Feel Bad After You Get Scored On? Here's Help

How do you stop feeling bad after goals? You don't. You're always going to have feelings after a goal, because you're doing something that's important to you.

When you're at a drop-in you don't care about or goofing around with friends, you probably don't care too much about a goal. When you're in a serious game situation, a goal feels different. You're trying hard at something that's important to you and the opposite of what you want just happened. Why wouldn't you feel something?

Here’s a few normal things to feel:

• Anger

• Frustration

• Annoyance

• Worry

• Sadness

• Regret

• Feeling like giving up

• Disapproval of yourself

• Feeling like you’ve let others down

It’s possible to make a list of emotions you'll likely experience after a goal, because other people feel one or a few of those things, too. The important thing for you to do is identify what's normal for you to feel. As soon as you recognize what's normal, you get to work on playing while you feel this normal way. It's not that the emotion hurts your game, it's that you think it hurts your game, so you focus on how you feel and how to make it go away. Try letting that normal emotion naturally run its course while you pay attention to doing your job. You do this all the time when you feel upset or frustrated at work or school, but keep working - why not try it in sport?

When you’re having difficulty getting your mental game on track, you’re welcome to contact me at michael@staceyandassociates.com or just give me a call at 814-207-4284. I’m happy to help!