The mental game

What is the mental game? Is it a card game that you can play with yourself to keep from being bored late on thursday nights when nothing is going on? Or is it something deeper? Is it something that governs the way you perform in all aspects of your life? In studies? At work? In the band hall? With your family? On the court? Out on the field? I feel that the mental game is something that is unique to every individual. Yet it is still something that we all must battle with on a day-to-day basis. I feel that my mental game is that I lack confidence. Hah, that's kind of funny if you saw me anywhere other than behind an instrument. I tend to be loud, a little opinionated and outspoken, almost as though I am arrogantly confident. But in my psyche I have told myself that I am innadequate, that I can not perform where my professors and society desires. That I am incapable of being anything other than mediocre. I will forever be just another face in the metaphorical crowd of musicians. But this is where I am wrong. The glory of your mental game is that it is something you have created, therefor, it is something that you get to make the rules to. You govern what goes on in your mental game, no one else. So when you step back and truly begin to examine what is going on inside your head and then compare it to reality you will often see just how corrupt and wrong our mental games are. That everything we know and everything the world tells us contrasts the ideas we are putting in our heads, that facts surpass our feelings, emotions, and doubts. So often we tend to sell ourselves short because we like to compare ourselves to perfection, because we all wish that we were perfect at somethings, maybe even several things, or just everything. But the thing to being human is that we are not perfect. We are flawed creations and there's nothing we can do to change that. We must overcome the desire to be perfect while still working to grow ever closer to that perfection. Once we break our mindsets and release ourselves of this mental game, we will grow exponentially.