In youth sports today, much of the conversation centers around the idea that young athletes don’t know how to fail. While there's some truth to this, I believe the bigger issue lies in an overlooked skill: knowing how to find wins, even small ones, within their performance.
Our brains are wired for survival, which means we instinctively zero in on threats. In the past, these threats were literal dangers to life, but for today’s athletes, they’re often subtler: a sense of failure, a dent in their self-image, or a loss that feels like a personal setback. These threats may not put their lives at risk, but our biology perceives them as a danger to our identity and sense of security. This tendency can trap young athletes in a pattern of fixating on mistakes, overlooking valuable moments of progress and potential growth.
Why Focusing on Wins Matters
When athletes learn to find wins in their performance—even in challenging moments—they become more resilient, confident, and motivated. This builds what I like to call "deeper and broader motivation," a foundation that helps athletes stay committed when things get tough. Without this foundation, young athletes may struggle to bounce back from setbacks and could lose their love for the game altogether.
But how do we shift their focus from what went wrong to what’s going right?
The Power of Goal Setting and "Wins Stacking"
Many athletes face a major hurdle: the lack of clear, achievable goals. Without a roadmap, they’re left to rely on vague expectations, which can lead to disappointment when things don't go as planned. At Complete Athlete, we focus on building a “Goal Stack” for our athletes—a structured plan that includes big, ambitious objectives broken down into smaller, manageable steps. Athletes can regularly find wins in their progress by reverse-engineering their big, ambitious goals. This approach shifts their focus from setbacks to lessons learned and instills a more positive, growth-focused mindset.
Setting clear goals isn’t just good for tracking progress; it’s a core trigger for entering Flow State—a mental zone where athletes are fully absorbed, focused, and performing at their peak. Clarity of goals gives athletes a sense of control, another Flow State trigger, and confidence, which opens them up to taking risks and embracing challenges. This Flow State experience is critical for athletes because it fosters a mindset where they feel both engaged and empowered in their sport.
Building Wins into Every Day
The foundation for a resilient, growth-oriented mindset is the simple act of mapping out clear goals, finding daily wins, and learning to value incremental progress. At Complete Athlete, we dedicate a significant part of our 8-week program to helping athletes create and implement their personal Goal Stack, empowering them to recognize and celebrate every small victory along the way. It’s a mindset shift that enables athletes to look beyond expectations and embrace a vision for growth, learning, and joy in their journey.
If you want to dive even deeper into how to unlock your full potential and develop a mindset that turns challenges into opportunities, our book Unlock Your X-Factor: The Complete Athlete's Guide to Peak Performance goes into even more detail. It’s available now on our website—get your copy today here, as well as our Athlete Success Stack which you can find here as well, and start building the resilient, goal-driven mindset that will take you to the next level in your athletic journey!
Our mission is to help athletes go beyond simply avoiding failure and, instead, focus on building confidence and happiness through achieving small, meaningful wins. With a strong goal stack, athletes can approach each challenge as an opportunity for growth, building a powerful foundation for long-term success in sports and beyond.
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