Resilience and Overcoming Failure
Athletes want to win and are driven to succeed. But we cannot be our best without learning from our mistakes and failures along the way. Learning to be resilient in the face of challenges is what causes us to get better every day. Being resilient enables you to withstand and quickly recover from challenges. It is one of the most important characteristics of being an athlete.
Be kind to yourself. Understand that your inner voice is often the most critical and can be the most harmful to your future performance. Mistakes and failures are a normal part of the process.
Take a step back. Is there something to be learned from your situation? A skill that you may want to focus on during practice or a change in your on the field decision making process?
Reset for the next play. Keep your optimism and focus up for the next play, game or practice. Attack this with your lessons learned from past experiences, successes and failures.
Be receptive to feedback. Feedback often sounds like criticism. Keep in mind that your coaches and teammates want the best for you, and you all share the common goal of wanting the team to succeed. Their different perspectives can help you to make improvements to your game.
Be patient. Champions aren’t made overnight. Take pride in your small achievements, and know that you may fail many times before you get it right.
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Check out Sports Strata’s blog on embracing failure for more tips!
Check out this Michael Jordan video on Growth Mindset: