You're not born with your mindset set in stone. It's conditioned over time and experience.
In this post I'm going to give you a break down of how your mindset is built, and most importantly how to move closer to your potential.
What is mindset?
Your mindset is basically the beliefs you hold. Your beliefs predict your behaviour. Your beliefs also create your emotions and thoughts.
Your mindset is what frees you from your limitations, or keeps you stuck.
Beliefs are created by 4 influences: Evolution, Education, Environment & Experience.
Whilst you're reading this, consider how these apply to you. Are there any other beliefs which have been created by these influences?
Evolution
This can also be considered your biological norm. Humans are built with certain standards built in.
You're more likely to be negative than positive.
You probably fear being rejected or standing out too much.
You probably seek the easy option too often.
These are all common beliefs which can hinder performance in athletes.
Education
This is what you're explicitly told. Parents, the media, and friendship groups often create these beliefs.
If you've been told that carbs will make you fat, you believe it.
If you hear that it's impossible to get on the podium, you're going to believe it.
If other box members always tell you how difficult it is to maintain a balance between life and training, you take it as truth.
What you are told creates beliefs. Some of these beliefs will limit your growth.
Environment
Here, we're getting a little bit subtler. This is what you implicitly learn. So not what you've been told, but what you pick up by watching and feeling.
If you have a coach who is always fearful of you being injured, you pick it up too.
If you train with someone who is negative, you become negative too.
Your parents' attitude to health will also be something you pick up.
These are sneaky.
Another way to think about this is that you pick up the societal norm. You model what others do, just like children learn to do what adults do, not what they say.
Experience
The most powerful, but the most prevalent. Your experience is a combination of your efforts and outcomes.
When it comes to experience, logic doesn't follow. 1+1=3 in experience.
You gave everything you could in a workout or comp, but still finished lower than you hoped. Maybe your subconscious learns to associate trying hard with failing.
Or you believe you're not good enough because you had one big "failure".
Maybe your subconscious belief is that you don't fit in because of one comment you misheard.
What To Do With This
What do you think are your limiting beliefs? Which of the 4 E's does it come from?
Maybe you have an idea of your limiting belief from the above. Maybe you didn't catch something this time.
Either way, you're looking at the first step in mindset training: Testing.
To unleash your potential, you must first isolate the belief. From there, you can release yourself from it and take a step toward the better you.
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