David Goggins
It’s very easy to neglect to train the most important thing- the mind!
During practice tests & training runs, etc., there is one big element that is missing- the pressure. Pressure results in a shit ton of feelings including anxiety, self-doubt, overthinking, panic, etc.
Imagine this- you are in a championship basketball game and you are down by 2 and you get fouled with no time on the clock. It’s an away game and you are at the free throw line by yourself. You have shot and practiced thousands of free throws and yet it feels completely foreign when you step up to the line- as if you have never shot a free throw before.
It’s that very feeling that causes us not to be able to rely on all of that training we put in. It is important to train for the knowns and unknowns (invent unknowns). You have to train for the worst-case scenario. Your body doesn’t fuel your mind so while you may be physically ready, your body will only do what the mind is capable of.
A lot of us study our asses off in preparation for the SATs or LSATs, etc. We know the shit front to back but the second they put the test in front of us, we start sweating and the mind goes blank. We feel unprepared - as if we have never studied. You sit there thinking you have taken tons of practice tests and aced them all. How the fuck did I forget everything???
We have to prepare our mind for the stresses that competition is going to cause us to feel. Your heart rate is going to go up, you are going to sweat more, you will tire more quickly than you did in training, etc.
The best techniques to train the mind include training in a way that shocks your mind. If you are training for a race that starts at 6am, try training at 2am with no sleep (a lot of you may think this is stupid but how many of you actually have a good sleep the night before a race?). If you have test anxiety, take the prep tests with less time than you will have on actual test day.
Stress your mind during training or it will never grow. Training alone is not enough. During training, you must find a way to give your mind no way out so when the hard times come during the race or test, your brain is conditioned under the hardest of times.
I have so much more to learn.
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