5 ways to develop a growth mindset:
1. Focus on effort.
If you are a coach, parent, or athlete praise the amount of effort that is being put in. If we can change our focus to effort instead of the outcome such as a grade on a test, how heavy you lifted, how fast you ran, or comparing yourself to how others do we can fuel ourselves from our IMPROVEMENTS. Remember, “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” Trust that if you consistently put in your best effort the end results will come. Change your mentality from, “I’m not strong because I only lifted this much..” to, “I warmed up properly and gave my best effort on that set. With continued practice I will be able to lift more over time.”
2.Become process-focused.
Focus on the process over the outcome. One way to do this is by creating goals that are process-focused rather than outcome-focused. Once you’ve identified your outcome goal you need to create and focus on process goals that will direct you to where you want to go. Once you are able to meet the process goals the outcome goal will be met naturally at times. It is like going on a road trip. We might know WHERE we want to go but we have to figure out and focus on the turns we need to make to GET there. Keep your focus on the process over the outcome/destination.
3. View setbacks as comebacks.
Keep persisting and overcome challenges. Understand and accept that the world of sport is going to bring along obstacles and setbacks. It might be an injury, a losing record, a slow start to the season, or being out of shape. Instead of focusing on the negatives and giving up, buckle down and keep working at it. Continue to give the best effort you can and remind yourself that whatever setback you are experiencing is a chance to make a major comeback. Use the setbacks as motivation and become more determined to keep moving forward.
4.Fail forward
Learn from your mistakes and failures. Understand that the only way we can learn to achieve success and meet our goals is to experience failure. Use failures as teaching moments and take away something from that experience that you can apply in the future. Each time you fail, you are one step closer to achieving. In every game or performance there will always be a winner and a loser, and we need to understand that we can’t win all the time. We have to learn how to lose, how to learn from it, and how to keep pushing to be better and stronger next time.
5.Be open to feedback
Make sure that you are asking for feedback from your coaches and teammates. Understand that whatever feedback they give you is for your BENEFIT and it is not to upset you or make you feel less than. Those with a fixed mindset have a difficult time receiving feedback and become frustrated compared to those with a growth mindset who strive for constant improvement. People with a growth mindset understand that there is no such thing as “perfection” and that there’s always room for improvement. They seek out ways to improve by asking others for their opinions, advice, and feedback to increase their abilities. Trust the people around you and take the time to listen and apply what they are telling you.
Put it into practice!
One great way to develop a growth mindset is to seek out new challenges and try new things that you are not naturally good at. This way you will be more likely to experience setbacks and failures and practice the skills necessary to develop a growth mindset. Use this experience towards skills and abilities you have not yet developed and enjoy the improvements, not matter how small. Trust the process and know that with continued effort you CAN and WILL develop the skills and abilities you are working towards.
Want to learn more about Carol Dweck and her work on mindset? Click to watch her Today I want to reach out and discuss something we all experience; even myself at times.
We all experience days of doubt.
We doubt ourselves. We doubt our abilities. We doubt our talent. We doubt where we may end up.
Somedays I wonder, “What am I doing?” “Is it all worth it?” Maybe you ask yourself similar questions at times.
How can we combat these doubts in ourselves?
I have to honest with you. Most days I am stressed to the max. I am tired, overwhelmed, exhausted and doubt myself often. I can hardly find the energy at times to get home, make dinner, and spend quality time with the boyfriend.
On top of working a job that takes an emotional toll already (I work at a day-treatment facility for at-risk middle schoolers,) I commute 40 minutes, teach Zumba 2x a week, try to work out daily, be a present girlfriend, and trying to run my dream business, The Mental Clutch, LLC.
Running a business is a lot. I really had no experience going into all of this and am still learning as I go. Most days I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. Most of the time I am stressed and confused and my business is small with just me. I couldn’t imagine having other employees and running a bigger one.
Anyways, the marketing, reaching out to new clients, staying in touch with former clients, blogging, tweeting, trying to inspire others; well it can take a toll. I do need to thank each and everyone of you who are reading this though and who have subscribed to my email list because you all keep me sane and are the reason I keep going!
It may seem that I’m complaining, but I need to vent at times to get it out. Which I believe most of us do. Take the time vent it out with someone else you trust and who supports you or write it out. My only advice is that once it’s out you need to move on.
Ok my stuff is out there now… moving on!
(I have to practice what I preach.)
Here’s the point though. Is it hard? Yes. Is it stressful? Yes. Sometimes do I consider why am I running a company when at times I see it going nowhere? Absolutely.
This is what changes the game though.
Do you feel the energy? Do you hear the excitement? This is my passion. This is my dream career.
Once I lead a session it reminds me that it is all worth it. The stress, the paperwork, the marketing, and everything else that takes a toll is worth it to be able to work with these teams and provide them useful information that will make them not only better athletes, but better people. Many people think that I get to inspire so many others with the work I do. That might be the case, but I am the one who walks away inspired by them each and every time.
How exciting is that?!?? After a session I am literally on a cloud nine for hours. I can’t stop smiling and gushing to others how ecstatic and pumped I am. Doing this work fills up my cup to the max. I no longer am tired, exhausted, and feel like it’s not worth it.
The fact is; we all go through days of doubt. No matter what job you have. Whether it is raising kids, coaching a team, being an athlete, being a mental consultant, etc. You will have days where you ask yourself, “Why am I doing this? Is it worth it? Will it go anywhere?”
Even though I would LOVE my consulting company to grow bigger to the point where it can be my full-time job I will not quit if it doesn’t happen. If I can lead one session every few months, it’s worth it to me.
Will I still have days of doubt? Yes. Will I still question if I’m good enough? Yes. Will I question if I will fail? Yes. But you need to face the fears and the doubts to be able to experience the high of gratitude, happiness, and success in the end.
On those days of doubt, frustration, and stress remind yourself of your passion, love, and joy for what you get to do.
Do you have doubts, concerns, or worries as well? Let me know! We shouldn’t have to go at it alone. Let others know what you’re going through and seek the guidance and help that will help you unload your stressand worries so that you can move on and focus on the final product.
I’d love to hear from you whether it’s a comment on the post, mental performance related, or about your own struggles. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Til next time 🙂
Keep up the eye of the storm mentality!
My mom recently forwarded me an e-mail sent from my Great Uncle titled, “Why Go To Church?” Whether or not you are religious I encourage you to continue reading this post. You’ll still get something out of it whether it’s related to your religion, your spirituality, your career, your workouts, or you belief in yourself and your team.
The story goes like this…
A churchgoer wrote a letter to an editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.
He wrote,
“I’ve gone for 30 years now, and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons, but for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So, I think I’m wasting my time, and the preachers and priests are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.”
This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column until someone ended it with this clutch response,
“I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals.
But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work.
If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today.”
When you are DOWN to nothing, God is UP to something!
Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.
If you have a religious and God-based faith, you know what I mean. Lets go beyond that though for those who need faith in other areas in their life.
Do you have faith in yourself? Do you see the invisible possibilities, believe that you can reach incredible goals, and receive what you believe is impossible?
Just like many of us stray away from our faith with the Lord at times, we also stray away from our faith in ourselves. As performers, athletes, and co-workers we also stray away from faith in our teams.
How can we change that?
Well for starters we can be more like the man who responded with the clutch response. Even though at times we may not believe that the lift we are performing is making us stronger, the speed drills not making us faster, the trainings or readings may not be informative, the team meetings not making a difference, writing our goals not mattering, and that the little things not adding up to change things in the end, but they do. They will. Be patient.
Have faith and be patient in the process. Trust that everything you do will make a difference, even if we don’t remember the lifting regimen, the team meeting content, plans towards a goal, a book we read, or the food we ate for our nutrition plan. Each and every single thing nourished you in some form and provided you the strength you needed to move forward.
Believe in yourself, your team, and everything you do that will move you closer to your goals. There will be days that it seems like it won’t make a difference and we will doubt why we do it, but do it anyways. Have FAITH and BELIEVE it will make a difference somehow, even if you can’t see it at the time.
Get that last rep in, follow your nutrition plan, get up with your alarm, write that blog, read that book, go to that meeting or training, and look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself,
“I believe and have faith that it’s worth it.”
First of all I apologize for being gone for a while from blogging. I have been meaning to blog but have been busy getting ready for my Strong by Zumba training and practicing my routine for my pop up class that is TOMORROW!
What exactly is Strong by Zumba? Learn more about at the website below or watch my practice video teaser:
https://strong.zumba.com/en-US/class
If you are able to attend a class or training I highly recommend it! The training was my first experience attending this class and I loved it!
I know what you might be thinking:
“You did a training for a class you have never done before and now you have 7 days to learn it before you TEACH it?”
Yes that is correct. I have learned with mental training though that it does not help to think of what could go wrong. Instead I need to focus on what could go right and work from there. What this will require is a LOT of practice. Now it doesn’t help when you promote your pop up class online and someone comments:
“I tried to learn it in 8 days after my training and I was co-teaching with someone… Good luck!”
Whatever goal you are working towards, won’t there always be people who don’t believe it will happen or choose to focus on the struggles instead of the possibilities? I needed to shrug it off and use it as motivation to prove to myself that I can do it successfully.
Since I know that preparation builds confidence I knew I needed to be as prepared as possible. I pulled out my calendar and broke down which quadrant I would practice which days. Strong by Zumba layout consists of 6 parts:
1) Warm-up
2) Quadrant 1
3) Quadrant 2
4) Quadrant 3
5) Quadrant 4
6) Cool down
Each quadrant is about 10 minutes in length consisting of around 3 different songs. I created my practice plan and broke it down like so:
Sunday: Practice Warm-up
Monday: Practice Q1
Tuesday: Practice Q2
Wednesday: Practice Q3
Thursday: Practice Q4
Friday: Practice Cool down
Saturday: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
This would be my layout for understanding what days to focus on which parts. I set time aside each morning to review the moves, listen to the music, and image myself doing the moves on my way to and from work. I would also practice in the evening if possible. So far it’s been working out pretty well. If I focus on the process and spend my time learning and practicing the moves I won’t have time to freak out ad be nervous about my dwindling days before instructing.
Throughout the week while practicing this quote popped into my head often, “Practice makes perfect.”
That got me thinking… Does it really though? I think not. I think practice make PROGRESS. There’s no such thing as perfection in my book. If you think you have “perfected” something then you’re saying that there is no more room for improvement. This mean there is no more motivation and drive to continue to get better. Do we really want that?
I’ll explain further in this analogy of climbing a mountain:
As you work on a new skill or goal it is similar to climbing up a mountain. At first you start at the bottom and as you improve you make gains further up the mountain. There will be times you need to stop for a rest, refuel, and take the time to reflect on how far you have come. What happens though when you think you have perfected a skill? You have reached the top of the mountain. You celebrate and feel ecstatic at first, but what happens next?
You have two options:
1) Stay on top as long as possible.
2) Climb back down the mountain.
Here’s the issue though:
If you stay on top of the mountain factors out of your control may push you down before you want to (such as another person who challenges you or the wind picks up and knocks you down). Climbing back down the mountain also means you have moved on and you are now descending and/or backsliding where you came from.
What if we changed our perception though? What if you continue to strive for progress and choose not to believe in perfection? This will extend the mountain to have no end and you can continue to keep climbing.
A never ending mountain sounds exhausting to climb, but it will continue to motivate you to grow, push your limits, and instill determination to keep getting better and to become grittier. If you view improving on a skill as continued progress instead of reaching perfection, then you will be continuing to climb that mountain instead of focusing on reaching the top.
After all didn’t Miley Cyrus say, “It’s the climb.”
As a society we should stop saying, “Practice makes perfect.” When we say this we are encouraging our kids, friends, athletes, and others around us to strive for something that is not possible. We do not want to lead people to believe that they can become perfect because the idea of perfection is actually damaging.
We want to build strong people around us to continue to strive for progress and not quit once they believe they have progressed to the point where they are content where they are. They will become stagnant and possibly slide backwards. We want motivated people who keep pushing themselves to seek new and better ways for improvement. Think of the effect this would have in your workplace, your team, your spouse, and in your friendships.
Lets all agree as a society to start saying, “Practice makes progress,” and encourage others and ourselves to continue to progress in everything we do and to not settle!
As for now, I’m going to continue to practice my routine even after I have it memorized because there will always be ways I can improve on my delivery and my form for myself and the students in my class.
Hope you all have a great weekend and checkout a Strong by Zumba class is possible!
The world of sport and performance is filled with a variety of emotions. Sometimes we experience emotions that benefit us, but many times we experience emotions that actually impact our performance in a negative way. One of the most common mental skills that athletes and coaches want to know is emotion regulation. How can you manage your emotions so that they do not get in the way of you performing at your highest potential?
The good news is that there are many different ways you can manage the emotions you are experiencing. It is a skill though, and with any other skill it requires practice. Some days might be easier to manage than others. Sometimes we may even need the help of others to remind us how to manage our emotions so that we can unleash our potential.
When I was at IMG Academy last summer I presented on ways coaches can assist athletes in managing their emotions. What I found in one article was the 3 R’s of self-regulation. However, I modified it a bit. The article that I mentioned is also a great read and if you are curious about checking it out I listed it at the end of this post.
The key part in managing your own emotions or your athletes’ if you are a coach or mental consultant is to first understand and recognize when negative emotions are present.
Recognize:
Once an athlete makes a mistake/error coaches should be asking themselves and their athletes what they are thinking or experiencing. Our thoughts are what first affect the emotions we experience. If you are aware of your own thoughts then you are increasing your self-awareness.
Coaches should be checking in with their athletes on what thoughts enter their mind after a mistake so that the athletes can become more self-aware. It is crucial for coaches to increase their emotional intelligence to be able to notice and recognize when their athletes are not regulating their emotions effectively. Once you can identify that you or your athlete is experiencing a negative emotion you can move onto the next R.
*Check out Goleman, 1998 for more information on how coaches can increase emotional intelligence.
Reset:
After recognizing the emotion the athlete needs to be able to let that emotion/negative thought go. This is referred to as resetting their thoughts and emotions. Coaches should encourage athletes to engage in a verbal cue as well as a physical cue to release the thought or emotion they are experiencing. After this is explained to an athlete and practiced, a coach can yell out to the athlete, “Reset” to remind them to go through their verbal and physical cues after a mistake.
Verbal cue examples:
– “Flush it”
– “Reset”
– “Next one”
– “Let it go”
– “Shake it off”
Physical examples:
– Snap a rubber band
– Brush off their hands
– Dig their toe in the ground
– Readjust gloves
– Tighten hair tie
– Readjust hat
– Taking a deep breath
Refocus:
After letting the mistake, emotions, and thoughts go the athlete needs to be able to refocus on the task at hand. This could be repeating an “I AM” statement or reminding athletes to focus on a specific skill to execute.
1. Repeat I AM/Power statements:
Ex: I am resilient, I am strong, I am focused, I am determined.
2. Remind athletes to focus on a specific skill to execute or position to be in.
Ex: Eyes on ball, relax, follow through, breathe, drive the arm, knees up.
Concluding Thoughts:
If you are implementing this with yourself, write down your 3 R’s so that you can easily access them if you forget. If you are a coach, have your athletes complete the exercise below and implement the 3 R’s in practice. This way when it is competition time your athletes will have the 3 R’s well rehearsed and it will become a habit.
Try this exercise:
1. Write down common negative emotions you experience within your sport/performance. Include the events that tend to make these emotions arise.
2. What verbal cue and physical cue do you want to use to reset yourself?
3. What I am statement or technical skill are you going to remind yourself to refocus?
I hope that you found the 3 R’s of self-regulation to be helpful and beneficial to yourself and your athletes. Comment below and let me know your thoughts!
Blog post that inspired the 3 R’s:
http://www.sportpsychologytoday.com/sport-psychology-for-coaches/emotional-control-and-composure-in-sports/