If you had a bad competition this weekend chances are can’t stop thinking about it. You keep playing your mistake over and over again in your head. You might be feeling embarrassed, frustrated, mad, or even feel like you disappointed someone. You just can’t let it go. The more you think about it, the more it burns you up inside.

Dwelling on mistakes is not uncommon. You wanted to have a good competition. You trained hard and you thought you had done everything you needed to do. But it didn’t work out and now you can’t get over it.

The worst thing you can do is to continue to focus on your mistake. The more you think about your mistake, the more chance you will have to make another mistake. By dwelling on the mistake, you can lose confidence and gain even more fear of failing in your next competition.

You must let it go. Forgive yourself for your mistake. It was only a mistake.

The truth is that there is NOTHING you can do about your mistake. Focusing on the past won’t help.

Instead focus on what you CAN do for the next competition. Make sure your self-talk is positive and helpful. Use your mental choreography. Set new goals and get rid of expectations. Find out what went wrong and try to fix it.

A mistake is just that, a mistake.