Being a competitive athlete sure sounds fun, and cool, and all that….but what friends, family, teachers and coaches don’t get is how *^¥+\~** (insert your expletive here) stressful it can be.
The good news is that by training your brain (as diligently as you train your body), you can create superhighways that link your response to those adaptive behaviours that will get you through the most stressful times, and make the rest feel manageable.
Resilience is the magic word!
With repetition (read: practice + training) you can get mentally tougher, and weather the storms that have yet to come. AND you get to keep that competitive edge FOR LIFE!
10 Tips to Train Resilience:
- Choose Positive Thoughts – Notice when you think a negative thought, and chose to focus on the flip side.
- Reframe failure – Failure it is essential for growth.
- Know what you believe – Challenge your own belief system and get rid of those beliefs that aren’t serving you.
- Imitate role models – By mimicking what they do, you will be training brain patterns for success
- Take ACTION to cope – Don’t sit on your rear end and wallow, get in action.
- Embrace your fear – Your fear is never going away, so might as well embrace it.
- Lean on others and share – The most successful people do not do it alone.
- Practice self-care – Schedule some ‘me-time’ each week, no matter how busy you are.
- Know your character strengths and play to them – Of course train your weaknesses, but at the same time take full-advantage of your strengths.
Discipline your brain with awareness and choice – Training your brain takes conscious effort and discipline, check out our blog for more Mental Toughness Training Tips
