Lessons From An Unrealized Potential
What you can and cannot produce during a competition (or during an important event) is not something that is up to chance or that is “fated”.
It is up to you. You are in charge.
This week-end, I was competing against the world’s best athletes during a World Cup in Tuscany, Italy.
An athlete I know was performing in that event. He’s extremely talented. He’s definitely one of the best in the world.
During training, you can see his talents shine. Everybody admires what he was able to do, me included.
Unfortunately during competitions, the exact opposite happens.
He cannot shine. He makes mistakes over and over again and something gets in his way.
He’s unable to perform the way he should and looks completely destroyed.
What a waste of time, energy, money and effort !
His mind totally gets in the way, and that’s a huge performance killer for him.
He is in what we call a negative pattern. The way he thinks shape his actions which creates his reality.
Since he thinks negatively (without realizing it), he creates his own negative reality.
What can you learn from this example ? How can you become a better person right now ?
Read and understand the following:
Many athletes are experiencing either something similar or a derivative of it.
This behaviour very often includes:
- The curse of perfection: This curse is basically you wanting to do things perfectly instead of doing them “just well”. This results in a waste of time and energy on things that won’t produce the desired results. Because perfection is a creation of the mind, your focus on perfection will create a vast amount of disappointment which is going to be destructive instead of constructive for you. Perfection doesn’t exist. You just try to tend towards it.
- A misplaced focus during the action: Don’t focus on things that you cannot control. If you want to control your result (which most athletes do), you’re dead. Not only will you be doing more mistakes and won’t have any kind of pleasure, but your whole experience will be greatly affected by it. Results will drop. By focusing on the result, you’re living in the future. Instead, focus on what you can control, and focus on the present moment.
- A suppressive mindset instead of an expansive mindset: We like to talk a lot about “mindset” nowadays. To sum things up, your mindset is the way you look at things. Are you empowered by each step that you are making ? Or do you put yourself down on every negative action that you are taking ? This has a tremendous impact on sports performance over time. Make sure your mindset is an expansive one.
These are not just “nice tips”. This can make or break an entire career.
The first step towards huge success is to realize that you might be in a negative pattern.
The good news ?
If that’s true (partly or entirely), then you can experience a lot more success in the future than you’re experiencing right now !
The truth is that sports is a very conservative field. There are very few athletes that are able to do that. Many are not able to open up and look at themselves objectively.
This happen mainly because it means that you have to open up, that you have to look at yourself in the mirror for a while. And that’s hard, sometimes it’s a little painful.
But this open-mindedness pays off big time. You’ll create a red carpet for you to walk on in everything that you do. You’ll escape the negative pattern. You’ll enter the positive pattern of success, not only in sports but in every area of your life.
That is exactly what creates unstoppable people.
