I just finished up a couple of Mindset sessions with a young male and then a young female lacrosse player.
Both are dealing with the fear of failure (this is something that they “overcame” last year but it popped up again).
2 important lessons for your athlete(and us too)
1. As you overcome your mental blocks and as your mindset grows stronger, expect more mental blocks and more obstacles to overcome.
Why? Because you are trying to grow.
Based on our data pool, the athletes who train at PFP 2-4 times per week become more courageous, they start taking bigger risks, and they begin pursuing more challenging things.
Naturally when this happens, more fears come up and these young men and women will get in their heads! When you feel the fear of failure, self-doubt, or nervousness, these are often signs that you are challenging your thresholds. It’s a good thing.
When you know challenges are ahead, you can prepare. Having accurate expectations are a crucial part of attacking mindset related challenges with grace and confidence.
2. Recognize that you tell yourself lies, all the time.
Both Johnny and Taylor were scared of failing because they were both now playing upon better teams.
What happens when you are scared of failing?
You start to tell yourself lies.
Lies:
- “I’m not good at passing”
- “I’m gonna mess up”
- “If I mess up, this new coach is going to regret picking me for the team”
- “These plays are too hard to learn”
- “I’m so far behind”
The thing most athletes do not do naturally is to counter the lie with a truth and to write it down and say it out loud:
Truths:
- “I will get better”
- “Confidence will come if I keep working to get better”
- “I’ve learned hard plays before, I’ll be able to learn these ones”
- “I can get better, I’ve proven myself wrong so many times!”
Athlete, keep working on your mindset. Success in sport and life is 80% mental and 20%physical. No athlete in history has ever been able to change that.
Expect challenges and then be prepared to counter the lies that come up in your head with the truth!
Dedicated to your athlete’s success,
Coach Andrew and the PFP Team
P.S. It’s November 1 and we have 3openings left in our upcoming Athlete Performance Program. You can head here to learn more.
P.S.S. I am taking on 2 athlete’s for Private Mindset Coaching. If your athlete wants to have a mental game breakthrough and blast past a fear, self-doubt, or learn how to get in the zone, reply to this email.
