Unlock Peak Performance: How Mindset Coaching Techniques Used by Olympians Can Transform Your Life
When you watch the Olympics, you are easily in awe of the physical strength, speed, and agility of these world-class athletes. But what you don’t see is the amount of mental preparation they have done with a mindset coach to get there. Mindset coaching is a difference-maker for these top athletes and it can be for you too.
This has become more apparent recently following Michael Phelps’ documentary The Weight of Gold and Simone Biles’ docu-series Simone Biles Rising, which explore the mental health issues of Olympians.
These Olympic athletes are carrying the weight of the world and utilize mindset coaching to help them achieve their goals by taking care of their mental health.
While you may not be training for the Olympics, you certainly have high-stakes moments and can absolutely feel like you have a ton of pressure on your back. So why not utilize the same techniques by taking care of your mental health to meet your goals?
Here are three mindset coaching techniques Olympians use that you can too.
1. Visualization 👀
Visualization is creating a mental image of what you want combined with how you want to feel when you get it. For example, an Olympian will visualize themselves winning the gold and the pride and joy they feel when they’re standing on the podium. They visualize feeling the weight of the gold medal around their neck, watching their flag being raised, and hearing their national anthem being played.
And they do this over and over again. It is basically like doing mental manifestation practice reps.
The University of Chicago conducted a study with randomly selected students to see if visualization would impact their free throws in basketball.
The students were divided into three groups for 30 days to perform different tasks:
- Group 1: No basketball activity at all.
- Group 2: Practiced free throws for 30 minutes daily.
- Group 3: Visualized hitting free throws for 30 minutes daily.
After 30 days, results showed:
- Group 1: No improvement.
- Group 2: Improved by 24%.
- Group 3: Improved by 23% from visualization ALONE!
Visualization led to nearly the same improvement as physical practice. Pretty wild, right?
Mindset coaching for you: Next time you are trying to accomplish something, be it a presentation at work or putting on a party for a loved one, invest time in visualization. Visualize exactly how you want it to go and feel what you want to feel after it’s over. As Muhammad Ali said, “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it – then I can achieve it.”.
2. Reframe Anxiety as Excitement ⤴️
Believe it or not, Anxiety and excitement are chemically almost the same in your body. Both cause a fast heartbeat, butterflies in your stomach, and sometimes sweating.
Your body is gearing up for action, but the emotions behind these feelings are different. Anxiety comes from fear or scarcity, while excitement comes from joy or abundance. Olympians know how to shift from anxiety to excitement quickly.
If you ever watch an Olympian being interviewed after winning a race, the interviewer often asks, “Were you nervous before the race?” and almost always hears the Olympian say, “I wasn’t nervous; I was excited.” They know how to channel and reframe that energy to enter a state of flow.
In fact, researchers found that when people say, “I’m excited,” when they start to feel those anxious feelings, “they actually gave better public speeches, they sang better in karaoke, and did better on math tests. It sounds too simple to be true, but what you’re really doing is getting yourself out of a threat mindset, where you’re focused on all the things that could go wrong, and into an opportunity mindset, where you’re thinking about all the good things that could happen if you do well.”
Mindset coaching for you: Next time you start feeling a little anxiety creep up on you, maybe before you have to give a speech or have a difficult conversation, and you feel those butterflies. Take a few deep, slow, full belly breaths in through your nose and tell yourself…“It is normal to feel excited; it means I am ready.”
3. Stay in the Present Moment 🎁
Most anxiety comes from two sources: 1) worrying about the past or 2) worrying about what may or may not happen in the future.
So, how do you stay in the present moment? With mindfulness, which is the intentional investigation of the present moment.
“Olympians do mindfulness training, where they try not to judge or worry, but just stay in the present moment,” sports psychologist Dan Gould.
Research on mindfulness has identified these benefits for people: reduced rumination, stress reduction, boosts to working memory, improved focus, less emotional reactivity, more cognitive flexibility, better relationships, boost performance, and increased recovery.
Mindset coaching for you: Next time you find yourself worrying about something in the past or future. Ground yourself in the present moment with your breath and senses.
Try listening to yourself breathe, feeling the temperature of the air as it moves in and out of your nostrils, and focusing on your belly as it expands and contracts with each breath.
As a mental fitness and mindset coach, former athlete, and top performer in the finance world and now wellness space, I know how powerful these techniques are. I have used them in my own life to get a full scholarship in college, give board presentations to multibillion-dollar companies, and prepare myself for a deep conversation with a loved one.
They really helped me, and I know they can help you, too.
I also know how helpful it can be to have people around you who can lovingly remind you how to shift your mindset to serve you instead of taking you down.
If you are looking for support. Comment below with “mindset coaching,” and we can explore how we can guide and walk alongside you in your journey.
When you are ready, here are three ways we can help you.
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