This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.
For the last two years, I’ve talked to athletes, coaches, professors and psychologists to better understand what it takes mentally to perform at the highest level.
One theme has consistently surfaced: The importance of internal habits, or subtle mental shifts and tools, that can gradually reshape patterns of thought.
Every time I hear a new one, it reinforces the idea that high performers often reach that level not just because of talent but because of how they think. I’ve even incorporated several of these unique mental “tricks” into my life.
These are my five favorites:
Learn, burn, return
Performance coach Cindra Kamphoff believes people perform at their best when they can stay confident and fully present — two qualities she says are essential for reaching a “flow state.”
Her method for getting there? Learn, burn, return.
This is how it works:
First, quickly address exactly what you are overthinking: a conversation you had with someone, a bad moment at work, a mistake you made in a game. Then ask yourself: What would I do differently next time? The goal is to reflect briefly and objectively, without spiraling into rumination.
Once you have the lesson, move on to Step 2: “burn.” Here, you choose a short phrase paired with a physical action to help release the thought — or “burn it.”
Former NFL wide receiver Adam Thielen used the phrase “flush it” while mimicking the motion of flushing a toilet, a gesture he sometimes did on the sidelines during games.
Kamphoff emphasizes that the physical cue matters because pairing movement with language helps reinforce a new neural pathway. It trains the brain to let go and refocus in real time.
If “flush it” doesn’t resonate, Kamphoff’s go-to might: Snapping your fingers while saying “that fast” to signal the thought is leaving your mind just as quickly. I’ve done this one myself a few times since our interview.
Step 3 is “return,” which means readjusting so you can “return” to the present moment with confidence. Your focus goes to your body language and self-talk. Here, you quickly remind yourself that you know what you’re doing and you are capable. Kamphoff said most people don’t build their confidence after a mistake, and instead let it undermine their self-belief.
External vs. internal attention
Alex Cohen, a senior sports psychologist for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, said one of the first ideas he introduces to athletes he works with is the difference between external and internal attention.
When we focus our attention internally, he said, we tend to overcontrol our movements and our feelings.
For example, in golf, concentrating on keeping your wrist stiff through a swing instead of focusing on hitting the ball toward the green can interrupt the “flow” state, or smooth automatic processing. It’s our ability to perform tasks quickly and efficiently, like we already know how to, without a lot of conscious thought about it.
So Cohen tells Olympians to have external focus cues to avoid that.
For example, if you were doing a squat exercise in a workout or physical therapy and someone told you that you need to keep your knees out, that’s an internal focus cue.
Instead, if they told you to focus on pushing your knees against the band you’re wearing, that would cause you to focus on something external.
It’s just using something in your environment.
The same principle could apply to something like squat jumps. Instead of saying “explode with your legs,” a more effective cue would be “push through the floor.”
Puzzles and crosswords
Iga Swiatek, the No. 3 tennis player in the world, works on crossword puzzles or sudoku before matches to sharpen her mind.
Just as athletes are supposed to stretch and warm up their muscles, puzzles warm up our brain’s neural pathways, increasing our mental alertness and processing speed.
“When you learn something new or solve a tricky puzzle, your brain forms new pathways,” said Dr. Oriana Cornett, a neurologist at St. Joseph’s Health. “These pathways improve your ability to remember, focus and solve problems.”
At the same time, the puzzles are calming and logical, which lowers Swiatek’s stress beforehand. It started when she did something similar years ago: completing math homework before matches. However, after graduating, she had to replace her homework with puzzles.
Squashing “ANTS”
Olympian Kendell Williams said what helped her to stop second-guessing herself was squashing “ANTs” or “Automatic Negative Thoughts.”
These are the quick thoughts that come and go.
For Williams, something like, “How am I supposed to move past this,” after making a mistake, or “I feel like something bad is going to happen” when not feeling her best before competing.
Williams pretends to squash the “ANTs” in her head as a visual, cognitive-behavioral technique to overcome that cynical voice.
The acronym ANTS was coined by Dr. Daniel Amen, a physician and double-board-certified psychiatrist. Amen said ANTS were negative thoughts that “infest” a person’s mind, much like ants invading a home.
Dr. Daniel Amen’s “Kill the ANTs” technique involves treating negative thoughts as something separate, like pests, rather than truths or part of your identity.
When Williams has a negative thought, she tells herself: It’s just an ANT.
Then she asks herself if the thought is even true, a key step in Amen’s process, before actively replacing the negative thought with a positive thought.
For example, Williams has changed, “I’ll never reach that goal” to “I do have the skills for it and work really hard every day, there shouldn’t be a reason I’m not capable of getting there.”
Forms of recovery need to match your stress
Dr. Kirsten Cooper, a performance psychologist and former Team USA skier, said most of us are wired to always push through. Because of that, we tend to forget to slow down and think about what gives us energy, and what could be draining it.
She tells athletes she works with to start by asking themselves, “After I do this activity, do I feel depleted or rejuvenated?”
From there, she said, it helps to think in categories.
Recovery has to match the type of stress.
Cooper gave this example: When you work a job where you have to make a lot of decisions, recovery like sleep might not make you feel better. Mental fatigue from decision-making needs mental rest, such as time when no problems need to be solved.
Cooper said there are several distinct types of rest.
Sensory rest: Stepping away from screens and noise.
Creative rest: Sitting and letting your brain wander for some time without an agenda.
Social rest: Choosing connections that feel easy rather than draining.
Emotional rest: A time where you don’t have to manage how you’re coming across or hold space for others.
When you start recognizing which “tank” is empty, she said, you can target your recovery.
