Bill Glass got it right. Successful people live a life of "Expect to Win."
We must "expect" good things to happen in our lives before they ever will.
In addition to attitude and effort, visualization is also critical to expectations becoming reality. I've never met a high-performance athlete who didn't practice visualization. Someone once asked Cleveland Browns running back Jimmy Brown how he could make such incredible runs and lead the NFL in rushing every year. He simply responded: "Because I've seen myself do it a thousand times in my mind."
The subconscious mind is like a computer. It can't tell the difference between right and wrong - good or bad. It simply responds to the thoughts we program into it. We must see ourselves being successful before we ever will be. I'm willing to bet that the great teams you coached and the great players who played for you saw themselves as great teams and great players- and they played like it. Great coaches see their players and their teams not as they are but as they can be. Great coaches motivate and inspire performance in their players by treating them as they can be, not as they currently are.
And, I believe the same thing is true for every area of our life, not just in sports. Success rarely happens by accident. I've heard it said that successful people are those who are willing to do the things that unsuccessful people are not. I honestly believe that expectations, attitude and effort must precede performance.
Not a sermon...just a thought.
I've attached information from one of the most fascinating studies I've ever seen. Take a look at the Top Five Characteristics for success in Sports and let me know what you think.
Top Five Characteristics for Success in Sports
Researchers at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, recently compiled a list of 128 characteristics of what makes a good athlete a winner. They divided the list of 128 traits into half psychological and half physical characteristics. Examples of psychological characteristics were: they perform well under pressure, they are teachable, etc. Examples of physical characteristics were items such as body size, natural physical strength, and general talent or athletic attributes.
They then asked 658 coaches from 43 different sports to choose five of these characteristics that they felt defined winners. The majority of these coaches chose psychological qualities over physical abilities for determining successful/winning athletes.
These researchers determined that the top five characteristics for success in sports to be:
1) That these athletes love to play their game or sport.
2) They have a positive attitude in general toward life.
3) They are teachable and coachable.
4) They are self-motivated.
5) They have the discipline and drive to take the necessary steps to improve their game.
The “natural physical athlete” characteristic ranked 19th out of 128 characteristics listed in this study. These finding support the belief of many sports psychologists that success in sports is as much as 90% mental.
