Struggling to Perform Under Pressure?
Most coaches make one crucial mistake in identifying the cause of this problem. The common advice given to desensitise yourself to pressure is to play more and inject more pressure into your practice. This is a band-aid solution and does not go to addressing the core of the problem.
You want to be a “WINNER”. You constantly go out of your way to be prepared and alert but at the crucial moment, something seems to be holding you back. Is it the fear of failure? Is it the fear of letting someone or your self down? Sometimes it can even be the fear of success…
Many people think that confidence is the key to excellence. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Confidence comes after having success. What you need is the COURAGE to step up and get rid of your fears. The true source of consistent confidence is to be “FEARLESS”. Why do you wait to feel good only after doing well? How great would it be if you felt good before, during and after?
You have already witnessed or experienced all of these feelings and distractions many times. You want to perform CONSISTENTLY like a champion…after all, that’s why you train so hard. The only thing that is preventing you from feeling good about yourself, not just after success but before and during as well, is simply the part of your brain that is trying to protect you from all of the difficult emotions or bad feelings, should you choke or fail. Realise, however, that this is the exact interference that causes the results you practice so hard not to experience.
I’m not asking you to put in more effort, or more time. I’m saying you can achieve consistent success and eliminate interference by applying the same exact effort and time. Same effort…different placement.
There is a way to find your FEARLESS character, get in the ring of life and dominate your opponents. With the skills and tools, you can strengthen your mental traits, improve your tactics, conquer your fears and start your all-out RELENTLESS attack.
Step one is staying focused and believing in your abilities.
Step two is trusting you. Trust is the key that unlocks the door to your fearless side, it’s the winner’s way. Champions are able to perform consistently to their potential with a laser focus. They are able to clearly visualise and realise their performance goals, all without the fears of failure or injury.
Sure, anyone can be injured and though fearing injury is a waste of time it actually happens to even the best! Most injuries occur when one’s focus shifts from a relentless determination to become distracted with thoughts and concerns of the “what if”. We’ve all heard the phrase “don’t look back” and we’ve all seen the epic fail videos where someone is pumping themselves up for an amazing feat and then last minute they panic and bail, only to experience the worst case scenario. “Where focus goes energy flows”. It is a fact, that playing all out with full commitment is far safer than going at it timidly. Only when the interference is gone can you decide…is this a time to play it safe or go all out for ultimate success.
You try to focus. You want to play all out and duplicate your last performance. That’s why it’s so disappointing when you are unable to achieve these results consistently.
Everybody has the potential to achieve any level of achievement, so long as they eliminate the interference. And the worst part is that the interference is being run by the operator, and that operator is you. It’s a locked door and you possess the key to unlocking it… WINNERS WIN IN ADVANCE!
As a certified mental toughness trainer my speciality is to help people unlock the reasons why they underperform. Contact me now to see how I can help you improve your performance.
