The only person you have to be better than is yourself

For those who put in the effort before they step on the ice, often see the greatest success. This success may not always be reflected in the scoreboard results but can always be seen in the improvement that results from a disciplined preparation process.

The mantra we encourage our students to remember is, ‘Don’t focus on the performance results that will get you noticed but rather the actions that will help you improve.’

The following blog is written by Andrew ‘Marty’ Martin, in which he provides an insightful understanding into the growth mindset that; ‘the only person you have to be better than is yourself’. This means that you need to focus your energy into your execution achievements and the preparation process that you have control over in order to improve.

We want to thank Marty for his blog contribution. Marty is the founder and owner of Marty Strength and he delivers both direct and online strength and conditioning training programs. Our long-standing development relationship with Marty has gone back many years and has always been connected by a shared development philosophy that ensures a progressive approach in the training of young hockey athletes.

How To Stop Comparing Yourself To Others
By Andrew Martin

We live in an age with so much updated information that it can be challenging to not compare yourself to others.

When I was growing up playing hockey, you could lose a game by ten goals, and no one outside of the two teams playing, and those at the game would know for weeks.  By the time anybody else knew the score of the game, no one cared.

Nowadays, information is updated every single second.  The score of young kid’s hockey games is passed along live between parents via Instagram, text message, and other social media/messaging apps.  There is nowhere to hide.  Everyone knows everything, right away.  What’s worse is that we are force-fed information portraying how great everyone else is doing.

The natural and automatic reaction is to compare ourselves to others continuously.  We jump on Instagram or Facebook and see how well everyone else is doing, who just won a game or tournament, who got drafted or wasn’t, and how perfect each day is for everyone else.  It becomes tough to remember that this is not reality.

Unfortunately, this is the way we portray life in the artificial world of social media.  The fact is everyone struggles, and life is not perfect.  No one is going to post that they got cut from a team or lost by nine goals.  We show the good and hide the not so good. The artificial world of never-ending social media feeds create these perfectly packaged snapshots of unrealistic expectations.

You must start to take action to stop comparing yourself to others.   Heres how:

#1 Bring awareness to and prioritize behaviors over results.  Results are what everyone posts about on social media.  Behaviors are the actions you take to achieve specific goals.  It is the things that you do daily with purpose and intent that have the most power.  Shifting your mind in this way will help stop the “comparison” game.

#2 Eliminate the things that set you off.  The triggers that you know you should not look at or read that send you down the rabbit hole of negative thoughts.  These are the things that make you feel “not good enough.”  Like spending time with a person or group or even in a specific space.

#3 Take control of your social media.  Revamp your news feed.  Stop following that person who, when after you look at their posts, you notice yourself comparing what they have done to what you are doing.  Keep the accounts that bring you happiness and motivation.

For more Strength and Conditioning insight and training platforms you can check Marty at martystrength.com or connect with Marty on Instagram @martystrength_hockey