I suck at board games. My boyfriend Liam absolutely loves them, so being a dutiful girlfriend I end up playing with him a lot. He always wins. He optimises, strategizes; collecting resources, making money, moving armies around. His moves are subtle, not particularly threatening until suddenly he’s taken over the whole board, finished the objective, taken all the victory points and you’re left wondering what on earth happened and how it all went wrong.

When it comes to board games, I have a fixed mindset. I’m a failure, destined to forever lose to Liam, doesn’t matter how many times we play, what the game is, I will lose. Even the first sentence of this post screams fixed mindset; ‘I suck at board games’; it’s an incredibly negative statement with no room for negotiation.

Liam, on the other hand, has a growth mindset, he sees every move, every counter move, every small failure as a chance to learn and grow. Whenever we get a new game (which is often, with his ever-growing collection), he relishes the opportunity for a new challenge, a new code to crack.

Why is any of this stuff about board games relevant?

What is a growth mindset, why is a fixed mindset bad and how can I apply any of this to my life?

Well hopefully by the end of this post you’ll know how to identify a fixed mindset and how to get into a growth mindset. Hopefully you’ll be able to apply this to your hobbies, sports or even businesses and see improvement. So, let’s discuss what a growth mindset is and why it’s so valuable.

Generally speaking, people with a growth mindset embrace challenges, they persist when setbacks get in the way, they learn from criticism, see effort as worthwhile and necessary to success, take joy and inspiration from others. Due to this a growth mindset can lead to higher and higher achievement as these people are constantly learning, adapting and looking to improve themselves.

A fixed mindset however, can lead to a plateau in achievement. You shouldn’t need to try hard and overcome challenges, you either have the ability or you don’t. Failure is seen as the enemy and someone with a fixed mindset will do anything to avoid this. Often this will mean shying away from challenges. Why try and fail when you can stay where you are and avoid all that embarrassment?

Now don’t get me wrong, I might be fixed in my mindset towards board games but I’m not always a negative person. In fact, we all have moments of a fixed mindset and moments of a growth mindset. The key is trying to tip the scales in favour of growth mindset, because this is where we can really start to achieve things.

I first heard about growth mindset in the context of sport where the effects of mindset are perhaps most striking.

“I’ve missed more than nine thousand shots. I’ve lost almost three hundred games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot , and missed” Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan is an athlete who epitomizes the growth mindset. Cut from his high school basketball team, not recruited by the college team he wanted to play for, Michael had his fair share of setbacks. That didn’t stop him, he is famous for spending hours on a court, practicing shot after shot, working on his failures to build them into strengths. Today he is arguably the best basketball player in the world, if he had a fixed mindset he wouldn’t have made it past a high school court.

However, not all top-level athletes have a growth mindset. It is possible to succeed without it. John McEnroe has a fixed mindset. He believed that you have set amount of sporting ability and you can’t change that. Fortunately for him, his own ability was enough to take him to the top of the tennis world standings. However, even he admits, he never fully reached his potential. Flying into rages during difficult matches, blaming losing on anything and everything but himself, he certainly displayed an array of fixed mindset traits. How great could he have been without these?

So, have you ever stood on a pitch/court/track and thought, ‘What on Earth am I doing here? I can’t do this. Why should I even bother, it’ll just be embarrassing’? Ever tried to blame losing on the shoes you were wearing, the referee, the person at the side of the pitch who distracted you? That’s your fixed mindset talking.

I’d be willing to bet that everyone sportsman and woman in the world has at some point had similar thoughts. But the best ones, the ones who never seem to be beaten, who come back to win again and again despite setbacks, they overcome it.

When I first started hearing about mindset I was excited, I thought, this all makes complete sense. However, I also thought, well isn’t this just common sense?

Everyone knows that if you want to succeed you have to work hard and keep improving. And yes, the fundamental ideas of mindset are nothing new. But the more I looked into the research, the more I realised that whilst the idea is common sense, I still slip into a fixed mindset more often than I would like. Once I realised that I couldn’t help wonder just how much is a fixed mindset holding me back? What could I actually achieve if I could shift more towards a growth mindset?I started seeing fixed mindset everywhere, the awful shot putt attempt I did at training, the countless board game losses and countless other places. I started seeing it in other people and how fixed mindset was holding them back, stopping them reach their potential, stealing their chance to really shine. 

In my brief year teaching science to high school kids I was surrounded by teenagers with a fixed mindset. “But Miss I don’t get it” became a mantra of many of my students. I’d stand there and think ‘I’ve just told you that everything in the entire universe is made out of these tiny things called atoms that you can’t see but trust me, they’re there. Of course you don’t get it…yet’. 

Such a small but powerful word. Yet. 

For me, the word yet is the secret to a growth mindset. 

You can’t do it, you can’t win, you don’t understand, you can’t succeed…yet. But you will and every time you get it wrong, trip up and fail you get that little bit closer to success. 

I was completely sold on the idea of growth mindset, so delving into more research, I started to look more at what it is and how we can change mindsets

A world leader on the idea of mindset is Dr Carol Dweck, an incredible psychologist who has devoted most of her career to investigating the power of mindset. Dweck’s original work focused on mindset in education as she conducted several studies into how growth and fixed mindset is exhibited in students and how this correlates to their academic success. Something I was seeing first-hand in my students.

Further study has looked at mindset in a range of areas, business, relationships and of course sport. Throughout all the studies, it was clear. Despite trying everything in its power to avoid it, a fixed mindset ultimately led to failure. 

You fail a test so you give up on the course. 

Your company fails to secure a pivotal client so you scale back your goals.

You drop out of a marathon, so you never run again.

All actions fuelled by a fixed mindset telling you that it’s best to stay where you are, focus on what you’re good at, avoid that failure again. Your mind will justify it anyway it can

A word of warning, embracing a growth mindset, doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to give up on anything ever. You don’t have to master single thing you try. It’s okay to be an average tennis player who just likes to have a friendly match with a mate in the park. But if you do want to improve and achieve more,just remember you can. This is where the real power from all the research comes, in the application to everyday life.

Purely being aware of the idea of mindsets can be a great start towards changing to a more growth mindset. There are also a whole range of things you can do to change mindsets. Below are some ideas suggested by Dr Dweck in her book Mindset:

• Embrace your fixed mindset. Admit the fact that it’s there and it’s not going to go away on its own

• Identify what triggers your fixed mindset. Do you fear new challenges? Are you jealous and upset when you see someone else succeeding? How do you react when you fail at something?

• Give your fixed mindset a name. Admittedly I find this one a bit silly but I’m giving it a go. I’ve decided to call mine Fran, the dreaded nickname I absolutely hate. The idea is that by naming your fixed mindset persona it can make it easier to understand their triggers and reactions. It can also make it easier to talk about your fixed mindset, how it’s a part of you but not the whole you and how it is the opposite of who you want to be. That’s why mine’s called Fran, I never want to be Fran.

• Educate your fixed mindset. Once you’ve given your fixed mindset a name you can experiment with discussing things with yourself. You know your triggers and you can feel it coming out, ready to spoil your fun with all its fixed mindset rage. Acknowledge it, let the thoughts happen but counter them: ‘I know this might seem scary and it would be embarrassing if we failed but let’s just give this growth mindset thing a try. If we fail, then we can learn and move past it’

• Set learning goals. Now this one is more in my comfort zone. As an athlete and a coach I’m very familiar with goal setting. I’m also a big advocate of setting performance rather than outcome goals (something I’ll definitely explore more in another blog). This step is all about acknowledging the fact that the growing journey is never over and we should always be looking for new ways to grow and learn. Ask yourself questions such as ‘what opportunities do I have to learn and grow? Exactly where, when and how will I take action?’

Final thoughts:

Mindset is an incredibly powerful thing. Countless examples in the sporting world show us the power it can have. Mindset is present in all aspects of life and can impact your career, education and relationships. Whether it causes a positive or negative effect is up to you.

You can’t switch mindsets overnight and it’s likely you will always have moments of a fixed mindset. You can fight back. A fixed mindset doesn’t have to hold you back from the things you want to achieve. You have a choice. You can choose growth.

Sport psychology can roughly be defined in two ways; how psychology affects sporting performance and how sporting performance affects psychology. When most people think of sport psychology they think of elite athletes at the top of their game. The young football striker battling with confidence waiting to score his first goal in top flight football. The golfer, taking a deep breath on the green, desperately trying to calm his nerves before his shot. The sprinter sitting in the call room visualising when she’s going to kick, the sprint finish and sweet taste of victory after crossing the line. Sport psychology is utilised by athletes all over the sporting world looking for that mental edge that will be the difference between winning and losing at the top level.

Yes it can be that, but it can also be so much more. 

Whilst sport psychology claims the limelight winning the world titles and trophies, his little brother hides in the shadows, doggedly working behind the scenes, silently shaping the lives of all of us. His name is exercise psychology. 

This looks more at the psychological factors involved in participating in sport, exercise and physical activity. 

Why is it that Jim from work wakes up every morning at 5am for a 10K run but Mark can’t even bring himself to walk the dog in the evening?

Why do so many of us spend all day sitting around, pretending we can’t see the treadmill in the corner we optimistically bought last year on a New Years resolution whim? 

We know exercise is good for us, we know we should probably do more of it, but most of us don’t. 

This Girl Can, Change 4 Life and other public health campaigns have exercise psychologists working on them, trying to engage as many people as possible, get more people active and healthy. This has huge implications for our NHS, workplace productivity and health as well, of course, the potentially life changing benefits for individuals.

A Brief History of Sport Psychology

It’s no secret that mind and body health affect each other, the ancient Roman poet Juvenal put it best ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ (a healthy mind in a healthy body). However, historians believe that Juvenal wasn’t in fact encouraging us to embrace physical activity but instead commenting on the plights of old age.

Regardless, it can still be argued that the discipline of sport and exercise psychology has been studied throughout history with several ancient civilisations recognising the important connection between sport, exercise and well-being.

A Brief History of Sport Psychology

The first documented research into sport psychology was done by American scientist Norman Triplett in 1898. He observed the differences in cycling performance when cycling as a team compared to alone. 20 years later a fellow American,  Coleman Griffith became known as America’s first sport psychologist. Griffiths dedicated a great deal of his career to studying basketball and football (soccer to him) players, interested in their vision, attention, reaction times and muscle tension amongst other things.

American’s weren’t the only ones beginning to explore the world of sport psychology. German scientist Dr Carl Diem was making progress in the field. Conducting several experiments and studies in 1920s Berlin he published the book Body and Mind in Sport in 1921 documenting his findings about physical attributes and aptitude. 

Many other countries began their own research into the new field. The Soviets, not wanting to be left behind launched a sport science programme to improve their athletes on the world stage. This was further fueled by political rivalry and tensions during the Cold War era (1946-1989).

Academics across the world came together in 1965 to host the first World Congress in Sport Psychology. From this meeting the International Society of Sport Psychology was born with delegates from Europe, Australia and the Americas. 1979 saw the publication of the first Journal in Sport Psychology paving the way for future peer reviewed research.

Sport Psychology Today

In more modern times sport and exercise psychology has gone through a transition. These days it is fighting to assure the quality of it’s practitioners. 

Within the UK responsibility for Sports and Exercise Psychologists now comes under the British Psychology Society (BPS) and the Health Care and Practitioners Council (HCPC) with input from the British Association of Sport and Exercise Scientists (BASES). The title is protected and accreditation can be awarded by the BPS and HCPC to individuals who are adequately trained and qualified. This means it is illegal for someone to call themselves a Sports and Exercise Psychologist without being registered with the HCPC.

What Sport Psychology can do for you

So sports and exercise psychology has ancient roots, a developing professional body and lots of up and coming research, but how can it be useful to our everyday lives?

Athletes are performers, they are learners. Humans are performers and learners. 

Ever had to give a presentation? Work in a team? Balance a large workload with family and personal commitments? Ever doubted yourself? Struggled to set a goal and stick to it?

Sport and exercise psychology is for you.

Sport and exercise is a platform for the skills we all use on a daily basis. Overcoming anxiety, stress, staying motivated, working as a team, achieving goals are all things we do everyday in our lives but are also amplified in a sporting context. 

The ideas and skills explored in sport and exercise psychology can be transferred to lots of aspects of our daily life: 

• A swimmer may engage in positive self-talk before entering the pool; the nervous graduate might do the same before interviewing for their dream job.
• A coach could educate their athletes about motivation to improve effort in training; a teacher might do the same to a class of disengaged teenagers before their GCSEs. 
• A rugby team might buy new kits to build a sense of identity; a company might launch a new uniform.

I find the world of sport and exercise psychology fascinating. The benefits are significant, whether you’re a world class athlete, a Sunday league champion or just someone who wants to improve their everyday life.

Whether you too think sport and exercise psychology can benefit your life or you just enjoy learning about this relatively young science, I hope my future posts can give you an insight into just a little of the wide world of sport and exercise psychology. It might even help you improve your own life too. So enjoy reading and I hope to see you again soon!