5 Minutes with Bo Hanson: Welcome to the Growth Season
This is Part 2 of our 2017 season recap and it brings us to another major lesson – our ‘Big Reason Why’.
Our ‘Big Reason Why’ is a topic we talk about in our ATHLETE TOUGH™ program and I was looking at it today with a team, because it’s soon to be Fall in America and they’re faced with the proposition of going home and either looking at this period of time as a vacation or a break.
If they do just take a break, perhaps they’re not making the progress they could be, towards their ultimate end of season goals for 2018.
This challenge is a real one for a lot of Coaches who’ve put a significant amount of work into getting their athletes, their student-athletes, fit, strong and successful in the Fall season.
We were talking to a team recently about this concept and we came up with the strategy of re-branding this part of the year as our ‘Growth Season’. Like Part 1 of this video series that’s a reframe, and when we call it a Growth Season you can prepare for it as you would prepare for any other season. The preparation for this season involves taking the opportunity to do this activity with your team.
Pick out 3 key areas where you can set some goals around physical improvement, mental strategies and technical abilities knowing that you’re probably not going to be competing again until mid-January.
So you’ve got this gap of time, where you can develop and grow and be willing to take several steps back in an effort to take several steps forward at a later stage.
Now, this is important because when we think about the concept of our Big Reason Why, we have to understand that unless we have strategic goals that are continually being set and continually being evaluated it’s really easy to lose touch with our sense of motivation.
Your Big Reason Why is your ultimate sense of purpose and I found that a lot of the conversations I’ve had this year with athletes have been around how they feel negative or perhaps even feel bad about themselves when they feel they’re not motivated. The reality is that a lot of the time as an athlete you’re going to turn up and not be completely motivated. It’s unrealistic to think that every single time you have to play and practice that you’re going to be 100% motivated. Especially when you consider that you have to create the motivation yourself.
So, the first step and we’ve been chatting to a lot of teams about this, is don’t be down on yourself because you don’t feel motivated. It’s important to reframe your thoughts about the break but it’s also important to give yourself a break mentally and not have a go at yourself for the fact that you may not feel as motivated as you think you should.
It’s reality that we’re not going to be 100% motivated, but it’s also the reality that motivation doesn’t just turn up, you actually have to create it.
So, how do you create motivation? Well you have to come back to your Big Reason Why, what’s your purpose for wanting to play this sport and why do you want to be part of this team.
What we’ve learned through activities we’ve been doing with teams, is that it’s amazing how many teams have never shared their ‘Big Reason Why’ with their team mates and Coaches. It’s always enlightening to hear someone else’s Big Reason Why.
So as the Coach, start by talking to your team about why you do what you do. If your Big Reason Why is significant, if you’re still connected to it, then you have to remind yourself of it now, because today more than ever, there’s a lot of things, there’s lots of negatives out there that can distract us from our ultimate purpose. So, putting it up on a board, putting it where everyone can see it, sharing it with the rest of the team and having other people understand what your reason why is, can even help them to help you.
So that would be a great activity to do at this stage, when your team is about to go away, look at what your Big Reason Why. Post it on the wall, symbolise it somewhere so that everybody can see it and the first thing you see when you come back to practice in the New Year is everybody’s reason for being there.
Where to from here…
There is an entire chapter dedicated to the ‘Big Reason Why’ in the ATHLETE TOUGH™ program developed by Bo Hanson. Being ATHLETE TOUGH is defined by the actions you take when your performance matters the most. Bo Hanson’s unique and proven program is designed to ensure your athletes never give up, never quit on their team and never quit on themselves. It will deliver strategies on how to be mentally resilient and provide step-by-step processes to help your athletes become and stay mentally strong. Find out more here.
