Learning to Earn Your Playing Time: A Mindset Shift in Competitive Sports

In competitive sports, there comes a time when simply showing up is no longer enough to guarantee playing time. Earning your playing time becomes the new reality, a concept that challenges athletes to take ownership of their growth, performance, and mental strength. Yet, for those accustomed to always being in the starting lineup, adjusting to this shift can be tough. Inspired by my teachings on mental toughness and resilience, let’s explore why learning to earn your playing time is a transformative experience that every athlete can benefit from.

The Comfort Zone of “Guaranteed” Playing Time

For many athletes, especially those who have always been among the best on their team, playing time may have felt like an unspoken right. This can create a “comfort zone” where the athlete expects their place on the ice/field/court regardless of their performance, effort, or attitude. However,...

Some months ago I was talking with a young athlete, and I asked him how things were going for him. His response was, “I DONT KNOW.” To most people this response would be a dead end and the conversation would have moved on to something else.

Not this time!

I continued to explore with him what “not knowing” meant. My next question was, “Does 'I don’t know' mean you don’t know how to describe how it is going?" With immediate tears, he said, “YES.”

This experience opened my eyes to the reality that many young athletes are living with deep disappointment, discouragement, and despair without the words to describe their reality. This has emerged as a trend as I have worked individually with young athletes. Much of their experience leaves them confused, frustrated, and without direction.

Recently, I spoke to a young athlete that expressed to me his deep desire to succeed, but with frustration and anger he said, “I have no idea what...

CULTURES OF CARE = WINNING EXPERIENCES

Over the years I have been paying attention! I realize that this statement is quite vague on the surface. One could easily ask, “What have you been paying attention to?” The answer is what provides the clarity and understanding.

What I have learned over 30 years of working in the personal development field is this: what we “pay attention” to is what determines how we think, act, and live. If we have trained ourselves to notice what is lacking, wrong, insufficient, frustrating, or problematic then we are focused on all the information that supports these principles.

I want to suggest that the danger in our focus is not simply WHAT we are focusing on. Maybe the bigger danger is what we are NOT focusing on.

Let me explain. For the better part of 18 years, I have dedicated myself to learn and pass on the most advanced science on what unleashes HIGH PERFORMANCE for athletes, individuals, business professionals, and others...