Battling Through Mistakes

"Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement." - Matt Biondi

I had some great conversations with teams about making mistakes. We identified two kinds of mistakes that are made in competition:

1. Calculated risks that lead to great success or a costly errors. This type of mistake takes commitment and planning. As a result, athletes are more accepting of this type of mistake.

2. Brain farts, those random mistakes like missing a pass because you weren’t paying attention. Athletes mentioned that they react negatively to these types of mistakes because they are random and a sign that they weren’t focused.

In the end, we recognized that both are part of the process to improve, to stay focused, to make adjustments, and to be strong!

Quoting an athlete from one of these conversations, “If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t trying hard enough!”