Oftentimes it’s easy to get caught up in striving to be better that we forget to prioritize recovery and self-care. Putting too much focus on reaching your fitness goals can create a great deal of emotional stress and pressure that has the potential to cause mental fatigue. Practicing mental fitness means acknowledging changes in our emotional state while working towards our goals, and is important in helping us avoid burnout. We spoke to soccer player Amobi Okugo about his mental fitness routine and how it has helped him overcome many of the pressures that come with competing at the elite level. Amobi has played at the top level in the MLS and the USL and now currently plays for Philadelphia Union.
“I didn’t fully comprehend how important mental health was until I was well into my professional career. When competing at the highest level, there is always another player trying to take your position on the team. While your organization may value you, it’s also a business. They wouldn’t be doing their job to make the team stronger if they weren’t always on the lookout for other skilled players. Every athlete struggles with mental health in some capacity throughout their career — from battling injuries to dealing with criticism after poor performance. When I was recovering from an injury, the thought of potentially re-injuring myself and wasting all the time I’d dedicated to rehabilitation caused a ton of anxiety and fear. When it comes to overcoming mental challenges like this, the first step is to recognize these emotions as opposed to ignoring them. By acknowledging negative emotional triggers we automatically become more self-aware. This allows us to develop strategies such as reflecting on positive feedback in order to shift away from a negative mindset. More often than not we put so much energy and emotion into being the best that we lose the meaning of why we set goals for ourselves in the first place.”
Mastering a mental fitness routine
Developing a mental fitness routine is one of the best ways to increase self-awareness and boost confidence. F45 Nutritionist Kim Bowman has a few strategies to help you get started.
- Reflect on your Challenge progress and remind yourself why you set your fitness goal from the beginning.
- Visualize one thing you want to accomplish/achieve before each workout.
- Compliment yourself by acknowledging positive experiences that occurred throughout the week or writing out positive feedback from others in a journal.
- Meditation & Breath Work are scientifically supported as excellent methods for relieving anxious or stressed feelings. Even just 5 to 10 minutes of meditation or breath work can improve focus and ease anxious thoughts.
How to create a growth mindset using a gratitude journal
We’ve all experienced tough days or weeks when we feel a little less motivated and/or productive than normal. Everyone experiences their own personal life struggles, and research has demonstrated that we’re far more likely to focus on our disappointments than our wins. However, the key to staying focused and on track with our goals is to not let each pitfall become the center of our thoughts.
This aligns with what is known as a ‘growth mindset,’ or viewing personal struggles as growth opportunities while actively reflecting on accomplishments and areas of improvement. Adopting a growth mindset means believing we can achieve anything with sufficient motivation, despite the risk of failure.
One of the best ways to start shifting focus towards a more growth-oriented point of view is to establish a daily practice of self-reflection. The key here is to actively write out how we are progressing and where we may be able to improve. Writing out our thoughts in a journal has been known to provide significant value in creating a lasting growth mindset, a more positive mood, and increased motivation.
In fact, one of the healthiest and most cost-effective ways to cope with stress and overcome a motivation slump is to keep a daily gratitude journal. While it may seem simple, there is true value in setting aside a small amount of time each day (morning or evening) to pause and express appreciation for what makes us happy or what we are thankful for in our life. The key benefits to creating a growth mindset through a daily gratitude journal are noted below:
Boost productivity and motivation
Getting caught up in everyday life and day-to-day tasks without taking time to reflect upon each day can limit our motivation. Why? Focusing solely on daily tasks means we can begin to lose sight of how far we’ve progressed or what we may have achieved in the long term. Studies have found that actively journaling about our accomplishments or struggles throughout the week can be extremely beneficial for productivity. Specifically, it allows us to reflect upon the bigger picture of what we are working towards and recognize that not every day is going to be as perfect or productive as other days.
Boost self-esteem and happiness
Now more than ever, we are constantly bombarded with social media and images of what materialistic items we ‘need’ to have in our life. Unfortunately, when we are constantly scrolling through ads of commercialized items, it can make our own personal wins seem less significant. This can leave us feeling unaccomplished and create a false sense of what it means to achieve success. Keeping a gratitude journal can help positively shift mindset and create a greater sense of self-esteem. This practice helps us to gain better appreciation for our own personal achievements and growth, which are often overlooked during stressful periods in our life.
