Mental Moment-Elite Mindset of Play
Yesterday I spoke at the US Play Coalition Conference. There seemed to be so many people there interested in adult play. I have a MS degree in Management of Leisure Services and during that time talked a lot about play and the inherent benefits of play. Play has been researched from a physical, psychological and sociological perspective and from all those perspectives (and others) play has been proven to be a key element in a child’s development. I could write a huge list of the benefits of play but here are a few: coordination, movement, socialization, rules, leadership, confidence and self-esteem. These are just a minor few of the exhaustive list. There are additional benefits when talking about kids playing outside. Kids really do learn everything from ‘traditional’ play. Traditional? Meaning that play is play for the inherent value of playing. What happens when kids don’t play? They grow up without a lot of the above skills and more. It’s been proven that kids are stunted because of not having play (physical activity and physical education).
My talk was about how play turns into work for many of my clients. What I see is that my clients start their professional career playing for 1 of 3 reasons: they love it, they are good at it (which may or may not mean they love it and it was a coping mechanism. My professional tennis player loved playing tennis when she was a kid because it was athletic, she got to play with her Dad and she got to be outside. She loved hitting the tennis ball but she forgot about that for awhile. She forgot about the intrinsic values of her tennis and started relying on extrinsic motivation to driver her tennis career. Bringing her back to why she initially loved tennis helped. She was able to reassociate with those feelings.
Part of my role is to help performers realize they don’t have to work harder and longer but smarter. Smarter means developing your mental skills. I certainly wish I could have caught some of them sooner before working harder and longer was an ingrained part of their development but we make change in this area regardless. Another part of my role is to help clients find balance. Finding balance starts with the realizing you don’t have to work harder and longer but smarter and it includes finding other things you are passion about. My professional trumpet player loves to bake bread and it’s provides balance but also many of the benefits of play for him.
The benefits of play (I don’t use that terminology) are essential to being a person. It enhances creativity and inspires in ways that you cannot imagine. I encourage you to find something that you are passionate about. It may be something you did as a kid. Go out and play!
From South Carolina!
Dr. Michelle
