In A Slump? Avoid This Deadly Mental Game Mistake

For years I was messed up because I thought the way out of a slump was to think positively.

by Lisa Lane Brown

Everyone who knew something about sports psychology told me this – my coach, my friends, and even a couple of sports psychologists.

There I’d be, in the middle of a scoring slump, frustrated to the max, desperately trying to think of something positive to say to myself.

You know what I’m talking about…
that fake, artificial, sterile positive self-talk that just can’t sink in?

Good thing I woke up.

I finally realized that trying to get yourself to feel good in the middle of a sports mental slump is a DEADLY inner game mistake.

It’s a deadly mistake because you are going against your nature.

You are a competitive athlete – so when you slump, you are going to get mad.

This is perfectly natural.

So stop trying to force yourself to be positive and feel good — and ask yourself to be OPTIMISTIC instead.

What’s the difference?

Positive thinking is looking for something good in the slump, such as:

‘It’s great I lost because I need a day off.’

The problem with positive thinking is there might NOT be anything good about your slump.

Optimism is different.

Optimism is finding a reason to believe your slump is temporary.

One time I came off a playoff series pretty discouraged. I had been shut out for three straight games. No goals… zero, zip, zilch.

My Mom is usually pretty quiet. But when she saw how down I was, she said, “Dear, I do not want to criticize but it is pretty obvious why you are not scoring – you stopped driving to the net. You took maybe two shots and the defense was already set up.”

Moms are the best.

She handed me, on a silver platter, THE reason my slump could be temporary.

I actually had not noticed how passive I was being on offense.

The upshot?

Find a REASON why your slump could be temporary, and then use your frustration to do a better job.

Sometimes the right mental sport attitude is not rocket science.

But you DO need to understand some basics about mental toughness, or you risk being fooled by some incomplete ideas floating out there.

The best place to master your mental game in the next 30 days is by downloading my Ebook, The Courage to Win in Sport: How to Perform Your Best Under Pressure, I suggest you do it immediately. You can be reading it within minutes.

It’s here: Click here to download my 30 days Ebook.

Light it up out there,
Lisa B.

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