WELCOME!

First, I want to say thank you for letting us be a part of your journey in growing the mental side of your game. As high school coaches and teachers, we’ve been challenging the athletes we coach and teach to journal on a regular basis for over 10 years and we’ve seen first hand the impact it can have in one’s life.

The reality is we are all growing mentally. Some of us are just more intentional about the direction of that growth. We want to help you be intentional about your growth. We are confident if you consistently invest in yourself through the weekly tools that we provide you WILL see growth.

Now let me be clear, change isn’t easy. As human beings our default setting is often to resist change. We crave comfort. The reality is that sometimes growing the mental side of your game is uncomfortable work. If you are doing this alone, it can be even harder. So I would challenge you to invite someone on this journey with you. A teammate, a friend, a coach, a family member. Someone that you can partner with in this process. Someone that will help hold you accountable.

HOW OUR JOURNAL ACTIVITIES WILL HELP YOU GROW THE MENTAL SIDE OF YOUR GAME!

Let’s start with the DAILY Journal Activities.

Six days of the week we will encourage you to complete a WHAT WENT WELL Journal or a GRATITUDE Journal. Each of these journal activities involve the same 3 components:

1. COPYING A STATEMENT: The purpose of this is simple…we want to brainwash you! What do I mean by brainwash? We want to rewire some your default thinking patterns to something more beneficial. When you write these statements on a regular basis, you’ll probably memorize them pretty quickly which means you’ve anchored this thought somewhere in the recesses of your mind. So when you need it, it is there!

   • MY VALUE COMES FROM WHO I AM, NOT FROM WHAT I DO: I would guess that when your mind is working against you, you often determine your self-worth and the value you provide to your team based on your results and performance. That’s not a healthy place to be. You are more than what you accomplish!

   • EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO ME IS IN MY BEST INTEREST, IT’S AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN AND GROW:  If you are going to become the best version of yourself, that means you need to learn how to USE your situation instead of be USED BY your situation. Failed a test…what can you learn from it? Got in a fight with a parent…what can you learn from it? Had a rough practice…what can you learn from it? When we learn, we grow!

2. REFLECTION LIST: The goal of this is to make you recognize the good things going on in your day/life. We want to STRENGTHEN your ability to change your perspective! What this leverages is that we tend to find what we look for and focus on in our life. If you think about the bad things in your life, you’ll probably find more bad things in your life. If you focus on the good, you’ll tend to find more good things. If you want this to show up when you need it, you need to practice it when you don’t.

   • WHAT WENT WELL JOURNAL: Can you relate to this scenario? One thing bad happens to you and it ruins your whole day…in your mind it was a terrible day. Or one bad thing happens at practice and it ruins your whole practice? The truth is there were still good things that happened, you just choose not to look for them. We want to build your mental muscle to find what went well in the midst of some things that didn’t.

   • GRATITUDE LIST: A simple truth in my life that I’ve found, it is difficult to be stressed and thankful at the same time. When I am really stressed, I tend to be a bit of a selfish brat. When my heart posture is one of thankfulness, I seem to be a mentally tougher and have a better response to stressful situations. So, let’s regularly invest in building our gratitude muscle.

3. REFLECTION QUESTION - How could I have made today better? I believe a lost mental skill in our world today, and not just amongst teens but adults as well, is REFLECTION! In our fast paced and busy world, most people don’t take time to pause and reflect. This simple question is designed to help you do that. The question is also making you take OWNERSHIP for the outcome of your day. A mental strong person is able to minimize the BCD (Blame-Complain-Defend) behavior in their life.

Next, let’s quickly talk about the DAILY TRAINING LOG. The idea behind this is to help you literally write the story of your athletic journey. To keep a written record of what happened in your growth over a period of time. This will help you notice patterns in your training. When you notice patterns it is easier to emphasize what moves you in the direction you want to go and identify what holds you back.

This does not need to be long. A few sentences or a short list of bullet points most days is plenty. If you had a really strong practice or really struggled in practice on a certain day, I would encourage you to try and capture more details of the session. Particularly the self-talk portion of your practice. If you are like me, SELF-TALK is a huge factor in how I perform in practice. If this is an area you want to improve, you have to keep a written record so you can identify common themes in your self-talk when it is strong and when it is negative.

Let’s finish with the PRE and POST COMPETITION Journals.

1. PRE-COMPETITION: Mentally strong athletes are intentional about using each competition as an opportunity to improve both the TECHNICAL and MENTAL aspects of their game. This journal activity is designed to help you be think through what you want to focus on for your next competition.

2. POST-COMPETITION: This is all about leveraging the POWER of reflection! Mentally strong athletes use every competition - the good, the average, and the bad - as an opportunity to LEARN and GROW! The only way to do that is to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, evaluating your mindset & self-talk, etc.

Watch this video of Corbin Burnes, a Major League Baseball pitcher, talking about how he invests in the mental game and how he uses a performance journal. Start at the 1:51 mark of the video.

Alright! Let’s get to work and GROW the mental side of your game!

GET A COPY OF THE FREE2COMPETE ATHLETE JOURNAL HERE: