3 Things Athletes Can’t Control, But Still Worry About

There is no greater detriment to an athlete’s confidence and success than to focus on what you cannot control.

In particular, there are 3 things that are outside of your circle of control that I have found far too many athletes giving valuable attention to:

• What others think about you and your performance
  
  

• External factors
  
  

• The results you achieve** (this one will really challenge you)

1. What others think about you and your performance.

To be specific, this can be coaches, players, peers, parents, social media, news outlets, and more. Athlete, you cannot control what people think and you must stop worrying about it.

Just because you know this is true, doesn’t mean you act like it.

You are human. You do care what people think. It’s natural. 

But caring about something does not mean you need to give it your attention.

A great goal for an athlete to write down, focus on, and tell others about would be this: 

I will use other’s opinions about me as instruction, not evidence. 

Listen to what others say, process it, learn from it, reject what is unhelpful or unchangeable, apply what is useful, and move forward. 

Make a decision today that you will no longer stay stuck in the past, dwelling on what others said about you and your performance.

 2. External factors. These include, but are not limited to, things like the ref’s bad call, the weather, the environment in the stadium, the judges, your height, etc.

These things you cannot control NOR can you even influence.

When you find yourself giving attention to and focusing on an external, uncontrollable factor, say this immediately out loud:

Not worth it. Can’t change it. What’s important NOW?

Then, focus on that.

 3. The results you achieve. This one is hard because athletes have heard things like this their entire lives: 

“If you work hard enough you can achieve anything you set your mind to.”

“You can accomplish anything.”

And while I am a huge believer in the power of goals and that what you focus on you move towards, those statements are not true. 

In fact, the more an athlete focuses on results, the less time they spend working towards them.

The athlete who focuses on: 

• mastering his or her craft
• improving the way they do things in the weight room
• working on their mental game
• meal prepping and fueling properly
• recovering like a pro
• watching film…

That athlete will always have a better shot at achieving the results they want.

But it’s never guaranteed. 

Accolades and accomplishments, making the A team, and achieving a scholarship to your dream school…all of these results are outside of your control.

You can influence them, but you cannot control them.

You would be wise to time to define and refine your Definition of Success.

Success should always be within your control.

If not, you’ll spend your athletic career striving and never truly satisfied.

So there you have it, athlete! Control what you can control today.

Comment below with the one that stood out most to you.

-Coach Andrew

P.S. Here is a video I did a while back at an event for athletes on Defining Success.