Prep Baseball Report Minnesota is excited to team up with- The Mindstrong Project. Our goal in this endeavor is to continue to provide the most up-to-date pertinent information and resources to the baseball community in the state of Minnesota.

Periodically, The Mindstrong Project will be providing content for the Prep Baseball Report Minnesota website; as they continue to work to build human performance through education while building an awareness of how the mind and body work together to sustain a consistent confident approach to game performance.

In this month's installment; The MindStrong Project talks about Gratitude......

Hey everyone,

I hope that you all had a fulfilling and enjoyable Thanksgiving break.  The holiday season, for many, can mean a time of stress, family conflict, or a lack of family.  For those of you who experience any of those, I empathize for you.  My hope is that your times of struggle in the past or present lead to times of joy and prosperity in the future.  For the most part, however, the holiday season is full of excitement, connection, and tradition.  In either case, it is equally important to remember why we celebrate Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for here in America.  We lived in a country that affords us so many freedoms and luxuries that are completely out of the question in many other countries.  Despite the stresses and struggles that living in modern day America brings, I want you to pause for a moment to remind yourself of all the things we have to be grateful for.  Seriously, do it…

Take a moment to list 5 things, people, places, or memories you are thankful for.  Now take a few seconds to appreciate each of those things.  Don’t postpone joy.  It is yours for the taking.

For example, I am grateful for 1) My family and my girlfriend 2) My job with The MindStrong Project 3) the platform to write these articles 4) the people all over the world responsible for developing the technology and manufacturing for this computer 5) the game of baseball and everything it has taught me.

We could LITERALLY go on and on.  No mention of my apartment, my car, my roommates and friends, microwaves, dinner tables, my faith, hockey, Minnesota Mash, traffic lights, my education, heat, air conditioning, remote controls, Chipotle, meaningful Minnesota Gopher football in November, and thousands of other things.  At times we are all guilty of taking these simple luxuries for granted. 

Hang tight with me as we weave in and out of how these simple things can make a world of difference.

Gratitude

Now is always the perfect time of year for me to talk about one of my favorite concepts: Gratitude.  The idea of gratitude is certainly not a new one in the field of Sport Psychology.  In fact, many of you may have already heard that gratitude is important because our brain cannot be anxious and grateful at the same time.  This is true.  Any time we are feeling stressed or anxious, we can think of what we are grateful for and literally become less stressed or anxious.  Think of the performance impact that our own thoughts and emotions can have.  Here lies the problem I see in society and with many athletes: we are stuck in a culture of comparison.  Now, I have to remind you that these are my thoughts and opinions; please take the time to form your own if you haven’t.  But, this is what I see and what my experiences tell me.  I want to be extremely clear that this is not a “kids these days…” soapbox.  I believe most kids are well-intentioned and work hard – or at least want to work hard; and if they don’t, it has more to do with how they were developed than somehow they just ended up lazy for no reason.   Back to my point.  The current generation of young people does not have to deal with survival, but the brain still thinks in terms of survival.  We have food, water, shelter, etc.  So what has the brain done?  It’s come up with a new, heightened level of survival: Social survival.  We all want to fit in.  We all want to be liked.  Brand-named companies know this.  They have teams of people that get paid to market.  They market that the grass is greener on their side of the fence.  These messages are developed and reinforced through clothing, music, movies, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, and all of the places that have access to consumers.  Their message is abundantly clear.  “You’ll be cool if…”  “You’ll be happier if…”  “You’ll perform better if…”  “You’ll make more money if…”  And we too often their arguments are quite compelling. 

However, we find a generation of youth that has higher mental illness rates than ever seen before.  Even though we have all the things that supposedly make us happier, we’re not happier.  Why?  Because there is always more.  Always.  There is always a new product.  Thus, we’re always chasing something superficial rather than being grateful for (and using to the best of our abilities) what we have.  Guys, the grass is not always greener.  So can we please take some time to appreciate what we have?  What we have is enough.  Comparison is not the answer.  In fact, it separates us from part of the real answer: connection.

This “grass is always greener” mentality is not limited to consumer goods, though.  This happens in many situations.  It happens on our teams.  “If we just had one more arm in the bullpen.”  “If only we had more pop in our lineup.”  Both of these statements send a subconscious message to yourself and those around you saying “We’re not good enough.”  It happens in our own lives.  “If only I could get rid of this belly.” “If only I knew how to _____.”  Again, the message to yourself is that you’re not good enough, which lowers confidence.  It’s a cat-and-mouse game of comparison.  Remember, nobody is perfect.  Question: How can I perform my best of I am constantly criticizing myself or wishing things were different? Follow-up question: What if I make the most of what I have and use my strengths to my advantage, and build on them consistently in other areas? 

Think to yourself about which makes more sense to illicit high performance, given equal talent ability:

Player A: Compares to others, constantly critiquing self and others, thinks new glove and bat will make all the difference.

Player B: Consistently thinks about one’s own strengths and how he/she can use them to empower self and others, constantly grateful for circumstances – both good and bad, knows mindset, attitude, and effort make all the difference.

The truth is that player A and player B could theoretically be the same player, the only difference is how they view their circumstances.  One is grateful for what they have, one wishes things were different. 

90% Mental?

Here is the scary part (in a good way).  Not only does gratitude positively affect our psychology, it also affects our physiology in a major way.  Those of you who are skeptical or don’t believe in the mental game, start reading here.  Our psychology and physiology are intimately connected.  How we think can affect how we feel, and how we feel can affect how we think.  The game is not 90% mental, as suggested by some.  It is 100% mental, but also 100% physical, if you will.  Neither can happen without the other.  Thus, if I’m constantly thinking negatively, my body can’t produce the right endorphins that activate my muscles and joints to work as quickly and efficiently as possible.  In fact, the first two performance decrements we see in someone who is stressed are loss of fine motor skills (physical) and critical thinking skills (mental).  Each of these is vitally important in our ability to execute on a baseball field. 

Gratitude as a performance hack is awesome in and of itself.  However, that’s not the only reason I want you to use it.  I don’t want it to be a tool.  I want gratitude to be the lens or the frame through which you see life.  Gratitude is something we can embody.  Gratitude can be life-changing.  The simple concept of appreciating what we have rather than wishing for something different can transform our daily lives.  By appreciating the people in foreign countries making cents on the dollar to provide us with cars and baseballs and bats and food, we get to play this beautiful game of baseball, to live a life of freedom.  Freedom, my friends, is where we find peak performance.  Free of worries, of negative thoughts, of comparisons, of stress, of technical swing cues.  Freedom is where we find our flow.  Freedom is where we just play. 

We Talkin’ ‘Bout Practice

Combining gratitude, which provides mental freedom, with physical training and preparation to provide physiological freedom, we allow our minds and bodies to withstand higher levels of stress and reach peak performance with more consistency.  Just like physical skills, we must also practice the skill of gratitude.  This can be as simple or complex as we make it.  It can be starting our day by writing down one thing we are grateful for, it can be finding mid-day stillness through breathing and meditation, or it can be journaling what you are grateful for at night.

Reflection: What are you thankful for today?  This week?  This month?  This year?

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Gratitude will shift you to a higher frequency, and you will attract much better things.” – Rhonda Byrne

The MindStrong Project is available for your athletes in multiple avenues.  We coach mindset training, breath work, and sauna/ice training.  We can do this for your whole organization, a team, or for individual clients.  We are happy to come to you! Message us to learn more: 

Email: [email protected]

Follow us on social media:

Instagram: @themindstrongproject

Twitter: @themindstrongp

Facebook: The Mindstrong Project