9 Mental Skills: A Psychological Framework For Success In Work & Play

Successful application of mental skills can be observed in the achievement of goals, the winning of championships, obtaining a promotion or in the increased bottom line on a balance sheet. Success is whatever we define it as, and it is different for everyone, regardless of the domain or the level of expertise. However, our performance is not decided just by our technical ability or perceived talent. Neither is it a gift from the Gods. Instead, it is through internal mechanisms governing attention, motivation, emotional regulation, and behaviour that we achieve success. The external game unfolds in full view–movement, technique, tactics, skill execution, timing and so on. We play our inner game, on the other hand, in silence, often unseen. It is private and unique to each individual, whether a team or an individual enterprise. There are common aspects too, and arguably, these are a combination of shared thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and other psychological factors. Let's examine these factors.

Introduction To Mental Skills

In sports and performance psychology, this “inner game” is cultivated through a process known as Psychological Skills Training (PST). It refers to the systematic development of mental skills that help professionals and non-professionals prepare, perform successfully, and persist regardless of outcomes. Just as one trains the body to run faster or move gracefully on stage, the mind, too, can be trained to stay focused, remain composed, recover from setbacks, and approach challenges with purpose and commitment.

This article draws from the work of Dr. Jack Lesyk and his lecture at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology titled “Nine Mental Skills of Successful Athletes” (1988). However, this framework applies not only to sportspeople. It is a practical framework developed through clinical and applied sport psychology and applies to all domains where human beings are required to produce their best. The framework also connects these ideas to broader psychological principles and theories relevant to high performance. The aim here is to bring clarity to Mental Skills Training and show how it may serve not only the athlete but anyone navigating the uncertain territory between high demand and meaningful outcome.

Develop The Mental Skills For Success

The Mental Skills Pack contains exercises, presentation slides, audio and an instruction video to help you implement the mental skills you need to succeed.  Watch the intro to find out more.

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Defining Mental (Psychological) Skills

Practitioners continually debate the definition of a psychological skill; for example, Behncke (2004) refers to psychological skills as cognitive-somatic techniques, such as imagery, relaxation, and self-talk. In contrast, others include trait and non-cognitive components such as confidence, motivation, and focus (Vealey, 2019). Dohme et al. (2017) systematically reviewed terms used in empirical studies to describe psychological components thought to facilitate peak performance. They defined psychological skills as “an athlete's ability to use learned methods to regulate or enhance their psychological characteristics”. Of course, psychological skills do not only apply to sport–they apply everywhere human beings perform.

Conversely, researchers have also defined psychological characteristics as “trait-like dispositions that can be regulated or enhanced through systematic development despite their relative stability.” As such, psychological skills such as mental imagery, for example, may be used to enhance psychological characteristics, such as self-efficacy, self-confidence, and a growth-oriented mindset.

Mental Skills Are Learned, Not Gifted

A common misconception is that elite performers possess some innate mental toughness—an unreachable, mystical ability that separates winners from everyone else. However, as Dr Jack Lesyk (1988) points out, mental skills are not inherited traits and are not unknowable. They are behaviours, attitudes, and ways of thinking that can be learned, practised, and improved with effort and intention.

This idea reflects the principle of neuroplasticity—the brain’s capacity to change and adapt in response to experience and environmental demands. As motor skills improve through repetition, so do cognitive abilities and emotional responses. Thought patterns and beliefs are at the core of cognitive responses, and with deliberate psychological practice, you can shift from reactive responses to reflective, from impulsive to composed, and from passive to purposeful. With these nine mental skills, you may begin to reorient your thoughts and feelings about your influence on the world and your own life. You may feel increased personal volition, a sense of purpose and choice about the direction of your life circumstances, and ultimately become more optimistic about your future.

The Nine Mental Skills

Jack Lesyk’s framework outlines nine core skills used by successful performers. He says that for the most successful people at all levels, their work or sport is important to them. They’re committed to being the best that they can be within the scope of their limitations, other life commitments, finances, time, and ability. Lesyk notes that these skills are not standalone, discrete techniques but interconnected and complementary elements that support performance across learning, development, work, training, competition, and everyday life. Lesyk suggests we tend to build these skills in three layers, from a lower order of intensity to a higher. They are foundational, preparatory, and performance-specific.

1. Attitude

Attitude can be said to underpin everything and captures our individual approach to the world and others in it. It shapes how we interpret setbacks, receive feedback, and engage with new information and learning opportunities. A productive and positively oriented attitude is grounded in growth—the belief that effort and learning lead to improvement. Carol Dweck’s (2006) work on mindset supports this, showing that individuals with a growth mindset are more resilient, persistent, and adaptable. They embrace challenges and see criticism as opportunities to develop and refine skills and abilities. Those with a fixed-oriented mindset are more closed. They believe ability is essentially a fixed quantity, don't like to be tested too far, and would rather sit one out than risk not winning.

2. Motivation

Lesyk frames motivation as a sustained commitment to pursuing excellence. While external rewards (medals, contracts, recognition) can initiate effort, they often fail to maintain it. This is because extrinsic rewards usually have a limited impact on people's motivational efforts by forcing our conformity under the threat of punishment or the promise of reward. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation is internal, requires little if any external push, and gives us the energy to pursue our goals. Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) suggests that intrinsic motivation — driven by autonomy, competence, and relatedness — leads to deeper engagement and longer-lasting performance. Edward Deci says motivation is “the energy for action. It's what gets us up in the morning and moves us through the day”.

3. Goals and Commitment

Successful people set clear, realistic goals and hold themselves accountable, or they have others, such as coaches or peers, who help them with accountability. Their goals are often process-oriented rather than purely outcome-based. In other words, they find a way to focus on the here and now and pour all their energy into what they're doing with little attention to externalities. Take Lizzy Yarnold, for example, the GB female Skeleton Gold medal winner in the 2014 Winter Olympics. She said in an interview after her race, “I'd go to bed every night and I'd visualise my dream, but I don't visualise winning, I visualise the process”. Goal-setting theory (Locke & Latham, 1990) was foundational in its proposal for the attainment of goals, and highlights that specific, challenging goals enhance performance more than vague or easy ones. But beware; there is a dark side to goal setting.

4. People Skills

Wherever people gather and for whatever purpose, there is social interaction. Relationships shape performance, whether in a team, with a coach, or against an opponent, on the stage, in a business; our capacity to read ourselves and others effectively is an essential skill. These people or social skills include communication, empathy, compromise, leadership, and cooperation and are central to team cohesion and psychological safety. This safety is the feeling that you can speak openly without fear of judgment or reprimand. In high-stakes environments where we need to be at our best, interpersonal trust often determines the strength of team culture and, as a consequence, performance outcomes. Ask yourself before reacting to circumstances in a knee-jerk fashion, what's the best way to respond here? What does this person or this group need most, support or criticism?

5. Self-Talk

How you speak to yourself from moment to moment matters, and most people have little sense of personal control in this regard. Thoughts occur, and we assume they are accurate and valid. We give no second thought to the truth of what we tell ourselves. It's easy to act on impulse, and appropriate in certain circumstances. In others, however, more deliberate thought is required. And so, the degree to which we can direct our thoughts with purpose will significantly influence our behaviour.

In his analysis of peak performance in sports, Lesyk notes that positive self-talk helps athletes maintain focus and confidence, while negative self-talk can lead to doubt and distraction. Cognitive behavioural approaches in psychology teach us to recognise unhelpful thought patterns, critique automatic negative thoughts, and reframe situations in a more helpful yet truthful light. With practice, this process, called cognitive restructuring, can often help shift our focus from paralysis to positive action.

6. Mental Imagery

Connected to self-talk is mental imagery; the mental rehearsal of the required performance, and requires the employment of all five physical senses. Close your eyes and picture the scene in which you will perform; the room, the audience or crowd, the temperature of the air, the familiar smells, the sounds you expect to hear, everything in your visual field. Using all five senses in mental imagery has been shown to activate similar neural pathways as physical execution (Decety, 1996; Jeannerod, 2001). These studies have shown that athletes, for example, who visualise effectively report greater confidence, reduced anxiety, and improved concentration.

Not only that, but mental training procedures can be applied as a therapeutic tool in rehabilitation and in applications for power training. In a study by Van Gyn et al. (1990), after a 6-week training period, groups that had received either power training or a combination of power and mental training did better on the power training task than the control group. When sprint performance was tested, only the group with a combination of physical and psychological training showed significant enhancement.

7. Managing Stress & Anxiety

According to Yerkes and Dodson (1908), pressure and stress are not only a part of performance but are almost necessary. However, they become detrimental when they are out of our control. The pressure to perform and our anticipation of negative consequences can lead to anxiety, and when anxious, we often cannot perform at our best. We become overly focused on avoiding what we don't want and, therefore, are focused upon it. The stress curve offers a helpful way to view stress.

The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety, but to manage it effectively. Self-talk and visualisation help orient our inner conversation, but at times, it's better to shut off this internal monologue completely. Techniques such as breathing regulation, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness can reduce physiological arousal and bring the athlete back to the present. Attentional Control Theory (Eysenck et al., 2007) suggests that anxiety disrupts working memory and focus, unless counterbalanced by these self-regulation strategies.

8. Managing Emotions

Emotions are not bad or good; they are reactions to experience, and they are something we do not consciously choose. They are data, feedback from the organism about what we've been thinking and imagining about a given circumstance. If we are truly present in the moment, without thought or analysis, the organism may provide an adequate response, as represented in Flow State. If we can begin to “read” our emotional responses and teach ourselves to interpret them objectively, we may be better prepared to respond favourably.

Unmanaged emotions can hijack attention and decision-making. However, many people misunderstand what emotional regulation asks us to do. It is not about burying emotions and denying our feelings. Instead, it is about accepting our feelings and choosing a better informed response. A seminal paper by JJ Gross (1998) models of emotion regulation identifies reappraisal as especially effective in sustaining performance. Emotional regulation strategies such as naming, reframing, or expressing emotions constructively can help performers stay composed under stress.

9. Concentration

Concentration is the ability to direct and sustain attention on what matters. In dynamic, high-stakes environments, this skill becomes crucial. Elite athletes often speak of “flow states“, periods of complete absorption where action and awareness merge. According to Csikszentmihalyi (1990), when we perceive that our skills and experience can meet the challenge, Flow will most likely arise. Psychological skills like cue words, routines, and refocusing can support concentration when it wavers.

Like all the other skills mentioned here, concentration takes practice. Concentration may often be automatic, but those who perform best can bring it under their control at will. Lesyk suggests that successful performers;

• Know what they must pay attention to during each game or sport situation.
• Have learned how to maintain focus and resist distractions, whether they are internal or external
• Are able to regain their focus when concentration is lost during competition.
• Know how to play in the “here-and-now”, without regard to past or anticipated future events.

Mental Skills Development Beyond Sport

Despite its benefits, Mental Skills Training is often misrepresented and utilised. Some athletes resist it, fearing it’s a sign of weakness or perhaps consider it woo-woo. Others who may appreciate its advantages simply don’t know where to start. Coaches and others in leadership may feel unqualified to address mental aspects or worry that it detracts from the time spent in physical preparation. This latter concern, in particular, is a mistake.

The key to successfully applying mental skills is integration. Mental skills are not a separate bolt-on module or an afterthought, but part of a holistic training, learning and development environment. And so, we must embed these skills in the rhythm of daily practice, discuss them openly, and tailor them to the individual. Over time, these tools become second nature.

What makes mental skills training so powerful is its transferability. In other words, these skills are not confined to the pitch, track, workplace or classroom. They are life skills—tools for managing stress, building motivation, setting goals, and navigating relationships.

In my work with clients, athletes and non-athletes alike, these psychological strategies are as relevant in boardrooms, classrooms, and personal lives. The athlete struggling with pre-match anxiety is not unlike the professional preparing for a high-stakes presentation. Both benefit from conscious breathwork, rehearsal, and a reframed inner narrative. When we invest in mental skills training, we are shaping not only performance but also our identity—the kind of person who can show up fully, stay present, and respond deliberately under pressure.

How To Apply Mental Skills

Knowing what psychological skills are is one thing, but putting them into practice is another. Many of us find ourselves overwhelmed by the breadth of techniques, and we feel unsure how to start. The key is not to do everything at once, but to take a structured, developmental approach. Here’s how a performer — whether an athlete, artist, or executive can begin integrating these skills into their routine.

1. Start with Self-Awareness

Before we can train or develop any skill, we've got to become aware of the skill level. Begin by observing how you respond under pressure, how you talk to yourself after mistakes, and how focused you feel during performance. Keep a simple journal for a week, noting what mental and emotional patterns emerge. Self-awareness is the entry point to deliberate change.

2. Prioritise One or Two Skills

Trying to train all nine skills at once may be counterproductive. Instead, identify the area that you think most impacts your performance. If anxiety spikes before competition, start with focused breathing and calming routines. If you lose concentration mid-task, introduce cue words or short focus drills to bring your attention back to the present moment.

3. Embed Skills in Daily Practice

Psychological skills work best when not reserved for the specific performance situation, but integrated into your existing daily routines. For example, start and end your day with positive mental imagery or end with a goal-reflection exercise. Use your self-talk script during drills, not just in competition. Consistency is more important than intensity.

4. Track Progress, Reflect, Tweak Your Process

Reflection creates feedback loops and the opportunity to modify your process. Every week, evaluate your processes and examine what’s working and what’s not. Adjust techniques slightly so that you can more easily notice what changes are effective. Keep what serves you and abandon what doesn’t. Use a journal and/or a digital record to help manage things, and just like physical training, mental training will evolve over time.

5. Work with a Professional If Possible

Not everyone has the resources to work with a professional. However, according to eminent researchers into elite performance, such as Anders Ericcson (2004), working with a more knowledgeable other is often the difference between elite and ordinary. A coach, mentor, or sport psychologist can provide structure, accountability, and objectivity. They help translate generic techniques into personal practices tailored to your context and needs.

Final Thoughts on Mental Skills Development

Psychological Skills Training is not a quick fix. It doesn’t guarantee medals, nor does it immunise us from failure. But it equips athletes and anyone else committed to growth with the mental scaffolding required to learn, adapt, and persist.

Dr. Jack Lesyk’s framework offers a practical and research-informed starting point. By attending to attitude, motivation, goals, people skills, self-talk, imagery, anxiety, emotion, and concentration, athletes build a foundation for consistent performance.

In a culture that often glorifies talent and output, PST reminds us that the true work is internal. It is quiet, deliberate, and deeply human. And in that, perhaps, lies its greatest strength.

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