There has probably been multiple times that you planned your whole day out, repeatedly checked your schedule to stay on track, and reduced as many distractions as possible to keep yourself from falling behind. You feel like you have accomplished everything on your “To-Do List” and nothing can stop you. The only problem is not everything always goes according to plan. One day it might be and other days you might have to re-plan your day. 

Having a strong focus on whatever you are trying to accomplish is great and all until your attention span starts to die out, you become too invested emotionally, or you let others pull you away from your main focus. You might hit a plateau, start getting in your own thoughts, emotionally attached, self-distract, etc. What do you do when that happens?

Instead of always trying to refocus after losing focus, I pre-plan my plan early. This decreases lost time, reduces multiple extra steps that aren’t needed, and just pre-plan my plan for the day. Are you wondering what I mean by that? Before bed I will look at my schedule and see what I need to do for the next day, the next day I do my schedule according to plan, and have a reset button planned out in my head just in case. Let me give you a couple examples in basketball terms:

Situation→ Reset Button→New Focus:

  1. Ref makes a bad call → wipe shoes → “Refs make mistakes too.”
  2. Crowd negative → fix headband → “I’d like to see them try.”
  3. Make a mistake → fix brace → “Basketball is a trial & error game.”
  4. Defender playing dirty → wipe hands → “I’ll beat them the old fashion way.”
  5. Winning at Half Time → shooting around → “Stay in the zone.”

Written by:

Sarah Grippi

Basketball Mindset