This Week on Mental Mondays
Looking back on the World Championships in Budapest, Ben Askren explores the concept that long term dedication creates positive results. Askren often sees young, and even collegiate level wrestlers, who are willing to put in the dedication for short periods of time. Those time periods could range from as much as a month, a season, or even a year. If the athlete doesn’t get the desired results, they are completely defeated and lose focus on trying to achieve those goals. Many young athletes are unable to handle failure. This typically occurs when young athletes have never experienced failure before.
Wrestlers Entering the Sport
Ben reflects on Kyle Dake and David Taylor, who are two of the best NCAA division 1 wrestlers to enter the sport. Dake is a 4x national champion. Taylor is a 2x national champion and 2x runner up. Both wrestlers are recipients of the Dan Hodge Trophy, and the NCAA division 1 outstanding wrestler award. Despite all of their accomplishments, both wrestlers struggled for many years to make the national team. Dake and Taylor were stuck behind other outstanding wrestlers, and national champions like Jordan Burroughs and J’den Cox. Still though, these talented athletes didn’t give up on their dreams. Dake and Taylor both, fought and pushed themselves to achieve their goals. Finally, when Dake and Taylor were presented with the opportunity they had been dreaming of; not only did they win a World Championship, but they did so in a spectacularly impressive fashion.
Achieving Your Goals
Ben explains, that while success is never guaranteed, you shouldn’t put a timeline on when you believe you should achieve your goals. You can’t know when or even how long it’s going to take you to get there. However, if you continue to work hard and improve yourself every day, you might achieve your goals. Ultimately, your goals will be even more rewarding after all of the hard work and dedication you put yourself through to get to that moment.
Where to find Mental Mondays with Ben Askren
Mental Mondays is hosted by Ben Askren. Ben Askren, World Champion and Olympic wrestler, joins RUDIS from the T-Row & Funky Show in an official partnership as a content provider for all things RUDIS.
