How different is the psychology and mental attitude of winning athletes from the rest of the competition? Originally answered on September 13th, 2016.
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Answer by Jonathan Fader, author of Life As Sport and Sports Psychologist for the New York Mets:
There is a story that was once told to me about Barry Bonds in which Bonds had just struck out. Upon coming back to the dugout, one of his teammates asked him, “Barry, what happened there? Why did you strike out?” Barry Bonds turned and looked at him and said, “I just wasn’t ready to hit.”
When you think about that story, the main learning point is that Bonds didn’t fundamentally question his inner talent. He had an unshakable belief that he was a good hitter. The people who consistently have good results in life are the ones who have built up a fundamental confidence in their ability to achieve in their field, whether it is sports, business, or another area of life. When Bonds failed, he didn’t start to question his ability. You might say, “Easy for him!” Barry Bonds is one of the best baseball hitters of all time. However, what I find is that people who win (regardless of their level of talent) are the ones who work hard on developing a mental climate and the ability to face adversity, and bring out the best version of themselves. This is true whether they are a late-round draft pick or someone who has been a star prospect from the beginning. Those who succeed are those who work hard at building trust in themselves and building trust in their game. Your ability to cultivate that winning attitude is what helps you, whether you’re Barry Bonds or whether you’re someone of less talent, to build that confidence.
But what if you don’t have a history of success? The question often becomes: what happens first? Does success bring confidence or does confidence bring success? Most people think you have to have success in order to be confident, but what separates the best players, and the people who achieve the most in life, is that they realize that the opposite is also true. You can work to build confidence and that will lead to your success. For example, the way that I approach even negative results will determine whether I have the opportunity to have success later. If I go up to bat, strike out, and say to myself, “Ugh … I suck, I am a terrible hitter,” guess what? The next three at bats, I am going to bring a terrible version of myself, I am not going to have the right concentration, I am not going to have a good attitude. I am going to be distracted by my negative and maladaptive thinking. Similarly, if I am a trader on Wall Street and I have a bad result, if I start to fundamentally question myself and my abilities rather than saying, okay, what can I learn from this? How can I get better? It will lead to negative results.
The type of person who learns and improves from a poor performance is the person who will get better, and when they have their next chance they will be more confident as well. The mental attitude of a winner can be born from success or it can be the result of years of hard work at shaping their thoughts and actions to bring their best mindset to every opportunity.
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