The Challenge of Excellence

The Counsellor@ The Challenge of Excellence

"Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical and expecting more than others think is possible"

Contemporary Counselling for Professional Athletes

Professional sportsmen and sportswomen performing at their peak are like machines in a ‘state of flow’. Such athletes manage and move through challenges with a high degree of expertise and efficiency yet with spirit and flair. You will ‘know’ in your body and your mind when you have or are experiencing times like that. Times when everything is working … physically, mentally, emotionally, even spiritually.

When however, you know you are not at your peak, you are ‘out of a state of flow’ or are you in anti-flow, or in a state of lack, or stoppage, or want? There could be many reasons for being in a state of lack or stoppage or want. Personal relations at home can impact on your performance; children, parent or family issues; reading the media about yourself, dealing with the press; it could be an injury or other physical challenge; it could be relations at work. It may simply be that being in a state of flow for every performance is actually not what you want? Simple as that! Or is it?

What percentage of your ‘performance’ time would you like to spend in ‘the state of flow’? Where you want to give 100%?

Yes, all of the time, 100%
Most of the time, 80-90%
Some of the time, 40-60%
Other?

How much impact does the state-of-play with your loved one or your relations at work have on your ‘performance’ on a performance day?

Not at all, I’m 100% focused regardless of what has been going on at home
Puts me off, I’m only at 90% / 80%/ 70% / 60% ?
When is 80% OK?
Says who?

A highly respected Manager at a Premier League Football Club once told me that there was “30% more” in one of his top players. Could this apply to you? Do you have more in there?

Any number of reasons could be responsible for not rising to your potential as often as you would like, or as often as you could. Knowing those reasons and doing something constructive about them is an example of what contemporary counselling works with.

Counselling for sports professionals works at a range of levels, in a variety of ways, all tailored to the client, their personal and professional life and the competing demands of both. Counselling for sports professionals will challenge you. But it will also provide expertise to push you to be the best you can be as often as you want to be.

You may be aspiring to reach the top and you are almost there, or you are at the top and you want to stay there, or you may be preparing for a new season and are thinking ‘what now’? Who am I now?

If you aspire to excellence and if you would like to know more about contemporary counselling for professional athletes, please contact me. I would be happy to have an informal and confidential initial chat without any obligation.

Susan Kaye is The Counsellor@ The Challenge of Excellence. She welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with other professionals who may be working with her clients. The Counsellor@ The Challenge of Excellence operates within an Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling/Psychotherapy.

Pay it Forward If you know, or come across a talented young person from your field of sport who has been experiencing some life challenges and like the idea of mentoring them, using your understanding, your professional experience and success, Susan would be keen to hear from you. You would learn mentoring skills through Susan and your talented young person would receive free counselling from her on any personal issues that may have been getting in their way in the past. You and Susan together would be helping to change the life of a disadvantaged young person. If you are interested to participate in a joint ‘Pay it Forward’ project with The Challenge of Excellence, please contact The Counsellor@

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The Counsellor@ The Challenge of Excellence

The Counsellor@ The Challenge of Excellence

Sports Counselling