As a mental skills coach my job is about helping clients to uncover what is already within themselves. To pull it out of them and help them to learn to trust their inner voice over the negative messages or pressure they receive on a daily basis. I just had a discussion with a 16 year old softball pitcher and she told me about how one of her peers has had 20 colleges scouting her and she has accepted a scholarship to one of them. People are telling her that if she doesn’t have a scholarship to a school by the time she finishes up junior year all the money will be gone for pitchers in college and she won’t get one.
This message is creating a huge amount of stress and pressure for herself and her family, and while performing well and beginning to get noticed at that age is normal, to feel like at 16 your entire future is determined is hard and scary.
These messages from others often hinder an athlete and make them fearful and stressed, which ends up making the process hard and can sometimes ultimately stop them from reaching their goals, either because they burn out or because they are so stressed they underperform and don’t get the scholarship they could get if they performed up to potential. When I was 18 I walked away from competitive hockey and took two years off. Many people might have said that was the end of my career, that I wouldn’t accomplish the goals I had set for myself when I was a kid. However, I chose not to listen to them, and after taking two years off I found a way to get a scholarship, and to once again be on the radar of national and olympic scouts.
If you let the rules that are set out by others to stop you from reaching your goals you will continually allow the voice of others to dictate your life. It is hard to stay in tuned with your own voice and quiet the voices of others, but if you can do it you put yourself in a better position to reach your goals and find a way to succeed.
In line with this blog I want to share a motivational video to help with remembering to be unbroken in your pursuit of what you want.
Kate
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Kate Allgood Masters Sport Psychology (with distinction) Masters General Psychology (with distinction) Sports Hypnosis Certification Mindfulness Certification
TAIS Assessment Certified
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