Olympic Thinking

In 1977 two researchers called Mahoney and Avener¹ did one of the first studies on how the mind influences performance. They assessed gymnasts who tried to qualify for the Olympics and then compared those who succeeded with those who didn’t make it.

The outcome? Non-qualified athletes spoke of self-doubt and fear of impending failure, while those qualified reported more confident thoughts. Non-qualifiers had difficulty recovering from a mistake during the competition and often pondered the tragic consequences of mistakes, while the qualifiers literally excluded their mistakes from their thoughts. Qualified athletes were able to concentrate fully on their task, while those not qualifying were more occupied with worry and a self-focus.

If you want to succeed focus on what you are looking to do versus on the fact why it might not happen

What we focus on determines the outcome! Seems like a no-brainer!

And yet, few of us ‚regular people‘ manage to firmly concentrate on what we want to achieve, instead using our minds more like the non-qualifiers did: Thinking about why we are stuck, why something is difficult, why we can’t act the way we would like, explaining how others make it impossible for us, etc.

The good news: It’s something you can learn.
Thinking this way or the other is a habit. You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to literally change your mind… if you want!

You can train to focus on the towards-to

At the beginning of my relationship with new clients, recognising these ‚two minds‘ is usually one of the first things we cover. Why? Because shifting this makes the biggest difference.

Once you’ve decided you want to learn to step into the towards-to mindset, everything that comes after is just staying aware and practice.

Start to recognize the different states

Let’s do a little exercise:

Imagine, you find yourself in the forest. It’s light and sunny, there is a pleasant breeze, birds chirping, you might even see a deer.

You are walking along a beautiful path, with a picnic basket and in pleasant company engaged in an interesting conversation.

How do you feel?

I am guessing the answer your answer is going to be something like relaxed, happy, pleasant, like I have all the time in the world, hopeful, creative.

And now, imagine the picture changing. Suddenly, it’s very dark and cold and it even started to rain and storm. You are shivering. You are alone, you don’t know where the way home is and there are lots of sounds you can’t place like the cracking of wood or loud howls and you think you saw a shadow following you.

How do you feel?

Probably scared, tense, alert, your heart is pounding, you feel ready to run, focused on avoiding the threat.

And there you have it, the difference of what the two states do to you.

Your thoughts and the emotions that follow the thoughts are creating the weather. The weather then keeps influencing all future thoughts, emotions and ultimately, of course, your actions.

Something to practice

As always, awareness is the first step.

In the days to come, try to catch yourself stepping into the dark forest and make a mental note of it.

Don’t try to change the way you think, just notice it without judging.

1  Mahoney, M. J., & Avener, M. (1977). Psychology of the elite: An exploratory study. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1, 135-141.