“The ONLY discipline that lasts is Self-discipline” Bum Phillips

Self-awareness is one of the critical building blocks that allow you to recognize distress triggers during a game.

The difference between anxiety interfering with your performance and poor performance due to lack of talent is your self-awareness and your ability to analyze the ‘triggers’ that perhaps can bring on periods of uneasiness.

Many athletes ignore the triggers, even though they are compounding and causing distress.

Know Your Triggers

When you lack self-awareness, you find yourself exposed to situations that feel toxic and drain on your football mental game.

When you notice an uneasy feeling the key is to become aware that something is bothering you. Take notice and focus on getting your mind and body back in sync. Take a breath and release the tension and clear your mind of distractions. Stay in the present, more importantly, stay in the moment.

Develop A Personal Refocus Plan

Think of a situation when you lost it,-blew your cool, lost your temper, abandoned your positive focus, or lost your connection with your performance. Think about how you could have responded more positively or more efficiently. Then imagine that you are confronting the same situation, but you do not let it bother you. You stay positive, focused, and in control. You rise above the distraction. Everything that you might have previously seen as negative bounces off you with minimal disturbance. You stay cool, calm, focused, and effective, and you get back on track quickly (Orlick 2016).

How Can You Get Yourself To Do This?

Developing a personal refocusing plan and acting on it will help you make the changes that you are seeking so that you are more in control and more focused on the right things when you face potential distractions in your performance. You can begin designing your personal refocus plan for controlling distractions by responding to the following questions (Orlick 2016):

1. What do you want to change and how do you want to respond to distractions or potential distractions in your practices?
2. Why do you want to change how you see or respond to distractions or potential distractions in these parts of your performance or life? Why is it important for you to make these changes?
3. If you come up with a personal distraction control plan right now, can you decide to act on this plan repeatedly until you gain control over your focus and your distractions?

You stand a much better chance of playing to your full potential if you have a refocus plan.

*Download the free mental game assessment and get started on Improving your Mental Game in Football.