The Big Game Model

14 steps to steal from athlete’s to reach your personal accomplishments

The mental work we should be doing in our lives is a lot like what athletes do. Not just for the big games or races, but all the time, practicing, training, and honing their skills.

Jen Sincero says that you create what you focus on. She says it over and over in her work. Athletes do this with structured training before a big event. You can use the same model for mental work, quests, goals, or anything you want to accomplish. 

Training

Have a focus

Athletes pick a race, or work towards a championship in team sports. It gives them a SMART goal. You need to do the same. Pick something very specific.

Do you want to be a writer, artist, meditator, entertainer, or even someone who keeps a clean house, or puts a home-cooked meal out for dinner more often than not?

Find your specific thing. Figure out what it looks like to be that kind of person and how you would measure that. Be realistic, it’s not going to happen overnight. Athletes train for a season before their big event. Keep that in mind. 

Schedule it

Whatever the big event is for athletes, it’s typically on a set date and at a set time. You need to pick a milestone in your growth to use as your big event. Treat it just like an athlete would.

• Schedule it.
• Put it on the calendar.
• Create a countdown.
• X off the days on your calendar.

Picking a milestone may be hard, consider picking a reward or a celebration that you can schedule and work towards instead. 

Treat this as though it were your big race. You will not miss this! You will do everything you have to do in preparation to make it there. 

Practice it

Athletes do this and make it look easy. They get out there and they train. Rain or shine. If they want to, and more importantly when they don’t. They just do it.

James Clear says you have to think about these habits as something you just do. Not something you have to do, or need to do, or want to do. You’re an athlete, so you train. End of story.

You need to do the same thing for your mental work.

Meditate. Write. Create. Cook. Meal Plan. Grocery Shop. Clean the bathrooms. Do the dishes. Whatever it is. Make it something you do.

Going back to the previous point, it is imperative that you schedule this time too. Put it on your calendar and make it a commitment that you’re going to follow through on.

• Report back on your social media feed
• Track it on your calendar.

Life happens. Stuff comes out of nowhere., Whatever you do, don’t skip twice.

Study it

The rest has all been pretty obvious and you probably do, or at least know what you should be doing. Whether we actually do it is another thing…

One thing I’ve noticed athletes do – especially these days with their GPS trackers, heart rate monitors, and apps of all kinds – is that they study their performance.

They look…

• At the data
• For highs and lows
• For patterns to see what works
• At what’s helping them succeed
• At what’s getting in their way

I don’t think we have as many tools and gadgets to help us track whether we’re cleaning the house or not. We probably don’t spend a lot of time looking at our routines to see how things are going. But we should.

Use the data from your previous step and look it over once a week. What trends are you seeing?

Need ideas for tracking and seeing correlations?

• Think about how you want to feel or what you want to see
• Are you writing –
  • Because it makes you have a clear head?
  • Because you want to get that story out of your brain?
  • Because you want to see if you have what it takes?
• Track your writing habits
• Track your emotions
• Track other things that you spend time on that give you energy or use energy
• Look to see if you do better writing on days when you exercise or meditate
• What’s the weather like? Does it make a difference?
• What time of day is best for you?
• Track your interruptions
• Track your moods or feelings. Did you have a good day or a bad day? Did you feel hopeful, sad, overwhelmed? Make a list and a scale and be consistent about tracking it the same way. 
• Track your word count or time spent

There are so many ways you can do it and there are so many apps that can help. I have been using Daylio for more than a year and I love how flexible it is. There are a dozen apps out there so find one that makes it easy for you – or go old school and make yourself a star chart ⭐⭐⭐

Refine it

Once you start seeing trends, tweak your practice to hone these habits based on your analysis. Look for new correlations or things to track. Test them out to see what makes a difference and what doesn’t.

Try new things. Hone the things that are working to make it even better. For the things that don’t work, find a new perspective, or try something else completely.

Not everything is related, don’t waste too much time on forcing a connection. Don’t spend too much time on your tracking and analysis. Make it easy, quick, and something you can tell without having to do a lot of math or calculating. Use at-a-glance charts with bright colors that make a thing obvious. Stop tracking it if it’s not providing any value. But do pick something else…

Repeat

Before the big day

When the athlete’s reach their big day, they will often have some special routines to prepare the night before, and again on the day of. You can do the same thing when it comes to your own preparations.

Night before

Prepare

You’ve reached that milestone and it’s time to prepare for the final event. Depending on what you picked you may have a lot of preparation, or it could be minimal. Whatever you’re doing, get organized.

Make sure you know

• Where you’re going (get directions, figure out where parking is, are you staying nearby, figure that out too!)
• What you need to take (get it packed and ready)
• When you need to be there (set alarms and check travel times so you can plan your travel)

Get all this stuff organized and ready so it will be smooth sailing tomorrow!

Visualize

Picture in your head how this is going to go.

Visualize your arrival, your participation, and what you want to get out of it or accomplish.

This is your big finish line. Imagine what it’s going to be like when you cross that line with your arms raised. How will you feel? Go over everything you can imagine, picturing it all in the best light, best circumstances, and giving you everything you dreamed of.

Nutrition

You may be too excited or nervous to eat, but this is so important for your body AND mind. Even if it’s a light, healthy meal, make sure you stop and take time for dinner. And plan snacks for tomorrow if you can!

Good sleep

Your sleep may also be impacted by anxiety and excitement. Stick to your routine and set yourself up for success.

Even if you may not be able to go to bed at the same time as normal, or have to get up early, or have traveled and are in a different time zone try to follow your normal bedtime routine, as much as you can, so that your body and mind have the triggers to know what to do next.

If you find you can’t sleep, practice breathing exercises or meditation so that your mind and body can still get some rest and recovery.

Consistent routines

Try to keep your schedule the same today. Eat your meals and go to bed at the same time as you normally do. The more similar things are, the easier it will be for you to follow your habits and stick with all the good practices you do day-in and day-out.

Day of

It’s finally here! Are you ready for this? I know you you’ve worked hard. Let’s do this!

Show up

Get yourself to your big game! Don’t be late.

Follow your plan

You have visualized how this will go – you’ve put the practice in, now it’s time for your hard work to pay off.  Even if something went sideways, you have visualized how you’ll be prepared for that.

• Raining? 🌧️ No problem. ✔️
• They aren’t serving snacks. 🥨 No problem. ✔️
• Long lines. 🛑 No problem. ✔️

You’ve got this.

Have fun

You’ve worked so hard for this, take time to be in the present moment and absorb all the feels. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy all the things. Take a moment to immerse yourself in the event with all of your senses.

• What does it sound like?
• What does it smell like?
• Can you taste anything?
• Look around, what will you see and remember this?
• Find something you can touch and feel so you’ll remember this more deeply.

This may be suffering now, enjoy later type of fun and that’s okay. (This is Type 2 fun and we’re going to be talking more about Type 1,  2, and 3 fun in coming newsletters, stay tuned)

Get the medal or trophy

• Find a souvenir. 🥇 🏆 🎫
• Take selfies. 🤳
• Stand on the podium.
• Celebrate. 🎉

YOU DID IT!

What are you going to work towards?