Mental Performance Coach, Dr. Cassidy Preston, talks about the mental game of sports and life. Topics covered include confidence, focus, composure, resilience, and leadership. Mastering these mental skills is key to playing in the flow state, enjoying sport, and achieving Consistent Elite Performance.
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A New Way for Athletes, Coaches, and Parents to Approach Sports & Life
mardi 25 juin 2024 • Durée 44:30
As part of a high-performing team you want to collaborate, support each other, and be a team player… but in the same breath, you also want to hit your numbers, earn your bonus, and chase down your next promotion.
You try to be 'positive' but the projects, responsibilities, and requests keep piling up. And you try to be a team player but the gnawing feeling of your personal goals, results, and targets weigh on your shoulders.
The default approach is to set goals, create priorities lists, and do your best to finesse your way through the company hierarchy.
Unfortunately, this can foster a lack of communication, a self-serving culture, and stressful work environment. We've all heard the clichés like 'suck it up,' 'grind it out' and 'be a team player' — which can help you get short-term results.
But, this approach is not sustainable nor optimal. Maybe it's time to flip our approach. Instead of focusing all of our energy on what we want to achieve, we need to prioritize who we want to be and how we want to show up.
By 'slowing down' and gaining clarity on your inner world, you get grounded, centered, and ready to tackle the outer world.
This approach is how you optimize your individual performance as well as maximize your impact as a leader and a team player. It allows you to flip the switch from 'what can I get from my company?' To, 'what can I do for my company today?'
In this insightful and interactive 60 min session, Dr. Cassidy Preston pulls back the curtain and shares the principles and strategies he uses when coaching professional athletes, surgeons, hedge fund managers, and CEO's to show up at their best day-in and day-out.
You will learn how professional athletes break free from the weight of results, perform when it matters most, and be a team player. You will learn how leaders and CEOs build trust, resolve conflict, and create accountability in high stakes environments.
What about surgeons… Have you ever wondered how they handle the pressures of a life or death surgery? Or how they respond and interact with their team when unforeseen complications and adversities arise? Here's a clue — they challenge the status quo and think differently about success and failure.
It's time for you to flip the switch and train your brain like a professional athlete.
2 Approaches to Sport and Life
jeudi 4 avril 2024 • Durée 07:56
What if worry, frustration, or feeling down are not the problem? Instead, they are symptoms based on your approach to sport and even life.
In our society, the way we talk about emotions is backward. We label ourselves and others as anxious, sad, or frustrated.
That is not who we are—it is what we are feeling, and the distinction matters. When you identify with an emotion, you've got a self-perpetuating problem.
More importantly, it's not true. Emotions are a feedback tool, specifically about your approach to sport and life.
If this resonates with you check out my breakdown of the 2 approaches to sport and life. Please note that this is not a catch all framework as there are surely exceptions and other factors to consider. But I encourage you to try it out and see if it works for you.
The Outside-In Approach
Most people easily get caught up in the "outside-in" approach.
This approach means we're allowing the outside world to affect how we feel on the inside, often identified by highs and lows in emotional states.
Specifically, they'll have charged emotions, such as worry or anxiety, and then go straight to careless and reckless.
Or they may go from deflated and frustrated to elated and thinking they're untouchable.
In the "outside-in" approach, we oscillate back and forth because we're focused on the outside world first. The thought process around this approach looks like:
What's going on around us?
What are the results?
What do people think?
What's the situation like?
And how does that make me feel on the inside?
How To Perform Under Pressure
lundi 27 février 2023 • Durée 15:09
Performance anxiety is one the leading reasons athletes struggle to consistently perform at their capabilities.
Learning how to channel your nerves is key to performing at your best when it matters most. Unfortunately most athletes focus on the threats of high-pressure situations.
Pressure can Provoke a State of Fear
As a result the pressure provokes a fear state that leaves the athlete tense, overthinking, and underperforming. Here are 3 other common reasons athletes don't perform under pressure:
Zoomed In on the Context
Overly focused on the context and making the results seem more important than they are is a sure fire way to feel the burden of the results weigh heavily on your mind.
Survive Over Thrive
Are you focused on not screwing up or are you focused on going out there and having an impact? This is the difference between a fear mindset vs attack mindset.
Need To, Have To, Should Mindset
Creating an unhealthy relationship with your desired results often leads to a decrease in performance. The sport culture perpetuates this language with coaches often saying "this is a must win game" but this narrative often provokes the fear state.
The good news is you can overcome these limiting mindsets by following the 3 steps below - as a result you will be able to perform at your best when it matters most.
Step 1: Plan to Cope
Coping planning is essential to stress management for all areas of life. And it works particularly well for handling high pressure situations. In short - Planning to Cope is simply what it means. You are planning for how you will respond (cope) when a stressor (pressure) is presented. It is like studying for a test - it works way better when you study before the test - not trying to figure it out in the thick of it.
Step 2: Mental Rehearsal
How To Bounce Back From Injury
dimanche 19 février 2023 • Durée 13:50
Getting injured is one of the biggest challenges in sport.
So having the mental strategies to overcome this adversity will help you:
● Stay motivated despite not being able to play or train within the sport you love.
● Have the resilience & grit to persevere through the recovery process.
● Remain confident in your abilities and trust yourself as you return to play.
● Focus on being a great teammate and becoming a better leader as you look to contribute to the team in other ways.
Strategy 1: Reflect On Your Mindset Daily
It is so easy to get caught up on what you can't do and all the things not going your way. So you want to focus on what you can do – mental training, being a leader, rehab, catch up on other areas of life. Then you need to reflect on how well you are focusing on what you can do and making the most out of it versus being negative – blaming, complaining, and focus on what I can't do. This is not about being positive – that won't work. Instead, it is about staying centred or neutral.
Step 2: 'Scuba Dive' to Make Progress
The hardest part of being injured is watching everyone else continue to train and compete. Playing your sport is like surfing, but when injured, you are not able to surf – so you are just stuck in the ocean taking waves to the face. It sucks and it is overwhelming. So the solution is not to swim away, but actually to put on your scuba gear, stay close by, and keep making progress under the water.
Strategy 3: Find New Ways to Contribute – aka Be a Leader
If you apply the first two strategies, you are already getting into a better mental state and will be primed to step into being a leader.
This strategy has two major benefits: Here are a few key ways you can continue to contribute to the team without being able to play:
Provide 1-on-1 Encouragement: Think about which teammates are struggling or could benefit from a helpful reminder to trust their capabilities or that they can get the next play.
How to Build Your Mental Game Blueprint
lundi 6 février 2023 • Durée 10:41
You wouldn't build a house without a blueprint – and in the same manner you shouldn't work on your mental game without doing an assessment.
Here are the 3 steps to using the CEP Assessment to build your Mental Game blueprint:
STEP 1: Identify the Mental Skills to Build One of the biggest problems with working on your mental game is that it's hard to make tangible progress - so in our assessment we break it down into 7 Mental Skills to make it clear what you are working on.
We assess each skill by reflecting on the percentage of time and energy you spend in that state compared to when you are not.
STEP 2: Clarify the Mental Blocks to Clear This step is where we uncover any limiting beliefs that might be holding you back. By pinpointing the mental blocks to clear you can improve your mental game much more quickly.
STEP 3: Personalize the Mental Tools Accordingly Now that you a good foundation set for your blueprint - the last step is to bring in the fundamental tools and personalize them accordingly.
This is where you start to take action and bridge concepts to strategies. You need to embrace the creative process and find what works for you.
If you are ready build your mental game with your own personalized blueprint - then click here to get started now: https://cepmindset.com/book-now/
3 Steps to Win the Mental Game
mercredi 7 décembre 2022 • Durée 15:43
As an elite athlete, you have put in a ton of hard work to develop your capabilities, but until you develop a rock solid mental game, you won't perform consistently when it matters most.
You have probably tried the fluffy and cookie-cutter advice perpetuated by sport culture:
- Be Positive
- Forget about it
- Don't worry about it
It is easy to promote these fluffy and cookie-cutter hacks. But when you build your mental game by patching together all these quick fixes - it's like building a house out of straw - it is not sustainable and will fall apart in the face of adversity and pressure.
Instead, you need to build your mental game - like you would a brick house - out of practical & personalized strategies that deliver reliable and repeatable results.
Listen to this podcast for our 3 Step System to Win the Mental Game - aka how to build your brick house:
1. Blueprint Breakdown
what you are working on and identify your top priorities
2. Personalize Tools
Build your brick house with practical tools that are personalized for you
3. Upkeep & Upgrades
It's a never-ending process of adapting, refining, and doing the work - there are no quick fixes
It is the system that has helped 10,000's of elite athletes and high performers get into the zone and achieve Consistent Elite Performance.
If you are interested in building your brick house quickly and effectively, then you may be a good fit for our 1-on-1 coaching programs.
The first step is to get on the phone with our admin team.
Imagine someone on a dock, they are hesitating to jump in.
They are worried that it is too cold, so they dip their toe in.
The even jump in, but they get right back out.
This person is not swimming and certainly not enjoying themselves.
Alternatively, what you want to do is get on the dock, run full speed, jump in, and enjoy swimming.
This is a relatable analogy that I use to simplify the mental game.
Instead of being the person that is hesitating and has a head full of inner conflict, you want to clear the noise and 'jump' into the zone.
You either do it or you don't.
The challenge of being on the dock is there can a lot of inner chatter - including:
Self-doubt
Overthinking
Worrying about what others think
Holding on to the past, or
Worrying about the future
The bottom line is if you lack alignment within your thoughts, feelings, and actions, you end up losing the ability to just be in the flow.
So here are 3 steps to align your thoughts, feeling, and actions, so that you can 'jump' into the zone and achieve Consistent Elite Performance.
STEP 1: Name the Noise
The key here is becoming more aware of your inner dialog. The negative self-talk or inner noise that holds us back is most commonly related to:
Results
Challenges
What Others Think
Once you get better at naming the noise, then you also want to measure it. This gives you a baseline to work from.
STEP 2: Prepare to Jump
Acceptance is the fundamental concept to getting centred and clearing the noise.
How to Develop Your Personal Scorecard
mardi 8 novembre 2022 • Durée 16:25
Elite performance comes from being fully immersed in process; It's what we call being in the moment, dialed in, or in the zone.
But the challenge is that the external scoreboards of sport and life can consume our focus and distract our attention from the process.
We all know the cliché, "focus on what you can control," but the problem is that it is a lot easier said than done.
In fact, the root cause for most mental blocks stems from getting caught up in society's definition of success – the external scoreboards.
For example:
Struggle with confidence? Then you probably tie your confidence to results.
Get nervous & tense? Then you are probably worried about results.
Struggle with resilience? Then you probably beat yourself up after negative results.
To make matters worse, it's hard to escape the external scoreboards. There are literally massive signs with bright lights in your face all game.
Follow these 3 steps to develop your own personal scorecard and you will learn to focus on the things within your control, be immersed in the process, and achieve Consistent Elite Performance.
STEP 1: What to Score
They key here is clearly identifying what matters to you. These should be highly within your control and meaningful to your performance.
The two main categories you should include are:
Mental State
Process
STEP 2: How to Score It
For mental state, we encourage using a percentage based on a contrast.
For example, 70% attack vs. 30% fear mindset.
The goal should be to hit 95%+. This is not about perfection, but doing your best to be fully committed to the mental state that matters to you.
Fear Mindset vs. Attack Mindset
mardi 8 novembre 2022 • Durée 11:49
Fear can be paralyzing.
Fear of mistakes, fear of failure, fear of letting others down, or fear of not meeting expectations; Whatever it is, it holds us back from just trusting our capabilities and attacking what we want.
In most sports, and other areas of life, it pays to have an attacking mindset:
In sports like hockey, soccer, and basketball, this often means taking the puck or ball and attacking the net
While in tennis, golf, baseball, or softball, this means not being afraid to fail and fully committing to the shot
In life, this means having that important conversation, putting yourself out there, or doing anything else related to going after your dreams.
Follow these 3 Steps to go from a Fear Mindset to an Attacking Mindset:
STEP 1: Differentiate Fear vs. Attack vs. Reckless
You want to move from a fear mindset to an attack mindset, but you don't want to end up being reckless. Here is a breakdown of the key traits within each of the 3 mental states:
1. Fear Mental State: Afraid to make mistakes, doubting ability, worrying about results.
2. Attack Mental State: Willing to make mistakes, trusting capability, being in the moment.
We suggest you write out what each of these mental states looks like for you to make it clear how you want to show up.
STEP 2: Going from Fear to Attack
To go from the fear to attack mindset, you have to align your thoughts, feeling and actions. The following two concepts are key to helping you get that alignment:
1. Attack Mistakes > Fear Mistakes: You are going to make mistakes regardless of what mindset you are in, but the attack mindset will generally not be as harmful of a result, not look as bad, and it will serve as a learning opportunity.
3 Steps to Strengthen Your Self-Confidence
vendredi 19 août 2022 • Durée 12:07
Confidence is a key to high performance. Unfortunately, confidence is often misunderstood and people overlook the most important part - self-worth.
Most people struggle with self-confidence because the self-talk in their head is their own worst enemy. Here are 4 other reasons why people struggle with self-confidence:
Yo-Yo Confidence: Tying their self-image to external results or praise
Imposter Syndrome: Believing they are not worthy and/or don't belong
Victim Mentality: Blaming others and not taking responsibility
Negativity Bias: Constantly beating yourself up and overly focusing on the negatives
However, you can go from being your own worst enemy to being your own best ally by following these 3 steps to strengthen your self-confidence:
Step 1: Start with the Roots of the Tree - Self-Worth
Step 2: Grow a Well Rounded Tree
Step 3: Put in the Work & Own Your Capabilities
Listen to this episode for a full explanation of each step.
The most important takeaway from this episode is that you are in control of your self-confidence. Start by strengthening your self-worth, then grow a well-rounded tree by developing your self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy.
Self-confidence is a skill that can be developed if you're willing to put in the work and own your capabilities.
Be your own best ally, not your own worst enemy.
The answers to those questions then dictate how you feel on the side. In other words, your mental state becomes dependent on the external world.
This approach is fueled by needing to achieve external results.
Of course, the external goal or intent is to achieve the desired results, but it is a fantasy to think sport or life can be all sunshine and rainbows where everything's positive all the time.
This approach does not create reliable results and it generally makes sports and life way more stressful.
The good news is we can flip our approach.
The Inside-Out Approach
I want you to strive towards an "inside-out" approach.
This approach is about prioritizing who we want to be on the inside first - then we go and tackle the outside world.
Someone with this approach focuses on getting grounded, being intentional, and taking control of the things they have control over.
The thought process for this approach looks like:
Who do I want to be?
How do I want to show up?
What traits or mindset do I want to step into?
Reflecting on these questions helps us slow down so that we can take control of our mindset, attitude, and approach.
This approach isn't without emotions and feelings.
But the emotions are more grounded and centered - like being in the flow state or having love, gratitude, and enjoyment.
There is some oscillation in these emotions, but they aren't as emotionally charged and you will generally stay way more even-keeled.
Here are some ways to develop and stick to an "inside-out" approach.
Set Your Intentions
The first step is to set your intention.
This can be something you do every day for the rest of your life.
Take as little as one minute to reflect on how you want to show up at the start of each day. It is in that moment that you look within — taking the "inside-out" approach — and get clarity on who you choose to be.
This sets you to get grounded and centered before you tackle the day.
Reset Routine
Right in line with setting your intentions is building a reset routine.
This routine is about identifying and rehearsing what areas in life you are susceptible to an "outside-in" approach and resetting to an "inside-out" approach.
You can go check out our full video on how to build a reset routine.
Stay Adaptable
Once you develop your intentions and reset routine, the work isn't over.
It's really important that you adopt a growth mindset that focuses on continued learning, adaptations, and constant evolution. As your landscape changes, you need to constantly refine your approach and set your intentions accordingly.
Final thoughts are to make sure to apply this to both your sport and your life. Make the "inside-out" approach the default way you operate in life and it will not only optimize how you show up and tackle the external world but, more importantly, you will find a lot more meaning along the way.
Most athletes think imagery and mental preparation is only for focusing on what you want to do and being positive. But one of the best benefits of imagery is to mentally rehearse how you plan to cope with stressors.
By mentally rehearsing how you are going to respond to a pressure situation makes you way more likely to respond that way.
So not only do you want to study and clarify how you want to respond then you want to hammer that into your brain.
Repetition is the mother of learning!
Step 3: Measure Your Progress
By getting steps 1 and 2 down pat you are well on your way to start performing at your best when it matters most. This step helps lock it in and ensure you really hone your ability to perform under pressure. Here is example of what this looks like:
1. Identify What to Measure: E.g., I want to zoom out, feel relaxed, ready and excited before performances.
2. Track Your Progress: Reflect on that number after each game and see it go up!
3. Adjust & Learn: When the number dips or when it stops rising, reflect on what is holding you back and refer back to Step 1 - find which coping planning strategy will help the most. This also could be a key time to getting a mental performance coach to be a third party and help you improve faster and more effectively.
I hope you found this helpful. Let us know if you have any questions. If you know anyone that could benefit from this podcast - please share it with them.
Be a Beacon of Light: Bring upbeat energy, keep it light and have some fun – although you are not playing you are still affecting the culture of the team with both your body language, what you say, and how you say it.
Coach Individuals or the Team: I don't mean to replace the coaching staff but instead focus on how you can give feedback that helps athletes keep learning and growing.
I encourage you to share this with anyone that is dealing with an injury – I've experienced the mental struggle myself as an athlete, and we see it daily with the athletes that come work with us at CEP Mindset – so if this video can help a few more athletes out there – then that is a win – so thanks for sharing.
If you are injured and/or want some 1-on-1 Mental Performance coaching then click link below to learn more.
It is a willingness problem, but when you truly get perspective and accept the range of results you optimize the probability to achieve the intended results.
The four fundamental tools our athletes use to prepare to jump include:
This analogy boils down to being aware, then choosing to jump in.
You can feel the difference.
When you are stuck on the dock you have an internal conflict between your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
But when you jump in the water you can feel the alignment. You are in a mental state that is:
Connected to the love the game
Appreciates the opportunity to grow
Prepared for the ups and downs of competition
You are fully in the water.
If you have any questions, want 1-on-1 coaching to help you 'jump' into the water, or you are interested in mental performance coaching program visit www.cepmindset.com
Remember to like, subscribe, and share!
When measuring your process, you can use percentages as well, but the key here is that that it depends on the standards you set for yourself. We call this EPS: Executing my Process to my Standard.
We recommend using a three tier system to measure your EPS:
Well: At or above you standard
Meh: Close but not at your standard
No: Not even close and was likely a mental mistake
What most people get wrong here is that they start tracking the result, like successful plays made. This is not what we want to track here.
Instead, it's about how you actually executed your process. You could execute your process well but get an unlucky result, or execute poorly but get a lucky result.
So on your personal scorecard, we want how you executed your process to your standard, not results.
STEP 3: Get the Most Out of It
All of this can be ruined if you don't stop checking, let alone obsessing over, your stats or results.
What we look at and focus on matters.
That's the whole point of the personal scorecard. So you can thwart the main purpose of it if you keep going online and filling your mind with external scoreboards and comparisons.
On the flip side, it's really helpful to add a column for 5 things you did well each day. This helps keep you focused on the little wins and not overly focused on the mistakes.
You can also use your personal scorecard as a type of checklist to ensure you are using some of your other mental tools or keys to performance:
10 Sec Reset Routine
Detailed Imagery Script
Getting 9+ hours of Quality Sleep
Nutrition or any other healthy habits
Connecting to an Intrinsic Why (i.e., the love of the game)
Your personal scorecard is something you will continue to iterate and adjust. Finding someone you trust to give helpful feedback can greatly improve the impact.
The bottom line and the paradox of the whole thing is:
Your personal scorecard is something you will continue to iterate and adjust – finding someone you trust to give helpful feedback can greatly improve the impact.
The bottom line and the paradox of the whole thing is:
If you follow the above steps and consistently use your personal scorecard, then you will see the results on the external scoreboard – although you shouldn't be looking!
If you have any questions, want 1-on-1 coaching to work on your personal scorecard, or you are interested in mental performance coaching program, contact us today.
Remember to like, subscribe, and share!
2. Thinking Long-Term: The fear mindset could be better in the short-term, but the attack mindset is better in the long-term.
While reading this, you might cognitively understand these points, but you need to have the emotional feeling to match or the behaviours won't come consistently. So don't just read this and nod your head. Make sure you reflect and look at your game; Look at when you are playing in the attack mindset vs fear mindset. Truly reflect on which mindset serves you better.
The goal is to feel yourself break through the fear and fully arrive in the attack mindset.
STEP 3: Lock it In
To lock in the attack mental state consistently, you need to be aware, set a high standard for yourself, and have the tools to get into the state.
Awareness comes from reading this and reflecting – not just once, but consistently.
You should be aiming to be in the attack mindset 95% of the time or more. It's not about perfection, but about doing your best and being fully committed to the attack mental state.
The tools to develop and use to help get you consistently into this state include:
Unique Alter Ego
10 Sec Reset Routine
Personalized Scorecard
Detailed Imagery Script
If you have any questions, want 1-on-1 coaching to work on your mental tools, or you are interested in mental performance coaching program, contact us today.
