We have all faced an obstacle at
some point in our lives. Some sort of adversity that seems like the biggest
road block to our goals, our ambitions, and to our success. It is a fact of
life and one that those in sports face regularly. So what separates those who
rise up and overcome an obstacle and those who falter and fail to clear the
hurdle?
There are a number of different
aspects that help people overcome their personal obstacles. As athletes it is
important to utilize these aspects when facing adversity, as coaches these are
factors we can instill in our teams and cultivate within ourselves and our players. These
aspects include:
*Positive Outlook:
Coaches/Players
– Do you believe challenges are helpful or hurtful? Do you see challenges as a
step to success or a blockade that is impossible to breakthrough? How you
answer those two questions will be clear indicators of if your outlook is positive
or negative. A positive outlook is a key to overcoming obstacles. It is the
first thing that must be in place in order for you to keep going past a hurdle and
achieve success. If you view every obstacle or challenge in a negative light,
finding a way to overcome it becomes near impossible. Approaching adversity
with a positive outlook, seeing it as something that is going to propel you to
success and greatness will help you actually achieve success and greatness. Stop
looking at adversity as a negative and start looking at it as the building
blocks that will help you reach your goals.
*Preparation:
Coaches
– Are you prepared to face adversity? Are you prepared to be a good example to
your players on how to face adversity? Are you helping to prepare your players
to face adversity? That may seem like a lot of questions and responsibility,
but preparation is key to dealing quickly and efficiently with obstacles that
arise…and they will arise. This is an opportunity to practice what you preach
to your athletes. Are you telling your players to utilize positive sayings and
self-talk? Positive visualization? Self-assessment and reflection? Well then
you should be doing these things with them!! By being prepared to deal with
obstacles, you are able to become a good role model for your athletes when they
themselves will face their own personal obstacles. Creating an area for you and
your athletes to share motivational stories, quotes, goals, etc. can be a good
idea to implement within your team to promote different strategies for handling
adversity.
Players
– Are you prepared to face adversity? It is coming, it will happen, do not get
caught by surprise! Being prepared will help you to overcome obstacles quickly.
Reflect on previous encounters with adversity and take some time to understand
what helped and how to utilize good strategies in the future. Building up a
personal toolkit of ways to overcome adversity will be instrumental to helping
you bounce back from any setbacks. Find what motivates you, what can make you
positive and what will keep you encouraged to keep persisting against
adversity.
*Environment:
Coaches – Are we creating a
positive environment for our players and providing encouragement as well as
constructive criticism? By promoting this positive environment, from both the
coaching staff and the team, you are able to help your athletes feel a sense of
strength and resilience when obstacles arise. When entering any sort of team
atmosphere (practice, games, team outings), players should feel a sense of
togetherness, hope, motivation, and have positive interactions with everyone
involved. This type of environment can help keep your athletes in a frame of
mind that is able to handle any setbacks or adversity, because they feel
supported and able to overcome anything. Team atmosphere, team rules, and team
expectations are all tools to utilize when putting your team together. If a
positive environment is expected, implemented, encouraged and reinforced, your
players will foster this important aspect to helping everyone overcome
adversity.
Players – Are you promoting a
positive environment within your team? By being encouraging, not being negatively critical to teammates, and by exuding a positive team spirt, you are
able to influence those around you to feel supported and positive. This aspect
doesn’t ask too much of anyone, which makes it an easy aspect to implement into
your athlete toolkit. While this will help your teammates around you overcome
adversity, what do you do if you are the one facing a challenge? Who you surround
yourself with will determine the environment you create for yourself. Are you
interacting with friends, family, and teammates who are positive individuals?
If you are, you will find difficulties easier to handle and defeat. If you aren’t,
you are creating a negative environment that will make hurdles higher and
harder to get past. Long story short: get rid of the negative influencers in
your life. They will do nothing but cultivate negative thoughts within you and
in turn destroy your confidence, making adversity an extremely hard mountain to
climb.
*Accountability:
Coaches/Players
– What type of obstacle is keeping you from success? Why do I ask? Because
sometimes we create the very challenges we are trying to avoid. Understanding what
you did, in relation to the obstacle you find yourself facing, is a key to
figuring out how to overcome it. It is a tough question and one that requires
you to be honest with yourself. Holding yourself accountable for any things
that might have caused or attributed to an obstacle can help you understand why
it happened, how to overcome it, and how to prevent it from occurring again.
Those who hold themselves accountable will take time to work on themselves and
ultimately work on the problem they face. Those who avoid accountability and
pass blame onto others, will forever struggle with the obstacle they are faced with
and may never succeed in overcoming it. So how do we hold ourselves accountable? Keep track of your
progress, constantly reflect on how you are dealing with wins and losses,
utilize tools that can benefit you along the way, and invest time in your areas
of weakness – even if it is uncomfortable.
*Faith:
Coaches/Players
– Do you have faith in yourself, in others, and spiritually? When adversity
hits and we encounter a wall, we need to have faith that we are capable of breaking
through it. Successful individuals believe that they can overcome anything
thrown at them. Their hard work, preparation, and determination are trusted and
utilized when times get tough. Faith in others can include your team and
support staff. Take for example coming back from an injury. It is an obstacle many
athletes will face. Do you have faith in your trainers? Your rehabilitation
exercises? Your coaches and teammates to get the job done until you can rejoin
them? Having faith in those who are working towards the same goal as you can
help you feel supported, encouraged, and confident that you are not alone when
adversity strikes. Spiritually, do you have faith that things will work out.
That by trusting in the Lord you are able to overcome anything that stands in
your way? This is not about praying to have all the answers or to have
everything go smoothly. This is about keeping the faith and praying for the strength, guidance, and
wisdom to use what you have within and around you to overcome obstacles and
achieve success. A simple technique to bolster your faith, is by writing a list
of positive qualities you possess, positive qualities and strengths of those
around you, and the many blessings that you have in your life. It is a great
list to look upon and have during times when you feel as though nothing around
you is going your way.
*Determination
Coach/Players
– Why do you play or coach a sport? What is the end goal? Why do you put in the
hours, the sweat, the blood? When you understand fully why you do something you
can stay focused on the finish line and not the hurdle you are currently trying
to clear. Remaining determined throughout obstacles is easier said than done.
We all know this. But translating that determination into clear, attainable
goals, and staying focused on how you plan on accomplishing those goals, is
another aspect to using challenges as building blocks and not road blocks. Coaches
and players can utilize this aspect by again taking some time and completing a
bit of self-assessment. The questions already stated are good starting points. Discovering
what is important to you and finding the determination and focus to keep
pushing toward that important goal will help you to overcome any challenge that
may stand in your way.
If you are dealing with adversity now, I hope the tips above
can help. You are in control of how you view, approach, and overcome any
challenges in your life. Know that roadblocks and setbacks are but a momentary obstruction
on a long road to success.
Keep going, keep persisting, keep succeeding!
-Cat
