Uncertainty with: a career progression, acceptance into a school or university, the competition for a starting spot, a nagging injury, a difficult teammate/coworker/supervisor, your health and wellness
Attitude – a way of thinking that shapes cognitive and emotional though patters or habits. Over time, repeated attitudes become grooved neuropathways that condition our belief system about a situation.
Mindset - a culmination of attitudes that either promote flexibility, endurance, and optimism OR becomes vulnerabilities to rigidity, stagnation, and pessimism.
ID your top 5 priorities this week. What are the challenges that may arise in each area?
What are your core attitudes about these specific tasks? Write an attitude about each area. Ensure these attitudes are effective yet practical and realistic.
Pre-program your mindset. What cue (physical, mental, emotional, verbal) could you use to shift into the right mindset? Perhaps it’s walking into the gym/locker room for practice, maybe it’s taking the court or playing field and shifting into “go mode”, or you may say to yourself a verbal phrase that promotes energy/effective thoughts/attention (i.e. switched on, be present, all in, etc.)
Uncertainty is uncomfortable yet essential to developing a strong growth mindset. Uncertainty requires the performer to take a hard, internal look at their grit and perseverance. How an individual responds to uncertainty can be very telling of their current mental attitude and mindset. There have been times as an athlete where I’ve caught myself responding to uncontrollable stressors or mishaps with frustration. This ultimately jolted me out of a focused mindset and required some purposeful resetting and reframing. Admit your pitfalls and develop a program that addresses these weaknesses.
Be quick to recognize your attitude and mindset during uncertainty. The ability to be self-aware and attentive (focus) helps you recognize this.
Once you admit and recognize your weaknesses or moments of challenge – you then can develop a deliberate plan to confront these vulnerabilities so that the next time you are faced with a similar uncertainty, you thrive. It starts to require less and less time to reset, refocus, and get back to work.
This week we look at the two types of mindset (Growth v/ Fixed) that Carol Dweck writes about in her book, Mindset (if you haven’t read it, check it out! The content relates broadly to all areas of performance, including parenting and personal relationships). Her research on mindset and Angela Duckworth’s research on Grit pairs nicely. Two modified versions of both inventories for you to try out at at these links: https://mcnairscholars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/12-item-Grit-Scale-Angela-Duckworth.pdf and http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~bshipley/MindsetQuiz.w.scores.pdf. These are to assist with doing some honest self-reflection on what your predominant mindset and “grittiness” level is.
In this age where resiliency is a sought after attribute – Grit and and a Growth Mindset are two key elements that strengthen and enhance resiliency (the time it takes you to recover from a setback). After all, sh*t happens, and when it does, how do you respond? How long does it take you to get your head back in the game? This type of training is highly useful in performance driven populations where competition meets adversity constantly. Make sure to check out the prescriptives I offer this week and to find out more, contact us for programming at www.tier1mindset.com
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