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Comfort Is Where Dreams Go to Die
Let’s use an archer’s bullseye target as an analogy to illustrate the growth cycle of an athlete. The target rings have several colors. The black outer ring represents your child’s comfort zone. The inner blue rings represent the fear zone. The red-colored ring represents your athlete’s mastery zone. The inner circle or bullseye is yellow, representing the management zone. Top athletes have to manage the tools they’ve mastered. Common issues occur when the athlete would rather remain moderately uncomfortable yet safe instead of dealing with the uncertainties that would make a real change in their life. I recommend asking your athlete to repeat this saying:
“If I Keep on Doing What I’ve Always Done…I’m Gonna Keep Getting What I Always Got”
Solution: Improving your athlete’s performance starts by understanding the growth cycle. Athletes must be ready and willing to leave their Comfort Zone and step into their Fear Zone. Only by passing through the Fear Zone can Mastery be attained. After skills are mastered, managing those skills takes place. The pathway:
“Comfort Zone … Fear Zone …Mastery Zone …Management Zone”
My mentor, the late Vic Braden, said this a thousand times: “Once the pain of losing to another inferior opponent overrides the pain of change, the prognosis is good for quick improvement.” If change is still more painful, growth is stalled.
Changing Inner Belief
Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Teach your athlete that we all have empowering and destructive beliefs. Remind them that the power of positive inner belief will become thoughts that guide their new actions.
It’s important to note: Athletes can’t outplay their belief system, so if they think they can or can’t, they’re usually right.
One of the reasons that it’s challenging to change emotional habits is that the athlete is usually loyal to them only because they’ve believed in them for so long. Changing their perspective will take commitment from the athlete, parent, and coach. If your athlete is willing to improve their inner belief at crunch time, these ten tips are for you.
Solutions: Parents, please ask your athlete to utilize the following tips:
- Choose inner dialog and positive self-talk that boosts confidence versus the standard negative monologue that derails confidence.
- Please list of all your unique strengths, then one by one, appreciate them.
- Employ SMART goals which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Reminder: Winning every time isn’t a smart goal.
- Develop a skill each day. Inner belief comes from growth.
- Seek new inspiring mentors as trusted advisors.
- Nourish your inner belief by exchanging pointless social media with informative YouTube posts regarding confidence and belief.
- The human mind magnifies the bad. So, review the matches you were clutch under pressure versus those you gifted away.
- Focus on what could go right versus what could go wrong.
- Remember: Where your focus goes, energy flows.”
- If you’re going to have an attitude, make it gratitude.
Changing inner belief begins with these ten simple reminders.
