Most athletes do not think about the effect social media has on their ability to lock in and focus in their sport (and in school).
Social media and it's short form content nature is designed to keep you and I distracted, bouncing from one thing to another. You may spend hours on it at a time, but in reality, you are task jumping the entire time.
Have you ever watched how quickly people scroll from one Instagram post to the next? Or how fast they jump from one Snapchat message to the next? Or from TikTok video to the next?
Think about it, your social media habits are training your brain not to focus for long periods of time.
In sports and in school, you need to be able to focus in order to dominate.
Just imagine how good you could be at your sport if you were able to lock in and focus like a champion?
I'm not going to tell you to stop social media forever, because I wouldn't do that either. But here are 7 ways to improve your focus-ability.
7 Ways to Improve Your Ability to Lock In and FOCUS
- Do My 21 Day Progressive Social Media Detox Challenge. By the end of it, you will be down to 1 form of social media for a period of time. Doing this will begin the process of improving your ability to lock in-- it will also limit how quickly you jump from one platform to the next.
- After you unfollow all the accounts that are garbage (do that regularly), start reading the descriptions and pausing for 5 seconds before moving to the next post. It sounds odd, but it will help condition your brain to focus.
- No matter what you are doing, repeat the phrase to yourself "locked in and focused, locked in and focused". Self talk is your friend- the routines that my mindset students create for themselves literally change their performance and lives.
- Close out all the tabs on your phone or computer before using it. Yep, I know, crazy...
- Read Mindset Hack #2 of my book, ATHLETE! I'm Talking to You. 7 Mindset Hacks to Dominate in Sports and Life. All about the power of FOCUS.
- Start your day with the most important task. Resist the temptation to get on your phone first thing when your eyes open up. This habit is crushing your concentration.
- DECIDE what is most important to you. Your success, peace of mind, joy, and mental health today and long term? Or, knowing what everyone else is doing, all the time, by being on social media too much?
I work with a lot of high level collegiate athletes and guess what the majority have in common? Well, the ones who are high performers, confident, and wildly successful all limit their social media usage big time!
You've got this my friend. Take action on one of the 7 things above!
