Jackson is frustrated because he can’t jump as high as he wishes. In his frustration he tells himself he will never be able to jump high. His coach, however, knows that if he follows the training program he will definitely increase his vertical. During the workouts though, Jackson’s mindset is that he simply isn’t good at jumping. Because of this he doesn’t think the drills do anything to help. While training he doesn’t put much effort into the explosive exercises and just gets them over with. After two weeks of sessions like this he still hasn’t increased his vertical and this confirms his view that those drills weren’t doing anything to help….
The story you tell yourself has major implications. This compounding effect is called a feedback loop. They can be positive or negative.
If the athlete told himself the drills were working instead of getting frustrated he would notice and celebrate each time he saw improvement. This would push him to focus even more on the drills which again would benefit him exponentially.
So what loop are you stuck in? Recognize when you are in the middle of a negative feedback loop and start by focusing on your motivation. Ask yourself “Do I really want to improve at…?” If you do then put in the effort needed to get there and celebrate every tiny win to keep you going along the way. If you don’t actually want to improve this is important to discover as well. You’ll have to figure out what that means for you, but you won’t be able to blame anyone and anything else for not achieving those goals.
