Your Mindset Is a Predictor for Your Success
What factors do you think contribute to athletic success? Talent? Quick reflexes? Strength?
All three add a bit to the success equation. While you can run down a list of physical attributes, athletic success requires something more.
What is that something? It’s mindset! Not only is a positive mindset necessary to succeed in sports, but it is also the most significant variable for athletic success.
Your mindset influences how you see yourself, your circumstances, and the outcomes you achieve. Many athletes see wins as a sign of talent and losses as a sign of a lack of ability.
However, this limited view is problematic. It causes your confidence to rise and fall depending on whether you win or lose, achieve a personal best, or miss a cut. When athletes equate success with primarily talent, referred to as a fixed mindset, they often avoid challenges because they fear failure.
A rough patch in the season often causes them to give in. As a result, they may plateau early, struggle to bounce back from setbacks, and become frustrated by criticism.
However, talent alone does not lead to success. The path to achievement is growth, and growth requires challenges and obstacles. The mentality is referred to as a growth mindset.
A growth mindset consists of three core elements: purposefully planning, adapting, and adjusting. Success requires growing pains that show up as losses, mistakes, adversity, and discomfort. It’s applying feedback from competition and focusing on being better today than yesterday.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have steadily improved over the last three seasons, increasing their yearly win total. The Thunder finished the 2024-25 regular season with a league-leading 68 wins and continued to sharpen their game throughout the playoffs.
As the Thunder enter the NBA Finals, they believe their year-long growth has prepared them for this moment. Thunder power forward Chet Holmgren credits the team’s commitment to improvement as the key to their success throughout the year.
Also, Holmgren believes this commitment to improvement gives them an advantage in the NBA Finals.
HOLMGREN: “Just like any other experience that we’ve had to go through, I feel like we’ve learned from them and figured out how we can be better for the next time we see that challenge, This is just another part of the playoffs, another thing that you have to maximize and make the most of, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Athletic success requires more than talent; it results from an intentional mindset, objective performance evaluation, purposeful effort, a flexible approach to athletic growth, and a commitment to improvement.
The athletes who succeed focus on growth and are willing to plan, adapt, and adjust to achieve their seasonal goals.
Before each week or game, ask yourself: “What’s one area I can improve today that aligns with my seasonal goals?”
Then, act on improving those areas with intent. Always keep in mind that small, daily actions create big seasonal outcomes.
Related Sports Psychology Article
- How to Break a Losing Season
- How to Grow From Post-Season Evaluations
- Mindset and The Eagles’ Losing Season
The Fearless Athlete (Digital Download)
“The Fearless Athlete” audio and workbook program helps you overcome fear and anxiety to perform with trust and confidence. Learn how to overcome the mental handcuffs of perfectionism and fear of failure, leading you to perform with unshakeable trust in your skills.
With the use of the ‘The Fearless Athlete’ and ‘Ultimate Sports Parent’ workbooks, I see subtle but significant results in a short period of time. My young athlete did not even know about positive self-talk until we started the program.”
~Adam, Sports Parent
