In previous posts, I introduced the concepts or orientation, attributions and other psychological variables to help you think, perform like a champion. The next step is to assess your mentality. Your Competitive Performance Mentality to be precise. It’s a concept I picked up in a great book called The Sport Psych Handbook.
Competitive Performance Mentality
Competitive Performance Mentality: Dimension #1 - Self- Challenge
This concept is independent of orientation and has two dimensions.
The first dimension is self-challenge and it reflects the opportunity to strive to be the best according to your current ability and, as the foundation for feelings of personal success and accomplishment, MUST be the primary focus.
The second dimension is the game-challenge which is set by the sport, the competition.
Champions assess the self-challenge FIRST AND FOREMOST and only after this is complete do they assess the game-challenge.
This is a mechanism to remove the athlete’s feelings from the equation as much as possible. (Easier said than done!)
Of course it’s enhanced when performed with a coach or confidant – someone you trust and who knows what you’re doing at the LEVEL you’re performing. A spouse, parent or best friend is NOT the ideal partner is this assessment.
This process is especially important for you if you are an ego-involved athlete, for self-evident reasons.
Interesting material. Ultimately all defeats and victories are relative, every victory lays the ground for a coming defeat and vice a versa.
In a world of impermanence all we can rely on is the mind’s ability to serve up a stew of approximations and judgements.
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Note: This is a gratuitious comment, but I do respect the positive intent, so I’ve allowed it to be published. Usually, I reject pure link-building comments that don’t add value.
I understand….I would do the same thing. Nevertheless the comment is related, has some intrinsic value, and I do belive it important that people evaluate the terms “success and failure” “champion and mediocrity” and acknowledge both their relativity and interconnectedness – yesterdays loser is tomorrows winner and vice a versa, we all learn both by winning and losing