How do you achieve fitness success?
What makes successful athletes stand out? Is it all about having unique talent and being physiologically fortunate? Ask any winning Olympic athlete how they got to the top and they will tell you, it’s not just because they had the right body shape or some natural skill.
They actually spent many hours refining their skills and building their fitness. They have also lost many races or games. As Michael Jordan - one of the greatest basketball players of all time said:
"I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
Feeling motivated all the time isn’t easy. You can be easily distracted by life’s other issues - work, family, illness etc. You might know what to do to get fitter - but what gives you the passion and drive to keep going?
Developing a growth mindset is vital if you want to reach your goals. Yes, at some point you will get distracted, and you will become demotivated; but learning to observe whether you’re in a fixed or growth mindset is vital.
If you would like to learn more about mindset, I highly recommend Dr Carol Dweck’s book of the same title. She gives examples of athletes, teachers, career people who have achieved success with a typical growth mindset and gives examples of those that often don’t work so well. For a brief summary of the common traits of both mindsets - see opposite. Can you relate to anything in your life that you didn’t do so well at?
People with Growth Mindsets
View challenge as an opportunity to learn
Are not afraid of failing
Enjoy the process of doing something
Develop new abilities through regular practice
Celebrate ‘trying’ and doing their best
Listen to constructive criticism - in order to improve
People with Fixed Mindsets
Often think they’ve either got intelligence and talent or they haven’t
Tend to avoid conflict and challenge
Avoid feedback
Are very quick to take an easy approach but don’t develop
Often feel threatened by competition or self-limiting beliefs
Tend to stop entirely if they’ve failed once.
