The best way to know yourself is to forget yourself. We need to cultivate a clear mind–and then we need to step away from our mind so that right effort can feel like no effort. We let go of self while maintaining control or mastery of self. This is what the Zone is all about. – George Mumford
Hi, and welcome back to the star player academy show, episode 90.
This is Marilyn Wo, I help serious athletes like you get your mind back in the game.
From aerobics to weight lifting, elite athletes work hard toward their goals. Elite athletes strive to maintain balance, while focusing on their body, minds, and goals. Athletes work hard. Still, some work hard and fail ongoing wondering why. The bodies are pumping weights, jumping ropes, while struggling to get better results in peak performance or maximizing one’s potential or your so-called peak performance. What are they doing wrong? Well, it depends on the person.
Today I’m going to get real with you here.
I may end up veering away from mindfulness quite a bit, but because I know it helps, I thought it’s best I address them here that’s related to this week’s theme based on the question “Why do I do so much better in practice than in competition?”
In the previous episodes you’ve learned that you can think of anything in your mind, and as long as you are aware of that and understand the need to bring yourself back to the mindset of focusing on the right things rather than to focus on your frustrations and make them feel worse.
With that, for today’s episode I would like to ask you a number of questions that you need to answer honestly and subsequently do something about your answers if actions are required. You will know what I mean by this after you get to hear the questions.
So if you are ready, here goes:
Do you drink alcohol, soda, or other unhealthy beverages excessively? It’s evident and it has always been true, an unhealthy beverage is not the way to reach your maximum potential nor is it the way to becoming an elite athlete.
Do you take drugs, including over-the-counter drugs that could harm your body? If so then you are working toward poor health, thus defeating your goal to reach peak performance.
Do you train without dieting? Do you eat what you want believing that since you are exercising you can reach peak performance? If you are eating uncontrollably, i.e. if you do not have a diet plan that works with your exercise regimen, you are on the road to unhealthy living. The body must have balance, which includes proper exercise and diet. Eating anything and eating uncontrollably is very different things altogether. If you know of elite athletes who say they eat anything and everything, it doesn’t mean they eat as and when they want to.
Do you have goals? Do you have plans? Are you working in harmony with those goals and plans? Are you applying effort to complete your plans and reach your goals? If you said, no, no, no, no, then you are on the road to halting your theory to reach peak performance. On the other hand, if you said yes, then you may want to sit down and reread your goals and plans to refine the details specifics.
What about your mind, where is it at? Do you think positive? Do you affirm your plans and goals? Do you debate consequences to see where you can do better? If you answered yes to these questions, then you are on the right track.
Elite athletes work hard. Elite athletes conform their mind to match their goals and plans while working with common goal seekers to reach the goals. Elite athletes know they must train in a team with a coach helping them, since training alone could put them at risk of quitting or giving up. Although the best athlete ever is to one who can train without the coach watching, but in the basic mindfulness skill, if you need help, seek help to end your suffering. If you have heard the saying, the mind is a terrible thing to waste, then you heard right. The mind must work in harmony with the body, thus both pushing toward reaching our goals.
Peak performance is reaching the climax in whatever you wish to achieve. Peak performance is using the height of your abilities to reach the goal, which includes the mind, body, and action. The performance you put into reaching your goals includes routine workouts, recitals, implementations of diet and exercise, executing the plans, and acting out to reach the goals. Still, something is missing. What is missing in this plan to reach peak performance?
I said balance. Balance is equilibrium, which gives us poise to feel stable, while remaining steadfast in whatever we do. Balance is remainders that provide us rest, while we assess our goals and plans. Balance is necessary for dieting and exercise. The problem with some athletes failing ongoing while striving to reach peak performance is the balance of their exercises in most instances is off. Sometimes diet and exercise both are off balance.
The body has many parts to consider. Sing the song, my anklebone is, connected to my knee bone; keep going, and you will see the body has many parts that require balanced exercise to work properly. Still, there is more. The body has many parts that require your attention, thus get moving to work toward peak performance and you will be successful in whatever you do. Do you want to be a successful athlete or not?
You might say no, you probably just want to enjoy your game or sport and have fun whenever you want to.
I understand your passion for loving the fun element of the game, me too, I love playing the game of canoepolo, that adrenaline rush just gets to me every time I am so sure what I am about to do is going to bring advantage to my team. That rush of confidence leads me to be in the state of flow and rise to the occasion. When this doesn’t come to me all the time, I always strive to work hard so that it will always materialize whenever I want it to bring my performance to the next level. You may have felt the same way.
This is what successful athletes have been searching for and they manage to somehow nail it whenever they needed to perform. Ultimately, that is what allowed them to eventually enjoy the game. Hence, being a successful athlete isn’t that end in itself, but rather, you are using this as a mission to reach a certain flow state to be able to compete in the zone as much as you can so that you can enjoy your sport as much as possible.
So when you say you are just getting involved in a competition to enjoy the game, it’s a valid aim, but in order to do that, you need to first aim to tap your maximum potential, understanding what’s most possible for you to do, before you reach a state of enjoyment, if not you will feel lost in the course of your daily tough trainings that are constantly damaging your body, not forgetting getting frustrated with the mistakes you make in every training.
So now that you are on the road to figure out how to do as well in competitions as your practices, what does it take?
It takes will, dedication, goals, plans, efforts, and mind power to become an elite athlete. You must also understand, accept, and consider various aspects of your human makeup to become the next elite athlete.
To understand what you want is to appreciate, recognize, and realize your goals. To understand helps you to stay aware of your dreams, while visualizing self and identifying you through your dreams. You learn to appreciate life and self. As you grow to accept your goals, you soon start believing in self. You recognize and agree with your goals while admitting and acknowledging your plans. This brings you to remove self-denial while allowing self to reach goals. You consent with self and move ahead. Thus, you must understand and accept that elite athletes work hard, and commit self to diets, exercise, and struggles daily.
So how do you get started?
You can get started by considering your purpose, meaning, and goals.
Consider your senses, while making suggestions to work toward purpose and goals. What importance put you in mind to reach your aim as a peak performing athlete? How can you reach your goals? What is the meaning?
In order to get to that, we need to go down to the basics.
I feel that the most basic requirement ever is to first keep in shape and shape up. And you need to do this as soon as you can. Not to rush, but do not delay any further. A good gauge is to complete a workout that challenges your body at least an hour everyday. A typical exercise will help you to stay fit. Exercises will implement your plans and goals while you put in effective efforts to achieve, thus bearing in mind at all times the goals you set out to reach.
Next basic requirement is your diet: Dieting helps you to watch your waistline, weight, and provides you a plan. The plans will lead you to create regular schedules, while sticking to a routine, and using procedures that will maintain good health. Diet is an elected representation that helps you to govern and regulate your health.
After that, you need to ask yourself the most basic mindset questions:
What is my goal? My goal is to reach peak performance while becoming an elite athlete.
When it comes to short-term goals, 1 year down the road, or 6 months later, 3 months, 60 days: What are my short-term goals? My short-term goals are temporary measurements I will take to receive immediate results. The goals will help me move toward long-term goals, which mean lasting, long-standing, enduring, continuing, and durable.
When it comes to long-term goal, in the case of every competitive athlete, it would be to reach peak performance and becoming an elite athlete without making the mistakes that we shouldn’t be making, at the same time working towards good health and fitness as a happy person in life and spirit:
Once you are set with your short and long term goals, the next thing to ask yourself is: What are your plans? Do you have purpose? What is the meaning? What arrangements can you make to reach my short and long-term goals?
Plans include diagrams, maps, tables, charts, sketches, graphs, arrangements, and preparation. You will need strategies, ideas, proposals, plots, and design to build your plans. If you need awesome tools to get your plans going fast and effective with things like mind-maps or easy to use apps, I’m working hard to put a resources page together on the website. You may go to StarPlayerAcademy.com/resources to find all the awesome tools and resources I use to get my act together as I plan my way to be the best athlete I can in my sport.
Here comes the next to-do step on how do you build your plans?
First ask yourself, what is your goal? How can you reach your goals? What does it take to be a peak performance, and an elite athlete?
To get started off, this is what you should do:
Step number one: Arrange; you need starting position, middle, and ending position. You need a place to start, center, and end your plans. The process takes displays, organize, assembling, and putting together various ideas to make it happen. you need to coordinate to find control.
Step number two: Put in the effort; this requires seemingly endless attempts, trial and errors, endeavors, stabs, cracks, and shots at reaching your goals. Effort takes exertion, sweat, force, struggles, strength, energy, power, and so forth to work toward ease of reaching your goals.
If you are absolutely clear with my advice, there is one more thing you will need to do, that is to affirm yourself with your aim and actions everyday by reading aloud an affirmation like this to yourself everyday:
It goes like this:
My goal is to maximize my potential in becoming an elite athlete. My plans are to find exercises and diet suitable for me that help me to reach my goals. I will persevere while working toward my goal by sticking to my plans. I realize I will fail along the way; therefore, my plans will include a backup plan. The backup plans will give me encouragement, endorsements, help, support, backing and sponsor me in achieving my goals to become an elite athlete, peak performer.
StarPlayer, are you ready to succeed as the best athlete you can be?
You should be right now.
With that, we have come to the end of today’s episode.
Before you go, I have a quote for you by George Mumford, he said, “The best way to know yourself is to forget yourself. We need to cultivate a clear mind–and then we need to step away from our mind so that right effort can feel like no effort. We let go of self while maintaining control or mastery of self. This is what the Zone is all about.”
Thank you all for joining me today. If you are wondering what you can do to be the best athlete you can ever be, go to starplayeracademy.com, I’ve prepared a cheat sheet that shows you 15 success traits of a serious athlete that you can follow in one glance. So head over to starplayeracademy.com right now, and till tomorrow.
I look forward to see you become a StarPlayer.
Best Performance Books:
- The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery by Sarah Lewis
- Your FREE Audio Book
Best Resource:
- Download your Cheat Sheet
- Everything you need to get started – StarPlayer Academy Resources Page
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