Mental Tricks for a Good Performance
When you’re trying to achieve a goal, it’s important to learn how to deal with negativity and failure. Otherwise, you might lose your motivation, sabotage yourself and end up abandoning your goal. For that reason, it is convenient to learn and put into practice a few helpful mental tricks.
Negative thoughts are very common. It becomes a problem when they turn into a force that affects your performance and stops you from seeing the positive side of things. Mental tricks are aimed at helping you find a better way to deal with your negative thoughts.
To maintain good physical performance, it’s not only necessary to have good physical health, but also mental health. When you enjoy complete physical and mental health you can perform better and enjoy the process.
How to use negativity to move forward
When you feel that negative thoughts are affecting your routine, take a break and analyze what’s really disturbing you. Remember that trying to hide your negative thoughts will only work as a smokescreen; sooner or later it will fade away and the problem will reappear.
Once you have identified the true problem it’s necessary to act in order to leave your worries behind and keep progressing. If it turns out that you are in a situation that, for some reason, you can’t change, take time to accept that there are certain things out of your reach. Don’t feel bad about the things that you can’t change.
Before learning the mental tricks to combat negativity, it’s important that you know that you have full control of your mind. This means, that you must acknowledge that you have the strength and opportunity to deal with negative thoughts. You can use these negative thoughts as fuel to keep you going.
Nowadays the taijitu is a very well-known symbol. The famous half white-half black circle that represents two fish. Each half has a name; the white part is the ‘yin’ and the black part is the ‘yang’. On each side, there is a dot in the opposite color. This represents the presence of good in evil and vice versa.
What does this symbol have to do with mental tricks? Well, it comes as a little reminder that negativity will always be present and that you shouldn’t repress it. Try to maintain balance and avoid negativity taking over completely.
The importance of professional help
Even though mental tricks are a huge help and can keep you on the right track when they are not enough you should seek out professional help.
If you feel as if negativity is getting out of hand, relying on the help of a psychologist is your best option. You will get a correct diagnosis, personalized treatment and you will avoid the situation becoming worse.
Mental tricks for physical performance
There are some mental tricks that you can rely on to help you deal with negative thoughts. Remember, it’s important to keep applying these tricks regularly in order to see results. The idea is to include them into your daily habits, so it becomes more natural to use them.
We recommend you to apply one trick at a time. Once you have mastered it, you can move on to the next trick, and so on until you have added a few into your daily life.
Catharsis
Often, people allow their negative thoughts to accumulate without venting them out properly. Then, once they have reached their limit, they start to feel down. This deeply affects their routines. That’s why it’s important to release your troubles, little by little.
Mental fatigue can lead to other psychosomatic disorders emerging, such as chronic stress. So, find the best way to enjoy catharsis and let the negativity out. Talk to someone about those feelings that are restraining you from moving on. Don’t waste the opportunity to tackle this issue.
A few helpful ways of releasing emotional tensions are dancing, singing, reading, drawing, painting, etc.
Think about what truly makes you happy
Negative thoughts may let you forget the important aspects of your life, such as the things that make you happy. Find peace in the simple but powerful thoughts that make you smile.
Think of everything you have achieved, how far you have come. Think about all the goals you have reached and the people around you that make you happy. Don’t forget your worth, how amazing you are and that with your health you will overcome adversities.
Look back
When you feel that a negative thought is slowing you down, look back. Look back to all the times you said to yourself that you couldn’t do it and then remember the satisfaction you felt when you did.
Remember the hard times when you couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel? Remember that you did not panic but you fought your way through and made it out. No negative thought is stronger than you are.
Negative thoughts are synonymous with termites. If you don’t deal with them, they will end up destroying your house. So, don’t hesitate to practice as many mental tricks as you need to keep you balanced.
Breathing, another great ally
One way of magnifying the positive effect of mental tricks is practicing deep breathing techniques. For this, all you need is dedication, focus, and patience. You won’t become an expert immediately, so you’ll need to be constant and remember the many benefits you’ll experience at the end.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Rus, V. (1980). Positive and Negative Power: Thoughts on the Dialectics of Power. Organization Studies, 1(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/017084068000100102
- Winerman, L. (2011). Supressing the ‘White Bears’. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/10/unwanted-thoughts.aspx