Emotional intelligence is a subject that is increasingly gaining importance in the corporate world due to a need to seek new tools to improve the quality of employees' work and the relationship between all positions within a company. For a company's success, it is necessary, above all, a healthy relationship with all employees of an organization.
This same concept can and should be applied in the sports world. Many athletes train a lot but still don't get the desired results. They lose to opponents who are often seen as "inferior" (a technical or tactical view) and return to training doing the same thing without knowing where the problem is and how to solve it.
As I explained in the previous edition, I discussed the three pillars of high sports performance (if you haven't seen it, read it after you are done with this article.).
One of the three pillars is, of course, mental performance. Athletes' emotional intelligence is one of the most sought-after subjects to improve performance in training and competitions.
But what is emotional intelligence, and how can an athlete benefit from this skill.
First, we have to understand that the athlete must take the time to learn and master it like any skill. With Emotional Intelligence, it is no different. Therefore, it would be best to practice it at all possible times, at home with your family, at school, at work, and obviously in training.
This is not a magic formula that will change from one day to the next, but training emotional intelligence as hard as you prepare the physical and technical part will get ahead of your opponents, increasing your performance and achieving positive results.
The greater the level of competition, the more emotional intelligence influences the results, and this is a critical factor when we talk about high performance.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, understand, and assess emotions in oneself and others.
Note that I didn't say that you should "trick your mind," disconnect from your emotions, or find a "mind hack," a very famous term nowadays that more hinders than helps. There is no "hack" or something that will make you skip steps. The secret is to work hard in all aspects of your performance.
What is an emotion?
Emotions are action programs coordinated by the brain that manage changes in your body. Physiological and behavioral changes!
I want to remember that emotion is a process called bottom-up in neuroscience. It is automatic; we have no control over it, emotion is born in our subconscious. We only have control over our attitudes, which can influence our emotions.
Emotion is a survival mechanism of human beings, and therefore, it is impossible to control our emotions, and the focus should only be on understanding, attitude, and thinking. In this way, we will have control of our actions and, consequently, of our performance.
If we don't have the ability to control our emotions, how can we not let ourselves be influenced and act automatically, especially in those moments when we're competing?
Well, at this point, I'm going to present a strategy that I use with all my clients, regardless of player level.
There are four steps you must master to influence your emotions and take control of your actions.
Step 1 – Recognize emotions
Step 2 – Take a deep breath
Step 3 – Logical thinking
Step 4 – Strategic Reminder
At first, it may seem complicated and time-consuming, but like every skill, if trained in the right way and it often becomes automatic, a football player does not need to think about how to position himself to take a kick; he has trained a lot and can execute without having to bring his awareness of technique at the time of competition. Mental skills work the same way.
Step 1 – Recognize emotions.
Most people live slaves to their emotions, and this is also true with most athletes. As a result, it is customary to see athletes getting out of control and doing things that they often cannot even explain. To avoid this, we must be well connected with our emotions, understanding what happens and what triggers our emotions.
Within this step, there are several strategies and protocols, such as meditation and visualization just to name a few. We'll talk more about them in more detail in the following articles.
The big secret here is not to let emotions accumulate. So knowing how to recognize the emotion at the beginning stages when it is not very strong is very important. Otherwise, the emotion will get stronger, and you can't control yourself anymore at a certain level. That is when we see tennis players breaking their rackets, for example.
Step 2 – Take a deep breath
After recognizing the emotion, preferably at the beginning, we are ready for the next step, a simple deep breath.
Breathing at this time is essential as it will take your focus away from the emotion and transfer it to the breath. In addition, it will help you to calm down and separate your emotion from your action.
Step 3 - logical thinking
At this stage, the level of your internal dialogue will be decisive for you to change your mental state and return to performing at your best.
Here, you should analyze the situation logically and straightforwardly way without considering your feelings. For that to happen, think as if you were visualizing the situation in the third person view.
Example:
Emotional analysis: "It was an easy point, this always happens, I won't be able to win, my form is not good today, I'm at a disadvantage, and this is terrible."
Third-person logic analysis: "I lost a point, but I can recover in the next one. I'm at a disadvantage, so the pressure is on him now (opponent) and not me. I'll adjust the strength of my hit next time."
Every athlete already knows ​​the events in a match that can change their emotional state, so it is essential to train their internal dialogue when this happens. In competitions, adjustments must be made according to the circumstances, and logical thinking is where the athlete can identify the points to be adjusted.
Step 4 – strategic recall
Strategic remembering is essential for the athlete to return to a competitive state with a high focus on what is happening and not what has already happened.
Any sentence that brings back the competitive identity of the athlete is applicable here, a sentence followed by a gesture. This is very particular to each, only testing to know which strategic memory will be ideal for you. Some examples;
"Let's go!" "Let's go!" "focus!"
Keep it short and imposing. For example, the following physical gesture can be tapping your chest, touching your hair, adjusting your shorts, in short, defining your way.
This is a strategy that, when mastered, will bring surprising results in competitions and training. The athlete who adds this to the repertoire will already be way ahead of his opponent and this alone will be a determining factor between victory and defeat.
Remember that the mental part ensures that the athlete applies everything he spent hours and hours training while competing. It's all about the mental reps! Train with dedication and commitment, and the results will be amazing.
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