From Life Stress to Game Focus: How Adult Athletes Can Manage Performance Anxiety by Controlling What Matters
Photo credit: Kelly Oberle
For many adult athletes, competition day doesn’t just start on game day. It starts days earlier— juggling work deadlines, family commitments, and the inevitable curveballs life throws our way. Those responsibilities don’t disappear when it’s time to compete, and the mental weight they carry can spill over into performance, fueling anxiety and making it harder to focus. The good news? You can’t stop life from being busy, but you can learn to shift your attention toward what you can control—on and off the field—so you show up ready, composed, and confident.
The Link Between Life Stress and Performance Anxiety
Adult athletes face a unique challenge: sport is a passion, not a paycheck. That means you’re competing because you love it—but you also have a full life outside of it. When your mind is overloaded with work meetings, relationship issues, or personal responsibilities, it’s easy for those thoughts to linger as you step into competition.
This mental “carryover effect” blurs the line between everyday stress and game-day focus.
You might find yourself:
•Overthinking every play or movement
•Feeling unusually tense or jittery before a game
•Losing confidence in situations you normally handle well
•Struggling to stay present and react quickly.
Performance anxiety in these moments isn’t just about the game—it’s about being overloaded mentally and trying to do too much at once.
Why Controllables Matter
The fastest way to free your mind from unnecessary pressure is to separate what you can control from what you can’t.
Controllables are the elements you directly influence:
•Effort you put into each play
•Your preparation before the game
•How you communicate with teammates and coaches
•Your body language and energy level
•Your focus in the moment
Uncontrollables are everything else:
• Your opponent’s skill level
• Weather conditions
• Umpires, coaches and players actions
• Spectator behavior
• Unexpected life disruptions before the game.
Focusing on controllables isn’t about ignoring reality, it’s about making sure your energy is spent where it counts. The more you anchor your attention to what you can influence, the less mental space you give to things that drain focus and confidence.
Final Thoughts: Winning the Mental Game
Life stress is part of being an adult athlete. But performance anxiety doesn’t have to control the way you compete. By focusing on the controllables—your effort, preparation, mindset, and presence—you create a mental buffer between outside-life challenges and your ability to perform.
BE WHERE YOUR FEET ARE AT!
Kelly Oberle has competed at many
ASANA World Series competitions, and her company, Access Human Potential is available for you and your teams! She has a virtual course “The Clutch Mindset” - a course designed to help you sharpen your mental game and thrive under pressure.
Use Discount code: asana2025 for a 10% discount
Let’s keep the momentum going.
Schedule an introductory call: https://calendly.com/koberle-1/discovery
