The Mental

  • Attention is a finite resource, and our ability to direct it deliberately can influence how effectively we train, compete, recover and perform.

    It can help to consider that in each moment, we are either training our muscle of attention, or distraction.

    Within our time together, we will consider:

    • Internal distractions (unwanted thoughts that pop up in your head)

    • How you tend to spend your time when you aren’t training or competing

    • Your relationship with multi-tasking vs mono-tasking

    • Your environment when at home, training and competing

    • The external distractions that tend to come up when at home, training and competing

    • Your attentional limits

    • Your relationship to hyper focus (deliberate narrow attention on one task)

    • Your relationship to scatter focus (deliberately creating space for / allowing your mind to wonder)

    • How what you pay attention to is continually shaping your experience and outcomes

    Depending on your unique and individual circumstances and needs, we begin finding ways to train and improve our ability to deliberately pay attention and focus.

  • As an athlete, your ability to think clearly determines your decisions, your emotions, your attitude, your mindset, and so much more.

    We consider:

    • Whether you currently operate from a growth or fixed mindset

    • How you handle setbacks, mistakes and ‘failure’

    • Your awareness of your thoughts

    • How you interact with your thoughts (your inner dialogue)

    • Your relationship with your thoughts (how you see them)

    • Dominant thought patterns you have

    • Limiting beliefs your thinking is trapped within

  • Just like our bodies are composed of the food we eat, our minds are composed of what we mentally consume.

    What we consume can be anything that we hear, see, read or observe. It includes, but is not limited to:

    Media / Digital

    • Social media

    • News

    • Music

    • TV / Films

    • Youtube / Podcasts

    Social / In-Person

    • Conversations we have

    • Conversations we overhear

    • Opinions of others

    • Social and cultural norms

    • What we observe in our peers

    • What we were taught as a child

    As you may notice, some are within our control, and some are not.

    Here, we work on becoming really intentional with what we feed our mind. We begin to curate our social and digital environment with intention, and take seriously the ideas we are feeding to our mind.

    We aim to do the following:

    • Remove unwanted / unaligned input

    • Intentionally introduce aligned input

    • Consider ways to protect your mind when faced with unwanted input that is not within your control

  • Just like what we eat matters, how much we eat also matters. Our bodies expects a balance between input and output (food & movement), otherwise we can become obese.

    The same is true for our mind, the more information we consume, without adequate output, the more 'mentally obese' we can become.

    Output can include talking, writing, thinking, idea generation, problem solving, art etc. All of these are in fact acts of creation - bringing into existence something that was not previously. The words you say, the thoughts you think, are still creation, even if it's not what initially comes to mind with this term.

    Just as our bodies become slower, sluggish, tired, and overwhelming to move within when obese, our mental experience can become surprisingly similar when we over-consume information.

    Generally, information can be split into two broad categories

    1. Junk information

    • Generally grabs your attention quickly

    • It is usually about others, or about circumstances

    • It can shape how you see the world for the worse

    • Nothing much is gained beyond momentary entertainment

    2. Helpful information

    • Generally takes a moment to 'get into it'

    • It is usually about ideas, solutions, learning how things work

    • It can shape how you see the world for the better

    • Brings benefit that lasts beyond the point of consumption

    It is much easier to overconsume junk food, and its effects are much worse on you. It would be extremely difficult to eat enough healthy food to reach equivalent levels of obesity. That is to say that junk information is easier to overconsume, and its consequences on your mind are generally worse.

    The point is, all of it matters. The amount we consume, the amount we create, and the quality of what we consume.

    Together, we consider your current mental input vs output. We reconsider what we feed your mind, and how much you are consuming vs creating. We consider your relationship with creativity, and explore how you are already, and can continue to, bring it to your sport.

    Many people overlook athletes as creatives, but those such as Roger Federer, Michael Jordan, and Lionel Messi are widely regarded for their creativity within their sport.

  • Dopamine can be considered as one of the brain's motivation chemicals that drives you to do things by promising a reward, giving you a good feeling when you finish a task or satisfy a craving.

    It is quite surprising how responsible dopamine can be in shaping what we choose to do moment-to-moment.

    There are two broad categories that sources of dopamine can fall under:

    1. Cheap Dopamine

    • Low effort, instant gratification activities

    • Usually serving our present self at the cost of our future self

    • Leaving us feeling worse than it found us

    2. Expensive Dopamine

    • Higher effort, delayed gratification activities

    • Usually serving our future selves

    • Leaving us feeling better than it found us

    Together, we begin to map out where we get our dopamine, and understand the drivers behind our daily choices. With this information we can begin to make more intentional choices with how we spend our time.

    We build systems, and discuss perspective shifts that can make profound differences in our moment-to-moment choices which, with time, can compound into genuinely transformational results.

    Quick note: It is important to recognise that while dopamine has a big role, it is just one part of a huge system that is still being understood. However, its role and how it behaves offer immense value when it comes to understanding ourselves and our behaviour as humans.

  • Relationships are something that can feel like a seperate topic from our performance, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

    Our relationships are constantly shaping us, they influence how we think, how we view the world, what we believe is possible. They can act as immense stress-relievers or be the cause of significant stress. Spending time with people can re-fuel us, and it can also drain us.

    It is with this in mind that consideration must be given to the types of people we are around, the types of spaces we are in, the social and cultural norms we subject ourselves to and observe this in relation to our goals.

    We consider your parasocial relationships, as well as those in real life. Together we explore who you spend the most time with, and how this might be shaping you. We factor in relationships that are optional, vs those that are mandatory. We consider ways to maximise the benefits of relationships while minimising the stress of those relationships that may currently be less aligned.

    Part of this work is looking internally too, this isn't simply about cherry-picking people, it can also be about using our relationships to learn more about what we do and do not like about and within ourselves.

    We also consider relationships as a necessary part of life. We work towards an understanding that relationships act as necessary nourishment, and that spending time with loved ones becomes an important, intentional part of performing at your best.

  • James Clear defines systems as: “The collection of daily habits, processes, and routines that you follow rather than the final outcomes or targets you want to reach.”

    Together, we begin building systems that enable you to hold your goals, and the necessary steps to attain them. Systems allow for genuine mental offloading, which frees up space in your mind for you to think more clearly, and utilise your mental energy for new, productive thoughts, rather than a repetitive cycle of remembering things you said you wanted, or needed to do.

    The shape and form these systems take can vary depending on the way each individual's mind works. We create systems to fit your unique mind, rather than trying to make your mind fit a fixed system.

    Systems not only free up our mental space, but they also allow for us to actually execute and implement the things we said we wanted to do. There are so many things we may want to learn about, improve at, experiment with and so on, that without a system, they can become ideas that simply faded with time.

    Systems provide a way to bring freedom within structure. It's not about becoming rigid, or time-blocking every moment, it's about being able to do what you said you wanted to do. They allow you to build self-trust, they allow you to do more of what you want to do, and they allow you to sink into the present moment more, because you are no longer worrying about what else you should be doing - because you know you have a plan to execute.

    Systems can take time to iterate and build, that's why we give them space to evolve. We don't expect them to work perfectly immediately, we go through a structured trial-and-error process that allows a system that genuinely supports you to naturally emerge.