3 Business Mindset Tips from Sports Psychology

Being an entrepreneur can feel like being a distance athlete.

Sports psychology has a lot to teach us about managing the business mindset. Both arenas make emotional demands and both impose performance requirements that don’t stop.

Whether you’re an athlete or a business owner, you’re always “on.” You work even when you’re tired. You constantly motivate yourself; a coach can help, but ultimately your drive comes from within a deep place. You constantly remind yourself of your “why.”

Both athletes and entrepreneurs encounter strong highs and lows, which take a toll mentally and can affect every area of their lives. And both need to learn how others in their position have dealt with these challenges and moved on.

Here are 3 examples of the lessons entrepreneurs can learn from sports psychology.

Choking or Panicking

Writing in Psychology Today, Psychologist Jonathan Fader writes, “Every athlete in the world from high school to college, from professional to Olympian, one time or another, has choked under pressure.” Fader defines choking as “a drastic decline in performance in any high-stress situation. It’s when an athlete becomes overly concerned with the outcome that they switch off their mental “auto-pilot.