At Headstrong, we believe your mindset is the difference maker. Your mindset can either hurt or help your performance.
A fixed mindset focuses on how good you are right now instead of your potential. A fixed mindset takes feedback personally and gets defensive. A fixed mindset avoids working on your weakest skills and does not believe that improvement is possible. A growth mindset focuses on measuring improvement and learns from a tough loss. A growth mindset accepts feedback and views criticism as constructive. A growth mindset targets your weakest skills in training and truly believes improvement is the reward of a hard work ethic.
Having belief in your ability to improve with practice is essential to succeeding throughout your career. It is critical you trust in the potential of your ability to improve and your teammates ability to get better during the course of a season. Here’s 4 key reminders about having a growth mindset.
1. Accept that mistakes are part of the learning process.
Mistakes show you how you can improve and what you need to practice. The frustration that comes around making mistakes is what pushes you to become a better a player. Karch Kiraly, a 3-time Olympic gold medalist and the USA Women’s Volleyball National Team coach, encourages players to “work to the edge of your abilities by taking more risks and not fearing mistakes.” Learning how to let go of mistakes quickly in competition and refocus on the next point is critical to having a growth mindset. There’s never enough time during competition to dwell on past mistakes. Beating yourself up over mistakes during competition is distracting and it damages your confidence in the moment. If you can not learn to let go of mistakes quickly, then they could end up costing you the whole game!
Work to the edge of your abilities by taking more risks and not fearing mistakes.
Karch Kiraly, 3-time Olympic gold medalist and the USA Women’s Volleyball National Team coach
2. Be patient.
We have become so accustomed to getting instant results in other areas of life, that most of us don’t even realize when we are feeling impatient or frustrated in practice. Becoming aware of the frustration is oftentimes the first step to sustaining growth. Frustration can be a powerful motivator, but it helps to remember that improvement is typically not a straight line forward. In fact, oftentimes improvement is two steps forward, and one step back. You can’t just flip a switch to become the level athlete that you want to be, you’ve got to plant the seeds and wait for them grow. In other words, you have got to put in the work, make mistakes, and learn to be patient. There is no such thing as instant improvement in sports. Those players you look up to playing in the Olympics and the Pro Leagues all put in the time and did the hard work. That’s how you improve and grow as a player. No elite athlete gets out of working hard and there’s no such thing as instant improvement in sports.
3. Celebrate growth wherever you see it.
Eventually a time will come in practice or in competition when you suddenly realize that significant improvement has been made. When you have those ah-hah moments and recognize growth in yourself or in your teammates, you need to stop and celebrate them. It’s very hard to recognize change and improvement in yourself. It’s much easier to see change in your teammates. However, oftentimes we don’t take the time to point out and celebrate the growth and improvement in our teammates when we recognize it. Always take time to celebrate moments of growth in yourself and in your teammates.