In order to perform at my best, what should I be working on mentally?

Danny, Pennsylvania

~ Drew Bosley, embodying every quality from my list below

Danny, thank you for your question. As you read my response you will see that your inclination to ask it bodes well for you! I think that the most honest way to answer this question is to share the mental skills and capacities that I have noticed in those who are truly masters of their craft (including great athletes). Through these people I have learned that there are many different mental approaches to accessing one’s best. However, there are also some commonalities:

MENTAL SKILLS AND CAPACITIES COMMON ACROSS THE BEST ATHLETES

• The ability to know and embody one’s authentic self in training and racing. This involves a capacity for self-expression, as well as the courage to listen and respect the genuine needs of your body and spirit, and organize your life to accommodate these.

• Presence is the key to performance. Presence is the ability to focus all of one’s attention on the task at hand in the moment that one is in. In reference to running, this means focusing on what you need to be doing in each interval in training, or within each section of the race. When you are present you are focused on what is happening right now as opposed to thinking about something in the future, like how fast you will run or what other people will think about it.

• Relationships are extremely impactful. The energy of the people around you, and the quality of the energy that you bring to them, matters. Qualities like patience, kindness, honest communication, and care for one another above and beyond athletic outcomes characterize relationships that serve performance.

• The ability to view the significance of running in balance with other meaningful areas of life serves one’s emotional health and performance long-term. This does not mean that running can’t matter to you enormously! It simply means that you can see that running is something we are all privileged to be able to make a central part of our lives. It is the awareness that there are topics and issues of far greater significance than how fast anyone runs in any race.

• The ability to focus on and value what is within your control, and let other variables go. Many of the factors that we become most excited about in running are not fully within our control (such as race times and rankings). However, when we focus on what we can’t fully control our stress typically rises. Also, our presence is reduced which detracts from the quality of any action in the moment. It is quality actions executed moment by moment that add up to excellent performances.

• Acceptance of adversity, resilient hope and flexibility. The athletic path is inherently a rocky and winding road. Acknowledgement, acceptance and willingness to meet this reality serves athletes greatly.

• The ability to take action to help oneself and make intentional change as needed and without undue delay. The best athletes that I know are always eager to learn how they can be better. When a method to be better presents itself they apply that method immediately. In time they will learn if the new method is a good fit and they will discard ones that are not. The key here is that they do not shy away from admitting were improvements could be made, and they do not delay taking steps toward that improvement.

• The willingness to experiment and fail in order to learn and grow. We cannot become someone we have never been until we are willing to do things differently than we have already done. Experimentation, risk and failure are necessary for growth.

• A willingness to ask and learn what is real and true even if it is hard. Masters of craft are truth seekers. They can ask and answer the question of “how am I really doing?” across the areas of life that matter to them. They can courageously continue with what serves them, even if it is different than other people. They can also admit what is not serving them and take action to create change.

• The ability to be aware of and care about the experiences of others (friends, family members, training partners, even competitors). In various ways the human ego inhibits performance (to learn more about this watch the hero’s journey in the Best of 2024 Winter Collection MTI – or ask me a question about it and I will post the answer here!). When we care about and consider others we quiet our ego. When our ego is quiet we sense our inherent belonging and our fear of the unknown is reduced.

• Radical curiosity. Masters of craft are curious people, and often not just about their craft! I have noticed that some of the highest performers that I know, are more interested in asking me questions about myself, or subject matter that I bring up than they are in telling me about themselves. They are generous with their inquiries and attention.

I know that this is a fairly long list, and that much more detail could be shared about each point. But, I also think that as you read the list you will sense the points in which you are already strong and those in which you could use some work.

In response to your question, continue to attend to the strengths that you already have. Notice them, use them intentionally, offer them to those around you. Then, choose one of your weaker areas and consider, what is one small change that I could make in that area for the better?

If you feel some resistance to the change, or if you are a little scared to try it you picked a good one!

There is a poem by David Whyte that speaks to the attempt to make meaningful change through small steps that begins:

Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

You can read the whole poem here

If you would like help with how to make changes feel free to write again!

Sincerely,

Shannon