In my last post, I described some competitive lessons you must learn from the world’s best athletes to play your best in Prime Time, which I defined as being the biggest game of your life against the toughest field under the most difficult conditions. This week, I will delve into the minds of some of the world’s best athletes and uncover the mental lessons you must also learn to play your best and achieve your goals. These mental lessons are especially important as you head into the most important games of the season, such as March Madness. 1. Believe in your ability. One thing that separates the best athletes in the world from the rest of us is that they have a deep and resilient belief in their ability to play their best. Even when they’re not playing well, instead of going to the “dark side” (i.e., going from being their best ally to their worst enemy) they never lose faith in themselves and continue to be on their own side. For everyone else, developing confidence in your ability is one of the biggest challenges you face. Many athletes don’t have that deeply ingrained belief in their capabilities. I see this often in games. For example, a basketball player misses a few shots early in a game. He then begins to doubt himself and, instead of taking the open shot, passes the ball to a teammate. It’s a mistake for the player in the last example to give up just because he hasn’t started the game well. The mental lesson you can learn from world’s best athletes is that no matter how you start off or how many mistakes you make, you can still get back in the game (literally and metaphorically) and have a good game, but only if you stay positive stay motivated to play your best the remainder of the game. Building confidence in your game is no different than for the world’s best athletes. It takes thousands of hits, shots, spikes, runs, and rides, a positive attitude, meticulous preparation, support from others, and, of course, success. But, for every athlete, from the bottom to the top, it starts with a commitment to believe in yourself no matter how bad it gets. This belief will serve you especially well in Prime Time. You may believe that you can play well under normal circumstances. You have probably put in a lot of time at practice that supports your belief. But the question is whether you can play that well in the most important game of your life against the toughest field of competitors you have ever faced? The lesson you can learn from the best athletes in the world is to develop such a belief in your play that you truly know that you can play your best when you absolutely need to. This belief in your play gives you the confidence to go for it in Prime Time.