The Pathway from the Strategic Mindset to Becoming an Elite Athlete
As a writer who loves to write about research, I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction in moments when I identify a connection between different areas of research. Indeed, today is one of those moments.
The last few days I’ve been writing about recently released research from Patricia Chen on the strategic mindset. In short, this research concludes that strategic thinkers who apply metacognition techniques make more progress towards their goals than everyone else. Metacognition is when you think about how you think and then use what you learn to improve your thinking.
This research has a direct connection to Angela Duckworth’s research on “grit”. Duckworth defines grit as the ability to sustain passion and persistence in pursuit of long-term achievement. What’s more, Duckworth’s research shows that grit is not a derivative of fun or enjoyment. Instead, it’s a derivative of having a desire to improve. As such, those with grit spend their time identifying and working on specific activities that lead to improvement rather than fun. To put it differently, those with grit also use the metacognition techniques those with the strategic mindset use.
This research on grit then connects with the research that identifies deliberate practice as the key to elite performance. There are several people who have written about deliberate practice. I like Geoff Colvin’s book on the topic, Talent is Overrated. Deliberate practice is how world-class performers design their practice routines around improving specific aspects of their performance. One of the key characteristics of deliberate practice is that it’s not fun. The research shows that elite performers have an uncanny ability to forgo fun completely for the sake of partaking in deliberate practice. Angela Duckworth would call this grit.
The Strategic Mindset First, Then Grit and Deliberate Practice
For elite athletes in particular, the connection between these three bodies of research is clear. You must start with a strategic mindset. Without the ability to think about your performance and identify how to improve, grit won’t matter.
Next, you must use grit to both sustain your passion in your area of focus, and to remain persistent in how you analyze your performance. Finally, by combining the strategic mindset with grit you then develop the ability to toil for long hours doing things that aren’t necessarily fun or enjoyable, but instead are laser focused on driving performance improvement through deliberate practice.