The HyPerformance Mind

When people learn that I work in sport/performance psychology, I often get questions starting off “Why do I…”. These questions can go in a variety of directions. Oftentimes, people want a quick insight to make them better in their own interests. The answers I provide often lead to enjoyable, thought provoking conversations.

The real why, however, is “Why does any of this matter?”.

Why does sport/performance psychology matter? We train to be the best student, athlete, musician, artist, or working professional that we can be. We seek out ways to improve our talents through hard work and dedication. This a noble effort. However, I do not believe this is the entire formula for success. One of my first mentors within sport psychology, Dr. Craig Manning, often spoke of the following formula:

OUR POTENTIAL + TRAINING – INTERFERENCE = HIGH PERFORMANCE

There is more to high performance than improving our physical skills. We also must learn to eliminate interference. Interference can be any distraction that inhibits our performance, such as, negative thinking, lack of confidence, diminishing motivation, etc. We must improve our mental game to eliminate the interference we encounter. When we continue to work hard physically, and then eliminate mental interference, then we will begin to achieve HyPerformance.