Fear Mindset vs. Attack Mindset

11/08/22 • 11 min

Fear can be paralyzing.

Fear of mistakes, fear of failure, fear of letting others down, or fear of not meeting expectations; Whatever it is, it holds us back from just trusting our capabilities and attacking what we want.

In most sports, and other areas of life, it pays to have an attacking mindset:

In sports like hockey, soccer, and basketball, this often means taking the puck or ball and attacking the net
While in tennis, golf, baseball, or softball, this means not being afraid to fail and fully committing to the shot
In life, this means having that important conversation, putting yourself out there, or doing anything else related to going after your dreams.

Follow these 3 Steps to go from a Fear Mindset to an Attacking Mindset:

STEP 1: Differentiate Fear vs. Attack vs. Reckless

You want to move from a fear mindset to an attack mindset, but you don’t want to end up being reckless. Here is a breakdown of the key traits within each of the 3 mental states:

1. Fear Mental State: Afraid to make mistakes, doubting ability, worrying about results.

2. Attack Mental State: Willing to make mistakes, trusting capability, being in the moment.

3. Reckless Mental State: Carelessness, over-compensating.

We suggest you write out what each of these mental states looks like for you to make it clear how you want to show up.

STEP 2: Going from Fear to Attack

To go from the fear to attack mindset, you have to align your thoughts, feeling and actions. The following two concepts are key to helping you get that alignment:

1. Attack Mistakes > Fear Mistakes: You are going to make mistakes regardless of what mindset you are in, but the attack mindset will generally not be as harmful of a result, not look as bad, and it will serve as a learning opportunity.

2. Thinking Long-Term: The fear mindset could be better in the short-term, but the attack mindset is better in the long-term.

While reading this, you might cognitively understand these points, but you need to have the emotional feeling to match or the behaviours won’t come consistently. So don’t just read this and nod your head. Make sure you reflect and look at your game; Look at when you are playing in the attack mindset vs fear mindset. Truly reflect on which mindset serves you better.

The goal is to feel yourself break through the fear and fully arrive in the attack mindset.

STEP 3: Lock it In

To lock in the attack mental state consistently, you need to be aware, set a high standard for yourself, and have the tools to get into the state.

Awareness comes from reading this and reflecting – not just once, but consistently.

You should be aiming to be in the attack mindset 95% of the time or more. It’s not about perfection, but about doing your best and being fully committed to the attack mental state.

The tools to develop and use to help get you consistently into this state include:

Unique Alter Ego
10 Sec Reset Routine
Personalized Scorecard
Detailed Imagery Script

If you have any questions, want 1-on-1 coaching to work on your mental tools, or you are interested in mental performance coaching program, contact us today.

Fear can be paralyzing.

Fear of mistakes, fear of failure, fear of letting others down, or fear of not meeting expectations; Whatever it is, it holds us back from just trusting our capabilities and attacking what we want.

In most sports, and other areas of life, it pays to have an attacking mindset:

In sports like hockey, soccer, and basketball, this often means taking the puck or ball and attacking the net
While in tennis, golf, baseball, or softball, this means not being afraid to fail and fully committing to the shot
In life, this means having that important conversation, putting yourself out there, or doing anything else related to going after your dreams.

Follow these 3 Steps to go from a Fear Mindset to an Attacking Mindset:

STEP 1: Differentiate Fear vs. Attack vs. Reckless

You want to move from a fear mindset to an attack mindset, but you don’t want to end up being reckless. Here is a breakdown of the key traits within each of the 3 mental states:

1. Fear Mental State: Afraid to make mistakes, doubting ability, worrying about results.

2. Attack Mental State: Willing to make mistakes, trusting capability, being in the moment.

3. Reckless Mental State: Carelessness, over-compensating.

We suggest you write out what each of these mental states looks like for you to make it clear how you want to show up.

STEP 2: Going from Fear to Attack

To go from the fear to attack mindset, you have to align your thoughts, feeling and actions. The following two concepts are key to helping you get that alignment:

2. Thinking Long-Term: The fear mindset could be better in the short-term, but the attack mindset is better in the long-term.

The goal is to feel yourself break through the fear and fully arrive in the attack mindset.

STEP 3: Lock it In

To lock in the attack mental state consistently, you need to be aware, set a high standard for yourself, and have the tools to get into the state.

Awareness comes from reading this and reflecting – not just once, but consistently.

You should be aiming to be in the attack mindset 95% of the time or more. It’s not about perfection, but about doing your best and being fully committed to the attack mental state.

The tools to develop and use to help get you consistently into this state include:

Unique Alter Ego
10 Sec Reset Routine
Personalized Scorecard
Detailed Imagery Script

If you have any questions, want 1-on-1 coaching to work on your mental tools, or you are interested in mental performance coaching program, contact us today.

Previous Episode

3 Steps to Strengthen Your Self-Confidence

Confidence is a key to high performance. Unfortunately, confidence is often misunderstood and people overlook the most important part - self-worth.

Most people struggle with self-confidence because the self-talk in their head is their own worst enemy. Here are 4 other reasons why people struggle with self-confidence:

Yo-Yo Confidence: Tying their self-image to external results or praise
Imposter Syndrome: Believing they are not worthy and/or don’t belong
Victim Mentality: Blaming others and not taking responsibility
Negativity Bias: Constantly beating yourself up and overly focusing on the negatives

However, you can go from being your own worst enemy to being your own best ally by following these 3 steps to strengthen your self-confidence:

Step 1: Start with the Roots of the Tree - Self-Worth

Step 2: Grow a Well Rounded Tree

Step 3: Put in the Work & Own Your Capabilities

Listen to this episode for a full explanation of each step.

The most important takeaway from this episode is that you are in control of your self-confidence. Start by strengthening your self-worth, then grow a well-rounded tree by developing your self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy.

Self-confidence is a skill that can be developed if you’re willing to put in the work and own your capabilities.

Be your own best ally, not your own worst enemy.

Next Episode

How to Develop Your Personal Scorecard

Elite performance comes from being fully immersed in process; It’s what we call being in the moment, dialed in, or in the zone.

But the challenge is that the external scoreboards of sport and life can consume our focus and distract our attention from the process.

We all know the cliché, “focus on what you can control,” but the problem is that it is a lot easier said than done.

In fact, the root cause for most mental blocks stems from getting caught up in society’s definition of success – the external scoreboards.

For example:

Struggle with confidence? Then you probably tie your confidence to results.
Get nervous & tense? Then you are probably worried about results.
Struggle with resilience? Then you probably beat yourself up after negative results.

To make matters worse, it’s hard to escape the external scoreboards. There are literally massive signs with bright lights in your face all game.

Follow these 3 steps to develop your own personal scorecard and you will learn to focus on the things within your control, be immersed in the process, and achieve Consistent Elite Performance.

STEP 1: What to Score

They key here is clearly identifying what matters to you. These should be highly within your control and meaningful to your performance.

The two main categories you should include are:

Mental State
Process

STEP 2: How to Score It

For mental state, we encourage using a percentage based on a contrast.

For example, 70% attack vs. 30% fear mindset.

The goal should be to hit 95%+. This is not about perfection, but doing your best to be fully committed to the mental state that matters to you.

When measuring your process, you can use percentages as well, but the key here is that that it depends on the standards you set for yourself. We call this EPS: Executing my Process to my Standard.

We recommend using a three tier system to measure your EPS:

Well: At or above you standard
Meh: Close but not at your standard
No: Not even close and was likely a mental mistake

What most people get wrong here is that they start tracking the result, like successful plays made. This is not what we want to track here.

Instead, it’s about how you actually executed your process. You could execute your process well but get an unlucky result, or execute poorly but get a lucky result.

So on your personal scorecard, we want how you executed your process to your standard, not results.

STEP 3: Get the Most Out of It

All of this can be ruined if you don’t stop checking, let alone obsessing over, your stats or results.

What we look at and focus on matters.

That’s the whole point of the personal scorecard. So you can thwart the main purpose of it if you keep going online and filling your mind with external scoreboards and comparisons.

On the flip side, it’s really helpful to add a column for 5 things you did well each day. This helps keep you focused on the little wins and not overly focused on the mistakes.

You can also use your personal scorecard as a type of checklist to ensure you are using some of your other mental tools or keys to performance:

10 Sec Reset Routine
Detailed Imagery Script
Getting 9+ hours of Quality Sleep
Nutrition or any other healthy habits
Connecting to an Intrinsic Why (i.e., the love of the game)

Your personal scorecard is something you will continue to iterate and adjust. Finding someone you trust to give helpful feedback can greatly improve the impact.

The bottom line and the paradox of the whole thing is:

Your personal scorecard is something you will continue to iterate and adjust – finding someone you trust to give helpful feedback can greatly improve the impact.

The bottom line and the paradox of the whole thing is:

If you follow the above steps and consistently use your personal scorecard, then you will see the results on the external scoreboard – although you shouldn’t be looking!

If you have any questions, want 1-on-1 coaching to work on your personal scorecard, or you are interested in mental performance coaching program, contact us today.

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