I’m often asked, “What is Performance Psychology?”

By reading this, I hope you’ll have a better understanding of the benefits of performance psychology and how a sport and performance consultant might be able to help you.

First, take a look at this list of people:

• Police officers and EMTs
• Military service member
• Athletes
• Actors and singers
• Salespeople

What do they all have in common? They are all performers. Some, like the first responders have to make life or death decision in a split second, and others have to get into the right frame of mind in order to make a sale. Big differences in outcomes, aren’t they? Regardless of the gravity of the situation, they are performers.

Think about what you do for a living. Maybe you’re a coach of a team. You might be a stay-at-home mom. You could be an employee in a company, or you could be the CEO of a major corporation.

The question I want you to think about right now is: “Are you a performer?”

Yes, are a performer! You are a performer because regardless of what you do, you have things that must be accomplished effectively. You have goals that need to be achieved on a regular basis. That makes you a performer. That means that I work with people just like YOU.

I believe that we can always improve what we do, whether it’s individually or as a team.

That’s where I come in to help. I work to help you see things from a different perspective in order for you or your team/company/organization to perform better.

Performance Psychology at Work

I want to show you what are work in performance consulting can look like. Can you focus in a high-pressure situation?

Imagine you’re standing on the pitcher’s mound at Yankee Stadium.

The approximate capacity of Yankee Stadium is 50,000 and most of them don’t like you because you pitch for the visiting team. I also forgot to mention that there are tens of thousands of people watching you on TV across the country. If you screw up, it’ll be replayed on ESPN’s “Not Top 10” on Friday night, as well as Youtube and social media.

No big deal, right?

How would you react in this situation? Would you know where to start? You have a couple of options here.

Option one is to freak out. It’d be a normal reaction if you’re thrust into a situation like this unexpectedly. But if you’re a professional pitcher, you’re expected to deliver results.

Option one isn’t a great choice. I recommend going with Option Two: Thriving under pressure.

The following is a short clip from the movie For Love of the Game with Kevin Costner. In this scene, his character Billy Chapel exhibits the type of mental imagery training that I conduct with my clients.

Powerful example isn’t it? It doesn’t even matter whether you’re a Little League baseball player or if you’re a Fortune 500 CEO… These techniques can and will work for both individuals.

The tools are all the same and we can utilize them in order to help you perform and focus better in high-pressure situations.

In my next post, I’ll explain how utilizing tools from performance psychology I help people restore their performance to previous levels, and how I help enhance a person’s performance to reach new heights.

If you have questions about performance psychology or want to learn more about how I can help you or your organization, please utilize the contact form on my site. I look forward to speaking with you!

As a mental health professional, client records are kept confidential, however, I cannot guarantee the confidentiality of electronic communications, so please keep information generic when sending me a message.