AT the very pinnacle of sport it’s got nothing to do with technique, fitness, strength. Think of Andy Murray, Serena Williams or Novak Djokovic in tennis. They’ve all been number one in the world but at moments, they’ve dropped down the rankings, or simply lost games they were expected to easily win – and the reasons are rarely to do with injury or a drop in skills or strength,

At the elite level, sport is mostly a mental game. The one with the clearest focus wins the day. The focus is literally moment by moment. Imagine being on a tennis court, two sets to love down, five-four down in the third set, and 40-love against you, meaning that your opponent has three chances to serve to win the whole match. What mental strength, control, clarity does it takes to drop all thoughts of defeats from your mind? What mental power does it take to not even think about the very facts of your present situation, that even if you win the point, you have to face another two chances of losing the match?

Even if you win the game, you have to go through it all again, game after game. And if you win the set you’re still two sets to love down. Most of us would just give in. Some of us would already have lost our temper at ourselves for making unforced errors, and our minds would be ruminating over points too easily lost, all of which distracts us from the next ball coming our way.

The athlete's control over their mind at such moments is pure mindfulness. Don’t be distracted from what you want to do in the next single moment. Don’t project into an imagined future where you’ll win the point, or lose it. Don’t allow your mind to look back with annoyance or regret. Simply be, fully, clearly, in the fleeting point of reality we call the moment.

Then do the same with the next moment. Then the next. And so on until the match ends.

That may sound like a horrible way to actually live your life or conduct a career, though of course at that level there’s a huge financial reward for those who reach the top. But can we use mindfulness to take the best of elite’s sport’s mental discipline without the arduous aspects of their job?

Instead of managing the mind in order to win glory, we can bring increasing control over the mind to live a fulfilled, joyful and compassionate life. Instead of fears about a significant moment in a sport, imagine we are able to let go of negative thoughts about a minor situation or a bad memory from the past.

Imagine moment by moment you can assess whether the content arising in your mind is helpful or unhelpful, nurturing or destructive, and in that moment drop what harms or wastes, and make the most of what feels good or right, not just for you but for all around you.

This is doable, and if you continue the practices of mindfulness that let you do it, you can bring increasing degrees of stability and enjoyment of life. As you develop this skill I think it is accurate to say you can move to a comparison with the elites in sport. Can you become elite at living your life? Not for that spurious word "success", or material gain, but for the sheer beauty of experiencing more and more richly what it is to live this thing we call life?

Just notice your breath gently flowing in at the tip of your nostrils. The sensation you feel is unique to this moment. Unique to you. Others will have their own sensations. The mere fact that you can experience awareness of the feelings is a remarkable confirmation of being alive. Moreover it is for most people most of the time a very pleasant, enlivening and peaceful experience.

If from the feeling you can gain a sense of how precious your life is, then you can allow that insight to soak into your conscious mind, let it linger, let it become part of how you may think in the future. From this comes, slowly but surely, appreciation as an ever-present factor of your everyday life. And from appreciation comes gratitude for the lucky chance that you have a life to experience, or if you are religious, to thank God or whatever other creator you believe gave you life. In addition, as you come to appreciate the everyday moments of being alive in a very clear, calm and stable way, you come to notice those who are still suffering, and compassion develops in response.

To my mind this is elite living. Noticing the actual experiences of being alive moment by moment, with a heightened awareness and clarity of thought. Appreciating all your experience, feeling grateful for the opportunity to experience these changing moments. And giving to those who need help. I think that is a greater definition of elite performance than winning Wimbledon or the World Cup or Champions League. It is elite living without elitism. It is the joy of life, achieved through moment-by-moment mindfulness, and the letting go of any junk the mind creates, allowing us instead to create beauty out of ugliness, calmness out of anger, and joy out of despair.