This year, due to my numerous injuries and personal problems, I wasn’t able to train as hard as I was expecting for the Nationals. Nonetheless, I still had to swim, put myself out there, on the block, and do my best. I knew before my first event which was the 100 Freestyle, that I wasn’t going to perform at my 100%. Deep inside me I knew I had been better trained other times and I had more resistance and strength in the water.
At the beginning I was scared and angry, but then I just thought of this competition as a way of telling me where I’m at now and how I can improve to be where I believe I can be, the top. I felt proud due to how hard I had trained those three weeks before the competition. I came ready every morning and afternoon, no matter how cloudy the sky looked or how low the temperature was, I wanted to do my best at the National championship. Coming back to my habit, I had been very committed to swimming this vacation. I’ve had some obstacles but I want to get back in track so I’ve been on time to every training session.
The main reason that made me so mad was losing. Failing in front of my team, my dear family and friends which were always there watching me. This mentality was wrong was not helping perform any better. Connecting back to Mindset, I was having a fixed mindset. I was focusing on the seatbacks, I was letting them bring me down, instead of taking this a as a challenge and possibly, in the future, use it as an advantage to help me succeed. The first event I swam was with this mindset, obviously the results were not good at all. But then, I thought about how I wasn’t completely prepared for this tournament. I had only swam three weeks while the people I was completing with had trained all season. My coach, Guili, pulled me aside, she saw me anxious so we had a talk. She told me that it wasn’t about winning the race or the humiliation of losing but about fighting against your personal records (times), giving your best for my three weeks of practice, and making them count. This conversation helped me mentally and in the pool.
The main reason that made me so mad was losing. Failing in front of my team, my dear family and friends which were always there watching me. This mentality was wrong was not helping perform any better. Connecting back to Mindset, I was having a fixed mindset. I was focusing on the seatbacks, I was letting them bring me down, instead of taking this a as a challenge and possibly, in the future, use it as an advantage to help me succeed. The first event I swam was with this mindset, obviously the results were not good at all. But then, I thought about how I wasn’t completely prepared for this tournament. I had only swam three weeks while the people I was completing with had trained all season. My coach, Guili, pulled me aside, she saw me anxious so we had a talk. She told me that it wasn’t about winning the race or the humiliation of losing but about fighting against your personal records (times), giving your best for my three weeks of practice, and making them count. This conversation helped me mentally and in the pool.
Then I had a click, Carol Dweck is acomfortable and focused. The idea of winning was still there but it was not the only thing going though my mind. It was so frustrating sitting next to my friends who were so desperate to be at the top, it was overwhelming and contagious. The third and last time I competed I didn’t look at the the place I got in but my timing. I was competing against myself because for me there was no one else in the pool. genius . Everything she mentioned on chapter 7 about coaches influencing your mindset. Everything on the chapter I read was so true. I wasn’t able to change my mindset from one day to the other, it was hard to let go that thought of failure and humiliation. But it was easy to let in a new thought, the one about challenging myself and getting down my own personal marks. The second time I jumped in the pool I did much better. I wasn't the first, the second or the third, but I was more |
This is how I came to realize that to reach success there are many holes along the way. However, there are two paths which you’ll need to face. Overcoming them, or letting them beat you down. These whole that you’ll face will empower you to change, to analyze what you’ve done wrong and let it be use towards your advantage to grow, to be get closer to that perfect thing that you want. Nonetheless, these whole will hurt when hit, but they will be easy to come out with the correct mindset.