The ability to block out the ‘noise’ is key to having a clear mind and playing free.
But this is easier said than done - many athletes have trouble blocking out the ‘noise’ and end up:
Overthinking
Doubting their abilities
Worrying about things out of their control When you lack alignment within your thoughts, feelings, and actions, you end up losing the ability to play in the flow state.
The best strategy to clear and block out the noise is a Reset Routine.
The magic is not in the routine itself, but in what the routine represents.
Here are the ABC’s to creating an effective and personalized Reset Routine:
STEP 1: Accept
Most athletes get caught in the ‘need to, have to, and shoulds’ of performance - this leaves them:
Feeling the burden of expectations
Distracted by the results that are not in their control
Primed to be frustrated if they fall short of their expectations
The key to letting go of this noise is acceptance, but the problem is our society thinks acceptance is a weakness.
However, if properly understood and effectively used it is one of the most powerful tools to getting centered, grounded, and becoming the hero of your own story.
That is why this step is the most important - without it your Reset Routine will not be effective or reliable.
The Pink Elephant and the Bubble
One of the analogies we like to use is the pink elephant and the bubble.
If I say “don’t think of a pink elephant.” What do you think of?
A pink elephant…
This is not an effective strategy, yet that is exactly what most advice is for athletes:
Don’t worry about it
Forget about it
Be positive
These might be the results we want but they do not tell us how to get those results.
Think of your focus and awareness as a bubble, and what we want is to have a clear bubble - where you are dialed into the process.
But the problem is pink elephants show up - aka distracting thoughts and feelings.
The solution is to go to them, to understand them, to embrace them, to accept them.
By doing this the pink elephant is not necessarily gone forever, but it will move outside your mental bubble, and your mind will become clear and free.
Finding Your Pink Elephants
The hardest part of acceptance is knowing what to accept.
There are two common problems:
The pink elephant is in your blind spot: You can feel it but have a hard time seeing it and understanding it - which therefore makes it hard to accept and clear.
A lack of perspective: When you are too zoomed in on the situation, you often have a hard time seeing the bigger picture. It’s like only seeing part of the pink elephant, but you can’t clear it unless you can see and understand the whole thing.
This is a skill that takes a lot of practice. You use it every day so that you can continuously get better at clearing the noise.
STEP 2: Breathe
There are a vast amount of strategies on the importance of using your breath to help you get relaxed, calm and centered.
“An anxious mind cannot exist in a relaxed body.” Dr. Edmund J. Bourne, Clinical Psychologist
Regardless of what strategy you use - breathing is a fundamental strategy for managing your physical and mental state.
STEP 3: Commit
Steps 1 and 2 will help you clear the noise and get centered, but the last piece of the puzzle is to direct your attention back to the task at hand.
If you don’t commit to the process you might end up letting another pink elephant get back into your bubble.
So in this step we often have the athlete close their eyes for a brief moment (if applicable) and imagine how they want to show up in the next play.
It is not just what they want to do, but how they want to feel while they do it.
Setting a clear intention of how you want to move forward helps activate the best version of yourself.
This is also a great time to use a totem.
A totem comes from Todd Herman’s Alter Ego work - which is about creating a personalized narrative that clicks for you.
The totem is then something tangible that you can touch, hold, or wear, and use to help associate that narrative. It’s a really powerful way to finish a Reset Routine.
Now remember the routine and the actions are not what make it work - the ability to accept is the key.
So if your routine is not working well - the solution is often about doing a better job of finding your pink elephants, getting to the root of the noise, and fully embracing it.
Make it a tangible routine that should only take about 10-15 seconds.
You can make variations that are shorter or longer.
The bottom line is you need to personalize it and find what works for you.
I hope you found this helpful. Please share this with anyone you think could benefit.
If you are interested in getting one of our Mental Performance Coaches to help you build your Reset Routine - visit www.cepmindset.com to get started.
