What I heard from champion's is that they visualize the success in Technicolor. They visualize with all their senses; they know what it will sound like on the podium; they taste the salt in their tears; feel the sun on their backs in front of that crowd.

Write it down somewhere where you can see it and remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing.Imagine living that goal everyday. Believe in it till it becomes a reality.SA cricket Captain Graeme Smith had it written on his refrigerator that he wanted to captain the national team at mere 11 years old. He saw it daily for all these years and down the line he did that.Believe in the beauty of your dreams.

Set A Goal

Don't let the voice in your head push you down"Everyone talks about winning but our biggest opponent is in our own head."

Uncovered: The Essential Mental Skills For Ambitious Youngsters

Instead focus on what you can control.Surely winning is the ultimate goal but you shouldn't talk about that all the time. Work on the things you can control. Training, your mindset, the work you put in to succeed.Sir Dave Brailsford, famous Olympic winning coach focuses on training and behaving like a champion rather than just winning. He also focuses on being clear about the target, the dream. Its about developing that behaviour of a champion and being able to control what is within your limits.

Don't Focus On Winning

To perform at your highest level you need to be able to fight off this stress response.Slow down. Don't rush. Take a deep breath.When you slow down, you allow your body to be able to adjust to the stress hormones in the system and make sense of it. Decisions taken in a hurry often are wrong.To make it easier to remind yourself to calm down, you can use tactics like see a picture or an act like tapping your fingers to calm down. This will train your mind to start being calm once you see this picture.

Control Your Stress Response

Many of us are self critical. We tend to bash ourselves after a failure for a very long time. Being analytical is one thing and self critical another.We tend to think we're useless, in the wrong field, not deserving etc. Don't let that happen.Give yourself time to feel bad. But limit that negative talk time. Set a timer say 20 mins. In these 20mins you can bash yourself all you want but beyond which you won't talk or think about it. If timer isn't possible keep a physical sign say at your doorstep you'll stop thinking no matter what. Train your brain to do it in limited time.

That Negative Voice

Imagine you are at the start of a race. You see your competitors. All look built up like proper runners. You start feeling that you've got no chance although you've been practicing well.This thinking already sets the tone for your race. You wouldn't win even if you tried now because your mind already told you that you're not going to win. You will try hard but it will be difficult to get on from there.Don't feel overwhelmed by the people around you. Stay confident. Push that negative thought out as soon as it comes.

Environment Stressors

All of us know this. It's self explanatory. Sweaty palms, nausea, muscular movements, faster heart rates and what not. We have all been through this a lot many times to know we're in stress. The human brain wasn't meant to deal with stress thousands of years ago. The occasional threat was a predator. All these physical changes were preparatory phase to fight and flight.However today it means different. This stress response has the power to spoil our performance. Nervousness and anxiety make you commit mistakes.

The Stress Response

Every morning when I wake up, I see two versions of myself; one the energetic one who is ready to conquer his day and inch closer to his targets and the other a low energy one who just gets through his day.You get to choose which one you want to be.

Social media is 80% fake. Something created so we can buy into it. What's real is in front of you. Listen to anybody who has a feedback that helps you and as you go along you can dissect what is important out of this.

I have been listening to this podcast for more than a year now. It's a simple yet effective one on how to be at the best of your performance. Give it a go!

Download our podcast, whitepapers and more.

JEREMY SNAPE, EX CRICKETER, SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST

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