How your mindset affects your performance

Grade 9 students in the Collective Voice program at Aden Bowman Collegiate share their lives and opinions through columns. Selected columns run on Mondays in The Saskatoon Starphoenix.

I am very competitive, both on the field and at school, and always work to do my best.

However, while a competitive attitude is often seen as a virtue, it can easily lead to a poor mindset. When I don’t do well or live up to my own expectations, I can get upset and start to have a negative mindset. In sports, this leads to me performing poorly, and sometimes I take the frustration this causes out on my teammates, making everyone’s experience worse.

I play several sports, including tennis and track, but my main sport has always been soccer.

I have played for more than eight years now, and throughout that time I have played on several high level teams. Along with these teams come heightened expectations, and the ultimate goal of winning.

This year, I played on a less competitive soccer team.

I had just finished my high school soccer season and was used to playing at a high level.

When I came to the team, I knew that it would be a lower level than what I was used to.

My team had some good players, and I was looking forward to having a successful season.

But the league was competitive and we weren’t winning many games. I began to feel frustrated and felt that I should have been doing something better to help my team win. This negative attitude led me to play worse, and I also became less of a team player, feeling like I had to do everything myself.

To make things worse, I also felt that my teammates weren’t doing their part and that they should be working harder. I began to yell at them and got frustrated when they made mistakes. This made the team environment worse and didn’t help anyone play any better.

Later in the season, I realized that my approach was bringing the team down. Looking back, I feel ashamed of how I treated my teammates. I know that I do not do well in a negative environment. Because of this, I tried to be more positive by not emphasizing mistakes but good play instead. I felt better after games.

Why is it so easy for the spirit of competition to transform into a negative attitude?

When you want to succeed and perform well, you care more about how you and your team do in competition and training. When you make mistakes that lead to failure or losing games, then it’s natural to feel upset. It also is easy to focus on what you did wrong instead of what you did well. All of these things can lead to a negative mindset.

Studies have shown that addressing positive statements to yourself can have a positive impact on your athletic performance. Other benefits, such as lower rates of depression, better psychological and physical well-being, and better coping skills during times of hardship and stress have shown to be in correlation with optimism and positivity.

Being positive doesn’t mean ignoring everything that isn’t perfect in your life, but rather approaching and looking to resolve these situations with an open and growth-oriented attitude.

These skills aren’t just valuable on the field. Having a good mental state is as invaluable in life as it is in sports. A positive growth mindset is what allows you to learn and develop as a person.

For example, if you get a score you aren’t happy with on a test, you may tell yourself that you aren’t smart and won’t be able to improve. However, recognizing that this one thing is not definitive of who you are and striving to do better next time is what is going to allow you to find achievement in the future.

So next time you’re feeling down, just remember that there are always opportunities for things to get better and that a positive mindset is the first step in working toward success.