Rewire the What If Toward Courage And Action for Kid Athletes

Ever notice how your brain rehearses the worst-case scenario while your habits keep repeating the same unhelpful routine? We dive into two tiny, high-impact shifts that can reset both: do the opposite when a pattern isn’t working, and flip your “what if” from fear to possibility. These simple tools help parents, athletes, and busy professionals break cycles, reclaim focus, and step into performances that match their preparation.

First, we unpack opposite action with real examples. If yelling never gets kids moving faster, try ignoring the trigger or praising the next right step. If instant email replies wreck your deep work, wait a few hours and answer with intention. You’ll notice more calm, better decisions, and tasks that finally reach done. With training and family routines, doing the opposite can turn sluggish mornings into early momentum—proof that small changes shift the whole day.

Then we take on the worry loop. Many of us default to “what if I fail,” and our bodies treat the thought like a fact. We offer a practical reframe: what if you succeed, what if you make finals, what if you podium. None of it is real yet, so choose the story that fuels effort and confidence. This laddered optimism works for kids who find pure positivity scary; start with a believable step and build from there. The result is a mindset that steadies nerves and frees up skill under pressure.

Throughout, we emphasize repetition as the path to change. Set reminders to cue opposite action and positive what ifs at the moments you need them most. Track simple reps, notice how your mood shifts, and keep what works. We close by inviting your experiments—share what you tried, what changed, and where you’re still stuck. Subscribe, leave a quick review, and send this to a friend who could use a lighter, braver mental script today.

• identifying unhelpful patterns and interrupting them with opposite action
• practical examples for parenting routines, email habits and focus
• reframing worry by replacing negative what if with positive outcomes
• using optimism ladders from finals to podium to first place
• building consistency through reminders and daily reps
• noticing mood and performance changes after small shifts
• inviting listener experiments and sharing results

About This Podcast

It takes a village to raise a pro athlete.

For the first time ever this channel takes you behind the athlete’s ‘unspoken’ road what it really takes to raise athletes. 

What to expect when you listen:

Real, Raw Truth

Laughter

The Struggles & Successes

ABOUT YOUR HOST:

Marina Kuperman Villatoro, a mama who is on a mission to help her sons reach their athletic (rock climbing) goals and dreams. 

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Transcript

Host Intro And Premise

Shift One: Do The Opposite

Practical Examples At Home And Work

Shift Two: Positive What If

Training The Brain With Repetition

Audience Prompt And Resources

SPEAKER_00 0:03

What if and doing the opposite? I know what does that even mean? So I have something really cool to tell you, and it's such a tiny little shift that can make a humongous difference. You guys ready to hear all about it? I'm Marina, your host, mother of two aspiring rock climbers, and wife to an extreme athlete. And today I want to talk about two little things that I have been doing and working on getting my kids to do it as well. As everything, practice makes perfect, but I can guarantee if you guys apply these two little things and practice it consistently, it will be all the difference. Number one, do the opposite. How many times have you guys seen yourself do a certain pattern? First of all, you have to spot the pattern, right? Whatever that pattern may be, but spot a pattern, right? Maybe you are constantly, I don't know, yelling at your kids to do something. How about doing the opposite? How about ignoring that particular thing that you're yelling about altogether? Or maybe instead of getting upset about it, applauding them for doing whatever that they're doing. Just simply doing the opposite, right? And every time I'm spot starting to spot spot my own different like patterns that I do for myself, like working, or for instance, I have a bad habit of responding to emails right away or responding to my text messages right away. So sometimes I try, I do the opposite. I step back, I don't respond for hours. And sometimes I have to admit majority of time, it's a good thing. Like, first of all, I get to think better of what I want to respond. Secondly, I am able to finish the job that is being interrupted by me stopping and responding to these emails or texts that don't need to be responded to. So this is just something. So I've started to do this with my kids, right? Whenever they're like, for instance, they've been waking up so late, do the opposite. Let's wake up early and go for it. Do something different. The other massive, massive thing that I am noticing that again, I need to constantly be reminding them. We constantly have to be saying this. And even to myself, when I add these into my life, I'm constantly reminding myself. I even have little alerts all over the place sending me saying, do the opposite. The other massive thing that I have noticed is what if my youngest son worries a lot. Oh my god, what if I fail? What if you know this happens? What if, but in a negative way, he just sees a worrier, we're a worrier. Some people are like that. So instead, I am saying, well, what if we succeed? What if we do great? What if this happens in a great way? What if you what if we do make this kind of decision and it's it's a great decision? So the thing is, and this is the reality, and I tell him because for him, it's really hard to go into that positive what if. I don't know why we are born programmed to think negative what ifs, right? It's just the way it goes, right? So you have to reprogram that what if into a positive thing, right? Like there's a popular thing saying, Well, mama, what if I fall? But but my baby, what if you fly? Right? So, and it's interesting, like we are this is just the thought, it's not even real, right? Like, it's not even real. Well, what if we get into a car accident? Well, what if we don't? It's not real. The accident hasn't happened. We are just driving right now. So instead of thinking, what if we fail? Well, what if we do great? No, not even that. What if we do even better, right? Well, what if what if I I totally mess up in this competition? Well, what if you get first place? And if your mind is too scary to go there, what if you get podium? What if you get into the finals? Right? What if you're one of the finalists instead of because it's the same thought, right? We're spending the exact same amount of time on this thought, regardless. So instead of what if I suck, what if those guys are so much better? Well, what if I make it to the finals? You've been training just as hard as everyone else. What if you make it to podium? You've been putting in all that time, you've certainly got what it takes. What if you get to number one? Doesn't matter. It's not real. None of it is real yet. But instead, what but if you want to look at yourself in the time that you're thinking, well, what if I suck to what if I actually do great? What goes on? All of a sudden you're feeling more positive, more confident, right? So it's just a thought, right? And us being able to change those thoughts, maybe doing the opposite as an actual activity, but then also carving that thought from the what if the negative to the what if the positive, all this could make such a huge, huge difference. So it's all about applying it, but then again, it's all about the repetition of it becoming a real thing. Because right now we have been trained to do the what if negatives a gazillion times, right? We do it millions of times a day into the negatives. So retraining our brain to do the what if into the positive takes a lot of time to the point where you can catch it. A lot of times we don't even catch it, right? But wait, what if I do great? What if I do excel? What if I do meet some really cool people? What if they do like me? What if I do get first place? And that could happen through doing the opposite, right? Instead of maybe doing something that you've been doing and it hasn't been working for you, do the opposite. That could lead to that what if to a better decision. What have you guys done? Have you ever tried this before? Have you even heard about this? I love to hear your ideas. And if you are trying it, if you are implementing it, what have been the results from it? Remember, it takes a strategic village to raise athletes. And also, I have many really cool tips and ideas. Please go down into the link and press on the link to sign up for the letter and send me your email so that I can start sending you these really cool ideas. All right, guys, I'd love for you to leave me a review and share this with your friends. Thank you so much for listening.