I have always wondered how our mindset can help us as athlete and coaches to achieve our goals. In this blog I will be looking into our mindset and how it can help as individuals, athletes and professionals to improve our lives.
Some athletes believe that they are born with a talent! They are just good swimmers or fast runners. I believe that this is false! No doubt that sometimes genes give you an advantage but not a massive one. A great source for debunking the “talent theory” is Mathew Sayed’s book “Bounce” which I highly recommend you read before thinking that the athlete swimming next to you in the pool is faster because he is talented. In addition, labelling athletes by the word talent robes them of their hard work. Which brings me back to our mindset.
“Believing that your qualities are carved in stone” (the fixed mindset) is limiting your development. Why should you work hard if talent is given to a few of us? Which automatically means no matter how hard I work, I will never be fast in the pool! Because that guy next to you in the pool is TALENTED. This is the fixed mindset.
On the other hand, you can have the growth mindset. “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”
You can instead think that if you stick to your training you will see improvement. God knows I am the worst swimmer by far! But I stuck to it, I worked hard, and I saw the fruits of my labour.
Not sure which mindset you have?
Read each statement and decide whether you mostly agree with it or disagree with it.
- Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t change very much.
- You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.
- No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a bit.
- You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.
Statements 1 and 2 are the fixed mindset. Statements 3 and 4 reflect the growth mindset.
These are good examples to make you think of the kind of mindset you have when approaching a sport or your personal growth.
Applying a growth mindset to triathlon will give you an edge over others.
Applying a growth mindset to triathlon will give you an edge over others.
I have personally met athletes who found breaking 6 minutes mile running pace was a real struggle and felt that it was out of their reach. With some training and perseverance, they were able to break the 6 minutes mile pace barrier. They believed in themselves and I believe it’s because of their growth mindset.
Persistence, perseverance and a growth mindset are what triathlon is all about.
References
Mathew Sayed “Bounce”
Carol Dweck "Mindset"
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