Race to win.

I was inspired to write this post because of all the local triathlons that have been happening around here in the last couple weeks. I had the opportunity to volunteer out at the 70.3 Vineman a couple weeks ago (that’s me before the race start gaining confidence by practicing my volunteering skills!) and we just had the Barb’s Race and Full Vineman last weekend. Hearing the stories of race day always comes with tales of goals accomplished and goals unattained.

Many of you have probably heard the saying that there is a difference between an athlete or a team “playing to win” versus “playing not to lose”. The team that is “playing not to lose” looks stiff and tense. The communication and movement is often rushed and even chaotic. When you are “playing not to lose” the undercurrent of your motivation is fear. The team that plays this way ends up either playing it safe or making outrageous mental and physical errors. In either scenario they are unable to rise to the occasion. They have lost control and have handed the game over to the other team.

When a team is “playing to win” the undercurrent of their motivation is to walk away knowing they laid all their cards on the table. The team is focused and they have a clear and specific goal. They make smart decisions and take calculated risks. Every setback they encounter is just that – a temporary obstacle to work around instead of the beginning of a downward spiral. They’re not afraid of taking risks in order to avoid errors. Their motivation is to come out on top, versus the motivation to not be on the bottom. It’s both a subtle and enormous difference.

The same phenomenon happens with individual sports as well. In these sports you’ve probably heard people talk about the difference between “racing to train” and “training to race”. Even if you are a novice triathlete or cyclist that is not in contention for the “win”, there is still a mindset shift when it comes to competing in a race or event in order to accomplish a specific goal versus competing in order to finish. When your motivation for entering an event stems from wanting a carrot in front of you to get you out the door and exercising – you can still embody the spirit of “racing to win.” Saying “I don’t want to come in last” is different than saying “I want to race my best race.”

Saying “I just want to finish the race” sometimes means exactly that. But sometimes it means we are afraid of saying what we really want because we risk the feeling of disappointment if we don’t get it. We say that our goal is to just finish the race because it protects our ego if we have a “bad” race and helps us avoid all of the “bad” feelings that come along with not accomplishing a goal we set out to do. It takes tremendous courage to state your goal out loud and accept the risk of not making it happen that day.

In order to feel the sweetness of a victory, we have to be willing to feel the disappointment of defeat. We have to be willing to take risks and put everything on the line. We have to be OK with the fact that sometimes races don’t go the way we had hoped and sometimes our team will be the one to lose the game. We have to be OK with feeling upset, frustrated, angry, disappointed, and sad. We have to know that one race doesn’t define us and then move on and set our sights on the next goal.

The “racing to win” mindset means that you are willing to accept whatever the days brings and know that you are ready for it. It means that you are willing to “risk” success. When you “race to win” you’re more resilient in the face of adversity and more likely to accomplish the goal that you are really after. “Training to race” may get you to the race, but on race day, “racing to win” helps you to push yourself further than you thought possible.

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This blog post has been inspired by a quote I put up on my Mental Skills Training FB page a week or so ago. After I came across the quote and posted it on my wall, I decided to use the quote with a team I was working with to create a theme for our time together. I loved the idea of applying the concept to sport and decided it would be make a great quote-inspired post.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

This idea has many applications to athletes from both team to individual performance. If you want things to be different, you have to do something different. If you aren’t happy with the way things are going with your team or your performance and you want things to change – that change needs to start with you.

Team Sports

When I work with a team I will sometimes see that they are stuck in this place of wanting things to be different, but not knowing what to do about it. What Gandhi so eloquently stated was that if you want things around you to be different, you need to start with yourself. Oftentimes we sit around and wait for things to change or wait for someone else to initiate the change. If you want things on your team to be different, you may need to be the catalyst that starts things off. When you inititate the change, you may be the first domino that falls and creates the momentum for the rest to follow.

Individual Performance

I wish I had more confidence.

I wish I wasn’t so hard on myself.

I wish I wasn’t so nervous before competition.

You can’t just wait around wishing things were different and expect anything to change, but sometimes that’s exactly what we do. If you want things to be different, you have to do something about it. What is it that you want? Here is an easy little exercise to move in the direction of the change you want to see. Think about what you wish were different and on a piece of paper, write out your answers to the following questions:

Being the change often means pushing out of your comfort zone. Knowing both why you want to make this change and what it will mean if you make this change, can give you the courage it takes to push out of your comfort zone.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It’s time to break out of your box. No more waiting around for things to be different. You have more power than you think. You can start the dominoes moving.

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Beautiful South Lake Tahoe

“If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be one year older when you do.” – Warren Miller

For those of you who don’t know, in the world of snowsports Warren Miller is an icon.  He has been making ski films for decades.  Each year skiers and snowboarders eagerly await the next Warren Miller flick.  While I was living in South Lake Tahoe, one of my favorite memories was watching the latest Warren Miller film down at stateline in one of the casinos with a bunch of other ski and snowboard fanatics.  Imagine being able to watch an inspirational movie about the one thing you are most passionate about and doing that in a room filled with hundreds of other people who are just as passionate about it as you are.  The energy in the room was incredible.  I was jumping out of my skin – I couldn’t wait for the snow to come so I could get on the mountain.

As the years have gone by, I still get just as inspired every time I watch one of his films – but recently, the thing that has stood out to me most is the quote he is famous for, “If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be one year older when you do.”  It’s a call to action that has become my mantra and theme for 2010.  So here is your call to action.  If not now, when?  Overcome your inertia and get moving in the direction you want to go.  Make this the year you make it happen.

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