The Mindset of a Champion: 5 Things We Can Learn From Courtney Conlogue
Photo: Billabong
Courtney Conlogue might not have a world title yet, but that doesn’t change the fact she’s a born champion. It’s just who she is. You can see it in the way she carries herself, the way she trains, and the way she competes. Conlogue has that spark you see in the greats of any sport: she lives for winning, she despises losing, and above all, she is completely and thoroughly in love with her sport. In the latest Salt Water Sirens video (watch below), Conlogue shares bits and pieces of her life, and she opens up about what makes her the competitor she is. Here are 5 things we can learn from Conlogue about the mindset of a champion.
“I try to follow my instincts and back myself all the way”
Conlogue doesn’t doubt herself. She follows her gut and her instincts, and she acts on them. If they lead her astray, and she makes the wrong decision, she can live with it. The ability to trust your own judgement is absolutely critical when it comes down to crucial moments in competition. Without that trust, it doesn’t matter what plan you have, because your doubt will cause hesitation. After all, Keala Kennelly once said in a very serious, cinematic masterpiece, “You can’t hesitate, you can’t pull back, you can’t hold back.”
“Draw back to your discipline”
Being a professional surfer might be the best job on the planet, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy one. The men and women on tour spend a majority of the year on the road, skipping from timezone to timezone. Oftentimes, they might go months without spending time at home or seeing their families. This can really put a drain on the “battery” as Conglogue puts it. To combat this fatigue and homesickness, Conlogue leans on her discipline. She finds strength through her daily habits, as she has for years. When she was a kid, that meant practicing pop-ups before school and doing homework after surfing. Now it means training hard, eating right, and staying on top of her game, even when the going gets tough.
“Ya it felt like someone had stabbed me in the gut and twisted it…but now I’m back to fighting for next year”
This year, Conlogue lost one of the tightest world title races on the women’s side in years. It came down to her and Carissa Moore battling it out at the last event of the tour, Honolua Bay. Conlogue was ultimately knocked out of the event by Hawaiian surfer Coco Ho, and by default, Moore won the title. For Conlogue, it was a hard-fought year that ended in total heartbreak. Although she allowed herself to feel that pain and deal with it, she was quick to move on. After a couple days, she had already refocused her energy toward the 2016 season. Despite the pain of the loss, Conlogue did not dwell and mope; she converted her feelings into motivation for the coming year. This is the mindset of a champion.
“There’s something to be said for writing something down. It makes you believe in it and make it happen”
When Conlogue was in 4th grade, she wrote down that she wanted to be either an astronaut or a pro surfer. She still has the paper, and she thinks that’s the first time she wrote down her goal to be one of the world’s best. After she wrote it down, she went out and did it. By middle school, Conlogue was already winning competitions and surfing circles around the girls her age. By writing it down, the goal became more of a to-do list, and although she’s still working on the astronaut thing, she can definitely check off professional surfer.
“Be genuine”
Conlogue doesn’t waste her time trying to be someone else. Rather, she focuses on living on the moment and just being. This gives her comfort and confidence. Conlogue recognizes that there’s no point in trying to be someone she’s not: it’s a waste of energy, and it only breeds insecurity. Instead, Conlogue is unapologetically herself.
Article by Taylor Pitz via the Inertia