Do you even realize that you need to beat the demons? Maybe a better question is, who are they? Worries. Doubts. Fears. Negativity.

Or when do they appear? That could be every time you compete, or maybe when you are preparing for a competition, or anything where the pressures are high, the demands are intense, and the stress is over the top. That is typically when the devil shows up.

Work harder or smarter

There’s always that little, well, really big (because it takes over) voice in your head talking that makes you feel or think differently than you should. It could be subtle like, “my legs are so tired.” Or, it could be very negative. “I don’t think I’ll play well today.” “I have not trained enough.”

Does this sound familiar? These are the demons inside of you trying to sabotage you from playing your best.

Most of us decide the answer is to work harder but continue to get the same results or worse. If you struggle to play like you practice; if you are ready to work smarter not harder; and if you are ready to win more matches, then deal with the key moments when the demons show up, or before, or after, or all of the above.

Key moments to beat the demons

The key is to figure out when and what will have the greatest impact in the shortest amount of time. The answer is the key moments of competition. These are the prime opportunities for the demons to jump in and sabotage your thinking, your nerves, your routine. They jump in and the muscles tense up, mistakes happen, and negative speak takes over.

You can make small tweaks in these situations to make a huge difference.

And the results range from improved focus to better consistency to increased confidence. These results help you get out of your head and focus on the task at hand. You can stop thinking about the future, let go of mistakes, and simply be present where you have the most control.

These key moments could be before a game, audition, big meeting, tournament, or during the competition or situation, or possibly afterwards when you are beating yourself up.

Where you will find your key moments

Awareness! Being aware of emotions and realizing the impact they have on you when you compete, when you are in very tense events. Once you start to recognize, it is time to create a plan to deal with them and focus on performing at your best.

When you get out of your head, focus, and are present, you can take control of the key moments that can make or break your competition:

1. Pre-performance.

To be the most effective, you must deal with those moments before competition when nerves can show up – the week of, the night before, and right before competition.

For instance, most athletes just go out and compete and don’t realize the impact of various energies on their game nor do they understand what they need to perform most optimally. You must understand how much physical and emotional energy you need prior to a competition to perform at your best. If you are jittery, you may need to relax and if you feel lazy or tired, you may need to energize. Besides energy, other important reasons behind having a pre-performance routine are to get focused and centered, let go of others’ expectations, and build confidence.

Switch on your champion.

2. The imaginary line into competition.

This is the line that you cross over that goes from just before competition starts to the start of competition. It’s another prime-time moment for your brain to send some last-minute negative thoughts or plant some doubts.

Stay focused on your mission.

3. Mistakes.

An action has just happened; your brain starts to analyze it and your critical voice (ego) wants to immediately reprimand you for it. This is how you’ve been conditioned to respond but you can and should learn how to control that critical voice, let go of what just happened, and reset to be ready for the next moment.

Learn to bounce back quickly.

4. Several competitive situations on the same day or over a couple of days.

There are many events where you might compete several times during the day or several times within a couple of days. These situations can be difficult particularly if you didn’t perform well during the first competitive situation. For example, swimmers usually swim several events in a day or weekend. If they do poorly in an event, it can stick with them for events that happen hours or a day later.

Reset and be in the moment.

5. Post performance.

As humans, we tend to have black and white thinking. If you won, you did good. If you lost, you did bad. First, I’ll bet, that if you lost, there were still positive things that happened. You must take notice of them. At the end of a competition, think about what went well. Second, you should have goals and expectations for every competition that have nothing to do with winning or losing. For example, I will feel good about how I performed today if I used my pre-serve routine 80% of the time and had a low percentage of unforced errors.

Celebrate the positive.

Create your plan to beat the demons

These are the areas of performance were the demons creep in and try to sabotage you from doing your best. Why? These are times when your brain wants to think – reprimand you and doubt your preparation, stress about whether you’ll reach your lofty goals, worry how poorly you’ll do and sometimes compare yourself to the other person you are competing against. Yikes!

All the physical practice in the world isn’t going to help you deal with these moments before, during and after performance. The only thing that will set you apart from your competitors is understanding that these moments exist and develop your mental skills so you know how to deal with them.

Create a plan to deal with your situations as well as the other key moments when you can get side-tracked. Own it. Make it yours.