The Lessons I Learned as an Athlete

January 25, 2024

“The mindset isn’t about seeking a result- it’s more about the process of getting to that result”- Kobe Bryant

My years as a competitive bodybuilder are what I call character building and life pivoting. Living the life of an athlete showcased that one did not need to have the skill but the will to keep showing up. Additionally, the process of checking in with myself and my coach helped me to develop reflective skills that focused on what I could control, allowing us to pivot when required. Finally, the repetitive work built the self-confidence I never knew I had, which empowered me to pursue various goals that followed in my life. The lessons I learned carried forward and taught me how an adaptive mindset was all that I needed in order to get to a desired goal.

Lesson 1: Show Up

The process behind bodybuilding, simplistically, alternated between in-season and off-season goals. For over six years, I trained six days a week; three upper body days, three lower body days, and bouts of cardio depending on how far out we were to show day.

Needless to say, there were days I did not want to train. I was tired, sore, bored of the routine, the food scale, the weighing my food gram for gram, and the constant questioning of my goals by people around me who did not understand why I could not “just skip” a session because “what difference does one session make.”

The difference was the mindset. I quickly learned that my results were directly correlated to me showing up and carrying out the plan. It taught me that nobody could do the work for me and therefore, nobody had the power to shift my work ethic. With that, competing taught me self-compassion. There were days I would feel like a 2 out of 10 and learned I could give 100% of the 2 out of 10. That was my best. The mindset stirred away from the maladaptive way of thinking of “all or nothing” but rather focused on “something.”

“You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.” -Arthur Ashe

Lesson 2: Reflecting

Another process of bodybuilding required weekly check-ins with a coach. In these check-ins, depending on where we were in the season, we considered recovery, weight, measurements, training, cardio, and nutrition. For example, if I was getting ready for a show, the goal was likely to drop body fat and weight.  If I took charge of everything within my control (which I consistently did) — including training, nutrition, cardio, and sleep — and saw positive progress, there was no need to make any adjustments. If for some reason we did not get the required result, we adjusted one aspect of the plan. The idea was to reflect on the week and pivot according to the results. There were some weeks my body did not respond, no matter what we did. Consequently, we then took diet breaks, extra days off, and focused on recovery. We talked about what worked, what did not work, what we could keep, and what we needed to change, in order to get closer to our desired body composition. 

I learned that my control was truly embedded in the process and not in the outcome. The mindset shift was that the outcome was a spinoff of the process. No matter the result, we always went back to the drawing board. 

“For I am a reflection of my effort, not my result”- Unknown.

Lesson 3: Self- confidence

The final process of bodybuilding was the ability to step on stage and showcase my routine with the utmost confidence in order to stand out. This required practicing my posing routine. On show day I would wear heels on stage, be tanned and greased up, and hoped I would not fall whilst doing a turn or my strut. For someone who never wore heels, it was safe to say THIS, at some moments, felt like the most challenging part of the process. I had to somehow learn to walk like a model, pivot in heels, hold a pose for minutes on end, and look cute while doing it!

I learned, as suggested by Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist, I would have to “fake it till I became it”. To  fake it well, I had to get my “reps” in. This suggests that confidence is like any other skill. I had to keep practicing until, one day, the by-product of my practice became the confidence I gained not only in my walk but also within myself. I understood that to be better, I had to do the boring mundane work of repeating the same thing until it became a part of me. 

“The will must be stronger than the skill”- Muhammad Ali.

Sports have the ability to impart skills and behaviours in us that showcase resilience, responsibility, and long-term delayed gratification. When applied to day-to-day life goals, the process then becomes enjoyable and encourages long lasting positive outcomes. 

Written by Sonely Bulchandani