005 Observations: The Art of Learning

Demystifying Mental Toughness is for people who want to reach their goals faster and are curious what high performing athletes and professionals do to fulfil their potential. David Charlton shares insights, strategies and stories from leading athletes, coaches, psychologists and specialists to help you perform to your optimum level on a more consistent basis. If you're a motivated athlete, coach, sport psychologist, mental game coach or executive listen in for proven and practical advice in this podcast.

In this episode, David Charlton reflects on what he learned from episodes one and two where Doug Strycharczyk and Steve Judge shared fascinating insights and stories relating to Mental Toughness.  Doug rightly points out that Mental Toughness is complex and that without self-awareness it may be more difficult for you to achieve your goals.  While Steve talks about the importance of being honest with yourself if you are going to get the most from your talents.  The focus of David's observations are pointed towards some traps that highly committed people can fall into and the impact it can have on themselves and others.

Essential Learning Points From This Episode

• Highly motivated and committed people don't always get it right.
• A great question to ask yourself is "Is my approach helping me achieve my goals?"
• Committed athletes, coaches and executives set goals, persevere, are driven but…
• If you are low in "learning orientation" you will likely make the same mistakes over and over again.
• And you may fail to give yourself time out to reflect on your approach and ask yourself tough questions as Steve Judge did in episode 2 when he overcame his closest Italian rival to win the world championships Para Triathlon for a second time.
• Burnout can be your friend where you take on other people's work and fail to prioritise the important things in your life and work.
• As a leader a fully committed approach can have disadvantages where you may have a negative impact on the culture of your organisation.
• You may not know how to reflect, if that is the case check out the Start, Stop, Continue approach and Gibbs reflective cycle.
• Some people can get too transfixed on the word "improvement" and end up focusing too much on their weaknesses.