4 Mental Habits of Highly Successful Leaders

It is often said that when operating at the elite echelon of the sporting arena, 90% of the outcome is mental and 10% is physical. When the finalists for the 100m sprint press their fingers in preparation stance on the tartan track at the Olympic Games, you can guarantee there are micro units of physical attributes separating their capacity to win this final race to determine gold, silver and bronze.

It’s All Mental.

There is no surprise that those who win report countless hours of undertaking structured training that is not dissimilar to the strict, often torturous physical training regimes which push the body’s physical limits beyond belief. They dedicate just as much time if not more, training their mind like an orchestra conductor which then dictates every aspect of the performance: pre-performance, the actual performance and post-performance.

Four-time winter Olympian and gold medallist at the 2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic games, Australian freestyle aerial skier Lydia Lasila described her work with sport psychologist Jeffrey Hodges as very different to how she had operated in the past. As opposed to committing to a stringent physical training regime and simply hoping for the best, every moment of every day had structure, a purpose and a mental plan.

The elite athlete knows this is part and parcel of winning and there is no escaping the work that’s required. Just as physical training encompasses discomfort, pain, frustration, stretching and growing, molding, refining, they also know and expect to experience the same things in strengthening and conditioning their mental skills and mindset competency.

There are many mental habits truly elite athletes practice and continually work on mastering such that their mental edge can take them well beyond what their physical limits may appear to be. However, here are four key hacks that every athlete with an elite mindset has in their arsenal to take them to the performance edge and beyond.

Psychologists and researchers at the University of Rochester, Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (e.g. 1985, 2000) explain how a personality trait-like intrinsic motivation of any individual is more likely to be long-term enduring with three components:

Elite sport mental coaches guide and develop athletes to base the fundamental themes underpinning their achievement goals on satisfying the above key themes. They become well-versed and educated on those external variables that can blur their vision to see and commit to the pathway that will ultimately lead to their intended result. Their goals are carefully planned and mapped to reflect a self-belief and an underlying sense of an unshakeable knowing, that they are in control of their destiny.

In his best-selling book, the Winners Bible, neuroscientist Dr. Kerry Spackman describes the importance of identifying and constantly revisiting the intangible reasons and personal values that are honored as a result of concerted effort, sacrifices and growth made along the journey. Attaining the prize is not the core of the athlete’s focus. Their aim reaches well past the gold medal or reaching the number one ranking and the athlete’s career journey endures well past injury, and/or potentially disappointing results.

It is often a structured, (morning) meditation-like daily practice to review a mind map of their goals and specific reminders as to why the athlete is pursuing the path they have chosen. Consciously, calmly reviewing the goals, contemplating them and actively visiting the neural circuitry, ignites memories and often a physical shift that continually reinforces and increases self-belief, self-efficacy and directs the individual’s thoughts and consequent behavior to act toward achieving success.

Disappointments and negative feedback are known and embraced by the elite athlete. This is very different from becoming accustomed to it, or accepting it. It is highly unlikely that there will not be challenges, failings, or injuries to which we can often feel immediate emotions of sadness, anger, hopelessness, fear, anxiety, and frustration. Such stressors come with the territory of aiming to perform and compete at levels that only a minute percentage of the population have the potential to do.

The elite athlete mindset understands the concept of neuroplasticity (Doige, 2010), the idea that the brain can change its function through planned, directed thought and activity. They appreciate our brain is a well-oiled machine that can be trained to practice three key mental drills to increase and strengthen resilience:

They practice becoming more and more aware of the thoughts and feelings that no longer serve them. They become practiced at catching themselves in the act of having unhelpful thoughts and feelings.

They recognize that they have the power to choose what they wish to direct their energy and focus to and are educated as to what the best things are to then direct their attention to.

Over time, and despite the discomfort, they practice choosing the favorable thoughts that fire the neural circuitry that will lead them to think and subsequently behave in ways that serve them in moving toward their goals. The elite athlete also knows that they have to practice doing this many more times than the automatic, unsavory thought they originally had to override that circuitry and tell the brain that this new focus is the one that now takes precedence.

Just as the elite athlete recognizes they have to practice a skill or technique more when it does not come easily to them, so do they commit the same practice perspective to developing mental skills