You shouldn’t just repeat the mantra “stay focused” – you need to have specific things to focus on.

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Prime confidence keeps you positive, motivated, intense, focused, and emotionally in control when you need it most. With prime confidence, you're able to stay confident even when you're not performing well (it happens to even the best athletes periodically).

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Their mind fully connects with their body, fusing peak mental performance with skill – creating an elite athlete.

In his explanation of flow, there are several components in the process:
1. Completely involved, focused, concentrating – with this either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training
2. Sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality
3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done and how well it is going
4. Knowing the activity is doable – that the skills are adequate, and neither anxious or bored
5. Sense of serenity – no worries about self, feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego – afterwards feeling of transcending ego in ways not thought possible
6. Timeliness – thoroughly focused on present, don't notice time passing
7. Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces "flow" becomes its own reward
(Source: Austega.com)

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An athlete might be de-motivated by the stress of losing (even quit before the game is over) but motivated by the stress of competition.

Read about 1) Competition Stress, 2) Stress of Anticipated Failure, 3) Stress of Anticipated Injury, 4) Stress of Unpreparedness .

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