Controlling The Controllables
There is the first, most obvious answer – lack of jobs. Beyond that however, what separates those who make it and those who don’t?
God given talent?
Genetic pre-disposition?
Better life circumstances?
Maybe… however I believe if you look more closely one thing you will find that most (if not all) elite level athletes have in common is that they take control of their careers.
Every day there are MILLIONS of reasons to lose. Millions of excuses you can use as to why you didn’t make it. The key here is that EVERYONE has all of those same reasons. So where does your focus lie? Does it lie in finding reasons why it isn’t your fault that the game didn’t go your way? Reasons why you “couldn’t” make it to practice / training? Or does it lie in finding ways to learn / improve. Learn how to love the day to day process, and your outcomes will take care of themselves.
The more you can learn about yourself, both as an athlete and as a person, the better you will be able to set yourself up for success in your career. If you learn early that you are easily distracted when preparing for competition (instead of continuously looking back and saying “man, I was off my game last night”) then you can start implementing strategies to eliminate distractions and help you focus. If you learn early that you’re easily frustrated when things don’t go your way (instead of always looking back and saying “man if the ref didn’t make that awful call, we totally would have won”) then again, you can find ways to keep yourself calm and focused, even when dealing with those things that frustrate you. If you know YOUR own strengths and weaknesses within your game at any given point, you can more effectively plan to maximize them. What you do today can ABSOLUTELY have a drastic impact on your entire athletic career.
Don’t get me wrong, it is much easier to look for who / what to blame instead of trying to fix something yourself. I am aware of that, and I find myself slipping all the time. However, there are ways to work on changing your mindset. Here’s what I always try to do.
Catch yourself saying “but” → Yes we could have won “buuuuuut”…. The next word that follows is usually an external reason why you didn’t win. If you can change that, and find what you could have done differently you are taking back control. If you have control over the process, generally you will find much more desired outcomes. This leads me to my next point…
Stop focusing on the outcome → But wait! Isn’t the outcome the whole point? Aren’t you playing to win? Why wouldn’t you focus on the score? Think about what has to happen to create the score of a game. You have to PLAY the game. If you focus on how well you’re playing instead of the score of the game, chances are… you will play much better. If you play much better, guess what you have a better chance of creating??? A better outcome.
Not only does this work in a game to game setting, but also in your career as a whole. If you are concentrating solely on getting to that top level, likely you are thinking “how do I get in front of more scouts?” “What can I do to raise my draft stock?” “What’s the next step?” or something similar to that at most times of the day. However… What do the scouts want to see in players they bring to the next level? They want to see top talent and top athletes. So if you are focused on your day to day process and creating the best athlete you can possibly be… what will likely happen? You will become the athlete that those scouts are looking for.
I know I have said a lot of this before in previous blogs, but I believe in it so whole heartedly. If you focus on today, focus on what you are doing right now and how to get better at your sport right now…. You will be amazed at how you can change your career as an athlete.