Real-Life Mental Conditioning
31
MARCH, 2020
Have things been a little crazy for you? I know they have been for me. As a matter of fact, I completely forgot about writing this blog for this week’s post. I usually am on top of it and have them written well ahead of time, but this week it got shuffled to the bottom of the pile and I’m just now writing it Monday afternoon.
My routine has been turned upside down and now I’m still trying to come up with new variations to suit my situation. I’m taking conference calls at home and finding ways to squeeze in lunch breaks between calls. Oh yeah how about getting a workout in? What time should I do that? And where? What about getting dinner ready? How do I help around the house without getting in the way? I need new routines!
Routines are an important part of life, especially if you want to have success along the journey. They’re one of the few proven things which can provide a sense of normalcy and structure. For me, having routines is essential for my mental health.
I’m a morning person and I like to wake up and be productive. These past few days without a routine, I’ve found myself feeling like I haven’t accomplished anything and that’s not good for me. Your mentality may be different and that’s ok, the point is to find what routines work for you.
I’ve taught the mental conditioning that goes along with physical conditioning for many years. It turns out that as I was teaching the athletes, they were teaching me right back. It’s easier to understand how if you’re physically out of shape and you’re asked to perform something physical, you might end up falling short. What’s harder to understand is if you’re mentally out of shape and you have to perform something mental how you might fall short.
For example, let’s say I want to run a marathon. (If you ever hear me saying I want to run a marathon, you KNOW I’m not my usual self) But for this scenario let’s say this is something I’m planning on doing. Common sense would tell me I should start running and getting ready. This would make sense to most people.
But if I say I want to run a mental marathon, how do I get ready? There are many mental skills we can learn to help us to get ready for the mental challenges we are now facing. Understanding the 5 skills of focus and how to apply can be useful during these challenging mental times. I wrote about them and they’re located on my website.
- It’s important to be totally in the present at THIS moment.
- It’s important to practice positive self-talk.
- It’s important to understand how to control our thoughts and choose to be composed.
- It’s important to know how to choose confidence.
- And finally, it’s important to know how to eliminate distractions and choose to concentrate.
These are the five skills of focus. Developing routines around these five skills can help us with our everyday performance. I hope you will take some time to read about them and get in top mental shape.
Where are you? Right here, right now!