The seventh Essential is learning to Handle Adversity. Adversity is actually one of the things that makes us love sport! It’s always thrilling to watch or be the athlete that overcomes adversity, or makes a comeback. It’s why we always cheer on the Cinderella story in sport. The greatest athletes are not the ones that never fail, they are the ones that recover the fastest.

The sixth Essential is learning to Adjust and Be Flexible. No matter the sport, every athlete has a game plan, a strategy for how they are going to approach their competition so that they can achieve their goals. Just like you have a game plan for what you are going to do on the field or court, you need to have a mental plan for how you are going to deal with the mental challenges that may come up.

The fifth Essential is learning to Manage Emotions. There is a specific reason as to why you need to MANAGE them instead of CONTROL them. Emotions are a good, healthy, and natural part of life. It’s what makes you human! The challenge comes when you experience an emotion that is too big and impacts your ability to perform in the way that you want.

The fourth Essential is learning to Control Mental Talk. What you say to yourself matters. Your internal dialogue can absolutely make or break your athletic performance. In fact, it has more impact on your performance in a single competition moment than anything else.

The third Essential is learning to Communicate with Others. Whether you are in a team sport or an individual sport, having the ability to effectively communicate with those around you is critical. You need to know what you want to say and put it out in the world in a way that others understand exactly what you mean. This can be incredibly hard, which is why some of the biggest mistakes in sport come from miscommunication. Check out these two key components of communication and see where you need to spend more time developing your skills within this Essential.

The second Essential is learning to Set Goals. Goals tell you where you want to go. They put words to dreams or ideas and solidify the path required to get there. Goals also let others know what you want out of life so they can determine how to help you achieve those goals. Some goals are individual, others are identified with a team. When it comes to setting goals, there are many components that go into being an effective goal setter. Today, we are going to dive into two of them.