Mind Gym

Enjoy this flood of motivation quotes! Some cheesy, some seemingly obvious, all very on point.

-----------------------------

The mind works most effectively when you’re telling it what to do rather than what not to do.

“I’m not at my best,” Gossage once said, “until the situation is at its worst.”
Refined indifference ... When the spotlight came on and the music began, he let fate carry him through.
You can’t control your performance until you are in control of yourself. What you’re thinking. How you’re feeling. Most importantly, your physiology. Know your numbers and your early warning signs.

To achieve anything you want in life you must first start by getting out of your own way.

... the self-consistency theory. It means we act consistent to our self-concept—our self-image.

You can’t perform well if you’re afraid of embarrassing yourself.

...it must come from you, and it must be a constant desire to do your very best at all times and under any circumstances.

The mind is like a parachute—it only works when it’s open.

Motivation depends in a very large part on goal setting.
If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive, and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done. Once a man has made a commitment … he puts the greatest strength in the world behind him. It’s something we call heart power. Once a man has made this commitment, nothing will stop him short of success.
Even if I wasn’t able to become a champion, I would still know that I gave it my best shot. I tried. I got on the train and I tried.

Sometimes you have to let go of old friendships in order to stay on track to reach your goals.

Fear of failure leads to contracted muscles and shortened breathing. It overloads the system with stress. Fear makes you play safe. Fear makes you play small.

Life is a collection of self-fulfilling prophecies.

She had a fear of success, which is fear of failure at the next level. ... If you don’t see yourself succeeding, or you don’t feel deserving, you will sabotage yourself.

Be willing to take a risk. Remember, there is no security in life. There is only adventure.

Motivation gets you going. Discipline keeps you going.

Since you don’t know what’s going to happen, why not act as if you’re going to have a good day?

“cool mad.”

When you resist fear you’re only keeping it alive. It’s like trying to hold a beach ball under water. The more you fight it, the more pressure you’re building up.

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Oxygen is energy—it’s juice. Oxygen helps relax muscles and clear the mind. When you hold your breath, you are creating pressure and a nervous feeling. Athletes who choke start to become nervous about being nervous. Anxious about being anxious. One psychologist says anxiety is excitement “without the breath.”

Breathe in energy. Breathe out negativity. Breathe in relaxation. Breathe out stress. ... By breathing and focusing you can systematically desensitize yourself.

The last point means nothing, the next point means nothing. ... Because in the present, there is no pressure.

In sports, what happens when we become anxious and emotionally charged? Most people start rushing. They speed up and get ahead of themselves.

When an athlete is in “the zone” everything around him seems to slow down. He feels as if he is performing at an almost leisurely pace.

When you find yourself in a hole, the first rule is to stop digging.

Voluntary muscles are organized into opposing pairs. Running and many other sports are performed most effectively when some muscles are contracting while others are relaxing. Running at top speed, athletes use all of their muscles—the agonists and antagonists. They are accelerating and braking at the same time. The muscles are at odds. This prevents them from running as fast as they can. Giving 90 percent effort, runners expend a lot of muscular energy but they relax the antagonist muscles that hinder maximum performance.
You just have to learn what your own limits are and deal with them accordingly.

An anxious mind cannot exist in a relaxed body… . When one is anxious, so is the other. When one is at rest, so is the other.

Interestingly, one way to relax tense muscles is first to tighten them more. If your shoulders feel like coiled springs, draw them up and squeeze those muscles. Hold the pose for five to ten seconds. Feel the stress and study the sensation. Then release and relax the muscles completely.

“I see the ball, I hit the ball,” Ken Griffey Jr. says. At the plate he isn’t thinking about swing plane or the position of his elbow.
... inside a cocoon of concentration.
Confidence is knowing they are prepared physically and mentally. Experience tells them what to do and confidence allows them to do it. Confidence is the emotional knowing that you are prepared, mind, body, and spirit, for anything. ... Confidence is knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do.

“Chance,” Pasteur said, “favors the prepared mind.” Or as golfer Tom Kite said, “Give luck a chance to happen.”

Confidence is the result of preparation, and preparation begins with forming a mental game plan. The great athletes visualize not only best-case scenarios but also worst-case scenarios. They don’t imagine failing, but they do mentally plan how they will respond in unpleasant and difficult situations.

Visualize yourself performing. See the action. Feel yourself moving. Hear the sounds. Smell the smells. Make your images as vivid and clear as you can.

Routines are comforting mechanisms—triggering mechanisms. ... Let your routines switch you from the thinking mode to the trusting mode.

Many people who play sports long enough or work at their craft hard enough experience those magical moments where their training and trust in themselves come together in perfect harmony. Their performance flows smoothly, effortlessly, and almost unconsciously. This heightened level of performance—Michael Jordan described it as the reward for years of hard work and preparation—is unexplainable. Sometimes these special moments seem to happen as if by grace.

“At the peak of tremendous and victorious effort,” Vlasov said, “while the blood is pounding in your head, all suddenly becomes quiet within you. Everything seems clearer and whiter than before, as if great spotlights had been turned on. At that moment you have the conviction that you contain all the power in the world, that you are capable of everything, that you have wings. There is no more precious moment in life than this, the white moment, and you will work very hard for years just to taste it again.”
It’s not indifference, it’s detachment.

Normally, you have fun after you do well, but I wanted to have fun before I did well. And that helped.

To perform consistently you must prepare consistently. Act the way you want to become until you become the way you act.

No matter how difficult things become, you are responsible and accountable for your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Inner excellence is staying positive in negative situations, and it is dealing with adversity in an optimistic way. It is finding love and joy in what you do and remaining steadfastly committed to your goals, values, and dreams. It’s staying cool when the heat is on.

You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you’re down to your reflexes—your training. That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of morning, you’re getting found out now, under the bright lights.

We don’t grow old. We get old by not growing.

No one can take away your self-esteem without your permission. Have the courage to growup and fulfill your potential.

Don’t let your fears get in the way of your dreams. Don’t let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do.