“Some days it just flows and I feel like I’m born to do this, other days it feels like I’m trudging through hell. Every day I make the choice to show up and see what I’ve got, and to try and be better. My advice: keep showing up.”
— Des Linden
“I went through a rough time last fall and debated whether I wanted to keep doing this or not. But I stopped thinking about the overall picture and just thought about each day individually — thinking about right now and showing up for this moment. If you can show up for that, then you have a chance. But if you don’t show up, it’s just automatically giving in.”
— Des Linden
How Do You Want to Show Up?
Answering this question is key to establishing your own set of performance standards. Remember, these are standards you’ve set for yourself in terms of attitude, effort, preparation, and mindset. These principles guide how you show up during training and racing regardless of the obstacles you may encounter.
Everything in the world could be going wrong during a particular race or workout, but your performance standards provide a way of acting in line with the expectations you’ve set for yourself. You want these to become your default settings that you automatically implement regardless of the conditions you face. These standards will allow you to consistently align your regular performance with the type of athlete you want to be.
Establish Your Performance Standards
In a notebook or in the workbook for the course, write down your performance standards. Consider how you want to show up as an athlete during your training and racing. These are specific to you and your goals. Keep the number manageable (no more than a handful) to make them easier to remember and implement.
Workbook
The workbook provides templates for all of the practical applications in the course. Download here if you haven’t already:
- Practical Application Workbook (Google Doc)
Example
Below is an example of what I came up with when I did this exercise.
