SPA 028: Prepare to Make Mistakes with Strategic Thinking

“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to reflect their inner beliefs.” – James Allen

What do you hear most often when you tell people you are scared before a big game or race? Some of them will say “believe in yourself”, or “have faith, you can do it” or things like “trust your training”, so on and so forth.

Believe it or not, that’s what I will say to you as well.

Obviously it’s easier said than done and that’s why people say these words to you. They are being used every time, but they don’t work all the time. Talk is cheap you say, and when it doesn’t work, many athletes fall into mediocrity rather than to believe in what they should believe in.

It’s true, talk is cheap indeed, but what I want to tell you today is that these words have power only when there’s a thought process and meaning behind them. It’s not about just genuinely believing in yourself or others. It’s more of the purpose behind saying all that.

Let’s just look at what famous athletes have been quoted to speak of how important believe has been for their stellar performance:

I quote Venus Williams:
“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does, that makes you a winner right there.”

Roger Federer once said:
“I believe strongly in my capabilities. There’s a lot of confidence as well, with my record over the past few years. I’ve built up this feeling on big points that I can do it over and over again.”

And Muhammad Ali said:
“I am the greatest! I said that before I even knew I was.”

It’s interesting because when you think of what Muhammed Ali said: I’m the greatest! It sounds a little cocky if not for his phenomenal results.

This holds well for players in individual sports. Although they do have a team off the court but they are physically alone when they are competing. All the more they need this uber confidence or even to the point of being cocky to dominate their inner game first before addressing everything else around them. Just like in everything you do, especially when it comes to sports and games, there are essentially two games to dominate. The first game is your inner game, what’s inside of you, your thoughts, your being, your ambition and your goals. The second game is your outer game, everything that’s external, outside of you, your opponents, the sport you are playing, the battle and anything that’s not directly within your control.

In order to succeed, you need to dominate both your inner game and outer game, but the required ingredient is the inner success. If you are able to dominate your inner game, you are on the road to tackle the outer game. If you haven’t addressed everything that’s within you, then forget about whatever that’s outside of you.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

  • why top athletes like Roger Federer, Venus Williams, LeBron James and Muhammad Ali declare they have what it takes to win
  • what led to Cleveland Cavalier’s lost, Steve Kerr or LeBron James?
  • what you can do to “make it to fake it” (a catch phrase associated with Alcoholics Anonymous)
  • how to pluck up the courage to say you are confident to be confident
  • how to influence your teammates with your positive beliefs

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