Is “Mindset Coaching” the Key to Reaching All Your Goals?

Imagine this: You’re at the gym trying to hit a new PR on the treadmill. You’ve been training for several months and you think you’re ready. But then you don’t hit your goal — what do you do? Get frustrated, let your emotions take over, and stop running? Or do you pause, reset, and keep going? If you skew towards the former, you may benefit from mindset coaching.

There are a LOT of feelings that come up while working out, from joy and excitement to pain and frustration. However, just as you’re training your body to jump higher, run faster, lift heavier, and hold a plank longer, it’s equally beneficial to train your mind . . . especially if there’s a particular goal you’re trying to meet. That’s why some of the biggest names in professional sports swear by mindset coaching (AKA mental conditioning) which tackles not only the physical, grueling practice of training for a sport, but also the way your mind functions while you’re working on those physical goals.

“You want your movement and your thoughts to both be on autopilot,” explains Akin Akman, the well-known co-founder and CEO of AARMY, a studio that trains clients in the same way pro athletes train, with mental conditioning embedded in the physical practice. It’s where I first discovered the concept, after recovering from a devastating knee surgery that required almost a year of physical therapy. I was left with only 85 percent strength in my left quad and was convinced I’d never get back to 100. According to Akman, that was my first mistake. What your mind believes, your body follows, he says.

Akin Akman is a fitness coach and the co-founder and CEO of AARMY, an NYC-based fitness studio.

Jonathan Fader, PhD, is a sports performance psychologist with his own practice, SportsStrata.

Mindset coaching is a form of sports psychology based on controlling your emotional responses when you’re tackling any major goal. (While it’s sports-centric, it’s important to note that the technique is easily translatable to many different facets of life, including things like work and personal life.) Research from The Journal of Neurochemistry has shown that our brains are malleable; we can easily build new habits and form new beliefs through practices such as repetition, affirmations, visualizations, and meditation.

“Most of us have certain thoughts and habits on repeat every day and they’re not always positive,” says sports performance psychologist Jonathan Fader, PhD, a sports performance psychologist who’s used mindset coaching to help clients — including pro athletes, high-powered CEOs, and everyday people — achieve their goals both in and out of the gym for over two decades. “When we mindset train, what we’re essentially doing is making sure that the things we believe and tell ourselves are positive and in accordance with helping us achieve our goals.”

For example, if one of your fitness goals is to hold a plank for three minutes and you keep dropping it, you’ll likely think it isn’t possible. While you’re in that plank, you’ll probably convince yourself to tap out much earlier than you normally would. But if your thoughts are more positive, you’ll automatically hold it longer, since your brain will focus on solutions as opposed to problems.

It sounds simple enough, but this isn’t our brain’s default setting, especially in stressful situations that activate our fight-or-flight response. It’s the repetition and consistent coaching that rewires the brain to form a belief system that says ‘I can do it,’ in turn helping you reach that goal. It kickstarts a positive feedback loop—you believe you can do it, so you do it, which in turn reinforces that belief even more. And then your next goal also doesn’t seem as insurmountable.

However, it’s worth mentioning that mental conditioning doesn’t mean you don’t feel negative emotions such as nervousness, stress, or anger. Rather, it’s about being able to perform regardless of their presence. “You can’t control the emotions, but all emotion is good emotion,” adds Akman. “You just need to know how to channel it.”

It’s also important to say that mindset coaching isn’t a panacea, and it’s both harmful and incorrect to tell people with chronic illness or disabilities that mindset coaching or any a self-help strategy can “cure” them. Rather, mindset coaching is a method that can help you overcome mental roadblocks that may be holding you back in ways you can’t see.

There are two different ways experts use mindset coaching—prior to the physical movement and during it. It’s easy to utilize both, depending on your own preferences and receptivity. Dr. Fader creates what he calls a pre-performance routine for his clients that they use every day prior to their physical practice or any big event, such as a presentation or meeting. Meanwhile at AARMY, Akman uses positive affirmations and visualization during the physical practice itself. Both approaches have the same goal of rewiring your thought patterns.

“The first thing I do when I get a new client is focus on their particular goals, whether that’s in work or life,” says Dr. Fader. “We get down to why they want the things they want, which serves as their motivation to stick to the practices I tell them to incorporate. The practices can sometimes be very unfamiliar and there’s a lot of resistance, so focusing on the ‘why’ helps them stay the course.” Then, he develops a system of set goals for each client—be it having a tough conversation with a business partner or sprinting a three-minute mile—along with practices to incorporate before they attempt to achieve said goal.

“You want to regulate your nervous system and flood your brain with positive thinking, so that your emotions don’t take over when you’re achieving your goal,” Dr. Fader explains. “Depending on the client, the routine can involve journaling, meditation, affirmations, visualization, gratitude, or talk therapy. They do this every day, but even more so right before the stressful event.” The theory is that this regimented practice will create a calmness in the body that lasts through the stressful event, allowing for successful completion of the goal.

Akman also talks about mindset, but says the real impact comes when you’re in the midst of a particular activity. Since your sympathetic nervous system (also known as your fight-or-flight response) is on autopilot during exercise, listening to affirmations during stressful circumstances can affect your subconscious thought patterns and rewrite your belief systems, even when you’re not aware of it. To do that, Akman suggests clients use shorter phrases that are easy to remember, even in stressful settings. Some examples he offers: “If you can see it, you can be it,” “You can do the hard things,” and “Focus on your win: what’s important now.”

“Incorporating mindset training into your life basically means you’re fostering a growth mindset,” says Dr. Fader. “You’re becoming more self-aware, and can get out of negative thinking spirals way before they start creating any significant damage.” And there’s no denying that that’s hugely beneficial, both on and off the proverbial court.

In fact, research found that student athletes who went through mindset coaching displayed more mental toughness and could deal with stress more effectively, which translated to better performance both on the field and in their day-to-day life. This is because these new thought patterns are wired for any stressful situation, whether that’s a difficult fight with a partner or a race you lost.

“It changes everything in your life,” says Akman. “It impacts how you deal with stress and disappointment, and even how you deal with winning. You show up with things to say and how to problem-solve, as opposed to being defeated. If one thing doesn’t work out, you’re programmed to find another way.”

Other benefits of mindset coaching include being less reactive, as well as having higher confidence levels. “When you’re finally aware of your thoughts and recognize them quickly, you start responding, rather than reacting,” says Dr. Fader. “For example, if a soccer player retaliates to a foul by pushing the other player because they’re angry, then they’ve lost the game in their heads before they’ve lost it in real life—simply because they didn’t take the time to think and realize that reaction would make things worse.”

This also translates to work scenarios. If you respond to a frustrating client with anger, you’ve already lost the deal. But if you control your reaction and can talk yourself into responding in a positive way, the likelihood of maintaining a cordial relationship is much higher. “I’m trying to make sure you don’t get frustrated when things get difficult when you’re practicing [athletically], which then translates to day-to-day life when you’re also bound to get frustrated,” says Akman. “If you focus on the disappointment rather than the next opportunity you have to be better, you’ve already lost.”

A study from the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice found that students who were trained to foster a growth mindset displayed more confidence in their entrepreneurial journeys, which then influenced their educational performance positively. “What you believe is what comes true, especially when it comes to academic and athletic ability,” adds Dr. Fader. This is something I can personally attest to. When I actually believed I could push through athletic challenges, I was astounded by the way my body responded and how I performed in ways I wasn’t able to pre- knee injury. I had more endurance, could hold planks for much longer, and even did moves like L-sits, weighted step ups, and roll ups.

Both the experts we spoke with note that life is a sport. Point being, all the tools used for athletic training can easily translate to everything else we do. The same skills athletes use can apply to any playing field, be that a work goal, a health goal, or a personal goal, says Dr. Fader. We’re all playing some kind of “sport” every single day and all have a certain mentality we bring to every situation. We need to train our minds to think the way the top players of the world do, he adds.

Long story short: You don’t need to be trying to qualify for the Olympics to reap the benefits of mindset coaching. It’s applicable before a client meeting, a difficult conversation with your in-laws, or even writing an email you don’t want to send. The bottom line is preparing for any stressful event in a way that regulates your emotions, so your mind is fixed on problem-solving. That’s why Dr. Fader recommends having a set, mindset coaching-based routine every morning, doubling down on it on days that are more stressful.

Play around with different practices and see what works for you. Michael Phelps has famously said he relied on visualization before the Olympics, picturing both successes and potential obstacles so that he could work through them in his mind. One study found that athletes who focused more on gratitude experienced fewer symptoms of burnout, and tended to have more supportive relationships with their coaches. “You can do a combination of practices or just pick one. The important thing is to stay consistent,” Dr. Fader advises.

Affirmations are also one of the most-used tactics in mental conditioning. A study published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience found that the continued use of affirmations changed neural patterns in the brain, forming new belief systems quickly. “I add it to my sessions along with the movement, music, and atmosphere. They’re all state-shifting, so that you can recondition who you actually are and what you can actually do,” explains Akman. To do this at the gym, you can record your own affirmations to play while working out, in order to mimic a similar emotional response.

If I can’t get to AARMY before a stressful day, I listen to affirmations I’ve recorded on my phone, that are on the AARMY app, or on Akman’s Instagram account. This routine undeniably helps me face whatever I need to get through without crumbling under pressure. Case in point: A few months ago, I lost a high-paying freelance contract due to company restructuring. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and crumbling into a ball like I may have in the past, I quickly realized that I needed to “get my mind right” (to quote Akman). I spent the rest of the day sending reach-out emails and applying to other jobs; within a week, I had not one, but two new contracts in hand. “You take the coaching with you even when you leave here,” explains Akman. “That’s who you become, especially because it’s your daily practice.”

Yes and no. It’s kind of like therapy—there are certain phases when you need it more than others, depending on what’s going on in your life. “It takes years to rewire your brain from its default settings, and there are certain stressful times when you feel less emotionally resilient than others,” says Dr Fader. “It’s recommended to keep doing the practices every day to keep your momentum going.” If you stop for a bit, you’re still likely to retain most of it, but it’s the repetition that really keeps it at the forefront of your brain (and impacts your subsequent actions).

There’s a famous quote attributed to the author Anais Nin: “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” Perception is everything, so when we perceive our goals as more attainable, we are more likely to achieve them. We won’t be as detracted by (perceived) bad days or difficult situations, and will instead be better conditioned to find a solution.

My experience with my knee injury is a perfect example. When I graduated from physical therapy, I was told that 85 percent strength was a great number that I should be happy about. By adopting this belief system, I automatically hindered myself and didn’t push as hard as my body was actually capable of. Within a year of going to AARMY, adopting mental conditioning techniques, and focusing on how to get through the difficult moments of training with new belief patterns, my yearly checkup showed an improvement of 101 percent. The doctors were shocked, but I wasn’t. I believed it would happen and it did.

Nikhita Mahtani is a PS contributor and freelance writer who covers food, wellness, travel, and design. She’s also written for GQ, Shape, Well+Good, Health, SELF, Women’s Health, and more.