Introduction
For better or for worse, an inherent element of competing in endurance athletics involves where an individual places within an event. It’s that good old, inescapable outcome factor, as determined by who you finished in front of, and hopefully not behind, right? Of course it is, and rightly so, as it’s hardly a competition if there isn’t a way to determine a winner and where the rest of the competitors come in behind them and in what order. This sounds sensible and harmless enough so far, so what’s the problem? Let me explain.  

The issue
In working with countless numbers of athletes over the years, I have witnessed a growing number of them being incredibly hard on them selves. Whether it’s for simply making a mistake during a race or for not performing up to their expectations, this kind of self-mental-abuse, for lack of a better description, can be an issue at any time of the season, but it tends to rear its ugly head much more so early on. Now, I understand that we all want to do our very best as often as possible and even express our subtle dismay of not achieving this outcome. However, the phenomenon I’m describing is that of an athlete hyper-focusing on the negative rather than simply acknowledging it, making note to work on it and then moving on with life, unencumbered by somewhat obsessive remorse, disappointment and frustration. 

This habit is one of the most self-destructive things that I witness athletes do. I can also speak from personal experience, because I spent many of my early years “punishing” myself in this fashion and as the result, had a lot less fun, and I am sure, was a lot less fun to be around. Not only is it incredibly debilitating on athlete’s performance but it also tends to take away much of the fun out of the sport we got involved in for that very reason to begin with. The bad news is that this is a major performance limiter in sport and in life. However, the good news is that with an open mind and a few simple action steps, you can put this behind you by simply shifting your mental approach to improving your performance in the very sport that you enjoy so much.  

Stepping into the solution
The first step to overcoming this habit is to simply become aware that it is even an issue for you. If not, or if you don’t feel that it is, then there’s no use pursuing this matter any further, as with overcoming any issue, awareness is the first step in arriving at a solution. The next step is to shift your mental focus from the negative. While performance enhancement does require acknowledging our limiters and working on them, continuously thinking about and beating yourself up over them, by repeatedly playing them over in your head, thinking about what you could have done differently or how it could have worked out otherwise, doesn’t change anything, reinforces the very behavior, thoughts and beliefs that only make you feel worse. Left unexamined and unaddressed, it tends to get worse and likely to happen even more often. It is a well known and documented fact that the very things which we choose to focus our thoughts on, not only increases the frequency and magnitude of those thoughts within our own minds, but they tend to start showing up in our lives in many forms. These can include sickness, injuries, repeated lackluster performance and so on. By simply shifting our mental focus from what we don’t want, to what we do want or would like to achieve, relief is often almost felt and experienced immediately and the long-term result is typically an improvement in performance and the achievement of one’s goals in sport and in life.  

The second part of improving our performance and our experience during competition is by taking note of the mistakes that we did make, owning them completely and then either practicing them, if improving them is the answer, or doing something completely differently if we determine though personal reflection that we simply made the wrong choice. Allow yourself to be human by giving yourself the freedom to make mistakes. The only way for a mistake to be a “bad” thing is if we repeat the same one over and over again and don’t learn the lesson that it’s trying to teach us.  Simply take note of what error you made, work on correcting it or making a different choice, and play it forward the next time around.  

Easier said than done
While none of this is particularly complicated, it can be quite difficult to integrate into your life and to have the discipline to practice it on almost a daily basis. Habitual ways of thinking and our core beliefs are not easy to break once they’ve been formed over years of “practice”. So, if you find yourself struggling to make these changes on your own, please reach out to a good coach, sport psychologist, the combination there of, as they can really help you with this. There is also a growing body of knowledge and information in the form of books and research papers currently available on the subjects. Learning to live in the NOW, takes guidance and lots of practice. However, once you are more able to do so, training, racing and even day to day life becomes much simpler and more fun. Isn’t that why we started doing this to begin with after all?

***See references at end of article.

Your benefits package
Below, I have listed just some of the many benefits that can be gained by participating in the early season races, particularly if our focus is on the process of getting better and having fun rather than simply on winning alone.  

• Having fun competing in the sport that you love
• Reducing the nervousness felt before & during races
• Improving your technical skills at race specific speeds 
• Enjoying the social aspect of racing in a lower stress atmosphere
• Practicing racing while your expectations for yourself aren’t as high
• Getting physically and mentally re-accustomed to the intensity of racing
• Dialing in your pre-race routine, nutrition strategy & warm up to perfection
• Simply getting better while having fun and learning to let go of the outcome
• Getting used to bumping elbows or having feet in your face in a mass start event

So, as you can see, there are so many beneficial elements that one can gain by simply participating in early season events, that are completely independent of where one ends up in the results. However, it is completely up to the individual as to whether they decide to beat them selves up and miss the inherent opportunities for growth in any outing where every single thing outside of their control doesn’t go according to plan, or to benefit maximally from each and every experience. I hope that is as much of a no-brainer proposition to you as it is to me. With simple awareness, willingness and discipline, these self-defeating habits can be turned into performance (and life) enhancing ones for good. 

Putting it all together
It is these items listed above that I often mention to an athlete who is upset by where they did or didn’t place in an early season race after listening to their take on the experience and how they feel as the result. I empathize with them, because I certainly know what it feels like to be disappointed, discouraged, aggravated and even stunned by a less than stellar performance. However, if we can just shift our focus to the process and to the positive elements that we experience during each outing, then it is much more likely that our basic human needs of acknowledgement, growth and competence will be met, which is actually where all those feelings were coming from to begin with. In laymen’s terms, we can simply get better by letting go and having fun doing what we enjoy. 

So, take it easy and give yourself a break. These seasons get longer every year, which give us even more time to create the Inner Fitness© and the outer fitness that we desire, and need, to accomplish our goals. By simply shifting our focus to the present moment, celebrating our successes and allowing ourselves to make mistakes, we will have made a huge turn-around in our approach to performance and enjoying the sports we compete in. We can then go about doing things differently the next time around, thus guaranteeing us, at the very least, a more enjoyable experience and maybe even another lesson or two. And so the process goes.  

References 

Church, Dawson Ph.D. (2007). The Genie in Your Genes, Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention Dawson. (Santa Rosa: Elite Press) 

Engles, Lisa. 2008. “Coaching from the Inside Out”. Online Lecture Course & Mentoring. Los Gatos, CA. February, 2008.

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