When Is It Time for Mental Training?
My first experience with mental training happened because I was a head case.
As a high school wrestler, I struggled to perform under pressure - in practice I was great, and any time ‘it’ mattered, I couldn’t bring my best stuff.
The whole thing was super frustrating, and it turns out, after over a decade helping people train their minds, it’s also incredibly common.
All athletes hit a stage in their development where their mind becomes the limiting factor for performance - where we seem to hit a dip where improving and performing gets really tough.
The shame is that most athletes wait:
until they’re stuck
until they don’t make the team
until they’re so frustrated they start to lose the love of their sport
It doesn’t make any sense!
You wouldn’t wait until you tore your ACL to work with a strength coach to toughen up your glutes and hammies!
You definitely wouldn’t wait to get cut from the team before working with your coach on the skills and tactics to make you a better athlete!
Yet we almost always neglect our mind until the wheels start to fall off the bus. Maybe it’s because we can’t see what’s going on between our ears like we can see the plates stack up on the squat bar or watch as our shooting percentage goes up.
Maybe it’s because we were raised to believe that some athletes “have it” and others don’t.
No matter what your obstacles are to mental training, it’s clear your mind matters.
So when is it the right time to start mental training?
Yesterday.
The good news is today is the next best option.
Your next steps are clear.
You need to take the invisible and make it real.
How? With structured journaling and reflection.
You need to make a plan that connects the path between who you are and who you want to be.
How? Clarifying your values, your vision, and your plan of attack.
You need to design your life to support what matters most.
How? By engineering your environment and developing the habits that support a high performance lifestyle.
You need to accelerate your growth so that you don’t leave any learning on the table after training and practice sessions.
How? Learning the principles of deliberate practice and systematic evaluation.
You need to optimize your ability to perform under pressure.
How? By cultivating the mental skills and trusting mindset to allow you to operate under intense stress.
Each of these five pillars of a Well-Lived Life are connected.
By making focused progress in one area, you’re going to probably see improvement in others.
Remember!
Consistency X Time = Change
So what are you waiting for?
