Persistence Performance Group

Excellence leaves room for mistakes, learning, and adjustment. Perfection leaves you feeling like none of it is ever enough.

Keep your standards high. Give yourself credit for progress. Let a mistake be something to learn from, rather than a verdict on your ability.

Excellence over perfection.

We’re excited to partner with Ballet Northwest to bring mental skills training into the studio! 🩰

Together, we’ll help dancers build confidence, manage performance nerves, strengthen focus, and develop routines they can use in class, rehearsal, and on stage.

Thank you to Ken and Josie for making this work part a consistent of your dancers’ training. We can’t wait to get started! 💙

Ever feel like you’re putting in the work but not getting any better? 🧠
Welcome to the mastery curve.
Progress rarely happens in a straight line. It’s often a series of small jumps, frustrating plateaus, and occasional dips that make you question whether your hard work is paying off.
But a plateau doesn’t mean you’re stuck. Sometimes, it means your skills are consolidating. Sometimes, you’re learning something new. And sometimes, growth is happening in ways that aren’t immediately reflected in your results.
So, instead of measuring progress only by outcomes, start paying attention to the quality of your effort, the reps you’re putting in, and the small improvements that are easy to overlook.
📈 Zoom out. Track your progress over time. Trust the process.
Mastery isn’t built only during the breakthroughs. It’s built when progress feels flat, too.
Save this for the next time you feel stuck, and send it to someone who needs the reminder.
Train your brain. Train your algorithm. 🧠

You don’t get to the NFL and stop working on your mental game.

Visualization. Breathing. Reset cues. Refocusing between plays. These athletes practice skills that help them handle the demands of their sport.

You can train those skills, too. Whether you’re stepping onto a field, into an audition, or onto a stage.

Want help figuring out where to start? Book a free 20-minute consult with Persistence Performance Group through the link in our bio. 🧠

You can practice without moving a muscle. Here’s how. 🧠

Mental rehearsal activates some of the same brain areas as physical practice, which is why so many elite performers use it. The key is to make it vivid, make it real-speed, and rehearse how you’ll handle the hard moment too.

Start with 5 minutes before practice or before bed.

What’s the one moment you’d rehearse first?

Save this for later.Train your brain. Train your algorithm. Develop persistence 🧠

Your legs are trained. Is your mind? 🧠🏃
When a race gets hard, physical fatigue is only part of the equation. Your attention, self-talk, and ability to respond to discomfort all influence how you navigate the moments when you want to slow down or stop.
The good news? Mental skills are trainable, too.
Here are 5 ways to practice when the miles get tough:
🏁 Shrink the race: Focus on the next mile, the next 10 minutes, or the next actionable cue.
🧠 Change your self-talk: “This is hard” doesn’t have to mean “I can’t do this.”
🎯 Plan for the wall: Decide ahead of time how you’ll respond when fatigue shows up.
🌬️ Reset your body: Release unnecessary tension and use your breath to help you reset.
🔁 Train it, don’t hope: Practice these skills in challenging workouts so they’re more familiar when race day arrives.
You don’t have to wait until race day to build mental endurance. Start practicing in training.
Save this for your next hard workout, and share it with a training partner who’s preparing for a big race.
Follow along for more evidence-informed performance psychology and mental skills you can use in sport and everyday life.

📝 Marcora SM, Staiano W, Manning V. Mental fatigue impairs physical performance in humans. J Appl Physiol 106: 857-864, 2009. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.91324.2008.

Most performers try to get rid of their nerves. That’s the wrong fight. 🔥
Your body doesn’t have separate “anxious” and “excited” settings. Both rev up the same system. What changes the outcome is the story you attach to it.
Try the flip before your next audition, game, presentation, or tough workout: notice it, relabel it, give it a cue, and exhale longer than you inhale.
Which cue will you use first?
Save this for later to keep building mental skills that last.

Growth usually asks something uncomfortable of you.

Trying something new. Taking the risk. Staying in it when it gets hard. Choosing the challenge instead of what feels safe.

If you’re feeling uncomfortable, it might mean you’re exactly where the growth is happening.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably had a thought that’s similar.

Even the best performers experience unhelpful thoughts.

There are many tools we can use to manage those unhelpful thoughts that can show up-

One of our favorite strategies involves 3 important steps:

1. NOTICE
“I’m having the thought…”
Catch the thought without trying to get rid of it.

2. NAME
“Yep, there’s that thought.”
Make space for it instead of arguing with it, analyzing it, or obeying it.

3. REFOCUS
“What do I want to put my attention on right now?”
Bring your attention back to the present moment and the next useful action.

Ever catch your brain trying to predict the future mid-game?

“What if I miss again?”
“What if we lose?”
“What if coach pulls me?”

The more your attention gets pulled into what might happen next, the less attention you have for what is happening right now.

Bring it back to the next cue, the next play, and the next thing you can control.

You don’t have to predict the outcome. You just have to stay in the performance. 🧠