“What does that mean to you?” Is usually where I get blank or confused looks from athletes talking about experiences and thoughts.

The meaning we attach to experiences, shape our automatic thoughts. Our automatic thoughts, form our athlete self reaction and processing of competition and adversity. We need our automatic thoughts to align with our ideal elite athlete self. That starts with the meaning we attach to everything.

What does it mean when your legs, arms, body are on fire from fatigue?

Some will say that it means they are tired and need to rest. The best athletes have tricked their automatic thoughts to think of fatigue as non existent, and allowing their body to push past mental barriers.

What does it mean when you begin to lose in your competition with little time left?

This is the main form of adversity for team sports. While it is a team sport, our athlete self will allow adversity to mean the end of the game already, and an elite athlete will automatically believe that they have a chance and it is a time to prove themselves to over come and succeed.

The questions can go on but there is meaning attached to everything, and it is up to you to change those meaning to become more effective automatic thoughts. Start with the basics and move to the more complicated scenarios if needed. There is a whole chapter on this as this can be complicated. If you are in Missouri or Kansas, reach out and I can help you with this!

Feel free to share with others and help out some atheltes around you!

-Malique Taylor