I I remember before the 2004 Athens Olympics, my friends asked me if I was really trying harder now that the Olympics were coming. I want to know what they are I think I’ve been doing it for the last three and a half years. I also realized it was difficult to understand what goes on behind the scenes and how athletes prepare for the Olympics. As advances in exercise science challenge more traditional approaches, some long-standing myths need to be dispelled and new insights emerge about how to be your best.
Our athletes have five key areas where they can hone their physical, mental and spiritual skills to thrive on and off the court this summer. These themes may not always appear in Hollywood scripts, although you may find some of them in Ted Lasso. Psychological insights increasingly challenge traditional sports orthodoxy. As a bonus, these methods work just as well for the rest of us, no matter how ambitious we are.
First, focus on the present moment. Focus on the meeting you’re in and don’t worry about the upcoming meeting in advance. Looking to the future is exhausting and distracts from improvements that can be made today. No matter how much we want to win, today we should not do anything more than the training plan, whether it is three years, three weeks or three days. There is clear science to back this up, moving away from the old macho “more is better” approach, one that does not become “weak” but rather avoids burnout, overtraining, injury and poor quality training.
Invest in the small but important things that nourish your body, mind, and spirit: daily mindfulness practices to stay grounded; warm-ups and warm-ups to care for your body; self-compassion to accept flaws, doubts, and idiosyncrasies. Flaws, doubts, and idiosyncrasies validate you as human, no matter how lofty the level of performance you are about to achieve.
Second, seize every perspective you can think of, whether it’s borrowing a dog for a walk, visiting your niece-in-law, or connecting with your natural surroundings. Refreshingly, none of these people care about medals. Insights can help you stay in the present moment, reduce stress, and avoid catastrophic thinking patterns. The sun will rise, the world will continue to turn, and you will still be that perfectly flawed human being, regardless of whether you can throw farther, run faster, or jump higher than anyone on earth.
Coaches, commentators, and even friends may suggest that everything in your life this summer is about minutes or seconds, but if you have that sports narrative in your head, it’s unhelpful and inaccurate. How you perform today and the day after the game is just as important as how you perform on game day. The values and integrity you displayed along the way when no one was watching shaped who you were in September as much as the speed and skill you displayed when you had your moment in the spotlight in Paris.
When the world around you is focused on those few days of competition to the exclusion of everything else, be aware that this can set you up for a major post-Olympic crash, the now almost expected “Olympic Blues.” Perspective helps avoid this trap. Try to plan something for the weeks afterward, whether it’s catching up with friends or just that dentist appointment you’ve been putting off forever. It’s an honor to maintain a level of performance that is both ordinary and refined.
Third, I throw in a sports psychology cliché because it’s good: control the controllables. You can’t influence what your competitors do, you can’t determine where luck will fall, and you can’t predict what will happen. So don’t waste your precious energy thinking about this problem.
A savvy mental “performance mindset” is less focused on winning and proving you’re better than others and more focused on continually improving and executing your game plan to reach your highest potential. This does not mean a diminished desire to win, but rather an acknowledgment that we cannot fully control or guarantee the outcome. Our best option is to refocus our attention to all aspects of the performance process that we can control, whether that’s executing technical moves or adjusting to our advantage.
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Fourth, connect with others. You are not alone on this journey, so seek help when you need it. Don’t cut yourself off. In retrospect, I did this to a disservice: feeling like no one could understand the emotional turmoil of expectations and excitement, fear and doubt. But whether you come first or last, it’s crucial to stay close to the people in your life who support and love you. They will be the ones you look back on for years to come as that lovely medal sits in your sock drawer and gently loses its luster, or as those lingering memories of that longed-for medal gently fade hour.
Thank you for being able to feel truly alive in a way that many others have never experienced, and for this incredible opportunity to explore your mental and physical capabilities in ways you have only dreamed of most of your life. Positive psychological interventions in athletes have proven that gratitude can improve mental and physical health, increase social connections, life and sport satisfaction, team cohesion, and reduce burnout. This is a nice step up from Rocky’s competitive mentality.
Finally, tell your own unique story. You are not “the next Usain Bolt” or “the next Laura Kenney.” Think about what you want to be remembered for on and off the track: Who do you want to be when you’re nervous and the pressure is on, when luck is working in your favor or against you, when your teammates are calling on you to step up? The answer doesn’t need to be some all-conquering hero, but simply the best version of your incredible strengths, ready to write the next chapter of your own journey to get to this point. A summer full of incredible stories awaits you.
