Summer is always a unique time, whether you are in school, graduated or in the middle of your career. There is something about summer that inspires, maybe it’s the weather or the lack of school for some, but those three months makes for a time of reset, every year.

It’s easy and often customary to use summer as a time to decompress, recharge or take a break from practice (if you are still in school). That is how most everyone uses their “free time,” because the summer months are special.

Many businesses are taking a breather and preparing for the pressure of fall and most athletes no longer are required to attend skill training and conditioning workouts led by their coaches.

This provides a unique situation every year with an abundant amount of warm weather and implied time to relax.

This culturally implied relaxation to some can be a debilitating outlook and at times inhibits the best time of the year for us to grow.

Change Our Mindset About Summer

Know everyone else is RELAXING and now is the time to push. Obviously, take a break if we need it, but seek improvement. It can be as simple as taking a week to travel or actually doing our summer workouts, everyday. What if we pushed ourselves outside our comfort zone…. became more worldly, tried new things, joined a social sports league to meet people, or practiced harder than we did in season.

These three months, have the potential to be the most impactful time of the year for us athletes. We say, screw new year's resolutions, summer is the time to accomplish our goal list… here is why.

The Weather

Assuming you live in the northern hemisphere, summer is a time of warmth and too many mimosa brunches. Warm weather, especially in June/July is inspiring.

It’s the perfect temperature and can make it easier to accomplish our goals. It’s easier to travel when we’re not bundled in 5 layers. It’s easier to practice when the weather is nice. It’s easier to aim high when no one is expecting it.

The weather creates a sense of energy and excitement, which we find motivating.

Everyone else is slacking

Whether it’s our teammates or co-workers, summer is inherently everyone’s time off. Maybe it started as young as elementary school with the start of summer vacation, but it’s a cultural thing…. Which makes it our biggest opportunity to take risks and improve the most.

Everyone around us is taking a breath, means that we have a opportunity to capitalize. Our ability to strives goals and to make mistakes without the criticism of others.

That could be as simple as traveling to thailand, improving your game, or getting a six pack, but if you push yourself outside your comfort zone you’re excelling at a rate that is so much faster than everyone around you.

See what happens by doing something different than the other 98%. We have a special opportunity to act like the 2% and heading our goals with reckless abandon.

We at Mpowher Athlete challenge ourselves and our community to push, improve and strive to be the best. Let’s start using the summer as our biggest asset by taking this time to become better than we were. Let’s rise to a new level and wait to see how we feel in September.