Rational VS Emotional Performance
I’ve always been very competitive in my life. And it all started when I was a kid, in sports.
I wanted to be the best in sports by reaching podiums. I was working crazy to win, pushing myself as far as I could. I gave myself no other options.
I did that for more than 15 years.
What happened when I did that ?
Either I won and I was satisfied (30% of the time). Or I ended up very frustrated most of the time (70% of it).
What’s wrong with that ?
My attitude and mindset were entirely result-oriented. It means that the result mattered more than the actual process of taking part in the game and improving skills. The competition was a way to get on the podium.
In the end, I enjoyed little of my achievements. I was more focused on the prize than the skill. More on the reward than the action itself.
The problem ?
I was relying too much on my rational intelligence. That way, I could never reach my full potential.
With such a mindset and if continued to behave like that, I would just stay good, never become great.
As a young elite, when I was competing at a high international level, this attitude hindered my performances and my results a lot. I was getting angry most of the time and I was unable to handle my emotions and the pressure of competition.
I wasn’t comfortable with that.
So, my results decreased.
Plus, I had little fun, and the love of my sport suffered from it. I didn’t even know why I showed up at competitions any more. Even victories tasted little to nothing because they were just a “mere satisfaction”.
Everything changed for me when I changed my mindset, my attitude and the way I approached my challenges.
After a while, I entered the circle of high performing athletes, becoming Elite National Champion and reaching the World’s Elite Top-8. I performed in the World’s Top-10 for years.
The transformation was brutal.
How ?
I understood that there is a duality inside each of us.
There’s a rational side and an emotional side of performance.
There is a part of us that want to make sense of things and make accurate plans for things to work well. It functions in a world of control, rationality and logic.
There is another part of us that is looking for emotions and intuition in the action. It functions with pleasure in a world of sensations.
Both of these have a different and a specific function in sports. And both of these are very important and powerful.
But they cannot function together at the same time.
If you do so, this cocktail will just kill your performances.
So, to get bigger goals out of my sports career, I’ve learned to switch my focus on the right thing AND at the right moment.
The truth is, if you want to reach your full potential, you need to master these two things like a pro.
You cannot continue to think about possibilities during the action, it’s just not the right time to do it.
On the other hand, you cannot continue to train with a poor strategy, to make poor choices and follow the crowd.
Yet so many athletes do it and they wonder why things don’t go their way…
You want to reach peak performance ?
You need to be highly efficient on both aspects of your skills and perfectly understand this duality.
The good news ?
I’ve worked hard figure out a way to improve these skills and to make it available for ambitious sportsmen and sportswomen around the world. I’ve put together a free training video which will explain you how to become the best version of yourself right here:
