A Mental Performance Coaching Journey.
Many years ago, I took my daughter to a local art studio for some daddy-daughter time. I can’t recall exactly when — it was before I went back to school for my master’s degree in sport psychology, before I started my mental performance coaching practice.
I’m a kid at heart. When my kids do kid stuff, I join in. I don’t like to just watch, and I don’t like staring at my phone — I do enough of that already.
That day, the creative environment pulled something out of me.
I’ve learned over the last ten-plus years that I’m actually a creative person, even though I never thought of myself that way for most of my life. It was also a chance to try something new — something I love doing but rarely go out of my way for.
At the studio, you pick a piece of kiln-fired clay and paint it however you want. I poked around just like my daughter did, and then I found a piece that read “DREAM.”
At that point in my life, I was dreaming of a new life for myself. I just hadn’t figured out how to make it happen. I grabbed the piece and sat down to paint.
Today, the finished piece still sits in my living room (glued back together after a spill).
I look at it all the time. It reminds me why I started. Why I should keep going.
Because dreams are a funny thing.
Dreams Are Easy to Have. Reaching Them Is Hard.
If we want our dreams to come true, we have to do hard things — consistently, with no guarantee we’ll get there even if we do everything right.
It’s the same for young athletes. Same for doctors. Actors. Mental performance coaches.
In 2017, I left an almost 20-year career to get my master’s degree in sport psychology. My vision was to open a private practice serving young athletes and their families. My purpose was to help them reach their potential.
My first year was great. I was learning fast, my grades were excellent, and I felt good about the leap I’d taken.
Then it was time to start my fieldwork working with young athletes. Unexpectedly, that’s when things got hard.
The Unpaid Reality of My Mental Performance Coaching Journey
To earn my degree and qualify for Certified Mental Performance Consultant® status, I needed 200 hours of fieldwork. My graduate program didn’t line up internships for me — I had to pitch myself to potential employers, sales experience and all.
I landed a placement at an all-boys high school in central New Jersey. The athletic director, a former pro baseball player, understood the value of mental training firsthand and jumped at a free resource for his athletes. I felt set up for success.
Then I started with the varsity basketball team — a program with a track record of producing Division I and NBA players.
However, the head coach wasn’t bought in. He didn’t know me. He didn’t understand sport psychology. And honestly, I don’t think he wanted me around.
I showed up to games that got canceled without anyone telling me. I watched practice. Rebounded basketballs. Took notes. Rarely said a word.
But observing doesn’t count as contact hours — and I needed 200 of them.
I got maybe 10 contact hours out of that first season, after 30 games and roughly 100 practices. It took two years instead of one to finish my internship requirements — over 1,000 hours at that school and other placements.
For zero dollars.
Let’s check the scoreboard.
I quit my job.
Cut my income by about 80 percent.
Spent three years.
Spent a lot of money on a master’s degree.
Logged over 1,000 unpaid hours.
That’s what chasing a dream cost me.
Graduating Into a Pandemic — and a Divorce
In March 2020, I graduated top of my class. I was ready to launch my practice.
Then COVID hit. I was also in the middle of a divorce. Not exactly ideal timing for starting a new venture — unless you sold vaccines or practiced divorce law. I did neither.
So I kept going.
I offered free services to the local high school’s varsity soccer team, hoping for experience and maybe a client. More free work. But it beat waiting for the phone to ring.
That unpaid internship became my first three paying clients.
Progress. A small taste of success.
Followed quickly by the realization that I needed roughly ten times that many clients to survive in private practice.
Learning Marketing (and Podcasting) From Scratch
For my program’s required “applied project,” I wrote a marketing plan, since building the practice was Plan A, B, and C. There was no backup plan.
I knew almost nothing about marketing, but I learned through research:
Strong website.
Social media presence.
Local market word-of-mouth.
Easy, right?
Not even close.
You need content to market a business, and I had none.
So I started The Freshman Foundation® podcast from scratch, knowing nothing about podcasting beyond enjoying it as a listener.
The concept came straight from my work with the high school athletes from my internships, many of whom were preparing for the jump from high school to college athletics.
It gave me a way to explore a subject I was curious about, build content for the audience I was trying to reach, and scratch a creative itch I didn’t know I had.
It also wasn’t cheap — a real investment for a business barely making money.
Three years and real money for the degree.
Zero dollars for over 1,000 intern hours.
Out-of-pocket money for a podcast I knew nothing about.
Got it.
What Chasing a Dream Actually Requires
So, what does any of this have to do with mental performance coaching?
A lot.
Dreams are great motivation. A sport psychology professional would call that extrinsic motivation.
But making them real takes sacrifice. Heartache.
I’ve resisted the urge to quit more than once, when the costs in money, time, and energy outweighed the benefits.
Some days there’s no reward. No feedback. Just a black hole.
Moving forward under those conditions is hard. Sometimes I have to go seek out feedback I don’t want to hear, just to keep things moving.
Through it all, one thing has kept me going:
That “DREAM” piece, staring at me every day, reminding me why I picked up the paintbrush in the first place. My ability to keep going comes down to one thing — aligning my daily actions with my long-term vision, and sticking to it as consistently as I can.
I have down days. I don’t beat myself up over them. But I also know there are consequences to those days, and I own that.
It’s the same thing I tell my athletes.
Make a choice.
Accept the consequences.
And learn from it.
There’s no point dwelling on a result you can’t change.
I try not to bring my own story into client work — it’s not about me.
But I relate to my athletes more than they probably know, because our pursuits aren’t all that different. Helping them chase their dream helps me chase mine too.
Remind yourself why you’re sacrificing. Do something every day that moves you toward your dream.
And if you don’t — it’s okay.
Learn from it.
Don’t stop.
KEEP GOING.
That’s exactly why I wrote this.
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Michael Huber holds a master’s degree in sport psychology and works as a mental performance coach, helping young athletes build the confidence and mental skills that complement their physical training. Learn more now.
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