Janne Mortensen is a Danish performance coach and founder of Mental Motion, where she specializes in mental training for athletes, especially youth and elite performers. With a background in psychology and competitive sports, Janne helps athletes build emotional resilience, manage pressure, and develop identity beyond achievements. She works closely with both individuals and families to foster environments that support long-term well-being and high performance.
What does it really mean to perform under pressure, and at what cost? In this thought-provoking episode, I sit down with performance coach and psychologist Janne to explore how today’s high-achievement culture impacts young athletes, families, and our collective sense of self-worth.
Janne works with athletes aged 15 and up, and she’s seen firsthand how self-sabotage, early specialization, burnout, and identity loss creep in, especially when love feels conditional and value is measured by medals. But this conversation is about more than sports. It’s about unlearning the toxic patterns that reward perfection over presence and redefining success on healthier, more human terms.
From process-focused training to emotional rewiring, she offers practical tools to help athletes, parents, and coaches break free from toxic performance culture.
In this episode, expect to learn:
- The hidden toll of performance pressure in youth sports
- Why “being enough” feels out of reach for so many athletes
- The trap of conditional love and the sunk cost fallacy
- How shame and perfectionism feed self-sabotage
- Creating emotionally safe environments at home and on the field
- Why we must separate identity from achievements
- Tools to build self-acceptance, inner safety, and long-term motivation
- The difference between mental toughness and true inner strength
- Plus much more
Whether you're raising an athlete, coaching a team, or healing your own relationship with success, this conversation will challenge your thinking and leave you with strategies to move from burnout to balance.
Follow Janne:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janne-r-mortensen-b0ab1624/
- Website: https://mentalmotion.dk/
Let's Connect.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanielMCianci
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@redefiningwisdom
Email: https://www.redefiningwisdom.com/contact-2/
Website: https://www.redefiningwisdom.com/
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