Soccer players that are resilient, confident and mentally tough have a few very important things in common. First, they have great self-awareness of their thoughts (meaning they are able to catch themselves and notice when they are overthinking or having automatic negative thoughts). Second, they’ve made the decision NOT TO LISTEN to that voice and instead replace it with other thoughts that are good, useful and constructive. 

To be intentional with our self-talk means to purposefully PICK our thoughts, not just let them do whatever they want. It means choosing to think about what WE want to think about. This is actually something that we do have full control over, even though it often feels like we don’t because the negative thoughts are so automatic. The negative thoughts are our default. This is exactly why good self-awareness comes BEFORE self-talk tools & strategies, it is only once we are aware of what is ACTUALLY going on in our brain (in the moment that it’s happening) that we can start to expand and explore how to change things. And how we change things is by coaching ourselves with intentional self-talk.