Episode #16 - The Art Of Mental Training By D.C. Gonzalez

Hello, Self Developers and welcome to The Patrick Kelly Podcast for Self-Development, where I will be reviewing  audible books on Self-Development that can change your life for the better this year, and years to come. It is said that if we keep on doing what we always did, we will keep on getting what we always got. In other words, to change our output, we first have to change our input. 

Today is May 02, 2021 and This is Episode 16, and Today, we will be reviewing the Audible Book, “The Art of Mental Training By D.C. Gonzalez. This audible book will teach you how to learn the Psychological Factors That Will Help You View Setbacks as Opportunities, to Create Lasting Positive Change, and Get Rid of Limiting Beliefs and the Negative Critic, in Your Head.

Chapter 1: The 3 Minute Lesson: One should never look where one does not wish to go. The difference between great performances and average performances is mostly mental. Once You reach a certain level of skill, it is mental skills that start making all the difference. The better they are, the better You become, and the better your results will be. The Mental Warrior understands that time spent on the mental game will pay off with improved performance. The Warrior Champion learns to use techniques to help him get out of his own way, so he can reach the next possible level of performance, not by random chance but by focus choice over and over again.

Chapter 2: On Attitude: A Warrior champion learns how to control his internal mental climate, and having a good attitude helps him to achieve that control by creating an expectation of success. The right attitude helps empower him to take the necessary actions, and to focus on the things that must be done. A good attitude can make all the difference. Warriors with negative attitudes become victims of their own negative outlook. The Mental Warrior learns from setbacks. A temporary setback is an opportunity for positive change.

Chapter 3: Gaining The Mental Edge: The People who are given mental training will always outperform those People without mental training. Why? Because those who use mental training skills develop a mental edge. The two essential keys to winning are enthusiasm and a mental edge. One must consistently practice mental skills and pregame routines in order to tap one’s full potential.

Chapter 4: Learning To Fly Navy Jets: the more mistakes, we make the more frustrating it becomes and the easier it is for us to lose our mental focus. Shutting down negative Self-Talk begins by interrupting it and then, immediately and instantly replacing it. Once you are clear on what you must do in order to win, you have to stay focused on the most important task at hand. Always stay task focused and not unfocused. The past does not equal the future. The Art of mental training teaches that our performance action will follow the mental thoughts and images we entertain. We get what we see in our minds eye. Never dwell on images or feelings of outcomes that you definitely don’t want. Always connect feelings and images of success with the precise event that lies before you. Show your mind what you want to have happen.  

Chapter 5: The Importance of Self Belief: You must always begin by believing you have what it takes. When the pressure is on, the more you believe in yourself, the better your performance will be.  Without strong self-belief, the Warrior winds up nowhere.  You have to believe that you can win, then that self-belief puts you in a position to win. Confidence is a by-product of strong self-belief. The more powerful the self-belief, the more confidence that the Warrior is able to summon up when the pressure is on. The stronger your self-belief, the better your performance will be. In order to build the most powerful self-belief system He can have, a Warrior Champion learns to use imagination, and feeling to see himself in his mind’s eye accomplishing his most desired success while in a deep relaxed state of awareness. This is the Key to building foundational self-belief.

Chapter 6: Imagineering and Self Confidence: Imagineering is the technique in showing the mind how we want things to go. The Athlete that fails to practice this technique, apparently never plays to his true potential.  For performance of any kind, mental preparation is as important as physical training. Never allow yourself to entertain images or feelings of defeat during your Imagineering sessions. What ever impressions reach the sub-conscious mind, it will accept as being true. What your mind believes to be true, will always affect your performance. By feeding your mind empowering, successful images and feelings, it will deliver performance, drive and motivation from deep within yourself in line with those images and feelings. In your mind you must see it, feel it, and accept that it is coming your way.

Chapter 7: The Critical Three: Relaxation is important for the Athlete and Mental Warrior. Relaxation matters because when you use it with mental imagery, it facilitates and allows our inner sub-conscious mind to clearly see our success imagery and feel our success feelings.  Only when we are in a deep state of relaxation that the conscious mind quits acting as a filter for the inner mind. When the critical conscious mind is set aside through relaxation for several minutes, our Imagineering can reach the inner mind directly. The inner mind is a goal striving mechanism, show it your goals through imagery and with feelings of them having already been accomplished, and it sets out to help you make it so. What ever you tell your mind, it accepts for being true.  When your inner mind is able to see what you want, it is able to help you get, what you want.

Chapter 8: The Mental Warrior: Mental Warriors cannot be intimidated. They learn to manage pressure. They never fail to keep moving forward. They refuse to lose and they never quit. The Mental Warrior always finds a way to win. They have the heart and confidence to achieve their full potential. The only way to become a Mental Warrior is through consistent daily practice. One must always practice in order to become.

Chapter 9: Controlling Anger: All emotions are created by what we are thinking. Emotions affect performance. It is normal to become angry. Anger is an emotional response. If the Warrior does not control his anger, his anger will control him. The Champion knows that in order to perform well, He must remain in control. If you are not in control, then you are out of control. When you become out of control, you can become an embarrassment to yourself and, your team.

Chapter 10: Shots Fired: Things will always happen in our lives that we cannot control. It is not what happens to us but how we respond. We must always have control of our emotions especially when it is critical of what the outcome maybe. The Mental Warrior never loses control.

Chapter 11: On Losing: Mental Warriors focus on what they can control. Mental Athletes know that nobody wins all of the time, not in life and not in sports. It is okay to be disappointed. It is not okay to dwell on the disappointment. Champions keep it in perspective. Champions focus on what they can control. They are able to take responsibility and only look at losing as a temporary setback, nothing more nothing less. Within every setback lies the opportunity for a great comeback. Champions learn from their mistakes and move on. Lessons learned; changes made.

Chapter 12: Fear of Failure: Fear of failure keeps People from achieving their full potential in life, in business and in everything. In order to be good in your sport or what ever else you do, you can’t be afraid of failing. Being afraid to fail, actual helps to create the conditions, that make failure more likely. Once a Competitor learns to overcome the fear of failing, his chances of succeeding improve dramatically. Fear of failure is nothing more than a perceived psychological threat to your ego and self-esteem. The only way to accomplish anything great, is to risk failing at it first. Without occasional failures, the Champion cannot hope to get better, and cripple his chances of success.

Chapter 13: Controlling Fear: Fear can ruin our potential to perform. Controlling fear requires a choice and a strategy. Strategy is how we move forward having made the choice to do so. The thought of something going wrong can make it worst. Fear can cause the Warrior to focus on the negative. The fearful Competitor can be over cautious and decide to play it safe, instead of playing to win. Fear can turn a Competitor from someone trying to win, into someone trying not to lose. Fear happens inside your head, and thus, it can be managed. Fear is normal, but we cannot let it get out of control, and we must know what to do when it does. Fear is only as powerful as we let it become. Feal the fear and do it anyway.

Chapter 14: On Performance Choking: Choking is the actual physical response that is triggered by the psychological threat to the Ego. Choking is actually affected by the nervousness, stress and worries about looking bad if things go wrong. Choking is caused by the Ego looking bad, and not by a real or perceived danger.  Learn to leave your Ego outside of an event, or it will always end up getting in your way.

Chapter 15: Cool Under Pressure: Not knowing how to handle pressure, will certainly affect your overall performance. The Champion must learn how to remain cool and stay focused under pressure. Staying cool is part of the success formula. Learn to bring yourself back to the Present moment, by doing controlled breathing. Controlled breathing will calm your nerves and put you in a pleasant mental state. Learning how to remain cool under pressure, can help you to easily   defeat an opponent, who actually plays better than you.

And last but not least, Chapter 16: The Internal Critic:  The Internal Critic is the Person in your mind that you talk to all the time. This is also known as, Self-Talk. Don’t let your internal dialogue set you up to fail. The Champion has positive Self Talk. The Loser has negative Self Talk. Self-Talk must be positive, encouraging and empowering. This is Key because just like thoughts create emotions that affect the way we feel, so can Self Talk affect the way we feel and the way we feel affects the way that we perform. The Warrior Champion shuts down the Internal Critic because He understands that He must, in order to win.

Closing Thoughts: On scale of 1 to 5, I would give this audible book, a solid 5, for providing many examples on how to become a Warrior Champion. To find out more about The Art of Mental Training, Go To: www.audible.com and download this audible book, or go to www.theartofmentaltraining.com

*Please Share This Episode with a Sports Athlete or Sports Team that You care about, and if you are listening on Apple Podcast, Please Leave A Review!

 *For More Episodes of The Patrick Kelly Podcast for Self-Development; Go To: www.thepatrickkellypodcast.com