It’s time to Get Tough!
Not like forcing something or making something happen, but rather being in a place to respond to whatever the game, whatever your surroundings throw at you and be able to handle it with ease.
Who doesn’t want that?
So this month’s Get Psyched Game-Plan of the Month will include 3 simple steps to ‘toughen’ you up.
Get Psyched Game-Plan of the Month
- Re-Experience The Performance: Close your eyes and think back to your last sub-par performance. Put yourself in the performance: how did you feel? what were you thinking? what was your body like? how did you look? Take an assessment of yourself and your surroundings.
- Record your Experience: Take out a notepad and write down your assessments: your feelings, your thoughts, your surroundings. Get present to the way it felt and what you said to yourself during this sub-par performance.
- Create a Plan: Choose the top 2 physical or emotional cues from your past sub-par performance experience(s). What are you going to pay attention to the next time you perform to avoid the poor performance spiral before it starts? For example, you might notice you clench your fists in stressful performances. You can use this as a cue or signal to look for as a precursor to your sub-par performance. Then, create a plan for how you are going to get back to the present when you notice this cue or signal, for example you make shake out your hands and say to yourself ‘I got this!’.
The point is that when you have a plan, you have a way out. It won’t always work right away, it will definitely take practice, and maybe even some trial and error, however the more you train it, the better you’ll get at identifying your negative self-talk and opposing actions so you can more quickly get back to performing the way you want.