I find it amusing writing about this now as I teach it to my students. It wasn't something that was taught to us even at the highest level of sport. I guess it was expected, although only having it just in sport is dangerous as it's extremely useful for all aspects of life. Still leaving this to chance can create longer routes to get to success than necessary.
We have the 2016 Rio games where a lot of my old teammates will be competing to become the Olympic Champions.
What is it that helps them get to this level and how do their heads work?
Being aware is an invaluable skill, those wishing to excel and apply themselves in a given area it's the real feedback mechanism of what your understanding of what's happening.
The less aware you are the slower that area of your life is going to improve. We can think about awareness on four different levels of consciousness.
Lets use driving a car as an example
- unconscious incompetence
(the driver isn't aware what they are doing wrong)
- consciously incompetent
(the driver is aware they are doing something wrong but doesn't know how to fix it)
- consciously competent
(the driver is aware how to correct issues and implement things to improve performance)
- unconsciously competent
(the driver can operate at a high level without having to think about it)
This level of awareness can be overlaid onto everything. It's the best way to learn. It conditions our brain to a very high level. Like weight training for the brain.
Perception is a dangerous element.
It's our understanding of something. The way that we see things. A belief or an opinion. If our perception of a situation is off, it can destroy the environment very quickly.
E.g. let's say a professional athlete gets injured.
If they perceive the situation to be terrible and spend, the next 6 months thinking like this. How useful will this be to their outcome?
So a lack of awareness and perception is as useful as a monkey clapping cymbals in your brain.
This is where the two elements work nicely together, are you aware of the current situation and how will that influence your perception of it.
Thinking in this way will ensure you keep shifting forward even through obstacles.