An athlete's belief in themselves directly shapes their performance, often more than raw talent. Negative thoughts block skills you've already developed, while confidence lets you use them fully. Craig Manning's The Fearless Mind offers concrete mental-training exercises to build this mindset the same way you'd train your body.
How do you think mindset gets in the way of an athlete's performance? One of the most used quotes that I heard growing up that I didn't internalize, and I wish I did, was, if you think you can or you can't, you're right. I think that has a whole lot more truth to it than all of us realize. You could have the most talent in the world, you could be the best athlete ever, but if you don't believe it in your mind, if you don't believe you're going to be successful, if you show up to a game or a race fearing that you're going to mess up, chances are you're probably going to mess up. If you show up to a game confident, ready to go, coming in with a positive mindset, Chances are the game's gonna go really well. A lot of times our mindset gets in the way of the skills that we've developed, and it doesn't even allow us to use the skills and the talent and the gifts that we have because our mind's blocking our body from being able to do it. One of the books that I feel like would've changed my whole career if I would've found it earlier is called The Fearless Mind by Craig Manning. This is a sports psychology book and it is a game changer. Just like we have to train our body, we've gotta train our minds. And reading that book is gonna give you some awesome exercises to train this.
