Q: “I’m a big fan, and believer, in your ‘mental game’ stuff, but I’m struggling with one thing! I totally get it that we should focus on our own performance and not that of others, based on the fact that one we have influence over (ourselves) and the other (our competitors) we don’t. BUT, if I make a goal to beat an individual competitor/team (or indeed, all of them; i.e., win a race/championship), am I making a mistake by focusing on the performance of others?”

A: There is a big difference between setting a goal of beating another competitor/team (or winning a race/championship), and focusing on them. One is a goal that is in the future, and the other is right here and now. Focusing on beating another driver means that is your right now, and that will take away from your performance – it’s likely you’ll not perform at your best because your focus is on someone/something else, and not something you can control.

So, it’s okay to have a goal of beating others. Hey, you probably wouldn’t be racing if you didn’t want to win! One could even argue that is why we race – to compete against, and beat, others. But the best way to do that is to perform at your very best, at your peak. And when you focus on others – your competition – you rarely perform at your best. Usually, you get caught up in either copying what others are doing, or being distracted by them. And that results in performing at less than your best.

When you focus on your own performance, you’re more likely to perform at your best – and more likely to beat your competition.

Go ahead and set a goal. Then focus on what you have to do to accomplish that goal – how you need to perform, and what do you need to do to make it happen.

I explain this further in my Inner Speed Secrets 201 eCourse (https://Learn.SpeedSecrets.com).