Hey athletes, ever have those days where you just want to skip practice and chill on the couch? Trust me, I get it! But here’s the thing, the best athletes don’t let those feelings hold them back. In this episode, I’m sharing my secrets for staying motivated, even when you really don’t feel like it.
What’s Covered
Athletes, ready to become the best version of yourself, on and off the field? Want to learn how to stay focused and crush those goals? Then you need to listen to the full episode of the Raising Elite Competitors podcast. I’ll share even more strategies for developing that unbeatable mindset!
Episode Highlights:
[00:09] Staying motivated as an athlete, even when you don’t feel like it.
[02:01] Motivation and discipline in sports. Motivation is inconsistent and unreliable, while discipline is key to achieving goals.
[03:20] Importance of setting goals and knowing your “why”.
[06:11] Motivation and goal-setting for athletes. Tools for athletes to stay motivated and disciplined, such as the rule of thirds and giving what they have.
[07:30] Importance of creating a schedule and tracking your progress.
[08:50] The “Rule of Thirds” for training sessions.
[09:35] The “Give What You Have” mentality.
[11:20] Summary/Recap of staying motivated.
Next Steps:
Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission and leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
Hey athletes, ever have those days where you just want to skip practice and chill on the couch? Trust me, I get it! But here’s the thing, the best athletes don’t let those feelings hold them back. In this episode, I’m sharing my secrets for staying motivated, even when you really don’t feel like it.
What’s Covered
Athletes, ready to become the best version of yourself, on and off the field? Want to learn how to stay focused and crush those goals? Then you need to listen to the full episode of the Raising Elite Competitors podcast. I’ll share even more strategies for developing that unbeatable mindset!
Episode Highlights:
[00:09] Staying motivated as an athlete, even when you don’t feel like it.
[02:01] Motivation and discipline in sports. Motivation is inconsistent and unreliable, while discipline is key to achieving goals.
[03:20] Importance of setting goals and knowing your “why”.
[06:11] Motivation and goal-setting for athletes. Tools for athletes to stay motivated and disciplined, such as the rule of thirds and giving what they have.
[07:30] Importance of creating a schedule and tracking your progress.
[08:50] The “Rule of Thirds” for training sessions.
[09:35] The “Give What You Have” mentality.
[11:20] Summary/Recap of staying motivated.
Next Steps:
Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission and leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
Welcome back to the Raising Elite Competitors podcast. I'm Coach Bree, a mental performance coach for girl athletes. This is a special athlete tip podcast episode. So, athletes, this one is for you. We're talking about how to stay motivated when you don't feel like it because, let's be honest, you're not gonna feel like it all the time. There's gonna be trainings, there's gonna be practices, there's gonna be things you have to do as an athlete, and the motivation will not always be there. So we're going to talk about why we actually shouldn't rely on motivation and what to do instead when you are in those moments.
Speaker 1:Now, before I get into the episode, I want to give a shout out to an athlete in our community. This athlete is going through our program called the Elite Mental Game. Emg is a program for athletes to help them develop the mental side of their sport. Really, it's what helps them separate themselves from other athletes training their mental game so that they can rise under pressure, come back from mistakes easier, stop comparing themselves, stop doubting themselves all of those things that are very normal for athletes to face, but not all athletes have the skills to navigate them. So this athlete is inside our program and she texted us the other day that she said hey, I have been noticing that I'm encouraging myself in certain aspects in my physical recovery, instead of putting myself down, thank you so much. With a bunch of smiley faces. And here's why this is awesome, because if you're like most athletes, it's probably pretty easy to put yourself down. This voice in your head is likely telling you that wasn't good enough. Or yeah, that practice happened and maybe some good things happened, but we're just going to keep focusing on all the things that went wrong, and having this feeling of not good enough, this feeling of beating yourself up, actually is not helpful and not productive to your growth as an athlete. Research tells us that it actually makes you worse, and so the fact that this athlete is actually noticing that she can shift her self-talk into something different actually gives her a competitive advantage in her sport. Likely, she's feeling better too, and she is improving. So congratulations, Simona. If you're listening to this, I am super proud of you.
Speaker 1:All right, let's get into this quick episode all around how to stay motivated even when you don't feel like it. Here is my first suggestion in this area what are your goals? What are you trying to stay motivated to? In the first place and for some athletes it's well, I really want to play at the next level, I want to make varsity, I want to get a college scholarship or I just want to play better and then, when the work actually comes, to do those things, because PS, those things require work, as you know. But when the work is required, it's like, ah, I'm not feeling it all of the time. So I first want you to get back to what are your goals.
Speaker 1:Why do you play? Why do you play your sport in the first place? Why do you dedicate so much time, so much energy? And if it's because, well, at one point it was fun, then that's a great reason. And if you're like, well, it's not as fun anymore, well, not everything is going to be fun all the time. Okay, so just know that it doesn't have to be rainbows and butterflies all the time for it to actually be worthwhile, as long as there's some level of enjoyment, of connection, and maybe it's. That is because you like the feeling of getting better or you like connecting with your teammates. But why do you play? What are your goals? We've got to start there, because it's really hard to stay motivated towards something If you don't know where you're going. It's like you know if you were to get into your car without putting in the address of where you're going into. You know Google maps or Apple maps or whatever you use. It's like we're just kind of aimlessly wandering, but when we put that address in, we put the location in, then we've got a path of where we're supposed to go and we just follow it okay. But if you don't have that, if you don't have like destination whether that is to enjoy my sport for a longer time, to be a leader, maybe it is to make varsity, get a college scholarship, whatever it is if we don't know that, then it's really hard to actually do the things that we're supposed to do to get where we want to go. So first of all that's number one why do you play? What are your goals? Doesn't have to be outrageously big things, but you know why. That's where we really have to start. Here's the other really big thing that I want you to know before I get into some strategies here.
Speaker 1:Motivation comes and goes. We talked to athletes inside EMG all about this, and we say motivation is a terrible training partner. Motivation is like that. If you were to have a training partner like somebody who's like, okay, we're going to work out together. You know, three days a week Sound good. And you're like, yeah, that sounds great, let's do that. And then the day comes that you're supposed to work out and this training partner doesn't show up, you're like, oh well, that's great. Or maybe they'll show up for like two minutes and then leave. That's like motivation. Motivation is flaky. Motivation cannot be counted on. It's also inconsistent. We don't know when it's going to show up. Okay, motivation is often high at the beginning of a season or beginning of when you're starting something. That's why it's like, yeah, I'm really going to commit to ball control and I'm going to do it. And then you do it for like a week or a week and a half and then you don't do it anymore because it's not new, it's not fun anymore.
Speaker 1:Relying on motivation and waiting for a feeling for you to do something will not get you towards your goals. So let's stop waiting around to feel motivated to do things. Instead, we're going to rely on discipline. Now, discipline might sound like a really boring word, or even a bad word, to you. You're like I don't want to be disciplined, but as an athlete, discipline what that means is you are going to do what you said you were going to do. Okay, that's what discipline is, and the best athletes are disciplined.
Speaker 1:That does not mean that they are motivated all the time. You know, sometimes, when you look at those athletes that maybe you admire you look up to college athletes, olympic athletes or even just somebody that you see in your space you're like, wow, they just must be motivated all the time. It must be easy. They're not. They're human too. We all have high levels. Low levels of motivation from time to time very normal. Those have high levels. Low levels of motivation from time to time very normal. Those athletes rely on discipline. They have a plan, they know what they're going after and they stick to it, even when they don't feel motivated. That also doesn't mean that every practice is gonna be great or every training session is gonna be great or every game is gonna be great. That is not what it means to be an athlete. But what it means is you show up.
Speaker 1:When you say you're going to show up, you do the thing. When you said you're going to do thing, you said you wanted to play at a higher level, you want to play in college. Well, the work required to. That might require you to be doing some things outside of practice, right, and so create a plan for yourself. If it's like I know, I need to work on my ball control. So I'm going to work on my ball control three days a week for 15 minutes.
Speaker 1:Let's make it small. Okay, we got to start small here. But come up with a plan and then get very specific. What days of the week are you going to do it? I'm going to do my ball control on Monday, wednesday and Friday for 15 minutes Awesome. Let's get even more specific. When, what time of day are you going to do it? Here's a hint doing it at a very inconvenient time, like right before bed, is likely not going to set you up for success.
Speaker 1:Schedule that time in when you know you are going to potentially even have a high level of motivation or energy, so don't do it. Right after you've just had a really long day and you've had a game. You're like, oh gosh, now I have to do my ball control for 15 minutes because I said I was going to do it. If you put yourself in that position, it's going to be harder to do. You still have to do. Maybe even schedule it for a day of the week where you don't have like a lot of things going on. But get it on a calendar, get it on a schedule and track it. Put it on the wall, okay, like Monday at 3 pm right after swimming, do 15 minutes of ball control and then check it off. When it's done you get motivated.
Speaker 1:Motivation follows action. So once you take that action and you check that off on your calendar and you see it, you are going to actually get a little burst of dopamine. Dopamine is a happy chemical that happens in your brain, that leads to feelings of motivation. You're going to feel good about yourself and that's going to make you want to continue. Okay. So that works really well for things that you need to do outside of your training schedule.
Speaker 1:So things like you know, like I said, ball control or maybe even the off season, when you're supposed to create your own schedule and you're supposed to work out on your own. That can be really challenging. You know a partner can be helpful with that. So if you have a friend that you know you're committing to a schedule together, make sure you have a plan. Don't just say I'm going to do cardio for 20 minutes. That's not specific enough. What exactly are you going to do? Maybe even talk to your parents about getting you a training plan so that you know exactly what to do and you can check it off. Okay, that requires discipline, though, so you have to decide that I'm going to follow through with what I said I was going to do, and if you make small, like small goals for yourself. In that way, like I said, 15 minutes ball control is better than zero minutes ball control, and if we start there and we get small wins, then we can potentially increase that if needed. Here's some other quick strategies that I want you to keep in mind.
Speaker 1:When it comes to motivation, I mentioned that not every training session is going to be your best, and not every practice is going to be great. That just comes with the territory of being an athlete, and I want you to think. Something that we teach athletes inside our program is the rule of thirds about a third of the time. So if you take, like, nine practices, nine practices or nine training sessions, a third of them. So three out of those nine are not going to be great. We just expect it, okay. We just know that three of those practices are just going to be not so fun. Maybe you even feel like you went backwards. You're like this was not great. Instead of beating yourself up about that or like getting yourself stuck in this hole of like, oh, now I'm not even motivated to go to practice, I want you just to let it go. Just realize like three of those nine are going to be not great. I'm going to put it in that bucket and move on. Now another three are going to be okay. They're going to be maybe not amazing, but not great. They're going to be in that meh category. And then another third are going to be awesome.
Speaker 1:You're going to have great training sessions that feel really good and keep you motivated to keep going. And here's the deal you don't really know when they're gonna happen. So, as they do, you just move on quickly from them. If it was a great training session, you're like, wow, that's awesome, moving on, okay. If it was a bad training session, oh, okay, that wasn't a great practice. Tomorrow's probably gonna be better. Odds are that tomorrow's gonna be better, okay. And that just helps with motivation, because it helps you then adjust your expectations to what is normal and what can be expected and also not hang you up on. Oh, now I'm not motivated and I don't feel like it. Okay.
Speaker 1:One last thing I'll leave you with around this motivation is give what you have. Not. Every day is going to be 100%. Some days you come into practice and you've slept really well and you've hydrated and you've ate all the great things. You got a pregame or a pre-practice snack and things are feeling great. Give 100%, because that's what you deserve and that's what your team deserves. But some days you're going to come into practice and you're going to be like I slept three hours, I got a ton of homework, I just got about 50% to give, but I'm going to give all of that 50% for these two hours. You have to decide in your head that, even though it doesn't feel like it, even though it doesn't feel great right now, even though I don't necessarily want to be here, I have a responsibility to myself and I have a responsibility to my team to give everything I have, and right now, everything I have is 50%. And so you give that and what you're going to find is that you actually have more to give, typically, okay. So that's what I want you to keep in mind when it comes to motivation.
Speaker 1:To kind of recap here. Why do you play your sport? What are your goals? Okay, first thing that we do inside the elite mental game with athletes is get really clear on what athlete they want to be. And if you haven't really thought much about this, then start now. All right. So get clear on why you play, because if you don't, that's like getting in a car without any sort of navigation. You're just kind of aimlessly wandering and going up and down based on how you feel.
Speaker 1:Number two remember motivation is not a great training partner. It comes and goes. You need to rely on discipline. Discipline is doing what you said you were going to do. If you said that you were going to train and you're gonna watch film and you're gonna do all of these things, get specific on what that looks like when are you doing it, how long are you doing it, what time are you doing it, and then track it on a calendar so that you can see it and be motivated based on your progress.
Speaker 1:And then I gave you a couple of tools. I gave you the rule of third and rules right. So that is not everything's going to be great all the time. The best thing you can do is just move on and play by the odds of it's probably going to be better in the next training session and give what you have, whatever that is that day. All right, athletes. I hope that this was helpful. I am Coach Bree. I'm a mental performance coach for girl athletes and I will see you in the next athlete tip episode of the Raising Elite Competitors podcast.