Meet The Control Freak Athlete

As humans, we’ve evolved into a more and more “controllable” environment.

More accurately, we’ve created that environment for ourselves.

As millenniums and centuries passed, we’ve used tools, mastered fire, created houses, built roads, invented the internet and used technology.

In the end, we’ve pretty much controlled everything.

To be honest, I like the fact that I can learn things that can provide me with a better living.

I like the fact that I can wake up protected by a roof over my head and feel safe in my environment.

I like the fact that I can focus a lot on my sport (or other things that I love), without being obliged to go out there and hunt my piece of meat for lunch.

In other words, I like our evolution.

I think it’s positive on one side.

But…

I think it’s negative on the other side.

I am convinced that every strength (on one side) creates a weakness (on the other side).

Tens of thousands of years back, we were more in tune with our intuition.

We made gut decisions. We lived more in the present moment. We didn’t drink 23 coffee/day. We didn’t plan our budget for the year. We weren’t control freaks. 

We had to hunt our piece of meat and doing so, we had to follow our gut feeling, be in tune with our environment, be connected to all the things around us. Because we depended on it.

Knowledge, tools and technology has brought us to the top of the food chain. But it has made us control freaks not able to enjoy the action that we take.

This has made it so much more difficult for us to perform in sports and be able to “let go”.

What this has to do with becoming a great athlete ?

Everything.

One of the biggest issues that I have to solve for athletes is the “overthinking” or the “over-controlling” mind.

As humans, we want to control everything, even the things that we cannot control.

We want to control the outcome, the result, the end-game.

We want to control our top-100, our top-10 or our victory to that competition.

We want to control our actions.

We want to control our organism like a machine.

Because of that, we are becoming more and more self-conscious.

I see athletes who want to “control their sports performance from the outside”, forcing themselves to take action in a certain way to reach a certain outcome.

This is a disaster.

If you do so, you have no fun, no play, no risk-taking, no vulnerability, no listening, no individuality, no personality, no connection to anything.

There’s no process, there’s just the result. You are not living your actions.

You lose touch with your sensations, with your intuition, with your humanity. Everything becomes mechanical.

The truth is, you are an organism. You’re not a machine.

Control is an addiction.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that our rational mind is a big advantage for us and it is (partly) a really positive thing. We can make a plan and execute on the plan, which is great.

But NOT during certain moments in time.

All this thinking and planning either bring us in a past or future moment. Either we analyze the past or make plans for the future.

It’s not good to control things when you perform, when you are in the action of sport.

It should be just the opposite.

You have to live in the present moment. You have to live the “now”.

If you tend to overthink and have problems living in the present moment, you’re probably a control freak yourself.

Don’t take it personally. I was just like that myself for a long time.

Instead of enjoying the sport that I was doing, I was either “satisfied” or “sad” for my results. 

It was either neutral or negative. It was never positive. I wasn’t happy for the sake of practising an awesome sport.

But I reversed the curse.

Instead of being result-oriented, I started to be process-oriented.

Instead of just looking at the top of the mountain (result), I started to enjoy every little step (process).

And as soon as I learned this and applied it, my sports results went through the roof.

The love of my sport too. My happiness too. The connection that I have with my body and my environment too. 

I reached the national victory and the World’s Top-10.​​

Please, don’t practise a sport like a machine. Especially if you want to be awesome at it.

Controlling everything can make you good, but never great. 

Are you ready to release your over-controlling mind and unleash the hero within yourself ?

I have good news for you, I’ve just released a training program that is going to make you awesome at it and crush your competition (without even thinking about it).

It’s called the Mental Performance Accelerator and if you jump in quickly (before Sept. 17), I offer you a FREE 1-on-1 coaching call with a FREE tailor-made program with me. 

It’s available right here:

Mental Performance Accelerator