What an exciting week it’s been for MTI athlete Maddie Radvanyi!  One week ago she was just a student at school at Acadia University in Nova Scotia and now she’s the Canada Games GS Snowboarding Silver Medalist.  This is only the 2nd Canada Winter Games medal for Nova Scotia.

I spoke with Maddie today and she let me in on the experience and also shared with me what made the difference for her in these races.  When I asked Maddie what made the biggest difference in her performance, here’s what she said:

Belief

• Maddie and I had an extra call on Monday because she was feeling nervous leading into the competition because she was doubting whether she could get a medal at the Games. I had her look at all she’s accomplished, all the training she’s done, and challenged her to give me a reason not to believe in herself.
• Maddie shared with me that after our call on Monday she started repeating the following Mantra to herself: ‘I believe in myself’.  She just kept repeating it over and over again to herself.
• As a result, she began to trust all of her training and experience and trust she could podium at the Games. When she raced, it was all trust even when she fell, she knew she could still medal.

Reframing

• After our call on Monday, Maddie realized that her nerves were a physiological response to her thoughts.  
• So, in her words, ‘I stopped thinking about that stuff, and my nerves went away’.  
• Maddie actively chose how she was going to think about her competition as an opportunity, and with that she was able to focus in on how she wanted to perform.

Perseverance

• Maddie fell in her first run of two that made up her semi-final race because she was trying too hard.  As a result she was given a time penalty, so she knew she’d need to make up the time in her second run. 
• In her next semi-final run, Maddie was ahead of her competitor.  She trusted she could win and she gave it her all.  She didn’t give up. As a result, she put pressure on her competitor and her competitor fell.  
• Maddie made it into the final by about 0.02 seconds thanks largely to her perseverance.

Visualization

• Maddie was clear in her interview with the Chronicle Herald in Nova Scotia (read the full interview here) that visualization made a difference in her victory.  (I even got a little shout out as her sport psychologist in the Chronicle Herald article :D).
• Maddie used visualization to prepare her for the race for the weeks leading into the Games, and also to familiarize her with the hill when she arrived. 
• Note: You too can add visualization to your Mental Toughness Training by taking our online mental toughness training program

Maddie, we are all very proud of you and are clear that this Silver Medal finish is a result of the hard work you’ve put in both on and off the hill.  Thank you for sharing your experience with others.

For those of you who watched the Super Bowl in 2015, I’m sure you noticed that the theme  was definitely Mental Toughness.  In the post game celebrations, it seemed like all Patriot interviewees brought up the subject of Mental Toughness as being a determining factor in their narrow win over the Seahawks.

In an interview after winning the tournament MVP, Tom Brady, arguably the best quarterback in NFL history, explained:

“It was… a lot of Mental Toughness, our team had it all year. We never doubted each other.  That’s what it took.  That’s a great football team we beat.  I’m just so happy for our team”

(see the full interview here)

As a result, the Patriots were able to remain cool under fire. Their rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler was able to intercept what would otherwise been an easy Seahawk victory in the dying minutes of the fourth quarter (which could be argued was a blunder in mental toughness on the part of Seahawk coach Pete Carroll).

The Psychology Behind the Sea Hawks Last Losing Play

What had one team shine in the final minutes while the other choked with their experienced (and talented) coach Pete Carroll at the helm?  According to  Huffington Post columnist Steve Seibold, Carroll’s tragic flaw can be attributed to three key factors:

1. Emotional decision making
2. Arrogance
3. Underestimating his opponent

It was a combination of these 3 factors that Seibold explained led to Carroll’s decision to have his quarterback throw instead of run the ball at the end of the game, turning an otherwise brilliant game into an overwhelming upset for Seahawk fans.

(read the full article here)

What to learn for when the pressure’s on

When the pressure’s on, when the game is on the line, the first thing to understand is that your emotions will rule the show if left unchecked.  This is the perfect time for a time-out (if possible) and to reconnect with your breath.

Breathing has the capability of slowing down the autonomic nervous system, to regulate your heart rate, and to decrease your stress response.  If you have to make a decision at crunch time, first take 3 deep breaths in and out, preferably with your eyes closed and visualize the different options of what to do next.

It is a simple thing, but with your breathing slowed, your mind slows and that emotional response often does not look like the best idea any more.

For more Mental Toughness Tips and the revamped Get Psyched App, stay tuned.

Pride is an important part of optimal performance and, at the same time, it makes all the hard work worthwhile.

As I high performer, you need to have a certain amount of pride for getting the job done right, for representing your ‘team’, your country, your family, yourself to the best of your ability.  

Pride is a motivator, and it is also a fuel that helps you to get ‘er done with the ‘game’ is on the line.

Pride is what I experienced yesterday when the coach of the Humber Volleyball team emailed me to inform me, in his words:

“Hey you’re a celebrity.  Here is the magazine that goes across the OCAA (Ontario College Athletic Association) and it has your article in it.”

http://issuu.com/theocaa/docs/​sweat_winter2015

After I got over my initial “OMG, what if I said something silly and they quoted me” (this is a deep rooted concern, as I was once quoted in the Ottawa Sun as saying ‘I’m a Sun Baby!’  What?), I felt pride that:

    My mission to education all athletes and high performing individuals as to the power of Mental Toughness Training was picking up speed​
    I had reached a large population of athletes who now get mental toughness training can help their performance
    I was willing to put myself out there

What are your goals this year?  So often people focus on ‘resolutions’ and often fall short for another year in a row because these resolutions are based on what they don’t want anymore versus what they actually want to achieve.

When you focus on what you don’t want, your brain gets confused as it tends to omit the not or no that you’re focusing on.  So what you get is more of that thing you don’t want.

I’ll give you an example: Don’t think of a purple elephant . .come on now, don’t think of it, whatever you do!

What’s the first thing that comes to mind?  A purple elephant of course.

In contrast, a goal is the winning point, what you’re aiming for.  It is what you do want  versus what you don’t want to keep happening.  It is meant to direct your actions towards a common point so that you achieve what it is that you actually want.

So this second week of January – after the festivities have died down and you have gotten back into your regular life – it’s the perfect time to look forward to what you want to create for 2015, both in your sport and in your life.

Here’s what there is to do: Put 20 minutes aside and purposefully plan what you want 2015 to look like – have fun with this.  What do you want to achieve by the end of the year?  Start there then work backwards, creating a milestone each month both for your sport and for each area of life that is important to you.  Push yourself with your goals.

Then all there is to do is take actions that are aligned with your goals, such that your goals are charting the course of your life, and, in the words of Venus Williams, “ignore the rest”.

For example, my Ultimate Goals for 2015 are:

• To grow my business by 25%,
• To service another 10,000+ athletes, including with an awesome service (it’s still a secret) we will be offering by the end of the year
• To get pregnant

To support you (as well as my goals above), I have a little contest for you!  I only do this about 2 times per year so you’ll have to act fast (as it filled up last year).

Here’s the contest: I am offering a Free Goal Setting Consultation to the first 3 people who email us your Ultimate Goal for 2015.  It’s that simple.  Only the first 3 people win, so email quickly to get your goals into gear.

Looking forward to hearing from you and to bringing your performance to the next level this year!

This awesome photo is of Amanda, one of my super dedicated NCAA college athletes.  When I started working with Amanda, she was going into her first season in college . . . she did not see the court much that season, and her marks were not as high as she wanted them to be.  Yet she kept working super hard and apply the Mental Toughness principles we spoke about every week without fail. This season she went in for extra sessions, both for volleyball and school, she was calmer, she performed when it counted, and she became the go-to hitter on her team in clutch situations.  She developed into a mentally tough athlete who could be counted on by her teammates. Amanda did not ever give up and it was her persistence, coachability, and work ethic that moved her ahead.

Just yesterday I received an excited text from Amanda:

“Just wanted to let you know that I got voted most improved player by my teammates and coaches. Guess all my hard work and extra help was noticeable.”

This from an athlete who rode the pine her first season, but slugged it out with visions of what it could be like to become a starting, go-to player.

Amanda now knows that if she puts in the work, and takes the coaching, she can achieve anything (and by the way she is now crushing it academically too!).

So many of our limits are in fact imposed by our thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions – what I call our MindFrame.  This MindFrame has the potential to limit what we do and achieve in our lives, both on and off the ‘field’.  However, when trained, our MindFrame can actually have us achieve things others would deem impossible.  

For 1.5 years, Amanda and I have worked on her MindFrame, on creating new default mind patterns so that her true potential could be tapped.  Our most effective strategy together was having Amanda keep focused on what she wanted, not what was happening (e.g., focusing on starting, not on that she was not seeing the court) and then taking actions consistent with her vision.  The more she took actions that were in line with her vision, the more she re-trained her MindFrame on how to approach her sport and her life.

It would have been easy for Amanda to resign to being on the bench.  But instead, we kept looking forward to what Amanda wanted and literally painting the picture of how we wanted it to go.  Then, acting as if it was obviously going to happen, Amanda would take actions in line with that goal, with that painting.  As an example, here’s some of what Amanda did:

• She did individual sessions every week,
• She visualized,
• She watched video,
• She focused in on things that helped her and got rid of the ‘extras’.

And in the end, Amanda achieved the success that before she could only imagine in her dreams.

I share Amanda’s story:

• As a lesson of the power of perseverance, positive self-talk, taking effective action, and always looking for and applying the coaching.
• So that you can be inspired to achieve your dreams even if it looks impossible.
• And, so you can take away from it what will support you in achieving your goals.

Great work Amanda – you did it.  I’m very proud of you :D.

Leading into the Holidays, I thought to myself “what message do I want to send in my weekly Mental Toughness Tips email?”.  Immediately, what came to me was the message of inspiration, that anything is possible, that what limits us only are those limitations we impose in our own mind.

Take Terry Fox for example: Diagnosed with bone cancer at the age of 22, he decided to run across Canada to raise money for Cancer research.  It was an impossible feat by all standards, yet he decided to run, firm in his resolve that he’d complete the journey and raise a slew of money to help others.  Little did he know that his legacy and mission would succeed him.  To date, over $650 million has been raised for cancer through the yearly Terry Fox Run.

We don’t need to have tragedy to spark inspiration, but often we wait for that.  What if we just made a choice: I chose to achieve my dream, I chose to do whatever it takes, I chose to push myself past what’s ‘possible’ in the traditional sense of the term?  What would be available then?

I guarantee you that it is you that’s stopping yourself: not your coach, or that team that’s challenging you, or the referee, or the unfair decision that was made against you, or whatever.  IT IS YOU!  If you can reach down and find the sort of inspiration and motivation that sparked Terry Fox, or Angelo Wittis, or Eric LeGrand, or Jackie Mitchell (all names I did not know until I read this blog), there’s NOTHING you cannot do.

So please read this 9 Inspirational Sport Stories blog as inspirational for your own sport story and share with me what you discover. . . in Sport Psychology, we call this ‘Vicarious learning’, or learning through others examples and experiences.  Learn from these examples, then go out and create your own inspirational sport story.

Looking forward to hearing all about it!

Here’s an awesome story that I found when searching teamwork this evening.  It’s a great lesson:

“It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold.

The hedgehogs, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.

After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.”

– Author Unknown

What a sporting weekend!  First, we went to see one of my athletes play at Michigan State. She battled hard (I was so proud of her), however her team eventually fell to a more confident Nebraska team.  Michigan State is a young and extremely talented team this year, which bodes well for their future.  The one thing I saw they were missing is that they could have that future now, if they chose.  What I saw was missing was their killer instinct – they were ok with being almost good enough right now!  

How often do we as athletes look forward to the future, when we’ll be good enough, have that added experience, will have developed our skills to the level we think is necessary?  What most of us forget most of the time is the opportunity for a Cinderella story – for our attitude and grit to cause us to out perform a much more experienced and skilled opponent!  We’re often so busy waiting for things to be perfect and wishing that the future was now, that we miss our opportunity in the present moment.  In the words of Master Oogway of Kung Fu Panda:

Yesterday is history, tomorrow’s a mystery, but today is a gift.  That’s why we call it the present!

All you have is what you have right now.  You cannot change what you have right now.  Yes, you can continue to grow and develop to be stronger, faster, better in the future, however that will not help how you play right now.  So, what there is to do is embrace what you have right now and give all of it, every last inch.  And to bring a Champion Mindset to the table, the attitude of the winner, a killer instinct.