Change The Narrative

Good morning. What is going on in your world this week? It's been about a month since I've been with you on a Saturday, but I'm always glad to be back. And who knows, maybe my schedule will slow down at some point and we'll make this a little bit more of a habit. Either way it goes, I am excited about what we get to discuss today. This is change the narrative mental fitness for athletes. Or if you just consider yourself an individual that is centered and focused around your physical health, that is also acceptable in this space.

I will come to you with different hacks and education around the mind body connection, specifically around changing the narrative around how your mental health and your physical health intersect, and knowing that in order for you to succeed in any area of life that involves your body and your mind, you need both. Anchoring question for today is what are you noticing about your mind body connection in this moment? How aware are you? How focused are you? How centered are you around what's happening and what's going on in both dynamics?

Because the element of being an athlete and simply pushing through is not realistic. Your emotions, your mood is also not always going to be linear. So you want to be paying attention. For those who are asking, yes, this can absolutely be replayed for anyone. If this is your first time or you're new to this Saturday morning segment, I'm Doctor Charrisse Johnson, a licensed clinical mental health therapist, a mental fitness coach, and mindfulness practitioner. I have an athlete myself who's a d one athlete in basketball who plays basketball, and I have worked with athletes at the collegiate and the professional level for the last now I'm going to date myself twelve to 15 years.

So I'm glad that you're in this space. As we continue together, know that these times are meant to be there for you. So also, feel free to let me know what you need. I have a plethora of things that I want to focus on, but I'm always interested in making sure that I'm meeting the need that I have with you. What's up, South Jersey? Those of you who have been with me before, I do love to hear where you are in the world. I'm currently at home. Different space than you're used to in my kitchen. That being said, and now that we have some individuals who are here, let's get into it.

So I want to talk today about four mental factors that can affect that will affect your physical, physical athletic performance. Here's a quote. I thought this was so powerful, I could not find at the moment who said it. So it's not my words, but it fits too well for me not to share it. It says that talent opens a door, but if you're not emotionally stable, it will be difficult to reach your highest level that is specifically geared towards athletes. If you're an individual who you're working on your athletic performance.

Here is my parallel analogy of that statement. Opportunity opens a door. We all have an opportunity to change, to shift our physical health, but if you are not mentally fit, it will be very difficult for you to reach your highest potential. If you have been in the world of athletics at any given point in life, whether present or past, then you absolutely know that it is necessary and imperative for you to look at where your mental blocks are. Let me say this first. What's up, Chicago? What's up, Vermont?

What's up, South Carolina? I love calling out where you are in the world because it's a beautiful reminder that community is available at any given point. So what are those four mental factors? Number one, emotional stability. Emotional stability is your self knowledge. It's your ability to manage your frustrations and your negative emotions. Tell me if this has ever been you. Have you ever had a moment where you felt like, hey, I'm doing pretty well, I'm on a good streak with my performance, how I'm showing up, how my body is showing up, and then something happens.

There's some level of frustration. You're managing some negative emotion or not managing some negative emotion. And as a result of that emotion, it immediately starts to impact your ability to show up and do well and show up the way that you normally would. That is one of the most prime examples. What's up, Crystal river? Hello, Virginia. Hello, New York. Hello, Minnesota. Hello, Denver. That is one of the most prime examples. That serves as a reminder that what is happening here will impact everything else that's happening from the neck down because we are an integrated system.

When I look at the world of athletics and those that I've worked with and coached and those that I support, even now, we spend about 80% of our time working on their mental mindset because the physical body is very clear. Right. It is fairly consistent if you are being consistent, but mindset can be thrown off at any given moment. As I go through these factors, here's how you can apply this to yourself. I want you to consider on a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest, ten being the highest, where you would rate yourself in terms of your emotional stability, how much does your emotions impact your sport slash athletic performance, one, meaning very little.

If you have a frustration or a negative emotion, it does not have a physical impact on you. You can continue to do what you always do. Or ten meaning, oh, that's a problem for me. My emotions, your emotions shut you down or make you want to withdraw or back away from giving your physical best. Number two, your inner force. This is your motivation, your passion, and the price, your motivation. Motivation is time limited. We do not have a lifetime of motivation. For those of you that are familiar with my work, let me add this in for a moment.

Motivation comes through discipline. It comes through consistency. When we are consistent with our physical health, then that is when motivation continues. Because we like what we see, we like what we experience, and it motivates us to wanna continue. Passion means how much do you really want something? It is that feeling that you have where you're driven to go, oh, I want to not put in those extra reps. I want to not track this part of my work. But I'm passionate about getting better. I'm passionate about showing up to that next race, that next competition, doing well.

So you're willing to pay the price. People often don't like to acknowledge it. There is a price to greatness. There is a price to success. And that price means. Here's my favorite definition of price. Price. Meaning I'm willing to forego short term satisfaction in order for a long term gain. There is a price to being at your highest potential and operating at your highest level in any area of life. But specifically in the mind body connection, where would you rate your inner force at this moment?

This could be something that you could rate yourself on weekly. You could sit down and go, let me look at these four factors and where do I notice myself landing and what kind of adjustments do I need to make? Number three, your adaptation ability. Your adaptation ability is your humbleness, which will come at any given point when you do feel like, hey, I've been working extremely hard and I'm still not producing, I'm still not performing, I'm still not showing up the way that I want to. Humility is a necessary aspect of going, but it's okay, I'm going to continue to do what I need to do.

And it's also your ability to adapt to your circumstances. In the world of athletics and physical performance, there are going to be a lot of different circumstances that arise. It could be injury, it could be a challenging season in your life. It could be a change of environment or change of context. We see a million different factors that are going on all at one time. It also could be an internal change for yourself, and your ability to adapt to those moments will play into your physical performance.

It's really easy to have a great mentality when you feel like you're doing well and everything is going great. It's a whole nother dynamic to maintain your mentality and adapt your abilities. When you realize that there are some things that have come into your life that you did not expect or you did not plan for, but you're able to step back, use your tools, use your consistency and move forward. And then, number four, your competitive development. Now, it's kind of funny. I will be the first to admit that my level of competitiveness shows up in different ways.

I don't know that I would consider myself physically competitive for various reasons, but, you know, this isn't about me, but mentally and intellectually. Game on. And I mentioned that to say you want to find whatever area of competitiveness that you have and use that as your strength. For example, there are some people that are not naturally gifted athletically, but they have an incredible competitive nature in their work ethic, in their mental ability, in their fortitude, and you can use that.

So your competitive development means your ability to translate what you learn. I say it all the time. You can get all the information in the world. You can listen to every Cadre live, you can come back to every segment that I do. But if you are not translating the information that you've been given into practice, then when the moment comes and you need those tools and those resources, they're not going to show up, they're not going to be there for you. So competitive development is all about your ability to translate what you've learned, and it includes your determination and your ability to rise to the moment when the rubber meets the road.

To rise to the moment at the point of competition. Whether you're competing against yourself or you're competing against another team, the end of the day, whether you're in an individual sport, whether you're an athletic by nature, or whether you're on a team, it will always be you versus you. Your greatest competition, if you think about it, is always you. It's what you think about yourself, it's what you believe about yourself. It's your ability to be consistent in your life. But know that these mental factors, you always want them to stay at the top of your awareness.

Let me repeat them for you. Four mental factors that affect your sports. Slash, athletic performance. Number one, your emotional stability. Number two, your inner force. Number three, your adaptation ability. And number four, your competitive development. Allow yourself to just do a symbolic scoring of yourself, one to ten. We call that a suds rating in each of these areas. So your top score, if you scored a ten and everything, would be 40. And then see where you land. And then my encouragement between now and the next time that you and I meet in this arena around this area, is to weekly stay aware of which of these areas needs your attention.

Where do you see yourself thriving and doing well? And where do you see that you're backing away and maybe struggling a little bit? It's all on you. I absolutely believe in your ability to achieve anything that you want, but you have to believe it. And the work works if you work it. Have a phenomenal weekend, and I'll see you soon. Bye.