How’s your sports mindset? Do you have a growth sports mindset or a fixed sports mindset?

Sports mindset. It’s something I’ve not been great with in the past, despite having mastered growth in other areas of mindset. I was a business mindset coach for years, and I wrote four books on business mindset. In general, my mindset is great. Now I’m looking at the area I’ve found most challenging in terms of mindset, and I’m applying my own system so I can develop a growth mindset for my outdoor adventures. I want to share this process with you.

For the first half of my life, I had a fixed mindset when it came to sports. When I was a kid, I wasn’t involved in sports, and I grew up thinking that I simply wasn’t athletic, and that was that. It wasn’t until my mid-20s when I started running that I realized that sports were much like other activities in life: if you practice, you’ll get better. Funny how that works.

I’m going to be doing some work with a coach on my sports mindset, but in the meantime I wanted to walk myself (and you!) through the process I used to use to work with entrepreneurs, applying the same concepts to sports mindset. Here are some questions for you to journal on.

Questions to ask yourself

Current situation

What does your current fitness level look like? What does it feel like?

How do you feel when exercising or participating in outdoor adventures?

What do you like about your current fitness level?

What do you dislike about it?

Desired situation

How would you like your fitness level to change? What do you want it to look like? Be like? Feel like?

How would you like to feel when exercising or participating in outdoor adventures?

What will you see/do/feel/hear that will be your confirmation that you’ve made these changes?

Fitness goals

What are your fitness and adventure goals for the next year?

How would you like to challenge yourself physically?

How will you know when you’ve achieved your goals?

Mindset needed

Who do you need to believe to make your goals a reality?

What do you need to believe about yourself to achieve your goals?

Who do you need to be to make this happen?

Mindset blocks

What’s stopping you from achieving your sports, fitness, and adventure goals?

What fears do you have regarding your fitness and sports goals?

What fears do you have about your ability to achieve your fitness goals?

Secondary gain

Can you think of any advantage to maintaining your current situation?

Are there any benefits for things to stay the way they are and not change?

Action plan

With every set of goals, you need an action plan.

1. Figure out what you need to do to prepare for your upcoming fitness goals
2. Break down your training into bite-sized steps
3. Block out time in your calendar to make sure you fit your training into your schedule
4. Do it!
5. If you need to shift things around, make sure that you drag-and-drop your training onto another day, rather than deleting it from your calendar

Related reading

Read about my two adventures along England’s most popular National Trail in this second edition of my book Alone on the South Downs Way. This book contains all the blisters, sweat, and tears from my first life-changing journey—and all the joy, presence, and magic of the second one.

More than just a walking travelogue or memoirs of a walking holiday, this book contains my reflections on walking the trail, including lessons learned and practical information to help you plan your hiking adventure. It includes a suggested packing list, gear recommendations, and other useful tips, such as when to walk the trail, where to stay, and how much you’ll need to budget.

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