The Mental Edge 21 Apr 2023

Are you getting better every day?

Last week during a break to refresh and re-energise in North Yorkshire, I reflected on what I’d achieved this year so far.  What challenges I had encountered and what commitments I’d made and hadn’t delivered on.  On coming back from my break I’ve also sat down and thought more about how I can improve to become better at what I do.   One thing I noted is that one of the traps I often fall into relates to being highly motivated and conscientious, good characteristics I’d like to think, which gets me on to this article and the advice I’m about to offer.

Many athletes and coaches understand that one measure of Mental Toughness, COMMITMENT, is vitally important due to the popularity of comments such as:

• “Push yourself no one will do it for you.”
• “You must give maximum effort.”
• “Make sure you train with intensity.”

And it is true, to achieve anything you must show a big level of COMMITMENT.

However what this often can mean is that athletes and coaches get carried away, simply being busy in their quest to improve.  What they often lack is a real purpose for some of the things that they do. 

What can then happen is that they neglect their own development, they don’t give themselves time to work towards a well-thought out plan and get bogged down being reactive because of the emotional nature of sport. 

It means that often that their goals are not top of mind and that they are easily side-tracked, which can result in performance plateaus.

So here are 6 important closed questions for you to consider today if you fall into this trap?

• Are you getting better at what you do? YES/NO
• Do you keep repeating the same mistakes? YES/NO
• Do you know how to reflect effectively so that you can keep improving? YES/NO
• Do you create time to reflect and learn? YES/NO
• When reflecting on your performances do you sit down with a coach, friend, parent or mentor who can be objective? YES/NO
• Do you have a process that you follow when you do reflect on your performances? YES/NO

I’m hoping from reading this and when answering the questions that you have been honest with yourself?  If so, what are you going to do differently moving forwards? Please do ask yourself this question!

You may also wish to check out my latest episode of Demystifying Mental Toughness with leading performance coach, Mark Bennett MBE, where we discuss live decision making from an athlete and coaches’ perspective.  We also chat about individual sports and team sports, the differences, working with multi-disciplinary teams, hot and cold review processes and a lot more.  Enjoy tuning in!