is what you want to get away from. Discover the real you and be all you want to be. What could you dare to dream? Follow your heart. Aim high. Great. Now go one step higher! Be Extraordinary.

What you focus on really expands. What will you win? How will you play? What do you look like? Are you in great shape? What team are you playing for? Where are you living? How do you feel? There is not one single Olympic Gold Medalist who did not start with a dream. They also worked incredibly hard day in and day out for years and years and totally believed in themselves too.

Don’t proceed any further in reading until you know your dream! If it is something within your apparent reach, it isn’t a dream. If you wouldn’t have to stretch beyond what you think is possible, then it isn’t a dream. If you could do anything, what would it be?

Firstly you have to create it in your own mind. That is where it all begins. Winners know where they want to go in detail! And they never, ever, ever give up.

The great Walt Disney, the creator of Disneyland and Disney World, the pioneer of animated cartoon films, and the recipient of 48 Academy Awards and 7 Em mys is an excellent example of a great dreamer and visionary. He had passed away by the time Disney World was officially opened and reporters questioned his son and said it must have been a sad day for Walt not being here for the launch of his dream.

His son simply replied,

“Walt saw it. That’s why you are seeing it today.”

What are you seeing? The key is first to create your dream, believe in it with all your heart and have the courage to pursue it. Then you can get into some fun activities and create a vision board.
Create your Vision Board or Movie

It is one thing to have a picture of your dream in your mind, but now you are going to make it even more powerful and create it. There are many ways to do this and I will let you decide what works best for you. You could do anyone of the following.

* Make a poster board to hang up on your wall.
* Make an A4 or A5 paper poster to place in your diary
* Create small cards for each goal to carry around in your wallet
* Make up an album of photos
* Create a power point slide show to watch on your computer
* Make a movie to watch on your iphone, ipad or computer

Which Vision Board is Best?

I have tried many ways over the years. Each year I used to do a poster board which I loved to gaze at everyday, but as I was always on the road travelling with my athletes, I really did not get to see it too much. Many athletes I have worked with loved doing these and it became the centre piece of artwork in their bedrooms. Others preferred to hang them privately and would do so inside their bedroom cupboards, or behind the bathroom door.

Wherever you place them does not matter, as long as you see it daily so as to reinforce your dreams.

I have also done A4 and A5 posters too and had them laminated and I would take them with me wherever I went. If you like the idea of a big poster for home, and the fun of creating it, you can always create that and then take a photo of it and make it into a smaller size to carry around with you. You could even go one step further and make the photo your screen saver too!

The last few years, I have made my visions even more powerful and have done a power point presentation to music to really enhance it so much more. I will let you decide what is best for you! My favourite right now is the imovie and if you have an ipod or ipad, it can go with you everywhere.

Add your favourite, inspirational song and you are well on the way to creating your dream.

I will be talking about goals in a minute. Everyone does goals. They write them up, and some even carry them around with them. It is no use just reading them. They must be felt and seen and imagined vividly so to work at a deeper subconscious level and this is where the vision board can assist greatly. Goals are great but by themselves are not enough.

You need to feel your goals, and bring them to life.

Have fun now gathering pictures and images of what you want to become. Don’t just limit yourself to your sporting life. Add in family, friends, health, fitness, nutrition, career, financial, spiritual, environment, and personal development pictures too. Find old magazines you can cut up. Alternatively you can always download pictures from the internet or from Google Images. They are so easy to find, so no excuses! Put some music on and have fun collecting your favourite pictures. You might also like to use some photos you have taken too.

Tips for Collecting Photos

Let’s go back to the example of building your dream home.

When looking for a picture, it will not just be any picture of a house. This is going to be your dream come true. As soon as you see it, you will know it is perfect for you. Feel it. Get excited about it. Imagine yourself living there. Visualise how your life will be. Remember to be realistic though. It is no use putting a picture of a $20 million dollar home if that is not realistic. A house like that is not a goal – it is a potentially misleading fantasy and only sets you up for failure.

Start by choosing images that might be a stretch for you and continue to update as you progress toward that $20 million home! The same principles apply to your sporting dreams. It may be totally unrealistic to aim for winning the World Championships if you cannot even make the finals in your National Championships right now.

Make sure your goals are realistically achievable.

Find excellent quality pictures that:

* Are a genuine challenge
* Are of something you really want
* Excite you
* Inspire you

and make up a poster or presentation of all you want to be.

Your vision board is a work in progress right now, and you will be adding your goals and powerfully positive words to it and refining it over the next few blog posts, so simply enjoy the process of collecting your pictures for now and keep them in a special place.

Back next week to help you plan to WIN!

Self improvement is the goal and motivation is the means to get there. Sometimes the horse gallops, other times he’s kicking and bucking you off his chaffed saddle. To say that one depends upon the other is an understatement, as it may be said we only ever do that which we’ve been motivated to at any given moment.

Even given a situation in which one finds him or herself under heavy duress, people can find themselves committing either acts of heroism or villainy, seemingly against the odds.

First, let’s consider the objects of this dynamic relationship. The obvious problem is that it is we who are the objects of such a discussion. It is our self improvement and motivation that is under question, and therein is our biggest problem. We are ever-changing and helplessly dependent beings.

We begin life derived from our parents. Our existence and mood depends upon things mostly out of our control. We may pack an umbrella and predict the next storm but are powerless to stop or start the deluge. As our frustration at the daunting reality of being a frail human tempts us to lose focus of our goal (self improvement or otherwise), our mood becomes an ocean liner’s anchor on a kayak and drags us down.

What to do in this bleak situation? Are we doomed to failure at every turn? How do we succeed in motivating ourselves to improve ourselves?

Knowing our limits is really the first step to freedom from perpetual depression and frustration, actually. It has been my observation and personal experience that solving any problem begins with its identification. Problem: we are unable to change everything we would like to change.

Why is that so important? Simple: it frees us from the tyranny of trying to move Granite Mountains by banging our heads harder into them. Our solutions to our obstacles in life then become more realistic. Instead of moving the granite monolith mocking our progress by pulverizing our skulls upon their immovable faces, we can simply climb. We can go around the long way. We can hitch a ride upon any number of vehicles designed to overcome such obstacles. We have options! This realization further frees us from the tyrant of frustration. We aren’t as helpless as we’d first thought.

We are only doomed to failure and misery if we attempt the same thing a thousand times, complaining all the way that our attempts are getting us nowhere. Naturally that would be the case, granite doesn’t mind if you pound your flesh upon its face. You will lose every time, and perhaps complain that it hurts.

Whatever you do, once you’ve identified such a blockade to progress, find another path around or over the obstacle. Exploring options, even grim options we may not have bothered to consider heretofore, will go a long way towards motivating us to continue. The quest for self improvement at this juncture is stymied: delayed, but not lost. There is hope.

Continuing the journey of self improvement will require a dogged determination to reach the goal, even if it feels as if our engine of motivation has quit along the way. By the way, motivation isn’t merely “feeling like going on,” rather that is merely emotion or mood. Mood is a very important character in the play, but often a doppelganger for motivation. Motivation is that dogged and central drive within us that is connected somehow to adrenaline and other hormones in our body. We fight or flee when we’re most motivated to do so.

Motivation is sometimes helped and other times hindered by mood. Running the marathon of self improvement means our motivation must not be confused with our mood. Only when our mood becomes the wind driving our motivational sails can we allow mood to play a key role. Other times, mood can become a champion fighter in the opposite corner of the ring. We must fight against it or ignore it when our motivation to continue is subdued by a negative mood or attitude.

Practically speaking, it’s rather elementary to discover ways to motivate ourselves. Just about every motivator we know was introduced to us in grade school or in our mother’s lap. We are motivated by love, motivated by the prize of time and quality of life…and we’re all motivated a little differently. To one, money is a huge motivator. To another, simply eating a square meal propels him forward.

My advice to you is this: when you set out on this course of self improvement and motivation becomes an issue, think of where you’ve been and where you’re going. Set your face like flint against going back to who and what you’re “improving from,” the old you, and remind yourself why you thought self improvement and motivation were really all that important in the first place.

To get you motivated, set up milestones, little goals for yourself along the way, and celebrate like mad when you’ve reached those mini goals. Defer things such as a date night, and use it rather as a carrot to motivate you to complete a milestone. That term “milestone,” by the way, can be a simple baby step. It should be an attainable goal, such as getting up half an hour early each day or cutting back on the third serving. If the milestone is a change in habit, then celebrate when you’ve gone a week consistently making progress in that change.

Whatever happens, there is no turning back. Keeping yourself motivated by keeping yourself focused on the prize and not the problems along the way will be the wind at your back. Remember that the biggest motivator is hope. Cling to hope. If you can’t find any, ask someone to help give you some. There’s plenty to go around, and you’ll find that even the smallest morsel of hope becomes a feast when you’ve been famished for it. Enjoy the trip, self improvement and motivation will soon become more reward and less work as you accomplish your goals along the way.