A Quote by DeAndre Yedlin

For me, that's the biggest thing, if something holds me back it's my mental game so I really tried to focus on that and just worked on that. — © DeAndre Yedlin
For me, that's the biggest thing, if something holds me back it's my mental game so I really tried to focus on that and just worked on that.
I think the biggest thing that I learned, and why I've fallen in love with baseball, is how mental of a game it is. It's such a mental sport, and it's beautiful. I think definitely the mental aspect, the stats, and the mathematics, that, to me, really blew me away.
I was really fortunate. I don't believe in luck so I was really fortunate. God really blessed me in terms of my health. ... I was really healthy. But I tried to do my part in terms of preparation, in terms of perseverance. I tried to do my part to make sure that I was always ready to play and try to stay ahead of the game. I tried to beat people with my mind. I wasn't the biggest or the one that jumped the highest, but I had a real high basketball IQ and I knew it. ... I was a student of game and tried to prepare and be professional and have a good attitude. All of those things helped me have a long career.
I always cringe when people tell me they don't eat breakfast, as though that's a good thing. Eek! You have to start the day off with something in your stomach to get your metabolism active. Also, the mental game of 'holding out,' not eating for as long as possible, at least for me, was a really unhealthy mental place.
I find the ball, and I think, 'Where's the ball going, and where do I need to go?' It just puts me back in the game, and it's the simplest thing, but it's become sort of like my soccer mantra. I simply use the ball as my focus point and move back into position, and the distracting thoughts disappear, and I'm right back in the game.
I've tried singing like somebody else, and it never worked for me. The only thing that has ever worked for me was me being me, so either you love it or not.
When I then went to Welling I had to think about the possibility of getting another job outside of football. If that hadn't worked out then I would probably have joined the family building firm, working as a ‘brickie’ or something like that. It is a big leap to be playing in the Champions League final - the biggest game of my career - but after what I've been through to get here, it holds no fears for me.
People tried to do a lot of stuff with me early in my career where they tried to shape me into one thing or another. They couldn't just take the chance and go with my vision - which was just my intuition, really.
I learned that I was able to focus. I've always thought of myself as somebody who is like either it's there or it isn't there. I really worked at this, and I focused, and I was able to replace self-doubt with focus. That was something new for me to say self-doubt is there, but it does not need to be in the front row. You can ask it to take a back seat and replace that front row seat with focus.
Billy Jones, positionally, is unbelievable. He's not the fastest guy but he makes up for it by being positionally sound, so I really tried to focus and absorb where he would be in certain situations and just tried to add that in my game.
The biggest thing was probably a better understanding of the mental side of cricket and also the technical challenges I have in my game. Those two things happened in a very short space of time which changed me as a player.
I think the most important thing I work on is just my mental approach to every day, my mental approach to the game. How to come in each and every day focused, doing what I want to do, I think that's just the biggest issue.
The biggest thing is to give it back. You want to leave the game in a better situation than you came in with it. That's really important to me, especially being an avid reader and just learning about how to build businesses, learning how to make the most of the business you're in, the ins and outs of the relationships that you build as well.
Having an agent who had been through the process a million times and who could walk me through the process freed up a lot of mental space for me to just focus on the creative. I also worked with recipe testers, photographers, and assistants who were invaluable in creating a book that I'm truly proud of.
I've tried my hand at everything... trying to whittle down the right profession for myself. I tried my hand at clothes, I've modelled, but nothing really worked for me. I didn't really enjoy it, and maybe I was not really good enough.
The biggest thing I tell the boys is control the heartbeat. It's hard to do, but we've gotta be able to control the heartbeat in big moments because it goes really quick. So just stay in that moment and focus on the moment, don't get ahead of yourselves, and just play the game that we've been playing all year.
I don't think about the record, because winning games has to be our focus, and if we lost focus thinking about that record, I would really regret it. How will I feel later on? People tell me it will mean a lot after I retire, for the kids and me. But to me, it's just a stat. It's something people enjoy talking about. Me? I just enjoy playing.
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