Teach Struggling Athletes the Inverse of the Process Mindset
Yesterday I wrote about the behaviors of an athlete with a process mindset. Overall, the point of that article was first to remind athletes why a process outcome is better than an outcome mindset. Then to reiterate why mindset is not something you speak into existence, it’s something you live out through your behaviors.
That article is a single breadcrumb in a long line of breadcrumbs to persuade athletes that controlling the controllables and deemphasizing what’s not controllable is the key to success. Ultimately, this is the essence of the process mindset.
However, you can talk to some athletes about the process mindset until you’re blue in the face and they will still struggle with it. That feeling you get when you dream about your goals is addictive. This is why I suggest trying another approach to get the process mindset message across to those who struggle with it.
Instead of focusing on the process, focus on the inverse of the process. The discussion then becomes about the outcome when you don’t follow the process.
The Inverse of Following the Process
If the outcome is to be a national wrestling champion for example, then there are specific steps that are non-negotiable to perform at a national champ’s level. Those steps are the process. Things such as strength training, flexibility training, endurance training, skills training, weight management, peaking and recovery cycles, etc. Each one of these things requires a minimum time investment over a minimum amount of months.
The inverse of following a process that meets those minimums is following a process that doesn’t. What’s the outcome of that process? By definition the outcome will be the inverse of being a national champion, which is not being a national champion.
As a result, the main thing impacting the outcome is the effort an athlete puts into the process, not how bad an athlete wants the outcome. As author Stephen Covey is so famous for saying
keep the main thing the main thing
This is the conversation you must have with an athlete who neglects the process but still expects the outcomes of their dreams.