“Just like you can train your calves, your thighs, or your quads by doing squats, you can do squats for your mindset and you can do curls for your mental gym.” When you think about your ultimate performance goals, whether it is playing a sport at the highest level, picking up a new hobby, developing a personal relationship, or making a presentation that could lead to a big sale – you might not have a particularly well-planned set of routines to put you in the most prepared mental state to achieve them. Most of us have trained our whole lives to execute things the next day. Only a few of us have developed the right plan for long-range, peak performance using effective and routine mental processes.
It takes a ton of mental curls & squats to develop a well-designed, well-aimed mental routine. Essentially, a great routine allows us to take pressure off – to focus on the things that we control in order to minimize stress in any given situation. Our routine is the one thing that largely has an impact on how we adapt to obstacles and setbacks. As humans, the more you mold your behavior through routine, the greater capacity you give yourself to improve your mood, strengthen your relationships, and optimize your performance.
SportStrata founder, Dr. Jonathan Fader, refers to this as “mental real estate.” The best way to find more mental real estate is to have a better routine. By focusing on a specific mental or physical routine, you’re giving yourself specific assignments to keep your mind in check, to maximize your focus on the task at hand, and to ward off mistakes, distractions, and potential (mental & physical) injuries. Structuring your future behavior via routine helps to expand your mental real estate, thereby giving you the best chance to be the best version of yourself in any future situation.