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Learning from the Winter Olympics - adopting an athlete's mentality

We are delighted to welcome our guest blogger this month, Fran Whitaker:  a six-time Paralympic medallist and five-time World Champion who swam for Great Britain for ten years (competing as Fran Williamson).  A very fitting blog as we are in the midst of the Winter Paralympics!

 Fran is an amazing woman, achieving huge successes in spite of having cerebral palsy since birth,  and here she tells us how the Winter Olympics inspires her to adopt an athlete's mentality - maybe something we can all learn from her when trying to motivate ourselves!

I've just got home from a lovely week in Newquay. A place so far away from my home town of Cambridge, that we could have got to New York in pretty much the same time. My husband and I had a gorgeous little cottage smack bang in the middle of no where. We had amazing views and plenty of places to explore not far away. 

The problem? The 2018 Winter Olympic Games. I always joke to my husband that he is the luckiest man in the world because his wife will happily let him watch as much sport as he wants. But, in all honesty, when it comes to the Olympic or Paralympic Games, it's all on me! 

I absolutely love it!

When it comes to the Olympic or Paralympic Games, I am both in love and frustrated. Whenever someone gets gold or Britain gets a medal, my husband will say don't cry, Fran! He's only half joking, too. In fact, when Elise Christie fell in her 500m short-track final, I was screaming from inside the neck of my jumper - afraid to watch but unable to stop watching.

I love the Games for two reasons. 

The first reason is because I've been there. I've stood in the shoes of these amazing men and women (no, no I'm not saying I'm amazing!). I have competed at two Paralympic Games, so I know exactly how much hard work and dedication goes into competing at this kind of level.

These athletes don't just rock up to an Olympic Games. Every detail of their sports are on the minds of each athlete, every second of every day. Whether their results are amazing, good, bad or ugly, every eventuality has been planned for. No stone is ever left unturned. Determination to succeed is ever present!

The second reason I love the Games is the fact that the spirit of the athletes is not something that has to be unique to the Olympic or Paralympic Games. It is free for anyone to adopt.

If you look on social media after someone hasn't performed to the expected level, you will see some pretty negative comments. However, unless the commentator has been in the exact same position as the athletes, the comments are worthless. This is the same for all walks of life, if you think about it.

Many people would say that athletes are selfish. On one level, you could say that. But really, they simply know what they want, they soak up all the knowledge they can and they have a belief in their ability to pull it all together when it matters the most.

Adopting an athlete mentality

Having been out of sport for some time now, I have come to realise that the "athlete mentality" can be put into action in anything anyone ever does. Whether you want to finish a course (and do well), write a book, develop a morning routine, or break a bad habit there are five things you need:

  1. A clear goal. What do you want to do and why?
  2. A willingness to learn as much as you can to become an expert. Whatever you do, it is possible for you to be an expect as no-one will ever have the exact same perspective as you.
  3. Belief. Belief in your ability. Belief that you are doing all you can.
  4. Dedication to do as much as you possibly can to achieve your goal.
  5. Resilience. Things do go wrong. If you are able to accept failures and mistakes as standard and use them as lessons, you're on the way to success.

I realise that I've made this sound easy. It is not easy to be as fierce as an athlete - I lose the "athlete mentality" from time to time. But it is possible and it is worth it.

Fran now runs  The Happy Journals  , a personal development blog. She is also a Public Speaker and Life Coach.