How Elite Athletes Time Travel Effectively
Oftentimes, when you’re not thinking in the present, your mental game suffers. As you’ll learn soon, however, this isn’t true 100% of the time. There are opportunities where time traveling can enhance your mental game, not undermine it.
Although it’s likely that your mental game suffers when your thoughts revolve around the past or future (time traveling), you can do so in a way that enhances your mental game. By being aware of how time traveling builds your mental game up, you can expand the ways in which you focus your thoughts effectively.
Thinking Effectively in the Past
Usually, when thinking in the past during a pressure filled game, you’re frustrated or regretful over something. You’re ruminating about a mistake you made, or not doing something you should have done. Without exercising awareness of getting stuck in the past, you lack the ability to focus effectively for the near future, like your next shift or opportunity.
When thinking in the past with regret and frustration, this is a highly emotional, subjective lens you take. Instead, focus on the past in a more objective, data-centered approach. Doing so will give you valuable information to learn from and use to optimize your next opportunity without letting emotions cloud your judgment and mental game.
One way to instantly access this perspective is using the GBH prompt, which stands for Good, Better, How?
Good: What went well during that moment or play you’re stuck on. There’s probably some good in there, even if you’re caught up in negativity. The data-centered approach does not ignore the good, it takes everything into account. Don’t worry, the next question gives room to focus on what wasn’t so good.
Better: What can be better next time? This is where you can focus on the negative in a constructive way. Simply identify what can be better, leave emotion out of it.
How? Given what you identified that can be better, how can you put it into action when your next opportunity comes?
Through the GBH method, you’re not only less emotional in ruminating about the past, you build confidence for the future by identifying what’s important to focus on that can lead to improved performance.
Thinking Effectively in the Future
While the past is usually rooted in frustration, regret, or guilt, thinking in the future is often coupled with worry and anxiety. You may be worried you won’t have what it takes to produce a certain result or outcome. Maybe your roster spot isn’t secured, and you keep thinking about what you’ll do if it’s lost.
Worrying about the future is emotionally charged just like it can be with the past. Without anchoring your focus to productive cues, the quality of your thoughts, and performance, diminish. As always, awareness precedes your ability to enhance the quality of your thoughts. Once aware, shift focus from something unproductive, like fear of failure, to productive. Below is a prompt that will instantly improve your thought quality.
Ask yourself, W.I.N. - What’s Important Now?
The answer to this question should be based on the process - ingredients that lead to success. What can you focus on in the moment or immediate future (next shift, for example) that will increase your chances of getting the outcome you want? The answer should only be 1-3 things; any more and it might be too much to remember.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of how athletes from different sports may answer this question:
Golf: bend at the knees, deep belly breath
Hockey: pick my head up, follow through
Basketball: communicate loudly and succinctly
Baseball: keep the atmosphere positive in the dugout
Running: inch closer to the next runner
Football: dig into the turf, worry about my match-up
Oftentimes, it’s mechanic based because quality body mechanics improve performance. This may sound obvious, but so many athletes forget to focus on the fundamentals when their mental game is hijacked.
You can also focus on parts of the process from the mental side, like your attitude, preparation, and effort. All of these are directly controllable and important factors
When you optimize a few parts of body mechanics or the mental game, you’re also leaving less room in your mind to think low quality thoughts (regret, worry, etc.).
Every athlete time travels with their thoughts, but only the best athletes time travel effectively.
