In a previous post, I introduced Deena Kastor’s book “Let Your Mind Run – a Memoir of Thinking my way to Victory”.
Deena Kastor is an Olympic medalist in the Marathon. The book tells of her early successes in running, and how she nearly decided to quit running after hitting near-burnout. After her collegiate career was over, she decided to make an effort to become an Olympian securing a new coach to help her down that path. Near the end of her first meeting with her new coach, he asked her off-handedly, “What is your philosophy?” She was a little dumbstruck and hoped he would follow up with more to work from – but there was only silence. She finally answered with “My philosophy is that I want to make the Olympic team”. Wrong answer! He explained to her that making the team was a goal – what he really was interested in was “what makes you operate?” ” What are the values you bounce your decisions off of?” She thought she was just there to run!
Reading this passage took me back to June of 2018. I was a few months away from finishing up my Master’s degree in sport psychology. I had been given an assignment to interview a practitioner in the field of sport psychology to learn more about how what had been studied in the classroom translated into actual practice in the “real world”. I was able to locate a practitioner within a one-hour drive who agreed to help out a student in need! “Ian” and I met over a cup of coffee where I learned that his primary role was working with current and prospective Green Berets in an effort to optimize their performance.
I had not considered this specific application of sport psychology tools before – fascinating! I had asked Ian questions for about 25 minutes or so when Ian turned the tables on me!! I had asked him for any specific advice he might offer to a person trying to help others through application of mental skills. I was expecting a very “nuts and bolts” answer – but here is how he responded:
“I think the other thing that is really, really important particularly starting out is a thorough consideration of values. So, I know this is primarily grill-Ian time, but what are your values? When is the last time you considered what your handful of values are that dictate, motivate, and guide your behavior – when is the last time you considered those?”
I think I knew what Deena might have felt like!
Ian went on to say: “I think the benefit of values is that they can always provide that extra bump to do the things that we don’t necessarily feel like doing.”
So why did I choose to post about values at this point in time? As we close in on the end of the year, it is a good time to reflect on our efforts in sport (and in life) and to prepare ourselves for the coming year by reassessing our goals and objectives. If we can make our goals and objectives consistent and in-line with our values, we will get that extra little “bump” that Ian referred to. If we have a disconnect with our values, that will make it all the more difficult to pursue our goals and objectives!
So, if we were sitting here together in my dining room office, and I asked you what your values were – and how do they relate to your goals and objectives, what would you say? Would you try to side-step the question much like I attempted to do (thank you Ian for letting me off the hook!)? Give it some thought prior to considering your goals for the upcoming year! Have the discussion with a friend or significant other. We don’t always take the time to exercise our brains and really have an introspective discussion on ideas like these. I invite you to try it!
If you are interested in reading Deena’s book (and I recommend to everyone, not just those interested in running), here is the Amazon link: