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What unites world-famous painters, working parents, and professional athletes?

What unites world-famous painters, working parents, and professional athletes?

Playing through the rough ⛳️

April 05, 2024

Mental Fitness for the Modern MYND

What unites world-famous painters, working parents, and professional athletes?

At first glance, these worlds may feel miles apart but they share a common foundation. While artists are renowned for their gorgeous art, athletes for their physical prowess, and parents for their wild mini-me’s … a substantial portion of their edge comes from something less visible —their mindset.

While we’ll leave the incessant, detailed, sports metaphors by the water cooler, we are going to touch on sports today. Why? We’ve recently been inspired by Netflix’s Full Swing series. Sports metaphors are helpful when talking about mindset, because you have a goal, basket or hole that you’re directing all energy, effort, and mental space towards so it’s easier to crystalize the conversation.

The strategies that athletes use to dig deep are relevant to the greatest game of them all … the game of life.

When we’re looking to do something well, or successfully, mindset matters. Think about the last thing that felt high stakes - like a board meeting, presentation to your team, getting the kids to soccer practice after a 12-hour day - how did you prepare for it?

Here are a few performance tips from athletes that you can leverage at work or at home:

Pick a moment where you need to do your best: Examples include but are not limited to a debate with your partner about the color to paint the accent wall, killer game of Pickleball, Padel, or Pa DEL, or presenting at your next all-hands presentation.
Establish a Pre-Performance Routine:

Explanation: Performance routines are essential. When done repetitively, these actions tell your brain you’re getting ready to perform.
Example: Athletes typically have a pre-game routine to settle their nerves and focus their minds like playing a certain song before stepping out onto the field. The same goes for professionals - developing rituals when starting your workday (turning on brain.fm, making a cup of mint tea, lighting a scented candle…) before starting the workday or engaging in a significant task can get us in the right frame of mind.

Embrace Process Goals:

Explanation: When you’re engaging in a behavior, focus on attainable process goals (we know, boring!). These are things you need to repeatedly follow to achieve the end result and they are equally as important as outcomes goals. Why? Your brain needs the plan to repeatedly execute and optimize! Further, it takes less cognitive energy every time you engage when you have a process.
Example: In the world of golf, mastering the intricacies of the swing, stance, and follow-through—factors a player can directly control—is fundamental. For professionals, having a process you follow to set up and end the day or meeting is meaningful.

Practice Visualization:

Explanation: Visualization is huge topic in sports psychology and as defined by Pearson et al - is essentially seeing with the mind’s eye or hearing with the mind’s ear. That is, when visualizing you are having a visual sensory experience without the use of your eyes. In fact, research has shown that visualization recruits the same brain areas that actual seeing does. Visualization prepares you mentally for success, builds confidence and mitigates anxiety.
Example: Top golfers often visualize their shots, imagining the trajectory, landing spot, and even the roll of the ball. You can visualize yourself rallying your team around a quarterly goal or having a conversation with your boss about a raise (you heard us)!

Just remember - though may not feel like you relate to Rory McIlroy, Lebron James or Serena Williams on the daily … you may be a little bit closer than you think!

And finally …

We’d love to hear what you’re curious about when it comes to mental fitness - if you’d like us to write on a specific topic or are curious about why you think some way …. let us know below!:

Survey Here (<1 Min)

INSPIRATION

(Why we share this: This is a spark of info + research that gets you excited to practice Mental Fitness)

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."

— Jimmy Johnson

PERSPIRATION (Why we share this: These are fun + small exercises to work out your MYND for impact)

Kobe Bryant (RIP to one of the greatest of all times) created an alter ego during a low period of his career. Mamba mentality means that he was just trying to get better every day…it’s the simplest form of just trying to get better at whatever you’re doing.

What would you name your high-performance mindset?

CELEBRATION

(Why we share this: This is a way to celebrate your MYND and the MYNDY community)

It still doesn’t feel quite like Spring over here on the East Coast, so we’re visualizing ourselves in a bed of 7 million tulips right now - check out Keukenhof in the Netherlands (yes please!).

FINAL THOUGHTS

On April 8th, 2024 (Monday!) the Solar Eclipse is upon us and you/your city may just be in it’s path of totality! As Popular Mechanics mentions, ‘A solar eclipse path of totality is the stretch where the Moon slides between the Sun and Earth and blocks the Sun 100 percent. The closer a viewer is to the center line of the path, the longer the eclipse lasts.’ In the US alone, this is due to span 115 miles including 13 cities.

How was the newsletter this week? We’d love quick your thoughts:

Loved it 🤩 | So-so 🙃 | Not for me 🥴