Dust off vs Beat up? A MINDSET shift for sustained performance

We often speak to ourselves in versions of statements like –

?“How could I get it wrong, even after preparing so much?”

?“That was a stupid mistake! This is going to ruin my season!”

One of the most common one I have heard amongst the athletes I have worked with is

“Only if I didn’t make that mistake, today I’d be playing in the main team or at a higher level.”

It’s natural for frustration to take over when we don’t achieve the goal we have worked so hard and long for. After all, we all want to win and attain new heights of achievement in our endeavours.

Frustration – an emotion that arises when our journey to a goal is hampered- or emotions like anger, fear or disgust (quite a crucial emotion in negative self talk) are experienced, they indicate something unwanted has happened, or that we have fallen short of the “expected” behaviour or performance.

?These unpleasant emotions are associated with negative thoughts- thoughts which are often self-critical and resistant to accept the result.

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Experiencing failure or poor performances is a common part of any performance journey and experiencing unpleasant emotions and negative thoughts are natural. We may feel stuck and sometimes even question the journey. Does this resonate with you?

What happens next however depends on the mindset we choose. Yes, we do have a choice, which may not be as apparent in the moment.

We can adopt either mindset or approach: dust off or beat up.

A dust off approach would be to

1.??????? ACCEPT- What has happened, and accept the emotion, no matter how unpleasant.

2.??????? ?REFLECT on what can be learnt, and

3.??????? DISSOCIATE the result from your ability (“I failed” VS “I am a failure”)

On the other hand, a beat up approach would be to

1.??????? QUESTION your ability and skills

2.??????? JUDGE mistakes as unacceptable, and

3.??????? DEMEAN ourselves using harsh and critical thinking

The “beat up” approach is quite common among performers which can lead to a downward spiral, often lasting longer than needed. It then influences our next actions too, e.g. ?we may skip training, express our emotions in an unhelpful way, pick fights with unrelated people (usually family) and overall postpone the journey to our goals.

On the flip side, a “dust off” approach can be helpful to restart- not from 0, but with the learnings from the failure. It takes mental strength and trust in ourselves to implement this approach, but it starts with forgiving ourselves for the unexpected or unacceptable performance and back it up with a solid work ethic.

This is then ensures we get back on the horse even if we fall off. It’s from dusting off the poor performances, learning and going again! And this brings consistent action and performance.

Lastly, our capacity to accept and dust off varies from situation to situation, so don’t beat yourself for not being able to dust off quickly!

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