Is competition anxiety keeping you awake at night? Literally! Do you want to stop fixating on all of the things that are making you feel?
A lot of this anxiety is caused by worrying about how you are going to try to control variables of your performance which are actually outside of your control….
These variables might be: your horse getting injured, another competitor’s performance in your class and the weather.
Focusing on other competitor’s performances (which is completely out of your control) leads to anxiety as it puts your focus and attention onto something you can’t control.
As a competitive rider the most valuable lesson you can learn is to stop fixating on things your can’t influence and only try to control the things you can control.
All the small things you can control add up and create a feeling that you can influence the end result and not that your performance is dictated by external forces.
Stop fixating: You can always control your attitude, focus and effort
Whatever life throws at you, you can always control your attitude, focus, effort, your ability to relax and your overall perspective.
It’s actually really empowering to staying focused on the factors you can control. You are in the driving seat, which puts you into action, rather than feeling like you are on the back foot and at the mercy of these external factors.
Let’s think about the upcoming 2021 Tokyo Olympics. There are no competitions that are more high stakes and there are so many uncertainties. The competitors are going to have to focus on controlling the controllable factors.
Mental performance coach and 2008 Olympic Canadian high-jumper Nicole Forrester has been helping Canadian athletes prepare for these Olympic Games. She stresses the importance of controlling these controllable factors and being unattached about everything else.
“What can’t you control? You can’t control the virus, you can’t control access to a facility, and you can’t control whether the Olympics is a certainty or not, but you treat it as if it is. But you can control your nutrition; you can control your sleep.”
Nicole Forrester
Factors you CAN control
The key is to become skilled at recognising what you can control and what you can’t. This will help you perform to the best of your ability. There are only truly seven areas of life that are 100% ours to control.
- Your Self-Talk
- Gratitude
- Breathing
- Sleep
- Body Language
- Mental and Physical Fitness
- Diet
Everything outside of these areas of life are uncontrollable.
Tip for controlling the things you can control:
Sometimes it’s easy to feel lost and become overwhelmed by the big picture. To help shift your perspective and give you more clarity, try this exercise;
- Brainstorm as many variables of performance that you control. This will show you in black and white how many things you can actually control.
Namely you can always control your thinking (however hard that might be!), your nutrition, your preparation, and how you react to any challenges that come your way.
However, you can’t control the judge, the other competitors, the officials, the weather conditions or the ground conditions.
You will need to develop the habit of when you feel your focus shifting to these uncontrollable factors, recognise this, stop and shift your focus onto something you can control.
Do you have any tips which have helped you to stop fixating on things you can’t control?
ALSO READ: How your mindset controls your riding: 5 ways to improve it