There is something that separates great athletes from good athletes. The first thing that probably comes to mind is that great athletes perform better. But, there are many athletes out there that have the same physical gifts, discipline and drive, yet are not able to achieve “great” results. The question that begs is why? Why are some athletes able to reach the pinnacle of their game and others do not? Is it luck or happenstance or maybe being at the right place at the right time? Some elite athletes went on virtually unnoticed, not even able to earn a scholarship at a top Division One school, yet still excelled leading to the opportunity at the next level at which they also excelled. Think T.O. (Terrell Owens) Owens didn’t even start on his high school football team until his junior year and only then after the starter got injured. Certainly not an early indicator of a phenom. From there he went to the Chattanooga Mocs, an FCS level school in Tennessee playing in the Southern Conference. From his humble beginnings, T.O. went on to play 15 seasons in the NFL, including being a 6X pro bowler, 5X first team All-Pro selection, culminating with his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018. In his book, “Catch This…” he explains that he was fueled by his passion for the game and his unwavering confidence. Specifically, he notes that his mental toughness and confidence came from believing in himself despite criticism, setbacks and being regularly underestimated. Great athletes must have great thinking as well. Although Owen’s large personality often annoyed people, no one could doubt his confidence in himself!
So how about you? What is your level of thinking about yourself as an athlete? Are you easily shaken when the pressure is on? Does the criticism and opinions of others impact who you think you are on the field? The type of confidence and mental toughness that separates great athletes from good athletes is distinguishable. Yet, no one is born with that type of thinking. It has to be cultivated and developed. T.O. developed it in response to hard times and the obstacles with which he was confronted. How about you? Are you developing your mental game or are you hoping it might develop on its own? I would hazard a guess that there are no great or elite athletes that are lacking in confidence and mental toughness. Zero! It would be impossible to get there without the cooperation from their own minds. Well, the same will hold true for you. In addition to working on your strength, agility and physical prowess, you have to work on your mind, if you want to be great – that is. Athletics mirror life in that any amount of success must be expected, cultivated and rigorously pursued. You have to put in the work. You have to rid your mind of limiting beliefs and anything that works against your own best interests.
At IntentOne, we developed our Mindset Management software to this end. You can dramatically alter your thinking, beliefs and ultimately results. Your mind belongs to you and you alone and you have a responsibility to steward it properly. You and you alone have to put the right thoughts into it and exclude the wrong thoughts, the doubts, all the reasons why you can’t! You need to begin feeding your mind different information, especially when it comes to those things you think about yourself. You have to be intentional about it. You can’t just leave your mind how it always thought before if you expect to see any real change. Listening to personal, positive, present tense words that build you up and encourage you, when done consistently, will begin to change how you think about yourself. You’ll start to recognize when your thinking is not aligning with your own interests and can change your thoughts back to the helpful things you have imbedded into your soundtrack. You get to hear things you have always needed to hear whether those words came from the people who should have given them to you or not. It takes a lot of hard work to be a good athlete and even more to be a great athlete. The only separation comes in what you are choosing to do with your mind.
IntentOne…