Have you ever wondered what sets a top athlete apart in their sport? You know, the one that always seems to have that winning edge?

Well firstly, we have to recognise the sacrifice they make.  What the average sports fan doesn’t see is the hours of training, the trips to the medical team to overcome injury, the long and meticulous hours of practice done well away from the limelight.  We just see the few moments of “trophy glory” without all the hours of discipline.

They also need a basic form of natural talent and athletic ability to start with.  You don’t see many of them with “two left feet.” In fact, they have this “killer instinct” which makes them competitive. And they absolutely must have the desire to succeed, the drive to win, and be the best in their chosen sport.  This desire gets them through all the hours of practice and hard times.

And how is it all developed?  Not only through physical conditioning, but also psychological.  A self-belief that they are the best at what they do, or are on their way to becoming the best.  And this is not just developed overnight.  The mind and body have to work together, and to be the best it takes time.  Just as the physical practice is continually developed, so the mind process is also a continual “work in progress”.

Well known movie star, politician, and professional body builder, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said many people asked him about the years he was training in body building.  They’d ask, “Didn’t you hate all the hours of lifting, and the pain you went through in the gym?”

Arnold’s response was, “I liked the pain because I knew it was taking me just one step closer to my goals and dreams with each lift.  Even when my arms couldn’t lift anymore, I knew every rep was taking me closer to being the Body Building Champion of the World.”

Powerful when you consider it.  He simply associated the pain to pleasure.  It was a process.

The psychology of sport really is the psychology of life.

How you think, shapes your behaviour.  What you believe affects your performance, and ultimately your results!

Have you ever had a frustrating day on the golf greens?  For some reason the swing is always slicing the drive.

It can be one of the greatest challenges to get “everything to work”.  And what’s more it was all fine last week or at the practice range, but today it just didn’t want to come together.

Sometimes you’ll hear winning athletes talk about how on the day “everything just seemed to flow!” They got into a state where their performance had synchronicity. It all came together, and in the end, they had an enjoyable day walking through the motions of winning.

Wouldn’t be great to never step out of that state or flow?

We have to recognise that “flow” is more about a learned behaviour; a developed process, which when successfully repeated, becomes a behavioural habit which brings consistent results.

When you think about it this way, it really simplifies the understanding of how good or bad behaviours develop and change.

When I began to discover this I started to apply it to my wealth creation and mostly to the area of trading.  You see trading is an area where psychology makes all the difference in the success of the trade.

Two basic emotions drive the rollercoaster rides of the market.  They are fear and greed.  And I discovered when you begin to recognise their power, you become “aware”.  And for traders this awareness allows them to recognise what’s at play, and develop strategies to assist them to master their own emotions.  When this happens they can simply “step out-of-the game” emotionally.

For a professional trader, making money and losing money becomes a detached experience.  Ideally, mechanical!  When they have a systemised strategy their trading simply becomes a state of “being” in the moment.

They are detached emotionally and psychologically, walking through the motions in their flow to bring them success!

At Trading Institute we teach about the mindset of professional traders, as well as the systems they develop to bring them success.  It’s what sets them apart in the market where thousands of dollars exchange hands daily!

Discover more on the professional mindset of traders through Trading Institute. Get instant access to your FREE introductory class “7 Things You MUST Know about Options Trading.”

DISCLAIMER: Trading Institute is not a licensed financial planning firm. We are simply an education company, who will give you factual information. We do not give any general or specific advice around options, trading, or anything else.  Please see a licensed financial planner when it comes to any investment advice you need.