Thread by @AlexAuerbachPhD

I've spent over a decade coaching elite performers in professional sports, Olympic sports, and elite military units.

The truly great ones recognize their mentality as a competitive edge.

Here are the 3 mindsets that separate the best from the rest:

Performance psychology is the next frontier shaping the way we think of health and high performance. We’ve been through this same revolution with physical training, athletic training, and nutrition. Now we’re starting to see how it plays out in the mind.

It starts with the development of mindsets - or a set of beliefs and attitudes that guide behavior. Here are the mindsets the greats embody:

(1) Growth Mindset, with a Dash of Fixed Mindset

These are often presented as opposites, but they're actually 2 separate mindsets. You can have both, and it turns out, the best do.

The best performers have a foundation of a growth mindset. They believe effort leads to their outcomes, that mistakes or failures are chances to improve, and that with an increase in persistence, they’ll reach their goals.

They also have some fixed mindset too. They believe they have the natural talent they need to belong at the elite level, that their innate abilities do separate them from others, and take failure personally.

Popularly, we’ve put growth mindset on such a pedestal that the original framing of the psychology has been lost. And it’s led to a demonizing of the fixed mindset, which all elite performers need to believe in themselves. The best know this is a both and, not an either or.

(2) Stress-is-Enhancing Mindset

When faced with stress or pressure, you can believe: stress makes you better, stress is best to just power through, that failure under stress is a learning opportunity, or that stress hinders performance.

If you believe stress is debilitating, then of course, at the signs of stress, you’ll begin to back off and preserve yourself. This rarely, if ever, leads to winning.

Now let’s look at powering through. @stevemagness talks about this in his wonderful new book, Do Hard Things. “Power through” is not only old school, it actually hurts performance, particularly in teams.

@stevemagness The data from Navy SEALs suggests that those who simply tough it out are worse teammates - they can’t understand how someone else isn’t just taking the same approach - and they ignore relevant data from their minds and bodies that would enhance performance.

@stevemagness Here’s where things get even more interesting. That growth mindset everyone loves - treating failure like a learning opportunity? It turns out that, under stress, it undermines performance. Why?

@stevemagness Because under pressure and stress, the best aren’t looking for a way out or to make things easier. Thinking it might be okay to fail because you’ll learn from it gives you some space to ease up.

@stevemagness Learning from failure doesn’t help you execute RIGHT NOW. The best maximize what data they use in the moment and don’t defer opportunity to the future.

@stevemagness This doesn’t mean we don’t want a growth mindset - of course if we fail, it would be great to learn. But, in the moment, starting to think about what you might learn if you fail is simply orienting you toward failure.

@stevemagness The best recognize that stress can be harnessed to improve their outcomes. It’s about using the stress as information - to increase energy and effort, to take a calculated risk, to approach a new challenge - and to signal that this performance matters.

@stevemagness By using stress effectively, the best are able to maximize their performance under pressure and capitalize on the conditions facilitating an increase of energy, focus, and effort.

@stevemagness (3) Recovery-is-an-Investment Mindset

Elite performers have moved beyond the old school narrative of "grinding it out" - again, see @stevemagness and @steven_kotler. They appreciate the drawbacks of overtraining. They know their limits.

@stevemagness @steven_kotler So rather than continually pushing with diminishing marginal returns, the best reframe the way they think about recovery. Recovery isn’t “time the enemy is getting ahead.” Recovery is an investment in a future self being the best they can be.

@stevemagness @steven_kotler Self-care, sleep, active recovery: they’re investments in future greatness, not distractions from present performance.

@stevemagness @steven_kotler Now, there may be times to just push a little harder - and the best know when to rev up or ramp down. But, generally, they appreciate the diminishing returns of simply “more.” The best use their past experience to guide their decisions about how to invest in the future.

@stevemagness @steven_kotler In summary, the best separate from the rest using 3 mindsets:
• Growth + a dash of fixed mindset
• Stress-is-enhancing mindset
• Recovery is an investment mindset

@stevemagness @steven_kotler If you’re interested in performance psychology, leadership, teamwork, and culture, consider following along @AlexAuerbachPhD