According to the NCAA, anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric problems in student-athletes. As athletes face unique pressures to perform in high-intensity environments, the fear associated with “failing” or losing can often result in negative personal mindsets and/or self doubt.
Athlete Personal Trainer and Mindset Coach Whitney Miller understands the toll this can take on athletes' mental health and performance, and walks us through strategies to combat a negative mindset:
Evaluate Your Environment
A person’s mindset is often a reflection of their environment. I encourage athletes to be mindful of who you’re around. What is the mindset of those around you? Sometimes we don’t even realize that our environment and those around us can impact how we speak to ourselves.
For example, if I’m hanging out with my teammates and they are always commiserating, talking about how awful practice was or how much they hate all of their classes, and so on, that can take a toll on my mindset. So first, I recommend you take an assessment of your space and those around you.
Notice How You're Speaking to Yourself
Many of us walk around and have no idea what we are saying to ourselves inside our heads. Our comments and thoughts to ourselves are so automatic, we often don’t understand or know where they come from or even recognize that they are there. It is so important to really make an intention to notice the thoughts you have and the comments you make about yourself to create a better awareness of how you speak to and about yourself.
Get Curious, Not Judgmental
When we first start intentionally listening to our thoughts, we can be quick to judge ourselves when we notice negative patterns. It’s important to be mindful while taking this step, and come from a place of curiosity and intrigue rather than judgment. That’s the biggest key to shifting negative mindsets.
When we judge, we are essentially sitting in hate, and by doing that we are sitting outside of love. So think about if we could separate our judgment and be in a space of love towards ourselves, towards other people, towards our actions, towards our relationships, etc.
The curiosity and awareness piece is the biggest bulk of the work. You have to be willing to be so dedicated to noticing, being aware of what you're saying, and then getting curious about it. And then that's where you can ask yourself- well, where does this come from?
Does this come from me? Does it come from maybe a coach that used to say this to me? Does it come from maybe a parent or a friend that I heard this from once? Is this thought mine to begin with?
Then, you can start reframing; What do I want that thought to sound like instead?
What if you discover that the negative mindset is stemming from your environment?
Many of the athletes I work with experience or have experienced performance anxiety that stems as a result of comments or expectations from their coaches, teammates, parents, etc. When you recognize these thought patterns coming as a result of others, I recommend going back to analyzing your environment.
For example, is there a location that presents the most anxiety? Maybe the locker room? Once you establish who and/or where, try to disconnect from those things prior to your race performance or game. Disconnecting can look different for everyone, whether that be listening to music, talking with teammates about something other than the game, writing down affirmations beforehand- whatever that may be. Find a way to disconnect from the negativity and reconnect with yourself and your power before your performance.
It can be more difficult when performance anxiety is tied to people instead of a place. In that situation, I really encourage athletes to approach that person and say “Hey, I’m noticing there is something going on between how I really get stressed about my performance and I feel like it has something to do with our relationship, and I'm not quite sure what that means.”
Go into that conversation with a curious mind. Don’t just assume that person is the problem and there’s no solution. Have a conversation about how you are feeling and work together to find the best solution!
I completely understand having that conversation is uncomfortable; but that short moment of being uncomfortable is going to foster a positive outcome that will leave you feeling more comfortable and confident in your performances going forward. That brief period of uncomfort will result in a much longer period of confidence, strength, and joy.
Recreate Your Definition of Self-Worth
A lot of times when athletes evaluate their performance, it is all doing-based. A big part of shifting your mindset is shifting performance expectations from doing to being. It’s important to set personal agreements with yourself that have to do with the internal you and goals that aren’t necessarily connected to the outcome. For example, “I agree to show up confidently in the game today” rather than “I expect myself to score the most points today”.
It changes the game when you are able to recreate your definition of self-worth, and have that definition connect to internal agreements (things that you can control) that are not outcome or performance based! Using this strategy, your mindset is able to work with you vs. against you. You are able to agree on what your behaviors will be and find success in showing up for yourself which then ultimately builds confidence to create the outcome or result you’re working towards.
It seems simple, but this strategy makes all the difference between an athlete who believes that life is happening to them vs. life is happening for them.
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