What is Mental Toughness – Motivation

posted on: March 30, 2013
author: Brian Lomax, Ed.D.

Why do you compete?  Why is your sport important to you?

Your answers to these questions can be quite revealing in terms of your desire to succeed and achieve your goals, and whether or not you’re ready to do what it takes to reach your potential.  That’s why motivation is one of the key ingredients in becoming a great competitor.  It gives purpose and direction to your work.  It is what keeps you going when adversity inevitably appears.  It is what drives you to continually improve, and be the best athlete and competitor possible.  Look at all of the greatest competitors in the world and you will see that they are constantly trying to get better.  They are always trying to win more.  For them, it’s not about the money, it’s about why they compete, and they all have an answer to that question.

There are two characteristics of motivation that I would like to discuss in this post:

• Purpose
• Goals

Purpose

So why DO you compete?  The usual quick answers are responses like “it’s fun”, “I like winning”, “I’m good at it”, etc.  And because these are the quick answers that don’t take much thought, they aren’t very inspiring.  They aren’t the answers that are going to get you to practice on those days that you just don’t feel like it.  They aren’t the answers that will help you push through adversity in your career.  It’s important to develop your purpose and it requires some thought.  Spend some time considering the following questions:

• What do you like about competing?
• Who are you becoming because you are a competitor?
• What would your life be like if you didn’t have competitive sport in it?
• How does your sport help you relate to other people and why is that important?
• What does success in your sport mean to you?

After you have answered these questions thoughtfully for the first time, revisit them once a week for a few weeks and see how your thinking evolves.  Bring more consciousness to the meaning and purpose of your sport in your life, and how it is shaping you as a person and competitor.

Goals

Having a goal is important for everyone, whether you’re an athlete or not, as you need to set some kind of target or destination for yourself if you want to reach your potential.  As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.”  I’ve experienced that personally so I can tell you that there’s a tremendous difference between working on a goal and simply floating through life.  Chances are you’ll improve at whatever you do either way, but you’ll get better faster if you have a goal to work toward.

Once you have set a goal for yourself, one of the first things you want to do is think about who you need to be in order to achieve that goal.  For example, let’s say you want to be the starting quarterback for a Division I college football team.  In order to do that, you need to start acting like a starting QB on a Division I college football team.  That means adapting the habits and mindset of those that have already achieved that position.  What’s their schedule like?  What are their workout routines?  How do they eat?  Who do they spend time with?  What do they study?  Who are their mentors and coaches?  Start answering these types of questions for your goal and you’ll start defining who you need to become.  Start adapting the answers to these questions and you will have an excellent chance of becoming that person and reaching your goal.

When you have purpose and goals, you have the inspiration necessary to reach your full potential.  Along that journey, there will be moments that require you to get out of your comfort zone and change how you do things.  Having a well developed motivation will allow you to break out of that comfort zone and do whatever it takes to become a great competitor.  Enjoy that journey and fulfill your purpose.