When you are ready to start any athletic endeavor, clear out the mental clutter. This means ignoring any real or imagined distractions around you. Once you start, keep concentrating on the task at hand. When you are finished, take time to mentally review everything good and bad about what you did, whether it was something on your own or something done in a group. Take that review, learn from it and build.
Competitive athletes know a little stress helps their performance.
What that means is do not worry if things get difficult sometimes and if everything is not effortlessly falling into place. Any goal worth achieving will take genuine effort, and there will be times that to take two steps forward we have to take one step back. Let the stress be a challenge, not a reason to give up. The Barcelona Olympics of 1992 provided a wonderful parable. Britain's Derek Redmond had dreamed all his life of winning a gold medal in the 400-meter race, and his dream was in sight as the gun sounded in the semifinals.