I received an email recently from someone who didn’t agree that self belief should take precedent over results. He didn’t like that I teach my students to “just believe, regardless of (and especially before) results.”

I normally don’t respond to this type of email, but needed to in this case to “back” my current students’ decisions to work their butts off, irregardless of outcome. I’m very passionate, believe deeply in my approach to the mental game, and especially committed to it’s affects on our lives off the playing field.

Self belief and confidence is a choice we make, not a result of our wins and losses. The levels of belief will definitely increase when we succeed, but our foundation will always be a decision we consciously make. This person is upset because he thinks I’m creating a false belief in my students, telling them to “just believe.” I’m not telling a 5 handicap to believe that he’ll win the US Open this year, or asking a high school tennis player to drop his classes to chase a professional career … but I AM telling them that with unwaivering self confidence, massive discipline, and committed passion for their goals, one day, they will have a chance!

I want each and every student I currently teach, and players I’ll teach in the future to know their belief system is what separates them from the rest. This is especially true when their plans don’t seem to be working as they visualized. The 1% Mindset is about sustaining a level of confidence through the difficult times, knowing the only thing that can stop you … is you! Your mindset dictates your path, decisions, and reactions!

The strength and conviction of your self belief doesn’t have to be a slave to outcome. You have two choices: Decide to believe in yourself, no matter what the result, or as my friendly neighborhood doubter would suggest … only after concrete results appear. The 1% laugh at the latter recommendation. What do you believe?

I’ve received such a huge response about the Pressure video I made for the 1% Academy, I thought I needed to revisit the topic. This subject has created a stir, in my opinion, because my take on Pressure is very much against the grain, causing people to question their rooted definition of the word. Since most are instinctively against major change, you can imagine the conversations I’ve had on the topic.

From the time my memory began, the definition of pressure has been hammered into my brain. Growing up as an athlete, learning how to “handle” or “deal” with pressure better than my opponents has been logged into my daily practice routines. I’ve been told by coaches, parents, and all the so-called experts that the only way to separate from the pack was to play better than them under this monster they named pressure.

As a tennis instructor, I naturally taught my students the same principles about pressure that everyone taught me, but as I began creating my mental performance base, something changed. Before I could teach anyone else how to develop their mental and emotional game, I first had to take a long, hard look at my own, both current and past. I quickly started seeing patterns in the way I approached pressure situations, and realized my body’s physical reaction to those moments were dictated by my perception of the moments.

I remember the day as if it was yesterday, when I first asked myself the question: Could it be possible that pressure didn’t really exist? Could it be that what I called pressure was actually just my thoughts creating specific emotional and physical reactions?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the courage at the time to “buck the system.” Being the young kid on the block, I didn’t posses the confidence or awareness that I controlled my confidence. So, rather than trying to change the way other coaches and players viewed pressure, I kept my new views on the inside, waiting until “tomorrow” to approach the topic.

Well, tomorrow has come … and it’s today! Since I couldn’t find any “experts” who agreed with me, I had to dive deep within, draw from every past competitive situation, and analyze in detail my reaction to this pressure monster. (Andy Morrison @AMGolfMindCoach on Twitter) is literally the only coach I could find who agrees with my viewpoint. That’s o.k., because I understand how unwilling most are about such a major change in their mindset.

After countless hours of self analyzation, my opinion on pressure has taken a 180 degree turn. Pressure moments do not exist! What we call pressure is simply our perception of the moment, creating an emotional and physical reaction. These reactions are definitely real, but they are created by our thoughts of the specific occasion. We have two ways of viewing these moments: With fear or excitement. When we understand that the physical reactions to these moments are all self-induced, rather than produced by some tangible creature named pressure, we’ll immediately bust free from our mental handcuffs.

Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, maybe the two most mentally tough athletes of all-time, will say they love and thrive under pressure, primarily because they don’t know any other term for this moment of consequence. What they’re really saying is they love the opportunity to change fear of failure into excitement for the challenge. It’s not pressure they love (because it doesn’t exist), it’s the 1% Mindset of choosing anticipation and fearlessness of the mental battle. They thrive on winning the fight that is process immersion vs. results thinking. Tiger and Michael learned at an early age that succumbing to the fear of “what if I fail” was death to their long term performance. They CHOSE to view each of these moments with enjoyment.

Change your mindset, change your life!

This past week, the 1% Academy was more successful than I could’ve imagined, primarily due to the participation we received during the evening discussions on Twitter. We covered five topics: Excuses, Pressure, Jitters, Freeing The Mind, and Fear Of The Miss. No matter the topic, one fact held true, and is what I want to talk about today.

The biggest difference between physical and mental practice is the immediate gratification you get when you do it correctly. When working on your physical game, you get automatic positive feedback when you’re improving. The mental game can be much different. Although you may be improving, very often, the results won’t show until much further down the road. This is very frustrating, especially if you’re putting in hours and hours of practice.

We all want IT right now — improvement, success, and the win. The physical game takes care of this craving if you’re doing it correctly, because you get that immediate feedback. When you hit a good shot, you see and feel it right away. Conversely, in the mental game, when you make a good decision and stay patient with your process, the result doesn’t always show it’s face until later… after many more hours of persistent practice. The mental and emotional game is primarily habit-based, specifically creating new habits, eliminating the ones that held you back in the past. The only way to accomplish this is daily repetition – more than most realize.

Whether we’re talking excuses, pressure, or fear of missing, the main component of your improvement will always be the decision to commit to the long term process. The details of the “how’s” mean nothing if you’re not completely dedicated to everything that needs to take place along the way: Failure, struggle, pain, frustration, excitement, loss, hope, passion, and even more struggle. Most people don’t fully commit to mental game achievement because it’s not tangible, therefore making them constantly doubt their efforts. Know in advance that the process of this journey is more difficult and time consuming than anything you’ve ever faced prior.

We covered five topics last week, all different in many ways, similar in some, but all under the same umbrella: The decision to commit to daily practice. Make a conscious decision that you’ll commit every fiber in your body to become 1% great!