Positive Psychology & Mindfulness in Sport with John Yeager

In this Find Your Edge podcast, host Chris Newport talks with John Yeager about positive psychology and mindfulness in sport. As the co-author of The Coaching Zone: Next Level Leadership in Sports, John is the executive director of The Coaching Zone Initiative and CEO of The Yeager Leadership Group.

How can mindfulness, accountability and positive psychology help you succeed as an athlete

Here’s what we discuss:

• Should we eliminate labeling ourselves in sport, like “I’m slow?” John suggests actually focusing less on eliminating labels, being less judgemental and being more mindful in the present moment and working on some strategies to address the thoughts and emotions as they come up and using a “task relevant cue” 
• John notes how endurance athletes can start to understand their strengths, positive or negative emotions and identify their “blindspots.” He also talks about how it’s important to identify your own story and how that can benefit you instead of impede you. 
• Learn what a “task relevant cue” cue is and how it’s important. John shares a great example from his own experience of running in a race where he finished “dead last,” but was able to learn the notion of “HERO”  
• How the acronym HERO (hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism) and psychological capital is key to performance and how it can be grown over time
• How the simple action of touching your thumb to your index finger can help you with positive self talk
• How mindfulness, slowing down, accepting and tolerating is important when we’re feeling HALTS (hungry, angry, lonely, tired or stressed out), and why it takes practice to elicit positive self talk
• How to start working on mindfulness and positive self talk without being judgemental, including the book The Power of Mindfulness: Mindfulness Meditation Training in Sport by one of his students Amy Balzell 
• How visualization (and maybe even YouTube) can help you prepare for race day and why
• How accountability partners or a team can help you succeed mentally and physically
• Why being on a team with people of various fitness levels and experiences is important for positive psychology as well as “vulnerability-trust”

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