Using the power of the mind is a very underrated tool in today’s world of strength athletics. The mind is the most powerful thing you have. However, don’t get it twisted. Simply meditating on a big lift for 24 hours won't push one to a 100-lb PR. Use the mind frequently throughout the day whether it be in lifting or in life. It’s very simple and you can start applying these principles today.
Setting goals
Crack open just about any book on psychology or any decent self-help book and you will see that humans are goal or task oriented. Making a ‘to do list’ at the start of every day or every week and completing those tasks works well with your psyche because this is how humans operate by nature. This is why having short-term goals (daily, weekly, monthly) and long-term goals (quarterly, bi-annually, annually) are very important to being a personally successful human. It’s progress that can be measured.
Focusing on goals is the single most important thing you can do to stay disciplined with training. If you really, really wanted to reach a 700-pound squat in your next meet and you're passionate about it and meditate on it all the time, I'd like to see you skip a training session. I’m sure you wouldn't because you'd keep thinking about it. Don’t be foolish though. Every powerlifter wants to squat a thousand pounds and every Strongman wants to load a 500-pound stone. Know where you are at and avoid stupid mistakes. Your goals should be difficult but realistic. Once a goal is completed, you have overcome adversity. Be sure to take note of your critics as well. Proving someone wrong is the icing on the cake when your goals have been met.
Visualization
Visualizing a big accomplishment is the key to actually making it. For example, let’s take a heavy farmer's walk for 100 feet. Visualize that walk and keep visualizing it with more detail every time. If you're intense enough in the imagination of the farmer’s walk, your brain will actually take it as a real experience. This phenomena is called synthetic experience. You've received positive feedback from the brain. The cool thing about this is that your brain can't tell the difference! If you think this is crap, try it yourself. It works for the world’s best athletes, so why won’t it work for you? Apply this practically to your lifts or skills. If you have an important contest coming up, start visualizing weeks beforehand. Have a chip on your shoulder and pursue your goals relentlessly. For practices/sessions, it works well to start the day before. Don’t be overzealous. Visualizing your squat session three months away is just completely idiotic.
Belief in oneself
Everyone has a self-image. A self-image is how you see yourself among others. Having a good self-image allows for a positive attitude. You will also have more happiness, better relationships, and more success. As a lifter, be positive. If you've been lifting for a while, you know as well as anyone that you're going to have ups and downs. If you're a newbie to training, the take home message is to keep pursuing your goals. On the flip side, if you have a bad attitude, complain a lot, and never take responsibility for yourself, you're destined to live an unfulfilled, unhappy life with few people to share it with. Be confident, not arrogant! Believe in yourself and believe in your training partners. Having positive, like-minded training partners is the best blessing one will ever have in training. They will hold you accountable and expect you to work hard.
Know what makes you tick
Unfortunately, getting people psyched up isn't a one-way street. To illustrate, athlete A might go absolutely nuts. He may scream, yell, and slap himself. Then he's ready to go out and do his thing, but for athlete B, he might need a controlled fire until it's his time to perform.
Know what works for you. If you tend to do better thinking of negative things that you've encountered and slowly letting the anger build until you're ready to release it on an implement, do that. If you do better staying content until you're ready, do that. This will take time to figure out for yourself. Experiment and see what works and bag anything that doesn't.