Mindset Matters

Another great interview with another great coach! Listen in for great insights from Coach Mary Kay Amicone!

Take a listen, Coach Canales will have you inspired and ready to play

This interview with Coach Velaida Harris of Weber State University is one of my all-time favorites. She speaks to so many important things about the mindset of an athlete. We are excited to watch her future success.

Use words like Brave and Courageous this week when you describe any failure of your own or someone else’s. For every time you fell short, notice how it was brave or courageous. Remind yourself that it takes guts to do what you did. Be authentic. Whatever your field, whatever your endeavor, whatever your career… do the best you can with what you have. Write a book, start a podcast, write an article, run a marathon, compete in a triathlon, or apply for the job that is way out of your league. Start today. Embrace that you don’t feel good enough.

Take your time as you learn these techniques and trust the process. Not all anxiety and stress needs to be considered a negative experience. A key component to anxiety is understanding it, and harnessing it for your own good. The used today have been proven effective with elite and world class athletes around the world. The key is practice and patience. As you get better at these skills, you will see performance increase, as your anxiety decreases.

Today we will use a visualization of walking into a pantry of mental chatter. We will take our thoughts off of the shelf and examine them, to find out if they are true. Generally asking ourselves three questions can help us determine if we keep a thought or throw it out. Where did that thought come from? Is it true? How is it working for me? If any of these three questions are problematic, throw them out!

A significant way to battle anxiety and stress is to stay in the moment. So often we fly into the future with “what if?” thoughts in the future that cause us anxiety, when really we could substitute thoughts of “even if” to reduce stress. We also seem to fly into the past with thoughts of “woulda, coulda, shoulda” that seems to give us feelings of guilt. The tool we give today is to stay in the moment, accept things as they are. Using questions like NBA (what’s my Next Best Action) or WIN (What’s Important Now?” can help us quit our novice time travel, and focus on the present moment.

In today’s world, may people talk about “controlling the controllables”. However, most of us don’t know what these items are! Today, let’s learn the difference, and learn how to leg go of those things that we can’t control that don’t really matter anyway.

According to the book “What to Say When You Talk to Yourself.” 77% of all self-talk is negative or counterproductive. Wait, what? Did you hear me? It’s true. 3 out of every 4 things you say to yourself are negative or counterproductive? Do you believe me? Why or why not?

We are living in trying times. Never in the history of the world have we seen and had to adjust to something like this. We are jostled, we are uncomfortable, we are a little bit fearful, and we are being forced into some different habits. Let’s make those habits meaningful. Let’s use these habits to make believers out of others. Let’s make our daily routine impactful to ourselves and to others! You got this. We got this!