The Square Life

How to Stay Mentally Focused to Achieve Your Goals.

When creating life success, try thinking like an athlete. That’s right, think: Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Lance Armstrong. When you stop and give it some thought, they didn’t just naturally have “the gift” for their sports, but what made them great was the time, effort, and persistence they put in to make their dreams a reality. Jordan was cut from his high school team, Ruth was categorized as a washed-up pitcher early in his career, and Armstrong battled cancer shortly before his Tour de France victories. Often the pivotal difference for athletes is in their mental training: stepping back to see the track, the court, or the turf from a new train of thought. This mental strategizing can also be applied to the game of life. So try some ways of gaining a fresh perspective to your goals while incorporating some sports psychology.

PREPARATION IS ESSENTIAL    Just as the old adage of “practice, practice, practice” goes, preparation welcomes success in all aspects of life. Jessica Greenfield, a former forward for the BYU women’s soccer team and a recent BYU graduate, says this is the biggest life lesson she took from the field. “If you are prepared, you deserve to win,” she says. “That’s one of the main things I learned—that if you are prepared, you do not need to fear, that you can be confident.”  So map out the steps to achieving your goals and go to work.

Block Out the Crowd
When going for your goals, don’t worry about competing with others. Greenfield says the team worked with their sports psychologist to focus purely on their personal bests for that moment. “His job, basically, was to loosen us up,” she says. “He got us not thinking about the fans or our own statistics or have we won a championship.” The lesson: don’t worry about what others think, and focus on improvement.

Get in the Groove
There’s a mentality that can be achieved in athletics called “mental flow.” In “The Inner Game of Tennis,” W. Timothy Gallwey describes this state of mind:  “It becomes one with what the body is doing, and the unconscious or automatic functions are working without interference from thoughts.” Similarly, instead of constantly thinking about whether you’re achieving the goal, lose yourself in making the goal a reality.