Finding Confidence to Build Your Own Success
All of us reach our goals with the support of others, but don’t lose sight of your unique value on and off the field.
One common theme I’ve heard from athletes is a loss of confidence in their own ability to succeed or to feel clear on their next steps without their known, sports-related support system intact. Folks can even start to believe they were only successful because of a specific coach, team, system or circumstance.
On The Unplanned Podcast, Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson East talks candidly about how every single decision she made for 10-15 years revolved around gymnastics and making it to the Olympics. So when she stepped away from that grind, she didn’t know how to eat a meal, when to wake up or how to workout because she didn’t have a coach to tell her how to be a person.
One of the biggest impact roles surrounding athletes is their coach. A coach can be a trusted expert, a fearless leader, a motivational speaker, a truth-teller, and an athlete's biggest challenger. This resource is vital in a player’s development, mentality towards the game and their desire to keep playing the sport they love.
In addition to coaches, there are assistant and position coaches, general managers, parents, athletic trainers and doctors, agents and advisors, sports psychologists and more. Each role uniquely defined in a way that raises up athletes to become and stay successful in sports.
[Shameless Plug: You can find a blog about community + teammates here]
This list isn't exhaustive, but you can start to see the number of resources surrounding elite athletes to ensure they bring out the very best in an athlete's practice, performance and recovery. Together, a blueprint for success begins to develop with research, preparation and dynamic changes to things like sleep schedules, nutrition plans, training programs and recovery.
Then, as an athlete who follows the roadmap and executes it precisely, you begin to see growth, success, confidence in your abilities, goals achieved, etc. With repetition, success can become comfortable, a little more normalized or even expected when you execute someone else’s plan. This isn’t the experience for every athlete and there certainly is autonomy on every athlete’s journey -- this is merely meant to paint a picture of what some folks may experience in their journey as an elite athlete.
So, when that structure shifts due to coaching changes, a trade, getting cut from a team or stepping away from the game, this experience can be jarring to lose such impactful people in our life. There are a lot of things that will be temporary in your athletic career and in life. The teams you’re on, coaches you have, injuries that you beat and the high of being at your physical peak. And there are also things that will persist no matter what changes around you.
One of those things, I believe, is anyone’s ability to reinvent or reconnect with themselves and be successful. Let’s break it down.
Think about the following prompts…
Who you are
List a few of your skills, characteristics, anything that makes you uniquely you
E.g., determined, motivated by competition, generous, humble
Support system
Make note of the people around you that helped you achieve the goals above
E.g., coach, family, partner, teammates
Uncontrollables
List a few things that happened regardless of your skills or support system that led to your success
E.g., your opponent slipped or missed a shot, the ref made a call in your favor
Now when you recall a goal that you’ve achieved in your sports career - played your sport in college, achieved top honors, won a championship - would you have been successful without any of the 3 factors above (Who you are, Support system, Uncontrollables)?
The same is true for what you have and will achieve outside of sports. A combination of your natural and developed skills, those who support you and a number of uncontrollables that all play a role in the outcomes. So as changes come to your support system or you’re transitioning away from sports, just realize they are not the only reason why you’ve gained success and it won’t be long before you achieve it again.
Can’t wait to see what you do next!
— A
