Here are #12 and #13 of twenty-five reasons I’ve come up with that we fail to master optimal mental focus.
Again, they are not in order of importance. We would enjoy far more frequent successes in our lives if we spent just as much time on mental mastery as we do on physical mastery. There is unbelievable synergy created when they are worked on together in unison. Unfortunately, many never enjoy the vast rewards of this synergy because of these reasons…
To Your Strength and Mastery,
Garin Bader
12 ) We think that mental focus will miraculously become keener when the game is on. We fool ourselves with that adage that we work best under pressure and that the eyes of a crowd or adrenaline will somehow sharpen our mental lenses purely by the “magic of the moment”.
Granted, many of us have done some of our best work under pressure. Deadlines can be a good motivator. But, they don’t always bring us optimal inspiration nor our best performances. To rely on keen mental focus because of the pressure of deadlines is courting disaster more than it’s courting inspiration.
Although we may have given some of our best performances under pressure, we shouldn’t depend on that and it’s reckless to do so. Those that have been practicing 2-4 years for the Gold in the Olympics know that their competition have also been rehearsing under every condition and way ahead of schedule in order to win. They’re certainly not depending on the Olympic Torch to give them last minute inspirations and newfound abilities. To wait until the last minute for inspiration that may or may not come is certainly not preparing yourself to stay within your optimal mental focus zone.
Certainly miraculous things often will occur when the synergy of a crowd, adrenaline, and other factors are present, but to not prepare ahead of time in every aspect to the best of our ability is to be hoping for the best instead of preparing for the best.
13 ) We haven’t practiced mental focus techniques when our blood sugar is low, when we haven’t eaten, or slept well and are not used to regaining it quickly in those circumstances nor have techniques to help circumvent those conditions in the first place. High stress situations put your body in precarious situations quite often that completely crumble the best mental focus practitioners. So, when your body isn’t feeling up to par in real life competition and/or inevitable high stress situations, the reason our mental focus often spirals out of control is because we haven’t practiced in those kinds of sub-par conditions.
People often say there is not a substitute for experience on the playing field. That may be true in one sense. But what is for certain is that we don’t learn to practice and cope with “bad” physical conditions when we rehearse. Most people always want to feel in the best physical condition before they go out to practice because they feel they should achieve optimal performance every time or simply hate feeling uncomfortable.
The fact is, in performance and in the heat of the game, nothing is usually perfect and far from being comfortable. Your body is usually feeling stress long before your mind even recognizes it. So, if you haven’t rehearsed when your body isn’t feel well for whatever reason, those conditions will completely throw you off your best performance.
I feel you can create your own “experience” every day by rehearsing every scenario you may ever encounter – including those days where your body isn’t feeling it’s best. Having the attitude that every day is a good day of learning even if your body is feeling like crap, will bring you mastery much faster and you’ll gain experience at a much faster rate than most of your competitors.
Murphy’s Law is usually present in stressful conditions and we must practice to retain the keenest of mental focus when Murphy comes visiting. For some reason he always has a pass to get into every situation! He’s never invited but Always seems to show up for those that don’t expect him. “Bad” conditions are normal circumstances that occur in competition and unfortunately most of us practice mental focus to operate under the best conditions – which rarely happens in the field of competition or performance.
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We’ve all wondered at one time or another how others see incredible things we don’t. Especially in extreme sports, we see moves that seem impossible to see even when we rewind the footage in slow motion – and yet our sports stars continually make the impossible a reality.
Many of us wonder how people seem to be able to slow time down and to see and react much faster than others. And we wonder, “How in the World do they do that?!”
Do they slow time down? OR, is their mind faster than the time we’re on? IS it just because of talent and innate abilities? Or can we learn to see faster ourselves just like them?
I chose to go with the latter viewpoint. As long as I can remember, I’ve always looked for any ways that will enable me to see faster, to comprehend faster, to react faster. No matter how small, I found that each new thing we add to our arsenal is yet another attribute of streaming-lining for efficiency. All these things translate into to physical movement being faster as well. Why wouldn’t they after all?
So, I’ll give you a few things I enjoy doing to help me see more, see faster, and react faster. You might think of them being inconsequential – that is, only until you try them and then discover for yourself the benefits in the power of doing instead of miscalculations of intellectualizing.
My first example you might say I’m looking for a way to write off my XBOX 360 on my taxes for mentioning it in an e-mail. Ha, you’re cleverer than I thought. Others, that know me will tell you I’m still a big kid – which I won’t deny. But, I’m sure you’ve noticed how young kids comprehend computer and video games at light speed, right? Well, why wouldn’t they, when they have grown up with lightning fast speeds in most graphics on computer and TV’s in their faces day after day?
If you’ve ever really watched the incredible speed at which characters in video games move, it’s a no brainer to know that real human beings don’t move that fast. Most adults will just write that off as cartoon behavior. But really, if a character is moving much faster than “humanly possible”, then children are really learning to respond with super fast reflexes, aren’t they? Aren’t they learning to see and comprehend at super fast speeds right from an early age? Of course they are.
The martial arts characters in these games move at diabolical speeds and the kids are learning to see and comprehend what most adults can’t even fathom. Any eight year old will most likely smoke you with a joystick game controller in their hands in a heartbeat if you haven’t played much before.
If you abhor the violence of martial arts, then you might like to try a racing game like Burnout Paradise where the graphics alone will blow you away in the detail and realism. Here, you’re driving the fastest most supped up cars imaginable at speeds that just are ridiculously fast comparing them to in the real world. Speeds that on a real street would kill you and everyone near you in an instant. The speeds and graphics alone are exhilarating to experience and fun.
However, in the pure fantasy of escape which a game is supposed to be, here you have an opportunity to teach the brain where to look to see farther ahead in the road – and to concentrate and focusing at new speeds which enable the reflexes to respond much faster than they would encounter in normal everyday life. It is an exciting time to grow up in with this kind of technology.
Instead of just writing it off as a “game” it might be a good idea to reframe many video games these day and call them simulators where we learn to see in spite of the sun glaring in your eyes; to see in spite of other vehicles racing in front of us, past us, and all around you at flashing speeds. In these lightning fast simulators, you’re learning new skills you might while learning how to respond to them with ease and accuracy. As an adult you learn to see, comprehend, and react faster by rehearsing the wickly fast speeds of “children’s video games”.
These might be the very skills that will help you in all you do and may even perhaps save your life when you encounter a scenario where thinking and responding calm and collected may save your life.
Instead of dismissing video games as just “games children play”, by playing them you have an opportunity to slow your breath down, to see with wider vision instead of tunnel vision, to get used to seeing at impossible speeds and to look and think ahead. Amongst all the fun you may have, you might even encounter the incredible opportunity to bond with your own children while.
So what happens when you begin playing and reacting to impossible speeds on a regular basis? In a sense, you’ve gained the power of slowing time down. You start seeing what others watching you completely miss. You start reacting with lightning reflexes while remaining calm. Your breathing almost automatically begins slowing down as you learn to accommodate your new found comfortability factor with blazing speeds.
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