Polymath

Self improvement · Full roadmap · ~88 min read · 25 steps

🎯Improve your mental game

Train the mind skills that decide how you compete and perform

Activities in this path

Match pairsSort into zones

Skill tree

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Unit 1

1

Start here

Course overview

2

What the mental game actually is

The mental game is trainable

3

Nerves are fuel, not the enemy

Arousal is energy, not a problem to delete

4

The inverted-U and why too calm is also bad

The arousal-performance curve

5

Your own optimal zone

The individual zone of optimal functioning

Unit 2

Bringing yourself into the zone

Turning arousal up or down on demand

Channel the adrenaline instead of fighting it

Reframing nerves as excitement

Pressure versus choking

Choking is not just "feeling pressure"

Why choking happens

Overthinking an automatic skill

Routines that protect performance

What a routine is for

Unit 3

Controlling the controllables

Spend attention only where it counts

Focus on now, and recover it when it drifts

Present-focus and attention control

Cut the negative self-talk

What you say to yourself changes performance

Two kinds of useful self-talk

Instructional versus motivational self-talk

Build confidence from evidence

Self-efficacy and its four sources

Unit 4

Set goals that actually work

Process goals beat outcome goals

Visualisation done properly

Mental rehearsal that actually transfers

Growth mindset and reframing failure

Setbacks are information, not verdicts

Resilience and bouncing back

Recovery is a skill you rehearse

Flow, and how to set it up

The conditions for being "in the zone"

Unit 5

Handling a mistake mid-performance

The reset routine

Motivation that lasts

Intrinsic motivation and what fuels it

Common mistakes that wreck the mental game

What to stop doing

Build your mental training routine

A simple weekly and game-day plan

Where to go next

Where to go next

Start unit 1