The Making of A Mantra That Actually Works

Are you an athlete who excels under pressure? Or have you found that during intense moments in a game, you’ve found yourself struggling with a mind that’s wandering or worse, one that is feeding you negative thoughts?

If you’re someone who can relate to the latter, one strategy that can be very helpful in improving your performance is creating a set of mantras that you can use before, during, and after a competition.

A good mantra can train your mind to become an asset during a competition rather than a liability. To benefit from using a mantra, you first must create a constructive one.

A constructive mantra has the following elements:

• • Keep it short and simple – mantras can be as short as one word, such as “reset” after an error or “focus” when walking on the field or court. Try to limit it to 3-6 words
  • It doesn’t have to be flashy –  using neutral words like counting “1, 2, 3, shoot” as you dribble three times, then shoot a foul shot could work just fine
  • Focus on the process, not the outcome – instead of saying something like “get a hit,” or “sink the shot,” focus on the process, especially elements of the process that are in your control. Mantras such as “trust your swing,” or the famous Bill Belichick mantra of “do your job,” are great examples of focusing on the process, not the outcome
  • Keep it in the present – word your mantra in the present tense, rather than the past or future
  • Never mention things you don’t want to happen – the subconscious mind does not understand negatives the way our conscious mind does. So when you say something like, “don’t strikeout,” the subconscious mind only hears “strikeout” – that’s not the kind of seed you want to plant. Always say things in the affirmative, such as “play your game.”
  • Test your associations – when you say your mantra, you want either a neutral or positive emotion to go through your body. If any mantra you’ve made brings us a negative memory or emotion when you say it, you need to edit that mantra.
  • Listen for subconscious resistance – when creating your mantra, you want something your subconscious mind can believe, or it will resist it. For example, if you say, “I’m the greatest basketball player ever,” you’ll likely get resistance. However, your subconscious mind may endorse, “I’m getting better every day.”
  • Include others – while personal mantras are very important, it’s even more effective if a team adopts certain mantras so it becomes ingrained in how everyone on the team approaches different situations. For example, my daughter’s volleyball team used the mantra “next point” whenever anyone missed a shot to help players shake off a mistake and refocus.
  • Rhythm can help – a positive flow and cadence to the sound of the mantra can help your mind adopt it more easily. For example, “see the ball, hit the ball” has a nice cadence to it and can be a helpful mantra when going up to bat.

Once you’ve created your mantra, the next step is to consistently repeat the mantra when you engage in certain actions, such as warming up, taking the field, or key elements in a game, such as getting up to bat, or pitching, serving, shooting a foul shot, or face off, etc.  Say the mantra every time you practice or perform a specific action. You want to link the mantra to the action. Every time you repeat the same mantra while you take an action, you are building a larger and larger neural pathway in your brain – just like you do when you build muscle memory doing drills in practice. The larger the neural pathway you create, the more likely your subconscious mind will follow that pathway even during periods of high emotional intensity in competition.

Particularly when emotions run high during a competition, having well-defined tracks for your mind to run on and stay on is a powerful way to keep your emotions in check and increase the likelihood that you’ll perform your best.

Especially when you get to more competitive levels in sport, the mental aspects of the game can make all the difference. Don’t neglect this important aspect of your game. You work too hard as an athlete not to ensure that your mind is working for you, not against you. Put in the work and see what an asset your mind can become.