“If you view every situation as an opportunity for growth, you never HAVE to do anything. You GET to”
I caught myself saying this to an athlete just a few weeks back. Now I’m not saying I’m Confucius, but I plan on sending this quote to a fortune cookie company real soon. This is a quote I’ll definitely be using quite often in my future as a coach.
Perspective is everything. One of the Facets of Performance I coach on is Mindset, how to create and build on a positive Mindset. With a positive view of yourself, your situations, and opportunities, you can be unstoppable. And this all starts with the verbiage you use while talking to yourself.
We all have that constant internal conversation with ourselves in our mind, I call this self-talk. Self-talk can be positive, neutral, or negative. Without practice, our self-talk will most likely become negative, because that’s just what is easiest to do. And unfortunately for individuals with negative self-talk, people are more likely to perform and have an outcome that is in line with their self-talk (look up the term “self-fulfilling prophecy”). This is why it is so important to learn how to have, and build on, a positive mindset.
A negative view of yourself (yes, even if they are only “jokes”) will hurt your performance. You’re ruining your race before it even begins! But, on the other hand, positive self-talk can sky rocket your performance. In the right situations, a positive mindset will lead you to win the race before you even step onto the blocks.
Now back to the quote. I head the words “have to” way too much as a coach. “I have to do the 200 fly,” “do I have to wear fins?” and of course, “why do I have to go on the faster interval?” These comments come from athletes with a negative mindset. They view every situation thrown at them as obstacles that they just need to suffer through, not a favorable mindset for high performance. Now change those statements into “get to.” “I get to do the 200 fly,” “we get to wear fins?!” and of course, “I finally get to try the faster interval!”
A simple change of the words “have to” to “get to” you now have a growth mindset. You see each situation as an opportunity to get better, try a new challenge, and improve on yourself. You will be surprised how much easier, more fun, engaging, and beneficial the exact same situation can be when you have a growth (positive) mindset vs. a negative one.
Perspective is everything! And verbiage is one tool to control your view on life. Be aware of the words you use, how you talk to yourself, and learn to control them.
If you want help in developing and growing a positive mindset, I am here to help. I offer Performance Consultation sessions that can be done live in-person, over the phone, or video chat apps. And STAY TUNED for a new service (that will help immensely in this category) that I plan to release in these next few short weeks.
Together we will Exceed Your Potential!
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