When you think of the word attitude, what do you think? In today's society, attitude is often referred to someone who didn't treat you with the best of courtesy. However, attitude can be positive or negative.
To an Olympian, your attitude is simply a state of mind. A state of mind of not just winning, but doing your best.
Peter Haberl, sport psychologist with the United States Olympic Committee in 2008 said, "Attitude isn't something you're born with. Attitude is a decision." All Olympians realize that there is a chance that they can't win. They can't control that. Everyone is going to try to do their best, so you must do the best you can if there is any chance for you to win. Regardless, they have already suffered many defeats and victories in order to get as far as they did.
This is so important to understand, even when you're not an Olympian. Everyday, I talk to someone who wants to get fit. Maybe, their goal is to lose weight, decrease blood pressure, or simply decrease the aches and pains they have in their joints. With over 15 years experience, I can tell you that your attitude can make or break your outcome.
If you're not honest with yourself and set expectations that are too high, your attitude will cause you to quit and give up. However, if your attitude is to stay committed, consistent, write in your journal, and listen to your fitness coach, then your attitude can help you get through the most challenging of times. You can't focus on just outcome. You have to focus on doing your best. You can never get angry with yourself when you're trying your best. What's tragic is losing when you realize you didn't try your best.
Below are some ways to improve your attitude, taken from ACEFitness.org with some modifications:
- Set Performance-oriented Goals. Focus on goals that you can attain. Haberl suggests, for example, marking improvements in your performance from month to month. Strive for a little more each time. Then when you enter competition, focus on your performance rather than your finish.
- Find triggers or cues that help you stay focused on your performance during your competition. Then rehearse that plan in practice. Do what Olympic athletes do and visualize yourself going through the competition, focused on your triggers.
- Avoid Mixing Your Self-worth With Your Performance. This is a danger many Olympians encounter, and Haberl often works with them to separate self-worth from their performance. "Putting the two together places tremendous weight on their shoulders and makes it difficult to compete," he says.
- Relive Your Best Performance. Write down what you felt and thought. That's your blueprint for how you should capture that performance again, Haberl says. Refer back to it often so that you relive the experience rather than the outcome. (This is very effective).
- Dump Your Ego (important when listening to your coach). If not, you won't allow yourself to do things that make you look bad, and in the end, that avoidance will keep you from getting better. Tennis players, for example, who have a weak backhand might try to avoid hitting a backhand shot and run around the ball to hit a forehand because they don't want to look bad or lose. Do this and that backhand will never improve.
- Accept Temporary Letdowns as Normal (don't dwell on them, but learn from them). Nobody's perfect. Know that you will have errors and mistakes.
- Laugh Often (laugh at yourself). When the going gets tough, the tough laugh, right? Take the negative out of the situation and find something to laugh about.
written by:
Kelly Huggins, A-CPT
Exercise Science, B.S.
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