Why You Should Start Thinking like an Athlete

Those guys have it all figured out.

What’s your favorite life hack?

Is it the tomato-slicing one? Or the wooden spoon boiling water one?

Either way, we all love a good life hack. Who wouldn’t? They make life easier.

Here’s a question: What about real-life life hacks?

What if you could organise your life in such a way that it was easier to achieve the things that matter the most to you?

Athletes live this way. They set a goal, for example, to win Gold at the Olympics and then they set up everything in their lives to help boost their chances of achieving it.

“My swim coach in college told us we are athletes 24 hours a day and that as athletes, every choice—from what to eat to when to go to bed to whether we stretch and foam-roll—affects our daily performance and the final outcome,” says Sara Isaković, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist in the Women’s 200-Meter Freestyle Swim.

How can you optimise your life to assist you in achieving what you’d like to achieve in life?

1. PRIORITISE
What is most important to you? Prove it. Design your life in a way that allows you be your best self and achieve all that you hope to achieve. If you want to have more time with your kids, sacrifice 30 minutes of reading. If you want to run every night, skip a glass of wine at dinner. Put the right things in place so that you’re in the best position to make what you’re hoping for a reality.

2. CHECK YOURSELF
“Pros constantly evaluate themselves,” – David Epstein.

If something hasn’t gone as planned, take a little time to reflect on it. I find this incredibly helpful when it comes to breaking negative thinking patterns around food. For example: If I binge on junk food it’s easy for me to feel like a failure the next day. I shouldn’t. What I should do is reflect on what happened leading up to it. Was I tired? Was I eating emotionally? Was I just over-hungry? Was it peer pressure? Reflecting allows me the opportunity to learn from what happened and improve it. It doesn’t just work for food, it works for most things. If I wasn’t as successful with something as I anticipated, I get the chance to work out why. If something went better than expected, I find out why it did and can think about how to implement it elsewhere.

3. SET SMALL, DAILY GOALS
It’s great to dream big, but you need something to focus your mind on each day that will bring you closer to that dream. So if for example your goal is to read a book a month, set a daily goal of reading a certain number of pages per day. It’s far less daunting, and way easier to manage. You’ll reach your goal before you know it.

4. DON’T GIVE UP
“Never quit. If you want something, go after it with all that you have.” – Nicole Detling

We all hit tough moments. We all have moments where we’re forced to ask ourselves if we really want things. It’s difficult, but it’s very straightforward. If you want it, don’t give up. In article on lifehacker, Herbert Lui lists the most common times people quit – 1: When they’re close to the finish line, 2: When they’re reminded of their lack of progress or see someone else’s progress, and 3: When a false choice comes up.

Take a moment to review if you really are well and truly done. Are you done, or are you just tired and feeling a little discouraged? If its the latter two, take a step forward and follow it through with another. Little by little you’ll get there.

/Femi, The Girl Who Hates Working Out

More Links
High Performance Environment
Environment is critical for success
Think Like An Athlete – 57 Ways to Achieve Your Life Goals by David Nicholson
The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive – by Jim Afremow

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