Mental Skills Basics
“The most important part of an athlete’s body is the six-inch playing field above the shoulders and between the ears: the mind. It’s both the strongest muscle and the greatest enemy of a competitor. By all means, train it well.”
- Gary Mack (Author of Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence)
Overview
This class outlines 8 essential mental skills for driven individuals.
Objectives
+ Train yourself for consistent, high levels of performance, regardless of circumstance or condition.
+ Develop self-control regarding your mind’s attention.
+ Develop a strong capacity for bearing challenge, adversity, and (even) paradox.
+ Learn strategies for controlling your emotions, thought patterns, and storytelling tendencies.
+ Design a personal practice of mindfulness & meditation.
Concepts
+ Clarity — Further develop an ability for focus, deep focus, and honest attention.
+ Positivity — Self-belief is (more than) half the battle.
+ Challenge Thinking — Distinguish between what is a threat and what is a challenge.
+ Living in the ‘Now’ — There is no fear in the present moment. There is no anxiety, timidity, or regret. There is only experience, action, and being.
+ Credible Self-Talk — Impact your perceptive well-being by reminding yourself of what you know to be true.
+ Emotional Intelligence — Be conscious of yourself, conscious of others, and conscious of your/their context.
+ Process Orientation — When setting goals, dream big. When making gains, think small.
+ Imagery — Visualize your goals, challenges, and gains through your five senses.
Resources (not exhaustive)
+ Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence (Gary Mack)
+ Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Carol Dweck)
+ The Miracle of Mindfulness (Thick Nhat Hanh)
+ The Tao De Jing (Lau Tzu)
+ Tattoos On The Heart (Gregory Boyle)
+ Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahnemann)
+ Continuous Partial Attention (https://lindastone.net/2009/11/30/beyond-simple-multi-tasking-continuous-partial-attention/) (Linda Stone)
+ “How Our Brains Feel Emotion” (https://bigthink.com/videos/how-our-brains-feel-emotion) (Antonio Damasio)
+ “Meaning Is Healthier Than Happiness” (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/meaning-is-healthier-than-happiness/278250/) (Emily Smith)