[Athlete Tip] Stop the Spiral: How to Get Out of Your Head

Athletes, does your brain ever hijack you with “What if I choke?” or “What if I let everyone down?” before a big moment? This episode is your playbook to crush those mental spirals and unlock your confidence. Let’s GO.

What’s Covered

✅ Why your brain LOVES negativity (and how to rewire it).
✅ The #1 exercise to flip fear into fuel (spoiler: all you need is a pen!).
✅ Why worst-case scenarios are WAY less likely than you think.
✅ How to create a “positive snowball effect” (hint: focus is everything).
✅ Real-life proof: Hear how athlete Isabelle smashed her mental blocks and scored 6 personal bests in one competition.

Ready to ditch the overthinking and play with fearless focus? Tap into the full episode for my step-by-step strategy – plus the exact phrases to say to yourself when your brain starts spiraling. Hit play now and let’s get you out of your head and into your greatness.

P.S. Share this with a teammate who needs it! 🏆

Episode Highlights: 

[00:00:00] Episode Intro. Addressing the mental trap of negative ‘what if’ spirals in sports and teasing a game-changing mindset shift to break free.

[00:00:50] Shoutout to Isabelle. Celebrating Isabelle’s mental breakthrough in her heptathlon, including a 23-second PR in her 800m race.

[00:01:36] Today’s Tip: Stop the Spiral. The episode’s focus: A practical strategy to escape negative thought loops and regain mental control.

[00:02:00] Why Negative Thoughts Happen. Explains how the brain’s survival instincts fuel negativity and why sports require overriding this default.

[00:03:02] The “What If” Spiral Strategy. Introducing the core exercise: Flipping fear-based “what ifs” into empowering possibilities.

[00:04:00] Step 1: List Negative “What Ifs”. Practical prompt to pause and write down fears (e.g., “What if I embarrass myself?”).

[00:05:34] Step 2: Flip to Positive “What Ifs”. Guides listeners to reframe fears into hopeful scenarios (e.g., “What if I surprise myself?”).

[00:06:00] Which List is More Realistic? Encourages comparing both lists, emphasizing that positive outcomes are often more likely.

[00:08:00] The Snowball Effect of Focus. How dwelling on negativity (or positivity) creates self-fulfilling mental momentum.

[00:09:00] Wrap-Up and Call to Action. Final encouragement to share the episode and take control of mindset.

Next Steps:

• Join our FREE Training for Sports Moms - How to Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter's Mental Game so She Believes in Herself as Much as You Do
• Visit our podcast website for more great episodes

Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission and leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Athletes, do you get stuck inthe negative?
What if spiral and does it feellike sometimes you'll never get
out?
You are constantly thinkingabout what could go wrong.
Then this episode is for you.
Welcome back to the RaisingElite Competitors podcast.
I'm Coach Saylor, a mentalperformance coach for athletes
in our community, and today I'mgoing to be sharing a mindset

(00:22):
shift that you can make todaythat will help you navigate.
The spiral.
When you are in your head,anytime you have a negative
thought that is holding youback, I'm so excited to get in
today's tip.
Before we do that.
I wanna give a quick shout outto Isabelle.
Isabelle is an athlete in theelite mental game, our mental

(00:43):
training program for girlathletes, and she messaged us
saying, hi.
So I did my first heptathlonyesterday and today and holy
moly, I did so amazing mentally.
I got a personal best in six outof seven of my events.
And I usually fall apart reallybad before my 800 meter race,
and I stayed so strong and wentinto it so positive that I ran a

(01:07):
23 second personal best.
Thank you for everything.
Isabelle, we are so incrediblyproud of you.
We know how hard you've workedfor this and you really took
control of your mindset, in thiscompetition and it helped you
perform your best.
Congrats.
We are so thankful you are apart of our elite mental game

(01:27):
community as well.
Okay, so now let's get intotoday's athlete tip.
Stop the spiral and get out ofyour head.
First things first, I want youto know that negative thoughts
are normal.
There's nothing wrong with you.
You are human.
Humans have negative thoughts,and actually as humans, we are

(01:50):
biased to unfortunately thinknegatively.
We have a negativity tendency.
We have negative thoughtsactually to protect us.
Our brain's number one job is tokeep us safe.
So we are constantly looking outfor danger for things that are
unfamiliar to us in ourenvironment, negative things

(02:12):
happening around us.
And this is often counteractivefor us, right?
We don't usually want to bethinking all of these negative
thoughts and sports aretypically a place where we are
actually safe and a place wherea lot of positivity and
productivity happens.
So your brain needs to know thatit is okay to get out of your

(02:35):
comfort zone, to fail, to makemistakes, to change, to fall
short.
So just know your negativethoughts are normal, but you
cannot stay stuck there.
You cannot let them keep youstuck and keep you from holding
back from being your best.
And so let's get into thisstrategy that I'm going to be

(02:58):
sharing.
One of the best tools is to flipthe what if spiral, the what if
things go wrong, mindset.
And I'm going to walk youthrough exactly how to do that
in this episode.
And I bet if you are in yourhead, you're going down the
negative.
What if spiral?
What if I mess up?
What if my teammate gets mad atme?
What if my coach pulls me outtathe game and yells at me?

(03:21):
What if I let people down?
What if I embarrass myself?
What if I lose?
What if I don't play how I'vebeen practicing?
What if I get hurt?
What if the ball gets stolenfrom me?
What if, what if?
What if?
Right?
That's probably what is goingthrough your head most of the
time.
That negative.
What if spiral.
Oof.
Okay.
Pause if you are able to.

(03:44):
We're gonna walk through thisexercise just for you, so I
would love for you to get out ajournal and a pen or maybe open
up the notes app on your phone.
And I want you to write downwhatever negative what if
thoughts are coming up for you.
What are you typically thinking?
What is that spiral for you?
And I want you to just get themout of your head and into

(04:06):
writing.
So if you're able to do this, goahead and pause the podcast and
then come back.
Once you have completed thatstep and journaled out those
negative, what if thoughts thatcome up for you?
All right, so now we have thosenegative, unproductive what if
thoughts?
Now we're going to completelyflip this.
We are going to shift andtransform your mindset.

(04:30):
So instead of thinking what ifthings go wrong?
Now I want you to think of whatif things go right.
What if you play withconfidence?
What if all the skills you'vebeen working on in practice.
Show up in your performance.
What if your teammates supportyou and cheer you on?
What if your coach gives you ahigh five?
What if you start?
What if you win?

(04:51):
What if you make yourself andothers really proud?
What if you are safe?
What if you take risks that workout?
What if you make a great play?
This is where your mindset isgoing to go.
This is how.
We start getting out of the whatif spiral and we flip it and we
are actually able to go on apositive what if spiral.

(05:15):
So now same thing.
If you're able to, I want you topause the podcast in a second.
I want you to make a list ofeverything that could go right
for you and your sport.
The positive what ifs that couldhappen.
And it's probably going to be alot of the opposite of what you
just wrote down in that previouslist.
I want you to let your brain getcreative, really come up with

(05:38):
what success could happen foryou.
So pause the video, go make anew list of what could go right,
and then come back when you'redone.
And I want you to think aboutboth of those lists.
The negative what if list, andthe positive what if list, which
one is more realistic, which oneis more likely to actually

(05:59):
happen?
Is it more likely thateverything goes wrong for you
when you've been working sohard, showing up, improving day
in and day out?
Or is it more likely that thingsactually work out for you, that
things go right for you, thatyou play to your potential or
close to it?

(06:20):
I can almost guarantee that itis more likely that things go
right for you.
Okay.
This should give you a sense ofrelief, right?
It is unrealistic that thatworst case scenario actually
happens for you.
That all of those negative whatifs happen, and if the off
chance that some of those thingsdo happen that they do come

(06:42):
true.
I know that you can get throughthose things because you have
probably gotten through all ofthose things that are on your
list before.
Yeah.
Maybe you've let people downbefore, maybe you've made a
mistake, you've lost games.
Right, but guess what?
You've survived all of thoseworst case moments and you can
make it through again, okay?

(07:04):
It is going to be more likelythat the best case scenario
happens for you.
Trust your training.
Show up with what you have,okay?
You have put in the work.
It is time to think of whatcould actually go right and stop
letting your mindset hold youback.
Right.
Get out of your own head andstart thinking of what could

(07:26):
actually go right.
So the next time you startfalling into the what if things
go wrong, spiral.
I want you to pause to take adeep breath and to switch to
thinking about what could goright.
And maybe you just start bythinking of one thing that could
actually go right for you.
Okay?
And then it's going to be like asnowball effect.

(07:46):
What we focus on, we are goingto find.
So if you are focusing on whatcould go wrong.
Yeah, you are going to findthings that are gonna go wrong.
It's gonna start with onethought and that negative
snowball is gonna start rollingdown the hill out of control.
But the great news is what wefocus on, we are going to find,

(08:06):
so you can actually have oneproductive, positive thought.
You could think of one thingthat could go right and now
you're gonna be on the lookoutfor more things that could go
right.
And now we're gonna have apositive snowball.
That starts small.
It starts rolling down thathill, and it's going to get
bigger and bigger.
It's gonna collect lots ofevidence of everything that

(08:28):
could go right, and now you areactually getting the outcomes
that you want, and you are outof your own head.
You are trusting yourself andyour abilities.
You control your mindset, youcontrol your responses, you
control your thoughts that youallow to have power over you.
Choose the thoughts that serveyou.

(08:50):
If this hit home for you andhelped you in some way, I want
you to send it to a teammate, afriend, a sibling, someone else
that could benefit from gettingout of the negative.
What if Spiral?
Thank you so much for tuning into another episode.
And we will see you next time onthe Raising Elite Competitors
podcast.