Olympic athletes must endure tremendous amounts of stress to perform on command and achieve a gold metal. The techniques used by Olympic athletes to mentally prepare before competition can be applied to corporate high stress events such as bidding for a large contract or taking a huge risk with a new product launch.
Olympic Athletes Get in the Zone
To perform under the pressure of a large audience or a television camera requires strong mental conditioning. Olympic athletes are trained to get in “the zone” – which is a mental state where their full attention is on the task at hand. This intense focusing of thoughts creates a clear path to success.
“Being in the “zone” isn’t about perfection as much as it is about staying in the moment, not worrying about failure, and not worrying about what the result might be. I find every athlete to be unique in their approach to that “zone,” but they use some combination of psychological skills such as visualization, goal-setting, concentration, relaxation or mindfulness, psyching up, positive self-talk and developing a consistent routine in order to get there. Once they’re ready, they focus and let it happen. Their bodies are prepared to succeed – usually it’s the mind that can get in the way – if you let it.” (source: What It Takes to be an Olympic Athlete, American Psychological Association (APA)).
Olympic Athletes use Mental Preparation Techniques to Achieve Gold
There are many techniques used by sports psychologists to prepare athletes for competition. Some techniques are more effective than others for certain athletes so trial and error is used to determine the best technique to use.
Techniques to prepare athletes mentally include:
- Visualization – visualizing success includes a play by play of how the event would look under optimal performance
- Meditation and deep breathing exercises – relaxation techniques such as focusing on breathing and calming fears to clear mental chatter
- Positive Reframing – taking negative thoughts and flipping them into positive thoughts. For example, the statement, “The course is too difficult” reframed would be, “The course posses some challenges so I will need to memorize the tough spots and determine the best strategy”.
- Affirmations – short phrases that define what success looks like such as: a gold medal around my neck.
- Biofeedback – introducing a stressful situation in a lab environment and measuring blood pressure, sweat production and other indicators of stress to help athletes monitor their reactions. The information is displayed to athletes in graphs or diagrams and they are taught to use breathing exercises, affirmations and positive reframing to help them learn to control their reactions. Athletes can clearly see by reviewing graphic data how the technique they are using lessens the response.
Applying Olympic Psychology to Corporate Settings
While biofeedback may not be an option for most corporate employees, preparing for an important presentation, meeting or event by using a list of affirmations such as:
- My ideas are well received
- I have the full support of stakeholders
- Large contracts are coming my way with ease
In addition, employees can create a mental image of the boardroom or auditorium and see themselves succeeding to win the contract or impress stakeholders.
Help employees focus by teaching positive reframing techniques and relaxation exercises to calm nerves and focus their energies in a positive and productive way. Olympic mental preparation techniques can be used in a corporate setting to produce gold medal results.
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