Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Clarity and Motivation

Failure is often more subtle than you think. In the short term you may not appear to be failing. You drift from one day to the next, repeating your errors, making bad decisions, listening to the wrong people and making the wrong choices. You constantly dream of this blurred vision of yourself doing remarkable things, that somehow, someday everything will just fall into place.

You can choose to meander thru life and eventually fail, or you can voluntarily change the way you think about squash. We all fall into those rutts where motivation to play squash is low. Being inspired to get on court and work your ass off every time you get outta bed is not something that may happen automatically.

Part of the frustration that comes with squash is the inability to clearly see your goals. Too much effort is wasted scrammbling in the cloudiness of what you think you want to do. Take the time to visualize and clearly define what you hope to achieve. See it in your minds eye as clearly as you can visulaize your hand working your mouse. See the same thing for hitting your backhand or drop shot or volleying a figure 8. If your not sure what it's supposed to look like, go on youtube and watch the pros, or go watch some open players at your club. Remember what you see and play it back in your head and exchange your face on theirs.

I have no answer to cure low motivation, but I’ve compiled some super cheezy, somewhat squash related quotes from sources I can’t remember, so apologies to those I haven’t referenced. I hope this helps to motivate you.

“Go from being interested to being committed. That’s when you become unstoppable.”
“Straight back, straight forward, press the ball, hit down, not up.”
“Write down a goal and the reasons why. Visualize it.”
“Enjoy Right Now!”
“Always do more than you think you can.”
“The mind only knows what you tell it.”
“Control your breath to Control your mind to Control your body to Control the ball to Control the Game.”
“Change how you think to Change how you feel to Change how you live.”
“Bite off more than you can chew…and chew the hell out of it.”
“Always take it too far, to learn how far you can go.”
“Work without fear of punishment. Work without hope for reward.”
“Mental toughness is consistency of effort.”
“The sign on the door to success says “PUSH”.”
“Effort breeds Momentum.”
“Straight, straight, straight, straight…. Straight, straight, straight.”
“When it’s loose, hit the right shot.”
“Press the ball to the target.”
“Gauge your footwork, vision, hitting straight, consistency…and focus on right now.”
“Make each day a chance to improve.”
“Focus on the things you can control.”

I'm told that eventually you will get to a state of mind where visualization becomes effortless and then serves to become an infinite source of motivation. Go ahead and prove me wrong.

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