The Noise Never Goes Away
I have seen time and time again, psychologists, coaches, athletes and parents telling athletes that they just need to treat competitions as if they were a training day.
“Pretend you’re just training like you do everyday.”
“You love training right? Well, this is no different!”
“Just think of this match as a practice session.”
“Just think of this tournament as another day back on the training pitch.”
“Just think of this final, this world championship, this world cup knockout game, this olympic medal opportunity… as a training session.”
The more we look at this method of thinking, the more flaws appear. The fake it til you make it, compartmentalisation tactic or reframing technique falls short the more we care and the more pressure there is. The noise never goes away, the pressure is there, it matters and we want to perform and to win. That does not change, it does not go away. If we try to make it go away, we reduce our ability to thrive off of this pressure and outperform our previous bests.
Rather than trying to pretend the noise isn’t there and that pressure doesn’t truly exist, we need to accept that it is there and learn to perform in spite of it, or even to thrive in it.
Steps to embrace the noise:
Accept that it is there
Choose to continue in spite of it
Consider your uncomfortable thoughts and feelings and accept them as they are
Choose to continue in spite of it
Accept that the only thing standing in your way is how you feel about the noise and not the noise itself
Choose to continue indifferently to it
Stop wrestling with how you feel, there is no '“I should feel differently” there is only how you feel
Choose to continue at peace with it
Commit to your WHY, it will drive you through this
Choose to continue towards it
Acknowledge that pressure exists in the past and the future, stay present and do what the moment demands of you
Choose to continue and thrive in it
If we can accept discomfort, be driven by our WHY, notice our thoughts and stop wrestling with them, do what it takes and stay in the moment… the noise can be loud enough to blow off a stadium roof and we will continue to choose to be there and perform at our best.