Become an Emotional Master Athlete Part 2 of 2

As promised, here is part 2 of 2 of Become an Emotional Master Athlete by Dr. JIm Taylor.

What emotional style best describes you?  Think back to competitions you have performed in that did not go well. How did you respond emotionally?  Were you a seether, rager, brooder, or Zen master?  It's likely that a pattern of emotional reactions will emerge in your sport that place you into one of the four emotional styles.

Emotional styles are not easy to change. In fact, there is evidence that we are born with a particular temperament, in other words, we are "hard-wired" that way and rewiring our emotions is real challenge (though not impossible). A first goal is to gain control of your emotional style so that it helps rather than hurts your sports performance, with a more long-term goal of actually altering your emotional style in a way that allows it to naturally facilitate rather than interfere with your efforts toward your competitive goals.

Emotional Master or Victim
Many athletes believe that they are the way they are emotionally, have little control of their emotions, and there is nothing they can do to gain control of them. If their emotions hurt them, well, they just have to accept the situation because they can't do anything about it. I call these athletes emotional victims, where their emotions control them, they possess unhealthy and unproductive emotional habits, and their emotions hinder their ability to perform well and achieve their goals.

Despite these perceptions, my work has clearly shown that athletes are capable of becoming emotional masters. Athletes can gain control of their emotions. They can develop healthy and productive emotional habits. And their emotions can facilitate their ability to perform well and achieve their goals.
Emotions are a simple, but not easy, choice. They are a simple choice because if athletes have the option to feel badly and perform poorly or feel good and perform well, they will certainly choose the latter option. However, emotions are not an easy choice because their hard-wired temperament, past emotional baggage, and old emotional habits can lead athletes down the bad emotional road can cause them to respond emotionally in ways that are unhealthy and result in poor performance. The choice comes with awareness of when old emotional habits will arise and choosing a positive emotional response that will lead to good feelings and successful performance.

Will discuss throughout this and next week.