Applying Anthony Robbins Approach to Sports Psychology
Do you feel stuck in your athletic career? Are you not seeing the results you expected to see?
Many athletes who are disappointed in their performances don’t understand why. These athletes may seek out the advice from others in their sport, such as coaches, older athletes, or private coaches but, nonetheless, the results are the same…
This inability to achieve personal goals or play to one’s potential leaves athletes feeling hopeless and frustrated.
Athletes who experience this feeling of being “stuck” often say they hate their sport and just want to quit. Wanting to quit is bigger challenge than a slump and has a greater negative impact on athletes.
Anthony Robbins, Self-Help, & Sports Psychology
Self-help expert and Life Performance Coach, Anthony Robbins, helps thousands of people who experience this very same feeling of being stuck in their personal lives.
Robbins’ insight and advice for people who feel stuck can easily translate to improving performance for athletes. In fact, Robbins espouses some of the same principles taught in sport psychology, such as reframing.
In a recent documentary about Robbins’ work entitled, “I am not your Guru,” Robbins reveals some of his top secrets to getting people unstuck and on the road to believing, achieving and being fully engaged in the process each day.
One of the first messages Robbins communicates is that “you created the person you are.” As an athlete, this message should be very freeing.
If you created the athlete you are, then you are responsible for where you are and YOU CAN RE-CREATE YOURSELF AS AN ATHLETE.
Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life
Robbins is fond of saying, “Your entire life changes in a moment.”
You may ask, “How is that possible? I have trained for years and years, so how can my athletic life change in a moment?”
Well, all change starts with a decision made in the present moment…
A decision that you will no longer accept the results you currently see…
A decision or commitment to find a new solution to: train harder, train smarter, change your self-talk, become emotionally stronger, build confidence or to stop listening to the negative voices of others trying to pull you downward.
Another point that Robbins talks about is that everyone has problems. As an athlete, the issue you may be experiencing are different than what another athlete may be experiencing, but working through issues is what takes your game to the next level.
ROBBINS: “The biggest mistake is that we think we shouldn’t have problems but problems make us grow and make us become more. Your problem is your gift.”
This is the “tripping point” for most athletes. Athletes who get stuck become stuck on the program.
These athletes say things like:
–“Why does this always happen to me?”
–“Why can’t I ever reach my goal?”
–“Why did I lose my shot?”
–“Why do I always choke when the pressure is on?”
–“Why am I in this slump?”
Dwelling on a problem never helped solve the problem. Focusing on the problem feeds the monster and causes the problem to grow as you take on more negative labels of yourself, instead of you as an experienced athlete.
Using Problems to Help You Grow
If you were to view problems as a way to grow, you would be more apt to work towards a solution. With each new experience you get feedback that you can apply to similar situations and eventually you become a better athlete because you learned from the problems…
We see this play out in the 2016 Olympics where athletes who failed in 2012 have return to succeed in 2016.
When you can move past the problem and focus on solutions, you develop a positive mental habit. As soon as a problem is presented to you, it will trigger your brain into solution-seeking mode.
This growth only happens if you don’t dwell on the problem. A solution-based focus empowers you to find ways to improve and expand your potential.
Another Robbins-ism is, “Stay in your head, you’re dead.”
Your emotions get tainted by reliving negative mental tapes in your head. This keeps you stuck in the past and blind to the opportunities in front of you.
If you don’t believe the negative power of the past, try this little experiment…
First, take notice of how you feel at this moment and give it a score from 1 (the lowest you have ever felt) and 10 (the feeling of joy and satisfaction).
Now, spend five minutes reviewing a time in your athletic career when you messed up the most…
Really relive this moment and the feelings it stirred inside you. Remember the negative comments that may have been hurled at you from your parents or coaches or teammates. How do you feel at this moment?
Give a new number from 1-10. Chances are you feel worse than five minutes earlier.
This is the effect that living in the past has on how you feel in the present. The good news is that you can choose to focus on positive moments in your athletic career or what you need to do in the present to vault yourself to the next level.
**Choosing what you focus on in your athletic career is an essential principle in Sport Psychology.
What Mindsets Hold You Back Today?
Let’s finish with a question that Robbins asks his audience: “What has prevented you from crushing it? What holds you back today you from living your dream?”
Robbins urges people to be brutally honest with themselves. It takes courage to identify and accept what is holding you back and why you have allowed this to hold you back.
He thinks people must take personal responsibility for past performances and personal responsibility allows you to take your athletic career in a new and positive direction.
Robbins ends his seminars with something called “redesign your destiny.” This is the step where you literally change your current athletic story and create a new narrative, one in which you are actively creating on a daily basis.
So what does your new athletic destiny look like?
How to redesign your athletic destiny:
Get a notebook and take some time to answer these serious questions regarding your athletic career. Do not rush through but write out detailed answers:
1. Identify your athletic mission – What is your vision for yourself as an athlete?
2. Define your ultimate goal – What do you want to accomplish in your sport?
3. Reflect on your worthiness – Why do I deserve this?
4. Detail a contingency plan – Anticipate and think about how you will overcome resistance, challenges and obstacles?
5. Create an action plan – What will I do daily to work towards this goal?
This is the first step in getting unstuck and redesigning your athletic destiny. Each day review these questions and your progress and renew your commitment to forge your new destiny.
Learn all my secrets for boosting your confidence here.
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- How Athletes Can Benefit From Sports Psychology
- Sports Psychology And Goal Setting
- Jockeys Who Use Sports Psychology
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