Average Athletes Have No Excuse for Being Average Unless…

Average Athletes Have No Excuse for Being Average Unless…

Sometimes it’s important to state the obvious. So here it is… Average athletes are average because they make average choices. By no means is stating this fact a unique insight. However, it is a necessary reality check.

Everyone who plays a sport competitively dreams of being great. Most of those dreamers will only be average at best. Most of those dreamers will also make excuses for why they can’t breakthrough from average to good to great.

It’s in the moment when the excuses start when the obvious is not obvious to the excuse maker. As I learned a long time ago as a cadet, excuses are tools of the incompetent.

Therefore, the only two excuses for being average is either because the athlete is making a choice to be average, or they are incompetent.

While this may be harsh, it’s the reality. What it takes to breakthrough from average to good to great is not rocket science, it’s not algebra, and it’s not even 6th grade math. What separates great athletes from everyone else is nothing complex. It ultimately comes down to making the choices that help you be a great athlete. Simply stated, great athletes are willing to do things that average athletes aren’t willing to do.  

It’s not talent, it’s not luck, and it’s not some complex mindset technique either. All that helps. However, that help won’t matter if you don’t consistently make choices that make great athletes great.

What Great Choices Look Like

Some (and I stress some) of these choices great athletes consistently make include:

  • Prioritizing what’s important over what’s fun.
  • Utilizing self-awareness about their personality and strengths to drive their self-motivation.
  • Maniacally stepping through the same pre and post competition routine before and after each and every time they compete.
  • Consistently showcasing optimistic, positive, or neutral body language and self-talk that makes them look and feel like they are at their best.
  • Bringing a high state of emotional intelligence to high pressure situations.
  • Getting in the optimal zone of intensity regardless of the environment around them.
  • Spending as much time thinking about and planning their training routine as they do physically training.
  • Using both the growth mindset and strategic mindset to learn from failure.
  • Leveraging visualization techniques to train their mind to believe success is inevitable.
  • Focusing most of their energy on achieving task goals instead of ego goals. 
  • Proactively building their mental muscles as part of their daily strength training routine.
  • Consistently using positive training pain to increase pain tolerance and mental toughness

It’s not that hard to do the research it takes to identify the choices that great athletes make. There are books like Peak by Anders Ericsson, Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, and Developing Talent in Young People by Benjamin S. Bloom among others that give you enough details to start one’s search. From there, an athlete can easily define the choices that great athletes in specific sports consistently make.

Then, once an athlete identifies the choices that make an great athlete great, they can also identify the repeatable behaviors they must model to have that same level of success.

It’s at this point where making progress from average to good to great comes down to choices. An athlete is either willing to do what it takes or not. Unquestionably, great athletes make great choices.

If you want to learn more about any of these choices, please contact me here.

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