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Psych Yourself Up For Success

Your big day is approaching fast - maybe it's the final cut to see if you will make the team - or maybe it's almost time for the finals in your division. This is your big chance - your opportunity to shine - your one shot to show 'em what you can do.

Perhaps it's an important ballet performance or gymnastics meet. Whether your sport of choice is figure skating or football, baseball or basketball or any sport in between, you want to do your very best.

You've completed all your physical training and you're in top form. What else can you do to increase your chances of success? Well, for one thing, you can psyche yourself up to succeed.

Psyching yourself up to succeed is actually essential if you are actually going to succeed. No one can succeed with a poor attitude or negative self-image. You've got to pull out all the stops to get yourself in tip-top mental form.

Start with a positive attitude. Reflect on all your hard work, training, skill development, and progress since you first began right up until this moment. Give yourself a pat on the back for how far you've come. Recognize that right now - even if you didn't participate in this upcoming event - you would be a resounding success just for coming this far. Feel good about all that you've accomplished. Be proud of yourself and all that you have achieved.

Then form a visual image in your mind. Picture the upcoming event clearly. Fill in the details. Is there a crowd of spectators? Are you under bright lights or open sky? Is it cold or warm? What are you wearing? Envision yourself warming up before the real thing. Picture yourself focused, determined, and really "on" that day. Now, the big moment arrives. Visualize each moment - the beginning, the middle and the end. Execute each component of your performance clearly, perfectly, astoundingly in your mind. Refuse to visualize anything other than absolute perfection. After all, it's your dream, right? Furthermore, superb athletes have testified again and again that in order to execute a clean, flawless performance, they must first be able to visualize that same performance in their mind. If they cannot "see it," they cannot achieve it. So see it in your mind as you wish it to be.

Finally, affirm your performance verbally. Write down your goals and aspirations for the big event. Now rewrite them as more than a goal or a wish list. Write them as if they are happening to you at this very moment. If you want to do a perfect double axel in competition, write it as if you are: "I am executing a perfect double axel." If you want to make an interception and throw long for the big play, say it as if it is happening. Narrate your own game in your mind. "I am intercepting the ball and throwing long, down the field, into the open arms of my teammate." Whatever the desired performance, write it in the present tense. Read and re-read - preferably aloud - each of your written affirmations in preparation for the big event. Memorize them and say them to yourself before your big moment begins.

When the time arrives, you will indeed be very psyched for the momentous occasion. With confidence in yourself and your abilities, visions of your success running through your mind like a movie, and positive words on your lips affirming your performance, you will indeed be psyched for success!

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