How To Bounce Back From Injury

The CEP Mindset Podcast

Getting injured is one of the biggest challenges in sport.

So having the mental strategies to overcome this adversity will help you:

● Stay motivated despite not being able to play or train within the sport you love.

● Have the resilience & grit to persevere through the recovery process.

● Remain confident in your abilities and trust yourself as you return to play.

● Focus on being a great teammate and becoming a better leader as you look to contribute to the team in other ways.

Strategy 1: Reflect On Your Mindset Daily

It is so easy to get caught up on what you can’t do and all the things not going your way. So you want to focus on what you can do – mental training, being a leader, rehab, catch up on other areas of life. Then you need to reflect on how well you are focusing on what you can do and making the most out of it versus being negative – blaming, complaining, and focus on what I can’t do. This is not about being positive – that won’t work. Instead, it is about staying centred or neutral.

Step 2: ‘Scuba Dive’ to Make Progress

The hardest part of being injured is watching everyone else continue to train and compete. Playing your sport is like surfing, but when injured, you are not able to surf – so you are just stuck in the ocean taking waves to the face. It sucks and it is overwhelming. So the solution is not to swim away, but actually to put on your scuba gear, stay close by, and keep making progress under the water.

Strategy 3: Find New Ways to Contribute – aka Be a Leader

If you apply the first two strategies, you are already getting into a better mental state and will be primed to step into being a leader.

This strategy has two major benefits: Here are a few key ways you can continue to contribute to the team without being able to play:

Provide 1-on-1 Encouragement: Think about which teammates are struggling or could benefit from a helpful reminder to trust their capabilities or that they can get the next play.

Be a Beacon of Light: Bring upbeat energy, keep it light and have some fun – although you are not playing you are still affecting the culture of the team with both your body language, what you say, and how you say it.

Coach Individuals or the Team: I don’t mean to replace the coaching staff but instead focus on how you can give feedback that helps athletes keep learning and growing.

I encourage you to share this with anyone that is dealing with an injury – I’ve experienced the mental struggle myself as an athlete, and we see it daily with the athletes that come work with us at CEP Mindset – so if this video can help a few more athletes out there – then that is a win – so thanks for sharing.

If you are injured and/or want some 1-on-1 Mental Performance coaching then click link below to learn more.

https://cepmindset.com/