One Mistake You Want to Avoid

It is often easier to find a reason for a failure that seemed out of our control than to take responsibility. But only until you see the value of taking ownership.

I am definitely guilty of finding excuses. I had a time in my career I was extremely good at that. Guess what: it didn´t serve me very well.

I know it is much harder to admit I was not strong enough to ski well in very hard conditions than to say the conditions have been very challenging. I am not saying that athletes need to beat themself up all the time, but I want to create awareness that it might be better to think about how it would have been possible to be able to handle those conditions better. When there is a need to find an excuse, usually some athletes have been dealing better with a particular situation than others. And I want you to be one of those who had a good outcome or will have a good one the next time.

It is not necessary to explain yourself to everyone for missing a goal of yours, but it is helpful to have a little “self-talk” about that. We all can have a different reality for the same situation because we see it from different aspects. Why not be open to a view from a different angle.

I know sometimes it is necessary to defend ourselves from harsh critics, but when being alone, it might be worth thinking about how much of this criticism we should accept. The only one we would need to admit this is to ourselves.

Just in case this critic ends up being helpful, it might be a good idea to share it with the person it came from. If it was a coach, a parent, a teammate, or someone else you trust, you might get very helpful feedback in the future as well.

There are situations in which athletes are out of our power. When the equipment is not set for major success, the weather plays a big factor, or an old injury blows up again. But even in those situations, I wish I would have questioned more often if this was a fact, an excuse, or something of both.

I want to encourage you to take responsibility for everything instead of using excuses. Not to be extra hard on yourself, but to get the most out of a result, you are not happy with. When the result already was not the wanted, maybe at least the lesson was a good one. 

Do You Have a Dream? Let's Take The Next Step!

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