SportsPsychologist.com Blog by Dr Victor Thompson

Encouragement in the media and sporting contexts to show mental toughness, hanging in there, show grit, dogged determination...is common. But is this always a good thing? Sure, being determined and remaining undeterred in pursuit of your goals is a good thing - especially if you are susceptible to being knocked-off track, or find it difficult to get going in the first place. However, I believe that there is a flip-side to this emphasis of rising to all challenges, quitting being for wimps... Take the example of the runner who runs twice a day according to the schedule they have from their coach. They run no matter what. When they are shattered they don't do less or run at a lower intensity, they push it even more on these days because they fret that if they don't they are somehow a lesser athlete or not mentally tough enough, perhaps reminding themselves that "Winners never quit, quitters never win." They don't ease off on easier weeks, for fear of losing fitness....

Discomfort is common when you do anything that involves effort. This is just as true for us non-painters as we paint a ceiling and get shoulder ache, as it is to cycle up an Alp at our maximum limit. The discomfort, burn, ache we experience from a given task, varies greatly among different people. The experience of pain and rating of pain intensity is very personal. How we interpret the experience is central in the unpleasantness and intolerance of it. Sports psychologists believe that the athletes who can push themselves and endure more intensity do so because they view the experience in helpful ways. For instance, they view it in one or more of the following ways: 1. It is discomfort, not pain 2. It is tolerable, not something to stop 3. It is there for a good reason (helping me get fitter, beat opponents…), not a bad reason 4. Or, as much as they are feeling this discomfort, other people are experiencing the same or more and that is fine Knowing this, we can start to notice how we v...