“Hard work beats talent, if talent doesn’t work hard.”

Do you understand the meaning of this phrase?  I asked my 9 year old, Jack.  He didn’t, so I explained: “you can have talent the size of a mountain, but if you don’t work to improve, you can still be beat by someone with less talent, who works harder.  You should always be the hardest working person in the room, no matter how much or how little talent you have.  Champions work hard.”

Jack: “Well, mom, then it’s a good thing I have both!”

I love his modesty.

Our district taekwondo tournament is this week, which prompted this conversation on our way home from class one night.  Tournament is a great opportunity to practice performance improvement and test prep under tension, a character-building event that grows you into a better martial art athlete.  Even if you don’t bring home a medal, you bring back knowledge and experience- true gold.  Medals break, get lost, wind up in the backs of drawers.   Knowing you’ve pushed yourself, tested your fortitude by entering a tournament- that feeling of accomplishment will never be lost.

The Champion’s Mind by Jim Afremow has some great nuggets of advice for those who want to improve in any area of life, especially athletics.  Here are four suggestions from the book and ways I’ve found to apply them.

1. Stay focused on the here-and-now.  Ive used this a lot, especially with kids and schedules.  It’s easy to keep the mind distracted with all that needs to be done, meanwhile what is currently happening is missed: life.  Also, as a taekwondo student, this has helped me to approach each class with the attitude of “Ive got one shot and it’s now, so it needs to be the best you’ve got today.”  No complacency.  I strive for this with every class because I want to gain the most out of each, make it really count toward my improvement.  Im not talented, I just work really hard.
2. Control what you can.   Working in a busy NICU is chaotic and there are many situations beyond my control.  It is a highly emotionally and mentally intense vocation, but focusing on the things I can control has served me well for years.  You likely will never have a perfect tournament situation.  Bad calls, poor judging, an unexpected injury or your performance is just “off” that day are things you cannot control.  But you can control how much time/effort you put into preparing for tournament, your rest, fueling your body with healthy food, having a positive outlook. Your job is to do what you have been coached to do with the right attitude and to the best of your abilities.
3. Take what you do seriously, but take yourself lightly.  Earlier this year, I got into weight-lifting.  By “got into”, I really mean addicted!  I love it, for so many reasons!  Ive gotten really serious about keeping track of my progress, learning about how to eat, train and sleep to change the body composition. I even started a 2nd IG account to track it all (mel_e_instafit) Serious!  But I do take myself lightly.  Im the first one to laugh at myself when I mess up trying a new exercise (hip thrusts!) or attempt a healthy diet change and don’t succeed well (asparagus- blech!).  As a tkd tournament competitor, work hard to be the best, but remember that tkd is what you do, not who you are.  Enjoy the opportunity to test yourself.  If the worst thing happens, you feed the “good wolf” by learning what to do different next time, and you move forward.
4. Train like you are #2, but compete like you are #1.  The first half of this is my entire tkd life story.  Having very little athletic background, I have always felt like I needed to train harder than anyone else.  I feel a hunger to prove that I can do better EVERY time I take class.  I hope that never goes away because it drives me to keep standards high for myself. When it comes to competing, accept that you are prepared and focus on what you WANT to happen, not on what you fear.  I am using this visual imagery now, with my board breaks, which are the reason I have no-changed twice.  I am putting in extra practice (thanks to my lovely board-holding husband) but also focusing on me breaking my boards at testing, instead of thinking about how awful I will feel if I don’t break.  The mental image of me smashing my foot through that plastic blue board is so much more satisfying to think about. BAM!  Just writing this makes me want to practice!

Being a champion is a mindset that you must adopt on a daily basis, in order to become one.  Its that whole “dress for the job you want” sort of philosophy.  I hope these suggestions benefit others as much as I feel they are helping me.  Best wishes to everyone competing in tournament!  You are one step closer to becoming a champ, just by showing up.

If you’d like some really great tips on motivation, tournament, test prep, or just taekwondo in general, head over to this very cool blog by my instructor, Mr. David Dear.