006 Observations: Be Honest with Yourself

Demystifying Mental Toughness is for people who want to reach their goals faster and are curious what high performing athletes and professionals do to fulfil their potential. David Charlton shares insights, strategies and stories from leading athletes, coaches, psychologists and specialists to help you perform to your optimum level on a more consistent basis. If you’re a motivated athlete, coach, sport psychologist, mental game coach or executive listen in for proven and practical advice in this podcast. In this episode, David talks about some observations that he made from episodes three and four where former Newcastle United defender Peter Ramage and European Tour Golfer Chris Paisley shared fascinating insights and stories, David also goes on to present some solutions to help athletes overcome such challenges. Peter discussed his regrets from his career where he admits that he wasn’t honest with himself until he was ending his playing days, whereas Chris talks about perfectionism, and how it has taken him time to accept that he cannot play great golf everyday, and that often that you have to find ways how to play when you aren’t at your best. Essential Learning Points From This Episode • Having the courage to question yourself is vital to aid learning. • Support is there to help athletes push on and get another 10%+ from their performances. • It is very easy to get comfortable. • Performance profiling is a very helpful tool for you to look ahead and get down on paper your ambitions, assess where currently are and set small targets to help you succeed. • The process can also be benchmarked too if your profile is looked at on a regular basis. • Performance profiling can be a very motivational process when done well. • Perfection does not exist, your A game doesn’t come out very often. • We all have a Z game! • Try the DID, THOUGHT, FELT reflective exercise to aid self-awareness when you are playing at your best and when your B, C or D game comes out. • The DID, THOUGHT, FELT can make a big difference to your decision making and give you an edge to help you improve your performances in practice and in competitive play.