By: Stephen Pratt, LMFT
Consistency is the hallmark of Big Guy Fantasy Sports. It is this concept that grabbed my attention and led me to purchase Bob Lung’s consistency guide for both fantasy football and baseball. My article will focus on the mental aspects to maintain consistency as you navigate any of your fantasy sports seasons. Consistency is defined as “the quality of always behaving or performing in a similar way, or of always happening in a similar way.” Mark Thompson in his book “Don’t Bump the Record Kid, My Adventure of Mark and Brian” addressed the importance of consistency as a radio jock when he wrote, “anybody can pull off a good show now and then, but the great ones do it everyday.” Here are some ideas to establish a “system,” and improve your ability to “do it every day.” Bob Lung would consider this as having “clutch games” or weeks. The article will help you improve “clutch” mental acuity.
One idea that comes to my mind when it comes to facing consistency challenges is developing your “bag of tricks.” This was something I remember from watching the cartoon, Felix the Cat by Otto Messmer. The theme song stated, “Whenever he gets in a fix, he reaches into his bag of tricks.”
Embed from Getty Images
His yellow polka dot “bag of tricks” could turn into whatever he needed at the moment to handle any crisis situation. For consistency it is important to have a well diversified “bag of tricks.” Let me describe some consistency tools.
One skill to master is eliminate negative thinking. A.A. calls it “stinking thinking,” Dr. Amen in his book, “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life“ calls negative thinking “A.N.T’s” or “automatic negative thinking.” Cognitive therapy will refer to it as “irrational thinking.” Whatever you want to call it, negative thinking affects our mental capabilities. This will result in unnecessary errors when making important line up decisions. The goal is to identify when your “A.N.T.’s” appear within an internal conversation and apply replacement or coping thoughts to override the negative thoughts. This will improve your overall mood which will enhance “clutch” thinking.
Getting good sleep is another way to stay consistent. Inadequate sleep can lead to slow thought processing, memory impairment and affect our ability to cope with stress. Getting enough sleep will improve your mood. It will help get along better with people. Most importantly, help you make good decisions. Good decisions will lead to a more successful season.
I came across a daily practice passed on by a client that will provide a more consistent start to your day. The tool is called “The Morning Miracle” developed by Hal Elrod. He came up with a six-step morning routine that he calls S.A.V.E.R.S.: which are silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and scribing. I try to complete at least five of these principles before I start my morning shower time. The most challenging for me to do is scribing, basically due to time constraints. I have experienced positive benefits staying consistent with this valuable routine.
Another tool for our “bag of tricks” is practicing gratitude’s. I have been using gratitude’s since I first heard about it from the book titled “The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time.” The book focuses on doing activities that enhance our mind. I practice gratitude’s whenever I shave. It has changed my perspective to appreciate small blessings and not take those things for granted. This results in enhanced flexibility and reduces rigidity. Being psychologically flexible will promote more consistency.
The final tool to promote is staying in the present. Staying in the present allows us to see things more clearly. It is very easy to get caught up in horizontal thinking where we focus on the past and fear the future. The more valuable way to think is vertical (present thinking). By using present thinking, we are less distracted and make better decisions. Better decisions equals more consistency.
I remember an add campaign years ago by Nike that promoted “Be Like Mike.” Here being mindful of clutch decisions and consistency involves being more like “Felix.” He was known to “laugh so hard, his sides would ache.” I imagine this happened when he was having more clutch or consistent moments. Having good tools at our disposal allows us to better navigate our day to day moments and decisions. This will result in more consistency and a successful fantasy season. What fantasy player would not want that outcome. I will leave you with a good quote regarding consistency from Byron Pulsifer; “Consistency is one of the biggest factors to accomplishment and success.” Stay consistent my friends.
