Recognize that in this performance journey there will be highs, lows, and plateaus. Some days you will be come to the party motivated and will see improvement, other days you may ride the struggle bus and things will be ugly, some may be neither high nor low and more of just meh. Anxiety and frustration are part of goal achievement. Expect this to come and keep chipping away at those goals one day at a time.

You aren’t a machine either. You are a human. You are an athlete. Maybe a student. A son/daughter/brother/sister. And as a human, you will make mistakes. You will have errors, turnovers, bad games, failures. We all will! But, it’s how you handle these mistakes that sets you apart.

To set themselves up to perform at their best, athletes must consistently train, make healthy choices, and get adequate rest and recovery time. They must regulate their thoughts, emotions, and actions as they work toward their goals. Self-control plays a big role in all of this.

Learn how gratitude can enhance your resilience in sports. Focus on the good, reframe the negative, and decrease worry, burnout, and psychological distress through the act of giving thanks!

As athletes, we put a lot of emphasis on a physical warm up and many have been taught how to warm up well. However, many athletes have never been taught how to incorporate a mental warm up. So here are a few ways to prepare mentally…

Rather than letting your mind run rampant focusing on the things outside of our control, what if we were more strategic about the focus of our thoughts. Just as you have a physical game plan; what if you had a mental game plan as well.

Resilience comes from the Latin word resilio which means to return to an earlier state. Historically, the word was used by sciences to refer to the elasticity of certain materials. Hence the suggestion that resilience is the ability of people to overcome the challenges they are exposed to by developing ways to cope with adversity.

Although some might refer to imagery as visualization, the two practices are different. Visualization is picturing yourself doing something; imagery is not limited to the visual sense, but instead brings in a more vivid image by tapping into all of one’s senses.

Athletic identity refers to the extent to which people in sports identify with and accept their athletic role. Although athletic identities are an important factor of one's self-concept, it can also pose risks. Some athletes see their sport as a game they play, while some see their sport as who they are

As with any other mental skill, it is important that self-talk be practiced and utilized strategically. Building self-talk into a routine would lead to a greater likelihood of enhanced performance. Developing awareness, using thought stoppage to prevent ironic errors, and implementing motivational or instructional self-talk will help an athlete maintain focus and the ability to think right.

Goals. You may have them. You may talk about them. You may even be motivated to go after them from time to time...BUT are you using them in a way that drives your success? Goals give athletes direction, help maintain motivation, and allow them to accomplish dreams they may have never expected. People often set goals, but the problem is that they may not set goals that provide them with direction and motivation.