Learn How to Stay in The Moment
Mistakes or errors occur everyday in sports and life, but many athletes sabotage their own performance because they simply can’t let go of past mistakes.
Missing shots, double faulting, and losing an important game happen often in the sports world and become a thorn in many athlete’s mind – in some cases for the remainder of the competition because they can’t stop dwelling on the error or missed opportunity.
I am sure you have made some mistakes in your sports career that you and were unable to quickly forget. You carried a critical mistake with you for most the competiton and either did not enjoy your day or were too busy beating yourself up to help yourself or your team.
Dwelling on errors is the number one distraction for athletes today. You cannot play in the present moment, a quality of the zone, if your mind is stuck on a missed opportunity or faulty performance.
Rarely do athletes use mistakes or anger to help them perform better, but it does happen. You watch Tiger Woods get angry on the golf course, but he is able to channel his frustration to make it work for him instead of against him.
Tiger becomes more focused and determined to make up for the error by refocusing his mind in the present moment.
Why does the mind sometimes want to stay glued to past errors?
Making mistakes do not match what you expected of yourself. You want better for yourself and think you should be a better performer. In some instances, you may display your anger or disappointment to others who are watching because you want show them you are actually a better athlete.
Once you begin to dwell on an error and beat yourself up, it is very hard to stop the cycle of negativity because you will try to avoid committing future errors – not a great mindset for focusing in the present moment.
The best athletes in the world use mistakes to help them grow and become better athletes. They become more focused, more determined, and are able to let go of mistakes quickly so it does not affect them for several plays or shots to come.
If you want to learn my system for letting go of errors and refocusing quickly so mistakes do not drown you in self-pity, I suggest you pop on over to peaksports.com and read about my latest creation: The Focused Athlete: A 14-Day Play for Superior Concentration – Get more Focus and Concentration for athletes now!
The first printing of ‘The Focused Athlete‘ is going fast! When we go back to the press, the introductory pricing will be history and I won’t look back!
Your Concentration Coach,
Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.,
Master Mental Game Coach
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- Performing in the Present Moment
- How to Build Stable Confidence
- Control Your Focus to Let Go of Mistakes
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The Focused Athlete
It’s probably no secret that you have many opportunities to become distracted in sports. Athletes are bombarded with both internal and external distractions everyday in practice and competition. Focused athletes are able to get the most from their skills because they are more efficient with practice and more concentrated in competition. Athletes who lack focus let distractions run wild through their mind and don’t know how to adjust or refocus.
The Focused Athlete was developed for any level coach, parent, or junior to professional athlete who wants to improve performance and gain a competitive edge. It does not matter if you are a fledgling junior athlete; or a seasoned professional, plagued with distractions; or you just wanting to learn how to improve concentration…
“The Focused Athlete” is a complete system to teach you how to focus like a champion and harness the power of a zone focus every time you step on the playing field, court, track, or course in practice and games!
Hi Dr. Cohn,
I am interested in a softer approach to spots psychology than I am used to reading about. In the popular conception sports psychology tends to be about pushing through obstacles, ignoring the negative, overcoming pain and adversity. We don’t usually hear, from the common voices of little league coaches, fathers, school teachers, solidly grounded advice that would truly allow us to dwell in the moment. While the “spiritual†disciplines have provided bountifully to the work of depth psychology it seems very little of that has trickled down to the psychology of sports performance. As a student of psychology and a competitive athlete I was surprised to watch my high ideals degenerate over the years into a few shades of dominance and submission. That is, the desire to dominate over opponents and my own mind. It would seem that with too-fixed ideas about good and bad (thoughts, emotions, sensations, and even winning and losing–in the small sense) we miss out on the opportunities for the richest and deepest transformations. These transformations would leave us as not only better performing athletes but more integrated human beings. It seems that it is a tough job that is ask of the sports psychologist. He must constantly balance the true psychological needs of the athlete with the athletes desire for an immediate winning result. I am increasingly curious whether a long term depth approach for talented athletes would, in the end, better serve their needs and goals. In this curiosity I have begun my own athletic pilgrimage, examining ideas such as synchronicity, dreamwork, and the unconscious–I am largely working with the ideas of Carl Jung. I am undergoing a three year experiment to train for a world championship event. If you can offer insight, I would appreciate it if you could visit me at golenscarab.org. Thanks so much for your insightful work.