A brief post for any athlete today.
I want to wish you an amazing year, full of great PERFORMANCE AND FUN in your sport…
AND, even if that may feel counter intuitive, I also wish you to have some challenges and setbacks. Yes. Because that’s where you will learn the most, where you will build your resilience and your determination to continue, to be willing to fall, get back up and move on in your journey as an athlete.
Most of the champions say that what they are most proud of is the journey they have been on to achieve their success, their surpassing themselves and their interior adventure, not the medals in themselves.
If you are hoping to have only wins, only Personal Best, always do well in practice, you will be very frustrated, discouraged, maybe resigned as soon as it gets harder, when the setbacks and challenges start to show-up. And they will arrive at one point.
Instead, you can expect them, which is a first step but may be still acting from a place of fear. You know it will happen but you don’t want it.
What I am actually inviting you to do is to shift your perspective entirely, and wish some challenges and setbacks to happen. In this case, you won’t be afraid of them anymore. Paradoxically, because you will be more “free to fail”, you will perform better. And when the setbacks happen, your experience will be totally different. You will welcome them as a gift. You will learn more from them, and bounce back faster. Remember that overcoming them will be a significant if not the most rewarding part of your journey as an athlete.
And if you are a coach, wish your athletes some challenges and setbacks. And observe their reaction. For some of them, knowing that their coach is not only expecting but even wishing them to encounter some setbacks can have a huge impact on their ability to race/play more relaxed, to trust their skills and their practice more and in the end to perform better.
Take care,
Evan Bernache 