Do you know the difference between sport superstitions and routines?
Feb 11, 2021 6:31 pm
Hi
The opportunity to join Success Stories Membership is just around the corner. A place where high-achievers like yourself enjoy the support of the community, overcome obstacles that are holding you back, and make meaningful progress toward your goals.
What obstacles? The stress, fear, doubt, lack of motivation, overwhelm, and distractions that are actually quite normal.
But you don't want to be normal - you want to win.
That's why I created this membership. To help you take action and get the results you've been missing.
Have you been inconsistent? Start strong with high motivation, then lose enthusiasm and quit before your goal was achieved? This membership really is the perfect place between intensive individual performance coaching (which I also do) and self-study (e.g., The Psychology of Performance course).
You get the step-by-step guidance you need to work at your own pace with monthly mindsets, team meetings and skill-building modules complete with over 100 videos and worksheets that will help you make progress.
I'll be sending an invite in 2 weeks with more details - but you can get a sneak peek here and be the first to know by joining the wait list.
In the meantime, enjoy the podcast and video below,
Dr. Eddie
Breaking Down Excellence
A real treat for you today. I had the pleasure of doing a deep dive into excellence with Taylor Staden on his Mental Dive Podcast. Lots of great stories that illustrate the struggles and success of pursuing greatness. Enjoy the listen with the link below.
Highlights:
- My early mistakes in being too attached to excellence
- The difference between healthy and unhealthy pursuits of excellence
- When walking away isn't quitting
- Why excellence isn't for everybody
- My favorite focus strategy that you should practice daily for best results
- How and why to make room for difficult thoughts and feelings
- Challenge: How do YOU define excellence based on what you value?
Do You Know The Difference Between Superstition and Routine?
Superstitions include magical thinking. Believing that some random act (like wearing your lucky socks) contributes to your success. Your superstition might actually help if it frees your mind to focus on the task at hand. But you are at risk of increased anxiety and distraction if that irrelevant action doesn’t occur or you lose those socks! Superstitions give us a false sense of control to relieve our performance anxiety.
A much better approach is to have sport routines for critical moments in your performance. Pre-game, between points, after a mistake, and post-game review. A routine will only include the steps that directly and specifically prepare you physically, mentally, and emotionally to perform your best. All the elements of a routine are under your control. And when done consistently, you consistently perform better.
Common elements of a routine include breathing for relaxation, self-talk mantras to increase intensity, imagery to rehearse your next step, or choosing a spot to focus you eyes and attention on.
For more on how to create your best performance routine, check out The Psychology of Performance: How to Be Your Best in Life available HERE.
Dr. Eddie O’Connor
