Explanatory Style as an Athlete

One of the things that we have talked about recently is buoyancy, which deals with our ability to move forward despite having obstacles. The tactic that stood out the most to me was explanatory style. This style is a form of self-talk that deals with how we handle failure and rejection. There are two types of this style, and the one that I like to cling to as an athlete is the positive type. With this type, people look at failure as an experience that is temporary. I find that this mindset as an athlete is extremely helpful after a bad game. Remembering that this is only temporary helps me to move on from the loss and continue to grow.

This mindset can be super helpful in a selling context as well. If you are a salesperson who has found yourself in a string of not being able to close any sales and you continue to dwell on it, you will never get any better. Dwelling on our mistakes, failures, and rejections only causes us to focus on the negatives. When we focus on the negative, we can start to look at those experiences as permanent. As a salesperson, you need to have a short memory with your failures so that you can avoid dwelling on them. When we begin to reorient our minds to look at failure as a temporary thing, then we give ourselves room to grow. We will look at how we failed, try to figure out what we need to do better, and then move on.

Having a positive mindset will help us build confidence in who we are as salespeople and how we can bring more value to the lives of other people. A positive mindset can keep us level-headed in both failures and successes.