The athlete who is in top form . . .
“We must cultivate mental stillness to succeed in life and to successfully navigate the many crises it throws our way”
- Ryan Holiday
As an athlete, injury can indeed feel like a crises. As can a poor performance on game day, where mistake can lead to misery.
“Just because your mind tells you that something is awful, or evil, or unplanned or otherwise negative doesn’t mean you have to agree” - R Holiday
Sure, athletes must be resilient. If you’ve never turned in a poor performance or never copped a decent injury, you ain’t been in the game very long.
But what if we could go one step further? What if we could go from resilient to anti-fragile, where we don’t just ‘bounce back’ from a poor performance; we use our poor performance to make us stronger.
“We decide what story to tell ourselves. Or whether we tell one at all” - R Holiday
As an injured footballer in 2007, I watched my team lose four matches in a row and bow-out of the finals in straight sets (after finishing the season atop the ladder). I’d ruptured the ACL in my right knee and was told “you’ll never regain full strength”.
By that point in my career however, I’d experienced enough injury-induced heartache to know that whilst you can’t question the diagnosis, you can most certainly question the prognosis.
So, once back on my feet after surgery I got straight to work on re-habbing my right knee, determined to make it STRONGER than ever.
“Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are lead to rest” - Marcus Aurelius
Now whilst I didn’t set the world on fire upon return in the last few matches of 2008, I did go on to perform well enough in 2009 to win the Sandringham Best & Fairest. This, of course, is not to gloat but to portray the power of the story we choose to tell ourselves: 27 years old and in need of a knee reconstruction… this would spell curtains for some. And that’s fine. I, however, did not choose that story.
The same goes when assessing a poor performance: will you be harmed by it, as even the resilient sometimes are? Or will you choose to learn from it; to let your mistakes become training for growth and betterment; to be anti-fragile in your response and let obstacles make you a stronger, fiercer warrior on the action field? And remember, we don’t have to like something in order to learn from it.
“So in all future events which might induce sadness remember to call on this principle: ‘this is no misfortune, but to bear it true to yourself is good fortune.’" - Marcus Aurelius
The question is, how do we build anti-fragility? How do we access “the quiet place within”? It is via Arete; by putting our virtues-in-action (our ‘virtues’ being our character strengths) moment to moment and day after day (after day, after day, after day…) that we achieve anti-fragility; and through daily meditation that we gain clear access to the quiet place within. I’m here to help you with both.
“The athlete who is in top form has a quiet place within himself; a centre of quietness within, which has to be known and held” - Joseph Campbell
Get in touch with Best Mind now for a meditation & mind-coaching package that will bridge the gap between your highest potential and your current performance standards, and leave you with a daily practice that will benefit your well-being for the rest of your life.