AND, You Can Do This
Yes, this is hard—AND we can do it anyway
In our girls' track and field program, we’re running timed 400-meter races as we ramp up our competitiveness for the season. Upon news of this, I saw the all-too-familiar look of dread scour the faces of about three-fourths of our sprinters. For some reason, they can’t fathom that sprinters are a) the ultimate competitors and b) are expected to be able to compete in the 400-meter dash. After warm-ups, they sprinted towards the start line and waited for me to walk down and start them.
As I walked toward the start line, I saw the whole team circling together, holding hands, and saying a prayer led by one of the team leaders. Initially, I was annoyed. “Why are y’all making this more dramatic than necessary,” I inquired. “This is just a competitive workout!”
Though what drove them to prayer was the prospect of pouring out all their effort and energy (and the false reality that they’d die from the workout), their prayer was necessary to attack the task ahead of them. I realized this after watching Dr. Colleen Hacker, Team USA Mental Skills Coach, and Performance Psychology Specialist and Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Sport, and Performance Psychology at Pacific Lutheran University, speak with Coaches Insider.
In this video clip (if you can access it), Dr. Hacker explains how we can do hard things by practicing adding an “and” to our moments of anger, frustration, stress, or loss of focus. Instead of simply succumbing to our statements of “I’m stressed,” “I’m anxious,” “I’m frustrated,” or “I’m scared,” the next word out of our mouths or in our thoughts should be “and.”
“I’m stressed and I have the capability of calming down.”
“I’m anxious and have what it takes to give this my full effort.”
“I’m frustrated and I can figure this out.”
“I’m scared and I can trust my training.”
This simple practice (and it must be practiced before it can be mastered) can transform our performance. If we stay in only the first half of our sentences, we disallow ourselves to release our best efforts, thoughts, and, ultimately, -selves. If you’re reading this, you have what it takes to work through a difficult decision. But you also have full permission to be honest with yourself about your stress, anxiousness, frustration, fear, and whatever else haunts you. Without this honesty, we merely suppress our emotions and never release them. If we simply suppress, the feelings will inevitably resurface at the most inopportune times.
So this week, I'll allow it when, or if, our girls circle up to pray. They’re simply acknowledging the pain and discomfort they are about to feel in a moment of vulnerability and honesty amongst themselves and each other. Then they know that the expectation is for them to press into their discomforts and give their workout every drop of focus and energy they can.
And so can you.