For some time, I have been debating what to do with my long-form writing. I enjoy writing about sport psychology and providing you with advice on how to utilise it to further the development of your performance and well-being.
The one problem I have been trying to find a solution for is the advice itself. I am a big believer in everyone being unique and everyone having the contexts they operate. Whatever technique, skill or strategy I offer needs to be adapted for your unique context. Heck, it might not even work for you.
This is my challenge with providing advice online. It is an art form to use evidence-based strategies and tailor them to your unique situation. That’s why it’s 100x better to work with a sport psychologist one-on-one, that way we can take time to delve deep into your experience and tailor the techniques so they work for you.
Despite this, I do see the advantage of raising awareness of this crucial aspect of performance and well-being. Everyone would benefit from spending time each week training the mental side of the performance domain they are in. It will also help with life in general as well, which has been a surprising insight for me as well.
So, I am going to keep on providing advice to help raise awareness and open the door for people. What I am also going to do is write a weekly reflection on my life and experience, as a sport psychologist in training and a normal person living in this crazy world.
This was the first self-limiting belief that popped up in my head straight away. For those who don’t know me, I have struggled with my own self-limiting beliefs for years and years, They have hindered me for all my life. I have been exploring where they come from, and having discussions with my brother about the root cause of them. I am not going to share what I have discovered yet, maybe I will in the future.
Anyway, as usual, these self-limiting beliefs cropped up and I thought I’d challenge it straight away. Whenever I read something online, I love reading about people’s experiences. It helps to validate my own experiences and struggles. Whenever I read about someone who has gone through challenging times or struggled with something, it helps me feel normal. Sometimes, I can feel as though I am a failure and beat myself up for not being good enough. I get frustrated that I have these self-limiting beliefs and discomforting feelings, which lead me to behave in ineffective ways. When I read about people who I believe are successful and they talk about their struggles, it helps me to have more compassion for myself. It normalises the experiences I am going through.
Whenever you are pursuing something, you are going to come across discomfort, failure and feelings of inadequacy. It is a requirement for success and development. You cannot have all the good things without the bad things. It is nature. With positive comes negative. With good comes bad. Opposites exist everywhere in nature. We must accept this.
Reading about people achieving and succeeding whilst dealing with all the challenges along the way helps me to have that compassion for myself.
I hope that I can provide some insight and help as well.
I am not saying I have achieved a lot. I am still in the infancy of becoming a sport psychologist.
My consultancy is still young, with only a small number of clients. I have a decent number of impactful experiences with athletes and organisations. However, it pales in comparison to many other sport psychologists out there.
Again, there goes my self-limiting beliefs.
Despite this, I find it natural to share my experiences. I feel as though we don’t talk honestly enough about how we feel or what we are going through.
This is something I have started to focus on a lot in my life and work. Being honest is the best thing. Trying to hide your struggles only makes them bubble more under the surface until they bubble for too long and seep out into your behaviours in negative ways.
I have noticed this in my own life. As soon as I talk to someone about my struggles, the discomforting feeling subsides. I feel lighter.
It has taken me years to get to this point. I never used to talk about my struggles with anyone, not even those closest to me. I used to think I didn’t need to bother people with my struggles. I should just deal with them on my own.
How wrong I was.
I ask you to give it a go. Be honest with the people closest to you. If someone is doing something that annoys you, speak to them about it. If you are struggling with something, speak to someone about it. It feels hard to do. However, the pain of speaking about it is nothing in comparison to the pain of dealing with it on your own or avoiding it.
I appreciate all the people who read my writing. I ramble on about things because I enjoy it and I hope it can help people. I hope you found something useful from what I have written and thank you again.
This will be a weekly thing now, reflecting on my life as a person who is trying to achieve his goal of working in elite sport as a sport psychologist.
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek - Joseph Campbell
