You’ve gotten some falling practice and trained your belayer to give you a dynamic belay. So why are you still having trouble staying focused? Here we come up against another typical pain point for climbers. What can you do to diminish the pain?

Fear of fallingYes, you still fear falling because you haven’t practiced enough. We recommend integrating falling into your climbing. One easy way to do this is to do some falls on your warm-up climbs.

But this isn’t enough. Mental training isn’t just about doing stuff. At its foundation, it’s about changing your mind. And your motivation. What mindset are you going into your falling practice with? What motivation is driving you in that direction? A mindset and motivation to avoid stress, and get it over with, won’t last. Therefore, fear of falling persists.

Mindset and motivation shiftTrain your mind to think differently. Change the type of motivation that drives you. I’ve shared with you that achievement motivation is important before you take action. That kind of motivation during action is distracting. It creates a mindset that shifts your attention to a future time when the stress is over.

The mindset you need when engaged in stress is learning-based. You want to be in the middle of the stressful falling practice. If you do it as I’ve outlined before–small increments–then you’ll be able to sustain this mindset. So, do the falling practice for its own sake, not because it’s “good” for you.

Achievement motivation will distract you so shift to learning-based motivation. That will shift your focus to learning from the activity. Achievement motivation sees falling as a problem you’re afraid to engage in. Learning-based motivation sees falling as an opportunity to learn.

Risk management skillsFalling practice does you a lot of “good” even though you don’t do it because it’s “good” for you. It gives you experience with the consequences of risks you choose to take. That experience is the first step in understanding risk management.

The next step is knowing how to define risks so you can make sure you’re taking appropriate ones. Here we see a clear distinction between intellectual and experiential assessment of risks. We define yes-fall risks–ones you can say “yes” to–as falls you have experience with.

By defining risks in this way, you engage them in a measured way. Measured, meaning you take on a little bit of unknown at a time. That diminishes distractions once you’re engaged and committed to action.

Internal locus of controlYou’ve gotten falling practice. You’ve shifted your mindset and motivation. You define yes-fall risks based on your falling experience. And still you’re distracted. Are you focusing on what you can’t control?

You need to develop an internal locus of control. What that does is focus your attention on what you actually can control. Doing that calms you and helps you stay focused. But how do you create that?

One really cool aspect of The Warrior’s Way® training is its simplicity. We teach you a simple structure for staying focused. Part of that structure includes processes for focusing your attention. There’s a process for focusing your attention while moving through stressful climbing.

You focus on what you can control. Focus on breathing, staying as relaxed as you can, and maintaining your momentum. These are elements within your control. You can monitor, reinforce, and redirect your focus to the task of climbing.

Staying focusedKeeping your attention on task is what staying focused means. And now I’ve introduced the tools to you. They include falling practice, mindset/motivation shifts, risk clarity, and focusing on process.

Your journey toward staying focused will unfold over time. You might see a significant jump immediately after applying these tools. Generally, though, it’s a longer process. Your focus develops over time. So be patient with yourself and your practice.

Resources can also support and speed your progress. That’s where our Falling & Commitment Online Course comes in. Staying focused has to do with the “commitment” part of this course. You can see now that commitment can’t be separated from the “falling” part. That’s why this course is comprehensive. It addresses all aspects of climbing performance. You see their interrelationships as you practice them all.

Being distracted is painful because it moves you away from your goal. It also kinda sucks to climb in that distracted state. So enjoy your practice of redirecting your attention to staying focused.