Developing the Right Attitude about Failure
Your attitude
and reaction to your practice and tournament results begin to build a file
in the memory part of your brain that you will be able to call on in future
pressure situations while competing. If you always react in a positive way
(regardless of result) then you will build a habit that you can depend on when
reality throws you a curve and you fail to get the results you desire, either
on or off the course.
You can learn
this at the beginning and breeze through A and AA classes. Otherwise, you will
have to take a step back when you are in A class to learn how to be positive
and trust what you have trained.
If you think
you are different, give us a call after you have been in A class for a
year or so. We will help you understand this lesson, because you won’t progress
much farther without it, and definitely not at a rapid rate.
At the end of
the day, your memory of your previous experiences plays heavily into your
ability to trust yourself enough to improve. Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson talk
about this a lot in their book Every Shot Must Have A Purpose. Do
yourself a favor and read it.
What allows you
to succeed under pressure is not understanding what needs to be done. It’s
about how many times you’ve done it, how many times you’ve done it under
pressure, and how you reacted to the results you got every time. That
determines how well you perform.
We’ve had shooters go from E to Master Class in as little as 18 months, and shooters who never progress past A or AA Class. We’ve learned that a person’s attitude about failure has everything to do with where they end up, how quickly they got there, and how long they remain there.
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