🎜WE are the CHAMPIONS🎝!! What we didn't do...It reminds me... - Part One (of Two)

Mindset - Negative, Positive: Yep, you already sense it, don't ya, as I put negative ahead of positive...an awkward, negative way to start a conversation, post, you say...what good can follow if you start out so negative...hold on, let me explain, stay with me just for a few and I'll demonstrate...

       In my office, whether discussing a broad, long term goal like career planning (aka "occupational guidance and counseling"), or a more specific, topic like a short term, focused diet and nutrition in order to fit into that dress, sleep/wake, exercise regimen designed to set the person up for success in an event in the near future (whether athletic, academic, or preparing for a specific career move), it's actually not unusual, as counterintuitive as it seems, for the individual I am attempting to support, to start with something like, "Well, you probably don't want to know what I don't want to do for a career...why I don't like boiled spinach..." To which I might reply, if I have the time to ponder, to respond in such a way to get beyond this apparent negativity, "Well, it's actually not a bad place to start..." That is, it may actually offer a glimpse into what we "performance psychologists" (a broad umbrella that subsumes sports/athletic psychology, educational psychology, and occupational psychology) often refer to as 'limiting factors' -- those that can limit our performance in any domain of our lives. These come in both external and, more potentially disruptive, internal form...they are both common to everyone who is sharing your journey (e.g., your competition, teammates, supporters), and those that are unique to you...and finally those that are obvious as well as those that are lurking just beneath the surface (sub, semi- conscious), the latter of which are often the focus of any professional therapeutic encounter, of course, as we seek to raise awareness...

       Lest you think I'm repeating myself, you are partially correct, as I've talked with you before about some of the foregoing issues, psychological dynamics we all experience as we set and pursue goals...but I find it's never a bad idea to review the essential ingredients of what champions among us do and don't...

       Which, of course, includes, if not precluded, by a proper MINDSET. Always a key prepper, especially for a longer term goal...always a good time to review this. Besides, for the next fortnight, if you pay even casual attention, you'll gain vicarious, 'virtual' (well, of course, we're all used to this by now) experience and hints from Tokyo, from Olympian athletes themselves, their supporters (most of whom didn't get to accompany them due largely to CV-19), the organizers (a few of whom were called in at the eleventh hour to replace others called out), and the volunteers (many of whom stepped in to fill the shoes of those that bailed out)...what they did as well as did not do to make it...which reminds me of umpteen conversations I've had in my office, what my parents, coaches, mentors told me, and...

Part Two