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Extra Inning Softball has partnered with former DI softball coach Julie Jones (Akron, Cleveland State) and current Mental Performance and Mindset Coach to help give athletes, coaches and others in the softball world the “Mental Edge.”
Julie pent 26 years leading Division I softball programs with her mission being simple: to build smarter students, stronger athletes and better people.
Today, she also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Ursuline College teaching well-being and performance, mindset training, athletic coaching and career development courses in both the undergraduate and graduate studies programs.
Continuing her work of helping student-athletes reach their goals on and off the field, Julie regularly sends Mindset Made Simple Tips to players and coaches across the country as well as posting them on her site, SSB Performance
She explains:
“Mental training is such an important part of the game, and as a former DI coach I know how hard it is to fit the mental part of the game into training. I hope that sharing this information will help athletes improve performance by strengthening their mindset, routines, focus, etc.”
Today, she shares with us her ideas on How to Get Things Done through planning, scheduling and committing.
You can also WATCH Julie give the key points of this topic in this video she loaded on YouTube…
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Mindset Made Simple Tip #44: How to Get Things Done!
For most of us, the COVID athletics season has come to an end. Mandated precautions are dwindling, and our lives are moving back to a more normal pace thanks to an amazingly effective vaccine!
As all of this transpires, we are sending our athletes home in hopes that they will choose to remain committed to their sport, their conditioning and skill work.
Regardless of the outcome of your 2020-21 season, how your athletes respond to the successes and failures will play a huge role in how they approach the summer months… and the future.
Will the wins or losses be a motivator or a reason to rest on their laurels?
Helping them keep perspective on their performance is critical to keeping them motivated, no matter what side of the coin their performances landed on!
Re-read THIS tip on Perspective!
Win or lose, pleased or disappointed, motivated or not, one thing is certain:
… we complete what we plan for in our daily, weekly and off-season schedules!
What we choose to do over the next 3 months will determine how our seasons begin in 2021-22. Since the beginning sets the tone for the year, we hope our athletes choose to come back to campus in shape both mentally and physically.
How can we help them build habits and routines that will help them commit to this goal?
We can help them make PLAN and PRIORITIZE!
Like you, I have heard it all before, the “I don’t have time because I have to work” or the gazillion other excuses on why we can’t find 30 – 45 minutes, at least, 5 times a week to devote to our mental and physical preparation and… the game we love.
To combat these excuses…which can seem very real…we can first remind our players that they can spend time telling us WHY they can’t do something, or they can tell us WHAT they can do.
“WHY” is a victim’s term; “WHAT” is a victor’s! Remember: we ALWAYS have time for what is important to us.
The trick is helping our athletes understand how important the off-season is to their success. (That part is up to you, but I have some suggestions that can help once you get that message across!)
Let’s start HERE!
How about asking them to plan out their weeks? As Mental Performance Coach, Brian Cain often discusses, we have 168 hours in a week. How we use those 168 makes a big difference in performance and successes!
If we work 40 hours a week, sleep 8 hours each day, eat for 2 hours, get ready each day for an hour, travel to work for an hour a day, that equals 124 hour per week.
That means we have more than SIX hours a day to do other stuff…including prepare mentally and physically for our sport.
There goes the “I don’t have time excuse” for all of us!!!
I read recently that a life coach was helping a client find time to exercise, which the client insisted she did not have the time to do. The coach recommended that the client do 5 burpees each time she opened social media on her computer or phone. She soon realized that it wasn’t time that was the issue, it was prioritization of time that was holding her back.
My thought is this, kill two birds with one stone…read your social media while exercising! 😊
Deciding what is important, setting a daily schedule and starting our day with a routine, helps us prioritize and be more productive.
Looking ahead at what is most important each day then setting a time to complete these tasks gives us a much better chance of actually doing it!
Ask your athletes to plan out their day in 15 or 30-minute blocks if they need that type of attention to detail to get things done OR have them set 3 things for each day that MUST get done – outside of work or other scheduled commitments.
Once the 3 most important things are decided upon, they must commit to a time to do them…then track them…then celebrate that they are done!
It is silly, but I give myself a little fist pump every time I run the vacuum or do the things I really need to do because I know I feel better when I do them and when we celebrate it builds a “feel good” pathway in our brains that makes us want to do it again!
The bottom line is this, we need to PRIORITIZE and SCHEDULE time to get better.
We need to schedule time to watch ourselves be great, to practice our breathing, to write in our gratitude journals and to get in our workouts. If we leave things to chance, there’s a good chance they won’t get done.
So, ask your team to subtract their work, sleep and other commitments from their 168 and see how much time they have left to do important stuff…and fun stuff. They won’t believe how much time they actually have in a day!
This act alone can help keep us on track and can lessen our stress…and it change our PERSPECTIVE on time…giving us time to FOCUS on what we need to do to increase our performance!
There is always time for what we want to do…there is even time for what we don’t really want to do!
Either way, scheduling it makes it happen. Measurement motivates, structure leads to success, and having a process keeps us present and helps us persist!
What are you doing with your 168 hours? How much time do you have to do what you need…and want to do? It’s time to up my game, too, as we head into summer with so much sunshine to enjoy!
Have a great – scheduled – week!
Julie
P.S. Thinking about implementing a more intentional Mental Performance program for next year? I can build one for you that fits your schedule and budget! Let’s set up a time to talk about how we can build your team’s mental toughness. Contact through email at juliej@ssbperformance.com
Julie Jones
SSB Performance
Website: www.ssbperformance.com
Email: juliej@ssbperformance.com
Facebook: /ssbperformance
Twitter: @SSBMindset
Instagram: /ssbperformance