Not all of these ideas apply to everyone, but hopefully you can find a few that will work for your situation!

Get up fifteen minutes earlier • Prepare for the morning the night before • Avoid relying on chemical aids • Set appointments ahead • Don’t rely on your memory … write it down • Practice preventative maintenance • Make duplicate keys • Say no more often • Set priorities in your life • Avoid negative people • Use time wisely • Simplify meal times • Always make copies of important papers • Anticipate your needs • Repair anything that doesn’t work properly • Ask for help with the jobs you dislike • Break large tasks into bite size portions • Look at problems as challenges • Look at challenges differently • Unclutter your life. Smile • Be prepared for rain • Tickle a baby • Pet a friendly dog/cat • Don’t know all the answers • Look for the silver lining • Say something nice to someone • Teach a kid to fly a kite • Walk in the rain • Schedule play time into: every day • Take a bubble bath • Be aware of the decisions you make • Believe in you • Stop saying negative things to yourself • Visualize yourself winning • Develop your sense of humor • Stop thinking tomorrow will be a better day • Have goals for yourself • Dance a jig • Say hello to a stranger • Ask a friend for a hug • Look up at the stars • Practice breathing slowly • Learn to whistle a tune • Read a poem • Listen to a symphony • Watch a ballet • Read a story curled up in bed • Do a brand new thing • Stop a bad habit • Buy yourself a flower • Take stock of your achievements • Find support from others • Ask someone to be your “vent-partner” • Do it today • Work at being cheerful and optimistic • Put safety first • Do everything in moderation • Pay attention to your appearance • Strive for excellence NOT perfection • Stretch your limits a little each day • Look at a work of art • Hum a jingle • Maintain your weight • Plant a tree • Feed the birds • Practice grace under pressure • Stand up and stretch • Always have a plan “B” • Learn a new doodle • Memorize a joke • Be responsible for your feelings • Learn to meet your own needs • Become a better listener • Know your limitations and let others know them too • Tell someone to have it good day in pig latin • Throw a paper airplane • Exercise every day • Learn the words to a new song • Get to work early • Clean out one closet • Play patty cake with a toddler • Go on a picnic • Take a different route to work • Leave work early (with permission) • Put air freshener in your car • Watch a movie and eat popcorn • Write a note to a far away friend • Go to a ball game and scream • Cook a meal and eat it by candlelight • Recognize the importance of unconditional love • Remember that stress is-an attitude • Keep a journal • Practice a monster smile • Remember you always have options • Have a support network of people, place and things • Quit trying to “fix” other people • Get enough sleep • Talk less and listen more • Freely praise other people • P S. Relax, take each day at a time … you have the rest of your life to live.

The following article was written by Juan Pablo Favero, Head Women’s Soccer Coach at Oakland University.  It was originally published in The NSCAA Soccer Journal

The hope is that these ideas can be used for any sport, modified to the needs of your program, and shared with your athletes. I hope it stimulates thought and discussion among your coaching staff as to how you can create your own list of and examples of “Controllables” to help your athletes improve their performance.

Controlling the “Controllables”

Every sport has specific demands that must be mastered in order to successfully play and excel as an athlete.

Physical, Technical, Tactical, and Psychological attributes serve as building blocks for success. In soccer, physical qualities like strength, speed and agility ale critical. Technical skills such as passing, receiving and heading are important abilities that must be mastered. Tactical intelligence includes vision awareness and decision-making on and off the bail. Other sports have similarly important elements In each of these areas. Some of the key mental skills in all sports are focus, optimism, and self-confidence and all these skills can be developed and strengthened.

One of the Mental Toughness principles I teach our players is controlling the “controllables’. Athletes have limited physical and emotional energy so wasting time and energy on things you have no control over and can’t do anything about, not only can empty your energy tank but also lead to frustration and decreased performance. Examples of things you cannot control: are the weather, field conditions, the crowd, and the referee to name a few.

Instead, make, the conscious effort to focus on the things you can do something about and have control over. Here is the Top Ten list I have encouraged our Aztecs to focus on controlling.

1. ATTITUDE – Everything starts and ends with attitude and if you get it right, all else will fall in line with it. A positive, winning attitude helps you succeed and impact those around you. One of my favorite quotes on attitude is by Tony DiCicco, World Cup champion coach in 1999. “Attitude is a choice that can color any situation and it is contagious. You must act as the player you ware to become. Confident players focus on what they can do and don’t worry about what they can’t.”

2. EFFORT – How hard you work is up to you and no one else. If you give up that control, you are giving away one of the main things that sets you apart from the rest. Your effort must also be smart and reflected in your work rate in practice and games. Anson Dorrance who has won 21 National Championships puts it this way: “Winning is not something built in a day; it is constructed year-round. As always, it comes down to progressive, consistent effort, with a view toward a long-range goal.”

3. FOCUS – I define focus as relaxed concentration; it becomes especially important in games where outside distractions can keep you from performing at your best. Your focus must be on the here and now, on each play, one at a time. NBA coach Phil Jackson says, “The key is seeing and doing. If you’re focusing on anything other than reading the court and doing what needs to be done, the moment will pass you by.”

4. FITNESS – The work you put into your physical conditioning will directly affect your ability to play while making a positive impact for your team. Two-time World Cup champion Michelle Akers gives the following advice: “Be committed to the one thing you can control – your fitness. Be smart and be aware that your decisions and actions on and off the field affect the team.”

5. PREPARATION – Bobby Knight says t all: The will to win is overrated in athletics, because everyone wants to win. It’s the will to prepare to win that makes the difference. A side benefit of proper preparation is that it also helps you feel more confident.

REST AND NUTRITION – Your performance is directly impacted by your food and hydration choices as well as the amount of rest and seep you get. Some research on your part will help you make better choices in this area.

COACHABILITY – This has to do with your ability to receive, accept, and apply the coaching points from your coach. The smartest players not only learn from the coach, but also from their teammates.

EMOTIONS – You must act your way into Feeling and not feeling a certain way before you act. Former University of North Carolina basketball coach, Dean Smith said: You can act yourself into a new way of thinking more easily than you can think yourself into a new way of acting.

COMMUNICATION – Positive, assertive, and clear communication is not only something you can control, hut will also give you and your team an edge. Megan Jurado a 2012 NSCAA All-American for us at San Diego State said, ‘The sports psychology exercises really help our communication and how we work together. I think it has brought us together as a team.’

BODY LANGUAGE – While this is a part of communication, it is actually the most visible and easiest thing you can change. If you walk out with confident body language and remain that way under pressure situations, it will send a clear and powerful message to your teammates, your coach, and your opponents.

So I encourage you to concentrate on the controllables. Start with attitude and pick one other quality at a time to work on with your players. You and your team will start to think more effectively and steadily perform at a higher level.

By Juan Pablo Favero, Associate Head Coach San Diego State University Women’s Soccer.

Originally published on the Coach and Athletic Director site and republished with permission of both parties.

It’s frustrating for athletes when they’re running on fumes, feeling like they have nothing more to give and that no matter what they do there is nothing left to push past a seemingly insurmountable wall. They can feel hopelessness, discouragement and defeat knocking at their door.

Whether the exhaustion is physical, emotional, mental or a combination of the three, we have all experienced what it’s like to “hit the wall.” While the wall is definitely not a good state to be in, there are two important facts we must remember for our own sake as well as that of the groups or teams we lead or coach.

First, athletes must understand that these moments can be overcome. They do have more in the tank if they grind it out. Second, when we don’t quit and we overcome these walls, they serve as a catalyst for growth and potentiate future success in a way that we, and our teams, would otherwise never experience.

In overcoming personal and professional walls, as well as helping athletes and teams overcome their walls, I have developed a very practical list of strategies over the years that I trust can assist both you and your teams to overcome obstacles.

Here are 10 ideas you can use with your own programs.

1 One step at a time. A popular sports cliché is “one game at a time.” This mentality is imperative for individuals and teams to succeed. When we hit walls, the finish line can seem very distant and the goal, which started out as a motivating force, can instantly become overwhelming and even demotivating.

We must remember that the emotional and physical tank is already running low when the wall comes into the forefront, so the time to focus on the big picture is not now. For this reason, it is imperative to just take the next small step, whichever it may be.

One more action stripped down to the most simple of levels allows us to regain momentum toward the direction we set out when we began. Once you complete that next step, the focus can move to the following step and so forth. Before you know it, you have overcome the wall by taking several small steps forward.

2 Positive self talk. The power of our internal dialogue is well researched and documented. There is no other moment as important as this to use this cognitive skill.

When you or your team struggles, the battle has to be waged and won inside the mind. The cognitive-behavioral cycle above helps explain how our thoughts give birth to every result we experience.

Every thought is a seed that grows into an attitude or mindset. Our attitudes in turn guide our actions or behaviors, which then yield consequences or results. Our results reaffirm and strengthen our thoughts and the cycle goes on.

If we want to have a different outcome, we must first change our “mental playlist” from negative, defeatist thoughts to positive, conquering ones. The use of cue words and affirmations both silently (internally) and out loud (externally) does indeed begin to energize us towards overcoming the wall and allow us to push past it, thus creating a different result.

The key is to remain positive, even in the midst of difficulties and challenges. This is the choice we, and our teams, must make.

3 Help one another. The beauty of being part of a team is critically important during the difficult moments. The accountability, encouragement and synergy that come from others pushing you forward should never be underestimated.

A relevant metaphor is “iron sharpening iron.” The positive voice of someone with whom you have a good relationship can be an energizing force to propel you past the wall. We must teach and encourage our teams to do this for each other. When you combine the use of positive self-talk and encouraging, uplifting communication, you create a contagious force that builds positive momentum.

4 Visualization. This is another very effective technique. At its most foundational level, visualizing simply means seeing yourself in the place you want to be. It is taking our positive thoughts and using our imagination to paint powerful pictures in our mind’s eye. By imagining ourselves successfully overcoming the challenge and believing that we can do it, we unleash the inner power inside our minds to fill our bodies with the belief necessary to continue our climb.

A quote I heard in grad school is, “Belief is the mother of all reality.” I would add that belief followed by action leads to the new reality we are seeking. Visualizing oneself and our teams being successful sets the stage for the materialization of success. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.

5 Mental strength. There is no substitute to sheer will power, desire and the determination to see things through to their completion. Whether this is innate doesn’t really matter as much as the fact that any person can indeed develop and strengthen this kind of grit.

As leaders, we must assist our teams in the development of this skill by setting up challenging tasks for them to overcome. Mental strength, like a muscle, must be exercised and built little by little. It is forged only when we come face to face with walls — maybe small ones at first — and successfully overcome them.

The more we and our teams will ourselves to not give up and quit, the more mental strength we develop, allowing us to take on steeper challenges.

6 Past achievements. Whenever doubt kicks in and thoughts of quitting start to circle our heads, one quick way to evict these is to recall and focus on instances where we have successfully overcome past challenges. It may be the same or a similar experience, but focusing on previous successes and the positive feelings and emotions associated with them gives an instant boost of confidence, energy and motivation to keep going. Because the wall is a place of doubt, we must help our teams remember triumphs of the past in order to regain the confidence needed to experience success in the present.

7 Minor victories. This goes hand-in-hand with the first strategy of taking one step at a time, but the emphasis here is on the importance of celebrating a successful step in the right direction or an approximation to the desired outcome.

There is much research on the power of positive reinforcement and rewards, but the most practical concept I have seen and used on the matter is “catch them being good,” as explained in the book with the same title by Dr. Colleen Hacker and Tony DiCicco.

Simple yet very specific and genuine reinforcement related to an athlete’s effort and achievements goes a long way and helps build momentum.

8 Push past the pain. When we reach that point of wanting to give up or surrendering to the obstacle, we must push ourselves past our discomfort and pain. Much like a runner’s high produces instant gratification and a release of endorphins, pushing past the pain barrier creates the same kind of euphoric high, which serves as fuel. This mindset also propels our teams from bad to better, from good to great, and most of all, into their personal and collective best.

9 Focus on the why. The “what” is the goal, the “how” is the process, but the “why” is where the secrets lie. It’s important to distinguish that the “why” is not the goal itself but the reasons why we pursue a goal to begin with.

We must help our teams find and define their “why” long before the moment when the wall stops our forward momentum. The “why” gives purpose, and it’s the reasons behind the mission and the vision. Therefore, our job as leaders is to help define the team’s joint “why.” If the “why” is not clear, people won’t fight, won’t push and won’t persevere.

When the “why” is clearly communicated and defined, it serves as a force that pulls our teams toward the goal and past the walls they face.

10 Reward yourself and the team. The final step is to simply stop and smell the roses when the goal is achieved. I discovered that when this is done in a tangible and meaningful way, it serves to recharge both emotional and physical energy needed for the next challenge.

One suggestion here is to find ways to commemorate and symbolize big achievements. Whether it’s an autographed ball, a photograph or something more intricate, memorializing a triumph has a way of both acknowledging past victories and motivating for success over future walls.

A final thought to leave with you has to do with attitude. We, and our teams, must not allow for an outlook of fear and trepidation toward facing walls and obstacles. We must instead develop a mindset and culture where walls are looked at as not only opportunities but embraced as a blessing, as something meant to be overcome, and to bring out the best in us.

In the short film “The Butterfly Circus,” featuring Nick Vujicic, a quote that resonated deeply within me envelops what our mindset ought to be toward any wall we may face: “The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph.”

I wish you and your teams the struggles necessary to bring forth the memorable triumphs.

A Creed for Self-Discipline

by Napoleon Hill

Willpower:

Recognizing that the power of will is the supreme court over all other departments of my mind, I will exercise it daily, when I need the urge to action for any purpose; and I will form habits designed to bring the power of my will into action at least once daily.

Emotions:

Realizing that my emotions are both positive and negative I will form daily habits which will encourage the development of the positive emotions, and aid me in converting the negative emotions into some form of useful action.

Reason:

Recognizing that both my positive emotions and my negative emotions may be dangerous if they are not controlled and guided to desirable ends, I will submit all my desires, aims and purposes to my faculty of reason, and I will be guided by it in giving expression to these.

Imagination:

Recognizing the need for sound plans and ideas for the attainment of my desires, I will develop my imagination by calling upon it daily for help in the formation of my plans.

Conscience:

Recognizing that my emotions often err in their over-enthusiasm, and my faculty of reason often is without the warmth of feeling that is necessary to enable me to combine justice with mercy in my judgments, I will encourage my conscience to guide me as to what is right and what is wrong, but I will never set aside the verdicts it renders, no matter what may be the cost of carrying them out.

Memory:

Recognizing the value of an alert memory, I will encourage mine to become alert by taking care to impress it clearly with all thoughts I wish to recall, and by associating those thoughts with related subjects which I may call to mind frequently.

Subconscious Mind:

Recognizing the influence of my subconscious mind over my power of will, I shall take care to submit to it a clear and definite picture of my major purpose in life and all minor purposes leading to my major purpose, and I shall keep this picture constantly before my subconscious mind by repeating it daily.

Discipline over the mind is gained, little by little, by the formation of habits which one may control. Habits begin in the mind; therefore, a daily repetition of this creed will make one habit-conscious in connection with the particular kind of habits which are needed to develop and control the six departments of the mind.

The mere act of repeating the names of these departments has an important effect. It makes one conscious that these departments exist; that they are important; that they can be controlled by the formation of thought-habits; that the nature of these habits determines one’s success or failure in the matter of self-discipline.

This article was written by Lindsey Wilson. Lindsey is the Co-Founder of Positive Performance Mental Training Zone. Lindsey played basketball at Iowa State and then played professionally overseas. She has been teaching, writing and speaking about mental training for the last 6 years.

The Truth About Positive Self-Talk

By Lindsey Wilson

There’s a lot out there about positivity and the importance of having a positive mindset: talking to yourself positively, talking to your kids positively, even talking to your pets positively. (Groan… Yes, it’s a thing!)

All this positivity can be a bit much.

And that’s saying a lot, especially coming from someone like me who’s a BIG believer in the power of the glass-is-half-full mentality. The complication with positivity is that it can be hard to distinguish what is actually helpful and what is just, well, fluff.

That’s why I want to talk specifically about self-talk today because, in my opinion, self-talk serves as the basis for so many things in our lives: our beliefs, our outlook, our confidence, how we interact with others, and much, much more. But, I don’t just want to talk about self-talk alone; I also want to dive into the research behind it to make sure this isn’t just another ‘positive self-talk is great’ article. Yay!

Seeing as our focus is athletics, I want to specifically analyze the research looking into the relationship between self-talk and performance. Basically, my big question is:

Is teaching athletes positive self-talk worth it?

So, here we go! This is what I found:

• Positive self-talk can improve confidence.
• Positive self-talk does positively affect performance.
• Self-talk effects motor skill performance more than cognitive performance.
• Self-talk is best scripted ahead of time and practiced.
• Research shows there are differences in what type of statements you should say at different times, but…
• What works for each person is fundamentally a matter of personal preference.
• Addressing yourself by name or ‘you’ is found to be more powerful than ‘I’ statements.
• Self-talk should focus on what you should do rather than what you should not do.

First, before we can talk about self-talk in depth, we need to establish a solid definition. More specifically, we need to be able to answer the following questions:

1. What IS self-talk?
2. What different types of self-talk are there?
3. Are there types that are more helpful in certain situations than others?

These questions get really specific, really fast, so let’s start with a basic overview of self-talk and go from there.

Defining Self-Talk

The Mayo Clinic defines self-talk as “the endless stream of unspoken thoughts that run through your head… [that] can be positive or negative.” Furthermore, “[i]f your thoughts are mostly positive, you’re likely an optimist — someone who practices positive thinking.”

Positive thinking, therefore, is the result of positive self-talk, and those can offer multiple health benefits, such as increased life span and increased immunity.

The Mayo Clinic then gives us examples of both positive and negative self-talk:

Putting Positive Thinking Into Practice

The Mayo’s cover-all rule: “Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to anyone else.”

Simple enough right? Not so fast. Let’s dive into this a little deeper…

TYPES Of SELF-TALK

Research shows there are 4 specific categories of performance-based self-talk:

• Calming/relaxing (“Take a deep breath.”)
• Instructional (“Bend your knees.”)
• Motivational (“Yes! Come on, let’s go!”)
• Focus (“Don’t think about anything. Just concentrate.”)

This list got me paying attention. Why? Because these categories are all so different. Even for myself, I can see one type of statement working in a certain situation and not working in another. (Leaving the research aside for a moment, this is where I encourage athletes to build up self-awareness and to practice what works with some trial and error.)

But, back to the research…

WHAT TO SAY, WHEN

In Perspectives on Psychological Science[i], a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers at the University of Thessaly did a meta-analysis on 62 research studies on self-talk. Their analysis revealed that, not only did self-talk improve sports performance, but different self-talk cues work differently in certain situations.

Here is what they found:

• Instructional self-talk (i.e. “Elbow-up”) is most helpful for tasks requiring fine skills or for improving technique.

Motivational self-talk (i.e. “Give it your all”) seems to be more effective in tasks requiring strength or endurance, boosting confidence and psyching-up athletes for competition.

It is a matter of personal preference or what works for each person; but generally, it is advised that self-talk is positively rather than negatively phrased and focuses on what you should do rather than on what you should avoid…”
Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis, researcher at the University of Thessaly

A SMALL TRICK

According to an article in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology[ii], a researcher by the name of Kross and his associates at the University of Michigan did an experiment with one small caveat: participants would either use the word ‘I’ or ‘You/[their name]’ when addressing themselves with their self-talk.

This is what the experiment looked like:

Kross asked volunteers to give a speech. Catch: they were only given five minutes of mental preparation. During the five minutes, he told some to talk to themselves and to address themselves as ‘I’. For the rest of them, their five minutes was spent using ‘you’ or by addressing themselves in the third person (using their own names).

At the close of the study, this is what Kross found:

• People who used ‘I’ said things like ‘Oh, my god, how am I going do this? I can’t prepare a speech in five minutes without notes. It takes days for me to prepare a speech!’
• People who used ‘you’ or their own names said things like, “Ethan, you can do this. You’ve given a ton of speeches before.”

Positive self-talk effects your everyday life. Clearly, the people who used ‘you’ or their names sounded more rational and less emotional—perhaps because they were able to get some distance from themselves.

Truly, it sounds like they are coaching themselves.

SELF-TALK CAN INFLUENCE RESULTS!

Research done out of Waseda University in Japan[iii] shows again that motor skills especially are greatly affected by self-talk. The results of their research show that positive self-talk improved physical performance by 11%.

Their research was based around a simple balancing exercise. Students completed the exercise then were given 30 seconds to rest before completing it a second time. In between the sets, students were told to pay attention to their self-talk. Some students reported having negative self talk; others reported positive self-talk; still another group reported using a combination of positive and negative self-talk.

The results were shocking.

Students that reported using positive self-talk exclusively during those 30 seconds were able to hold their balance a full second longer than those who used exclusively negative or had a mix of both negative and positive self-talk.

The positive self-talk resulted in an average balance time of 9.29 seconds, while the other two groups averaged out at 8.29 seconds. This is more than an 11% increase in performance, really close to the proven 15% increase in athletic performance we see with Positive Performance’s mental training.

CONCLUSION

Based on the above findings it’s obvious that teaching athletes how and when to use positive self-talk—that is, using positive self-talk appropriately—is not only a good time investment, but a worthwhile one.

While talking about positive self-talk can seem merely warm and fuzzy, research shows that it is a powerful, actionable tool in achieving one’s peak performance. And, based on our own work with athletes, here are some simple best practices for self-talk education:

6 TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE POSITIVE SELF-TALK

• Self-talk should be practiced ahead of time (outside of competition).
• While there are best practices, the focus should be less about negative/positive, or good/bad self-talk, and more about what is PRODUCTIVE for athletes in certain situations.
• Individual preferences are okay.
• Self-talk should be focused on what should be done, rather than what should be avoided.
• Different situations might call for different types of self-talk.
• It is difficult to turn off self-talk. For most people, self-talk is going to happen, for the good or the bad, regardless of whether you work on it. Knowing that, you may as well make the monologue in your head helpful… and positive!

Here’s to athletes everywhere, using self-talk as a tool to find their peak performance every time they step onto the playing field.

P.S. Want to pump up your performance even more? Click HERE to learn about our Competition MasteryTM training and get a FREE sample training.

REFERENCES:

[i] Girodo & Wood, 1979; Goodhart, 1986; Mahoney & Avener, 1977; Van Raalte et al., 1994; Weinberg, 1985

[ii] Kross, E., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., Park, J., Burson, A., Dougherty, A., Shablack, H., Bremner, R., Moser, J., & Ayduk, O. (2014). Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How you do it matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

[iii] Belief in Self-Talk and Dynamic Balance Performance.Kaori Araki (Waseda University, Japan), Joseph K. Mintah (Azusa Pacific University), Mick G. Mack, Sharon Huddleston, Laura Larson, and Kelly Jacobs (University of Northern Iowa).

Athlete Coach-Ability Checklist

I originally made contact with Lindsey after finding her Athlete Coach-Ability Checklist.

I like this resource because:

• There are concrete actionable steps for your athletes to take to improve their coach-ability
• It’s another voice (not yours, not their parents) that just so happens to be a former professional basketball player
• It helps your athletes be more self-aware of things they may not even know they are doing (rolling their eyes for instance!)

The checklist has been downloaded over 3000 times by coaches all across the country! Better yet, it’s FREE and comes in a nice, printable PDF format that you can share with your team. Click here to download it.