Find out whether the time has come to change your mentality

An athlete who recognises their own skills and works hard with a positive attitude and winning mentality can overcome past failures and achieve new and even higher goals.

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.” (LARRY JOE BIRD)

Today’s article is inspired by this quote from the famous Boston Celtics basketball player.

It sums up the essence of how an athlete should set about reaching the very highest levels.

The work on yourself you need to do in order to achieve excellence is certainly hard, taxing and, at times, even frustrating. But an athlete who recognises their own skills and works hard with a positive attitude and winning mentality can overcome past failures and achieve new and even higher goals.

How far have you come? Find out whether the time has come to change mentality.

1. Negative focus.

Do you often stop and think about your disappointments rather than focusing on the way ahead and all the positives? That is a sign that there are too many negatives in your mentality. It is easier to dwell on the negatives rather than working hard to achieve your goal. “Anyway, I will never be able to do it”. “I am not good enough”. How often have you yourself said or heard these things said? Getting rid of negative thinking and focusing on the positives will, first and foremost, help change your perspective and raise your self-confidence. Learn how to celebrate any victories or even minor goals you achieve. That is the first step towards radical change.

2. Reality check.

Complaining won’t change anything. Moaning all the time and feeling sorry for yourself are just ways of refusing to accept the truth. Unfortunately there are some things you cannot change. Not everything is under your control.

But what you can do is make things less haphazard by attempting to control as much as you can. Of course this will not make the road to success completely downhill, but it will at least make you more prepared to handle adversity.

3. Unjustified anger.

If you are never satisfied, then you probably have unrealistic expectations and will never achieve your goals. Setting the bar too high will only leave you frustrated and angry.

You will achieve your best results by setting realistic expectations based on your true potential. Think in terms of taking baby steps. Set goals that are more within your reach. Every goal you achieve is a success worth celebrating.

4. Wanting success to come easy.

When you start thinking about the easiest way to achieve big goals it is the beginning of the end. If you think there are easy shortcuts to achieving great results, then you are totally out of touch with reality.

The desire to achieve great results will inevitably bring with it things like doubt, tiredness and failure. Becoming aware that these are part of the game and necessary for achieving your final goal is a vital step towards achieving important goals.

It is truly incredible what our minds can do. Failure and defeat are just part and parcel of sport.

Knowing how to handle all this with a positive, optimistic attitude/mentality is the difference between an ordinary athlete and a champion.