Performance Analysis

By Troy Bassham

The Performance Analysis is Mental Management Systems’ version of a performance journal. It’s just that, a way to evaluate your performance at the end of the day to bring closure to the day. It’s not a lack of performance journal, it’s a Performance Analysis. This means you analyze your performance in a productive way and build your Self-Image at the same time.

When you look at how we have organized the journal, you will notice different sections. The “What went well” section is the most important part of this journal because this is where we build the Self-Image! If you use this specific criteria you will get much better results and accomplish two things: First, you will end your day on a positive note. Second, you will help gain confidence and build your Self-Image in a productive way.

The goal of this section is to identify the things that went well for training and competitions. You want to focus on the things that went well and elaborate on them to gain confidence.

There are five parts to the specific criteria.

• Start with “Today I…” This is important later down the road. Let’s say you decide to read a part of your journal from the past. When you start to read the “What went well, section” you will be imprinting it like it happened today and not something from the past.
• Write down the what, how and provide an example. Start with what you did well and then follow it up with the how. When people have slumps they often forget how they were performing well. This allows them to go back and read this in a way to help them get back on track. It also helps to provide a detailed example of what and how. Here is an example:

• Be 100% positive. This can be challenging, here is an example of how to stay positive. People tend to try to point out that they finish the day strong after a poor start. The idea sounds great. After a poor start, I was able to come back and finish really strong and qualify for tomorrow! The issue with this is the imprint of “After a poor start”. What do you picture when you read this? A poor start. A better way of stating this would be, “Today I finished the match strong and qualified for tomorrow.” This imprint is much better because the focus is on the positive, finishing strong.
• Be detailed. This is especially true when you are writing about the how. The more detailed the better the imprint will be. This is about building Self-Image. You can’t do that if you have vague examples. You want to be as specific and detailed as possible. An example is, “Today I finished the match strong and qualified for tomorrow. I ran my recovery strategy after shot 42 and focused on rehearsing the shot before going into the mental program. As a result, I started to shoot deep center shots that were on call. I got into a groove and finished with a 100 on my last string. This allowed me to qualify for the match tomorrow. It felt awesome!”
• Write in paragraphs. Each paragraph represents something that went well that day. If you have three paragraphs you know there were three things that went well. If you only have one, that’s fine. Some days will be better than others. By having each good thing in it’s own paragraph, it makes it easier to go back and look thru the journal and reread the really good days.

By following this criteria, you will enhance the imprinting power of your journal and build your Self-Image. I have yet to see someone do this correctly and not see improvement. It’s amazing how writing what you did well in a detailed, specific way can impact the Self-Image. It is one of the easiest things you can do to gain confidence in what you do. If you are not writing a performance analysis, I encourage you to do so. You might be surprised how it impacts your future performance.

Troy Bassham is the Senior Master Instructor at Mental Management Systems and author of Attainment – The 12 Elements of Elite Performance and Fore the Mind – The Mental Program for Golf