Behind The Best Podcast

Hosted ByDr. Jay Cavanaugh

The Behind The Best Podcast is a behind-the-scenes look at the people, mindset, and secrets behind the best athletes in the world.

How to Be a Better Athlete By Doing JUST This!

 

 Your relationship with time is what’s screwing you. Let me explain. Most of us want things. We want to sign a contract with a potential sponsor or partner. We want to get a certain race result. We want a certain strength and conditioning outcome, right? But where we screw up is on two things. First thing is time.

Let me explain. Oftentimes, we think that we’re in control of when things are going to happen. I’m going to win this weekend. I’m going to get this deal. I’m going to get this contract. I’m going to get signed. I’m going to get this scholarship. Whatever it is, right? All of us think that we can control time.

However, most of the time, time is outside of our control. It’s not something we can control. So what do we need to do? We need to let go. If you cannot control something, you must let it go. And here’s why. Because if you try to manage something that you cannot control, what essentially happens is you got to pay attention to the energy around it, right?

So what happens if all of a sudden you want something, and the clock is ticking, and it ain’t coming when you want, right? So let’s say, for example, We’ll take it outside of sports for a moment. Let’s say that you are with your spouse or with a partner and you want to get pregnant, right? Okay. Well, you want to get pregnant.

You want them to be pregnant by the end of the night, right? In the end of next week or this week, whatever it is, right? But you can’t control that, right? You can control some of the inputs to that, of course, or outputs, let’s call it. Um, but the truth is, is that the mistake that most of us make is we try to force the time issue, right?

You have to understand that there’s power and there’s force. Power is when you’re smart enough to embrace and trust that things happen in due time, right? God, source, universe, whatever you’re into, even if you’re not into any of that. Energy, call it that, will deliver when it’s time. But if you think that you’re going to influence time, You can influence time by the actions you take, the energy and vibe you have, the amount of focus and consistency you have on becoming or reaching whatever that target, that goal, that destination is.

Sure, I’m not saying that you don’t have some degree of control, but you have a lot less control than you think. So that being said, don’t. Focus and worry and get frustrated and beat yourself up and get angry and anxious and stressed. Don’t put that energy out. Because the more you focus on time, the more the resistance is going to come.

The more you’re going to feel stressed and that energy starts to emanate from your body. And I’m telling you, whether it’s coaches, whether it’s other players, no matter what it is. That energy doesn’t serve you well. So don’t stress over the time. Secondly, don’t get hung up on the how. Time, the when, right?

And the how are the two things that burn athletes the most. Right? Because we already talked about the time, but like the how is what all of us really want to consider. Well, how is this going to work? How’s this game going to go? How is this event going to go? How’s this race going to go? How’s it going to go?

How’s it going to go? We are Desperate for certainty. We’re desperate to know what the result’s gonna be. Guess what? Got news for you. Once again, you can’t control it as much as you think. Sure, there are things you can do to prepare. Sure, there are things you can do to become a better person, a better athlete.

Manage your emotions. Manage your imagination. Right? Manage your fitness. Manage your nutrition. Manage your hydration. I get it. I get it, I get it, I get it. Okay. So yes, you can manage some of these things and yes, that can control, um, the result to assert or influence let’s use that word. Influence the result and how things are going to happen.

Right. But ultimately there’s only so much that you can do. So that’s why people always say, well, do your best, right? You do your best because you don’t know how or when the result that you desire will arrive. Okay. But we’re, we’re athletes get stressed, right? A lot of what I do is related to sports performance anxiety, which, by the way, we have a coaching group for that.

If you’re interested, hit me up. Sportsanxiety. com or sportsperformanceanxiety. com or behindthebest. co. Now here’s a super important thing. You know you can’t manage time as much as you think. You can’t manage the how, so how do you, how do you manage? How do you manage? If you want to know how, right? We always want to know how things are going to go.

Well, what do you do? Well, that’s called being intentional. Right? So instead of so don’t forget the how typically revolves around our obsession and our desire for certainty. Right? So we can’t be certain because we can’t predict the future. Okay? It’s a prediction error. It’s a prediction problem. We always want safety and safety comes with predicting the future, knowing outcomes, having certainty.

If we climb this mountain at the top, there’s going to be this rosebush or this This Barry Bush, you know, whatever it is that we had back in the Neanderthal days, we had to be careful. We only had limited reserves of energy. We had to have certainty as to if this step we take better result and there being food or what water or whatever it is we desire because we need to stay alive.

Right. So I get it. That’s a very vestigial old part of our genes and our neurons that still exist. We haven’t evolved away from it yet. So embrace it, realize it’s an old part that served you back when your great great grandparents were Neanderthals, right? But it doesn’t serve you. So don’t focus too much on the how, however, be intentional with the things that you do, your inputs, because don’t forget your inputs.

Equate to your outputs. So the better and more refined and cleaner and more clear your inputs. And the more intentional you are, the more likely you’re going to get the desired output. You may not know exactly how to do it, but that’s the game. That’s the joy. That’s the fun of it. It’s trying to figure it out.

That’s why everyone says enjoy the process. Like everyone’s so freaking hyper focused on results. It’s like. If you could just break free from that trap, right? Everyone knows you want to win. Like, people are like, oh, I want to win so bad. Dude, everyone you compete against wants to win. Why spend so much time wasting away your energy thinking about it?

While they’re thinking about How bad they want to win. Why don’t you do something to influence the inputs that you have, that will increase the odds of you getting to that desired destination for you getting that win, right? Think about inputs. Focus your energy and attention on the right things on who you are, your identity, your narratives, your beliefs, your habits, right?

These are the things that are a hundred percent within your control, your effort, right? These are the things that will get you where you want to be, right? But don’t focus too much on time. Don’t focus too much on how, and if you want any help with any of these things, Reach out. I’m here for you. We’ve got a new program on sports performance anxiety.

It’s amazing. We use the calm method to help you stop choking and start winning. Start chilling, stop choking, start chilling, start winning. Right? It’s all in your head. Sports is 90 percent mental. Ask anyone. Ask anyone. If you don’t believe it, next time you have a meltdown or next time you struggle, ask yourself why.

Was it because you didn’t have the fundamentals down? Probably not. It’s probably mental. It’s probably actually result oriented. You’re probably hyper focused on the result, right? You’re probably focused on the how. You’re probably focused on the time. Don’t do it. Just stop, stop, stop, stop. Just have fun.

Enjoy yourself and don’t worry about the results so much and things will come. All right. Thank you so much for your time and check out the next episode. We have don’t forget five star rating for this podcast would mean a lot to me. If you find value in this episode today, please give us a five star review.

It means a lot to me and have a great day.