How to Turn a Negative into a Positive

If you are competitive in skeet or sporting clays, eventually you’re going to have one of those days where you could not put a three-word sentence together and your game is as mixed up as a soccer game with six-year-olds with three balls on the field! The negative thoughts and comments will flow through your mind and from your mouth and others, like the fountain of youth at an old folks’ home.

“Man, you had a tough day today, didn’t you?”
“What happened to you today?”
“You were really off today!”

Then you see Gary Fitzgerald and he levels you with the velvet hammer: “Your score sucks; you need to get some different chokes!”

While these phrases were our attempt at not using the real comments we have heard and said to ourselves, you gotta admit that the brain does go pretty negative at the drop of a hat!

Here is what we would encourage you to do when you find yourself in this type of situation.

First, admit it and then find something good in your performance to change the thought from the negative to a positive! You just might want to try some of these phrases:

“I made some tactical errors that cost me some targets and I learned a lot.”
“I was having a hard time seeing the targets but I hit the ones I saw.”
“Just could not find my rhythm today, but I got it back about halfway through.”
“While I did not score as well today, I did some things really well and will be able to build on my mistakes.”
“I tossed and turned all night and have been under a lot of pressure all week and it showed.”
“I tried some new things today. Some worked, and some didn’t. Those that worked will help my game long term!”

We said all that to say this: “It is what it is. It becomes what you make it!”