Sports Mastery

What does it mean to have a growth mindset?

You must believe that you most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. Having this view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Below are 10 strategies to develop a growth mindset.

1. Acknowledge and embrace imperfections. Hiding from your weaknesses means you’ll never overcome them.

2. View challenges as opportunities. Having a growth mindset means relishing opportunities for self-improvement. Learn more about how to fail well.

3. Try different learning tactics. There’s no one-size-fits-all model for learning. What works for one person may not work for you. Learn about learning strategies.

4. Follow the research on brain plasticity. The brain isn’t fixed; the mind shouldn’t be either.

5. Replace the word “failing” with the word “learning.” When you make a mistake or fall short of a goal, you haven’t failed; you’ve learned.

6. Stop seeking approval. When you prioritize approval over learning, you sacrifice your own potential for growth.

7. Value the process over the end result. Intelligent people enjoy the learning process, and don’t mind when it continues beyond an expected time frame.

8. Cultivate a sense of purpose. Research also shows that students with a growth mindset had a greater sense of purpose. Keep the big picture in mind.

9. Celebrate growth with others. If you truly appreciate growth, you’ll want to share your progress with others.

10. Emphasise growth over speed. Learning fast isn’t the same as learning well, and learning well sometimes requires allowing time for mistakes.

Having a growth mindset (the belief that you are in control of your own ability, and can learn and improve) is the key to success. Yes, hard work, effort, and persistence are all important, but not as important as having that underlying belief that you are in control of your own destiny.

MAKE THE MOST OF SETBACKS

E (event) + R (response) = O (outcome)

The basic idea is that every outcome you experience in life (whether it is success or failure, wealth or poverty, health or illness, intimacy or estrangement, joy or frustration) is the result of how you have responded to an earlier event or events in your life.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE OUTCOMES YOU ARE CURRENTLY GETTING, THERE ARE TWO BASIC CHOICES YOU CAN MAKE.

1. You can blame the event (E) for your lack of results (O). In other words, you can blame the referee, the weather, a teammate, your parents, the coaching staff, racism, gender bias, the lack of support, the political climate, the system, and so on. If you’re a golfer, you’ve probably even blamed your clubs and the course you played on. No doubt all these factors do exist, but if they were the deciding factor, nobody would ever succeed.

Lots of people overcome these so-called limiting factors, so it can’t be the limiting factors that limit you. It is not the external conditions and circumstances that stop you –it is you! We stop ourselves! We think limiting thoughts and engage in self-defeating behaviors. We defend our destructive habits (such as drinking and recreational drugs) with indefensible logic. We ignore useful feedback, fail to continuously educate ourselves and learn new skills, waste time on trivial aspects of our lives, engage in idle gossip, eat unhealthy food, fail to train, fail to study, avoid necessary conflict, fail to tell the truth-- -and then wonder why our lives don’t work. But this, by the way, is what most people do. They place the blame for everything that isn’t the way they want it on outside events and circumstances. They have an excuse for everything.

2. You can instead simply change your responses (R) to the events (E) ---the way things are ---until you get the outcomes (O) you want. You can change your thinking, change your communication, change the pictures you hold in your head (your images of yourself and the world) ---and you can change your behavior---the things you do. This is all you really have control over anyway. Unfortunately, most of us are so run by our habits that we never change our behavior. We get stuck in our conditioned responses. We are a bundle of conditioned reflexes that operate outside of our control. You have to regain control

of your thoughts, your images, your dreams and daydreams, and your behavior. Everything you think, say, and do needs to become intentional and aligned with your purpose, your values, and your goals.

Stay tuned for our student-athlete discussion.

Alice Ruth "Ruthie" Bolton (born May 25, 1967), known as Ruthie Bolton, is an American former professional women's basketball player. Born in Lucedale, Mississippi, she played at the collegiate, Olympic and professional levels of women's basketball. Bolton played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 through 2004 with the Sacramento Monarchs. She played collegiately at Auburn University, teaming with her older sister, Mae Ola Bolton. Bolton has also served as a first lieutenant in the United States Army Reserves as a transportation officer.

Ruthie Bolton is a published author with two books now available for sale (1) From Pain to Peace and (2) The Ride of a Lifetime. They can be purchased at her website https://mightyruthiebolton.com

 In this episode, we were blessed to have a conversation with Ruthie and discuss:

• Playing in the SEC at Auburn
• Your experiences playing on the US National Team
• The mindset needed for recovering from a torn ACL
• Your journey & accomplishments playing in the WNBA
• Tell us about your new book: From Pain To Power (what can readers expect to learn?)
• What would you like to be remembered for? Your legacy.

Bolton was named to the team representing the USA at the World University Games held during July 1991 in Sheffield, England. While the USA team had won gold in 1983, they finished with the silver in 1985, in fifth place in 1987, and did not field a team in 1989. The team was coached by Tara VanDerveer of Stanford. After winning opening games easily, the USA faced China in the medal round. The USA shot only 36% from the field, but limited the team from China to 35%, and won 79–76 to advance to the gold medal game. There they faced 7–0 Spain, but won 88–62 to claim the gold medal. Bolton was the team's leading scorer with 14 points per game, just ahead of Lisa Leslie's 13 points per game.

In 1994, Bolton-Holifield was named to the national team which competed in the World Championships in Sydney, Australia. The team was coached by Tara VanDerveer. The team won their early games, then advanced to the medal rounds and faced Brazil. Despite 17 points from Bolton-Holifield and 29 from Katrina McClain, the USA fell 110–107 when Brazil hit ten of ten free throws in the final minute. The USA went on to defeat Australia 100–95 to claim the bronze medal.

Bolton continued with the national team to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Bolton was the leading scorer in the game against the Ukraine, with 21 points. She helped the team win all eight games to win the gold medal for the USA team. Bolton averaged 12.8 points per game and led the team in steals with 23.

The national team traveled to Berlin, Germany in July and August 1998 for the FIBA World Championships. The USA team won a close opening game against Japan 95–89, then won their next six games easily. In the semifinal game against Brazil, the USA team was behind as much as ten points in the first half. Bolton hit a three pointer in the second half to give her team the lead, as part of a 16-point scoring effort, and the USA went on to win 93–79. The gold medal game was a rematch against Russia. In the first game, the USA team dominated almost from the beginning, but in the rematch, the team from Russia took the early lead and led much of the way. With under two minutes remaining, the USA was down by two points when Bolton hit a three pointer to give the USA a lead. Russia tied the game, but Bolton hit another three to give the USA a lead they would not give up. The USA held on to win the gold medal 71–65.

Bolton continued with the national team to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The USA won all eight games, including the gold medal game against host Australia to win the gold medal. Bolton averaged 5.0 points per game.

How To Overcome Adversity

Travis Daugherty explains in his book, THE LENS that the ability to overcome adversity is a hidden talent. He further explains that the ability to overcome adversity can be taught, developed, and cultivated in a student-athlete. Listen in as we supply the sports parent with answers to help their student-athlete overcome adversity. Below are 5 ways to help you get through adverse situations in sport or life.

1. Have the right mindset

Your thoughts are essential; they frame the triumphs or tragedies of your life. Getting past adversity requires a change in your belief about challenges. It is not what happens to you, but how you respond to it that is important here. 2. Stop making excuses

Excuses are the lies we tell ourselves when we’re too afraid of the future. Whatever you tell your mind will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don’t achieve your dreams, it will be because you made the decision to be detained by excuses. 3. Have faith

It takes more energy to live a life full of fear than to live one full of faith. To fear is to convince yourself to live in the walls you build yourself. To have faith is to convince yourself to embrace change. 4. Don’t take “no” for an answer

Trials will occur in life, but endurance requires you to never stop trying. Trials are one of the greatest teaching tools of life.  Dare to do the impossible!

5. Let each success energize you

With every success, we are strengthened and empowered for greater victories. You cannot become enslaved by disappointments. You must realize that every disappointment is being engineered for your destiny.

The Takeaway

Life can get us down, but we can pick ourselves back up. We must learn and not be limited by the experiences of our lives. We are strong, and we all have a dreamer inside of us. Anything is possible if we are willing to persevere.

WHAT IS FEAR?

DEALING WITH YOUR FEARS

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that we are okay. - Thich Nhat Hanh

FEAR - NOUN: FEAR; PLURAL NOUN: FEARS

1. an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.    "drivers are threatening to quit UBER in fear after a driver's murder"

2. discomfort caused by the perception that something has the potential and/or intent to detract from our life force. The greater the potential and/or threat perceived as harmful to life, the more urgent and intense is the desire for avoidance.

*3. Recognize that the immediate need in dealing with fear is to face FEAR with all your intelligence and sensory faculties so that the decision or course of action can be made with WISDOM.

Listen in as several of my student-athletes share their thoughts on FEAR and it's different varieties. They provide insight and truth to what they are experiencing emotionally and socially. This is a great episode for sports parents and coaches to learn to better understand the young athlete.

There's an exercise where we say SUPERSTAR. Those that wanna do the exercise, we're gonna say SUPERSTAR to ourselves without opening our mouths, without saying anything out loud. We're gonna say this to ourselves. We're gonna say SUPERSTAR to ourselves. Don't say it out loud at the count of three. One, two, three…

Okay. Now the question to ask, if you've said SUPERSTAR in your mind, the question to ask is what voice is that? What voice is that? What voice just spoke? You just said SUPERSTAR without moving your mouth at all.

On top of that, on top of saying SUPERSTAR, you heard yourself say SUPERSTAR. How can you hear yourself say SUPERSTAR and no vibration of sound has happened?

In this episode, we discuss:

1. Three dimensional space + Time 2. The mind's eye 3. Overcoming the illusion of DEATH and FEAR 4. Defining superstar, soul, and spirit 5. How to command reality 6. How to apply samurai wisdom in sports

This is a special episode that includes a number of athletes that I've been working with for several years. It provides insight into my mentorship program. If you're a sports parent or coach, I suggest listening to this episode from start to finish

The Warriors rep the entire Bay Area, but on a visceral, emotional level very much belong to Oakland. From Mosswood in the east to DeFremery Park in the west, where basketball greats Bill Russell, K.C. Jones and Paul Silas plied their trade 60 years ago, from the ground floor of playground hero-worship to Oracle Arena and the Dubs, Oakland ‘ball is an essential part of the city’s identity. RYANT DIEW was born and bred in this Goldmine. Today, he has been proclaimed the Godfather of Oakland youth basketball by his peers and contemporaries.

N'Dea Flye discusses her first year basketball experience at University of New Mexico. In the this conversation, she expounds on:

• Communication between coach and athlete
• Advice for young female basketball athletes
• Pros & Cons of collegiate basketball life
• Her training/coach relation with Leland Johnson
• Why she decided to transfer
• Who's recruiting her now
• Future basketball aspirations

"I want to first start off by saying, thank you UNM for a great freshman year...Thank you to my teammates for not just being there for me on the basketball court, but also off the court. You guys became my family. I also want to thank God for giving me the opportunity to play this sport and grow as a human being within this year, which has taught me a lot. With all that being said, I'd like to announce that I'll be transferring from UNM and re-opening my recruitment."

Truly, Thank you New Mexico

A proper mission statement doesn't require that we pursue any single career or hobby or activity but rather is conceptually broad enough that any number of strategies would enable us to accomplish it. Yet it can also be narrow enough that it feels like the single most important thing we could spend our lives doing.

Of course, we don't have to define a mission for ourselves. The pleasures life brings us will still remain pleasurable even if we don't. We can choose to view our job, our hobbies, major, sport, position or whatever we spend most of our time doing as just that: what we spend our time doing. Or as something we enjoy. Or as a necessary evil, a means to some other end, like making money.

But if we embrace a mission--our mission as a provisional bodhisattva (a bodhisattva defined in Buddhism as a person who dedicates himself to the happiness of others)--we'll not only enjoy greater satisfaction in life, but also gain something that the joy we feel from fleeting pleasures can't provide, something that most people fail to associate with a strong sense of purpose but that's nevertheless one of its principal benefits: increased strength.

Daniel Goodenough discusses:

1. What is the best way to tap into your talents and desires to create a life of meaning and authenticity?

2. How can spiritual principles be used by a student-athlete to create an environment of success, growth, and fulfillment for a team?

3. How can the student-athlete live in a way that is fulfilling while serving their community?

Dwayne Adams breaks down an extraordinarily diverse city with a storied history, and a long tradition of political and social justice activism. Oakland is also a city of contradictions: It's both loud and tranquil, crowded and desolate, beautiful and gritty. The grit that's ingrained in what's affectionately known as the "Town", has produced some of the best street ballers, AAU teams, and NBA athletes. 

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Growing up in Oakland
• Playing ball with Leland
• Working with youth
• Today's basketball culture
• Dwayne's business ventures

This is a podcast where we observe, examine, experiment, and explain the physical, mental, and social dynamics of the worlds best athletes and coaches. We examine their strengths, weaknesses, character, and personality traits; to explain what works and what doesn't according to our situation and circumstance in space and time.

Now In Hard-Copy! Includes spaces to write in answers.

The Sports Mastery Workbook is your Athlete’s Blueprint for Success!

A guide to achieving athletic excellence. Engineered for the motivated and struggling Athlete who wants to conquer fear, crush competition and achieve amazing results! They’ll learn:

• The #1 mistake made by 90% of athletes
• Secrets to competing that most athletes never figure out
• Decoding the mystery of ultimate human performance
• How to define, recognize, and overcome fear
• Strategies to remove all mental barriers and uncertainties
• AND MUCH MUCH MORE!