What belief system do top athletes have?

Christmas is over and we are just heading towards a new year. Have you had some wonderful days? Is motivation already peaking within you?

A new year always means that you have new chances, opportunities and also challenges to overcome. I highly suggest not seeing challenges as any annoying task or difficulty, rather than a possibility to outgrow yourself.

The recent days with my family I interrupted my strict diet plans and sacrificed my special approach that worked some wonders for me the past years, for some Christmas cookies. Okay, to be honest they were a bit more than just “some”. 😊 Anyways, after the huge amounts of food I immediately felt the need to go running and working out and while I was enjoying the time in nature my thoughts cleared up and brought me some new ideas about the mindset of top athletes.

Although Christmas has become a very commercialistic event in the recent decades, it still is one of the biggest religious events throughout the year and that brought me to some thoughts about beliefs and religion in high performance athletes. Just think about some of the highly famous stars of European football like Christiano Ronaldo, Jürgen Klopp or David Alaba. All of them are highly religious and also are showing their beliefs in their rituals. You can easily find many more and they are relating their success to their religion.

Does a top athlete have to be religious to be successful? I would say, not really because there are plenty of examples that would see themselves as not religious and still succeed. But since all humans are spiritual beings it is required to have a strong believe system. Where ever this comes from!

Religion is a system of beliefs and therefore gives some ideas about patterns that work to improve your mindset. They can contribute to stay stable, strong and peaceful throughout the pressure of a career. A career that is sometimes highly public and creates tension. Tension in your mind, that creates tension in your body, that can lead to confusion, lack of focus and even injuries.

To sum it up and recall my point of view. We have to think the right thoughts in order to become highly successful and make our careers a masterpiece. Why not considering anything that can help and contribute on your path to success, a chance and spiritual growth is a huge part of becoming a more evolved human being. Whether you are approaching your growth through religion, any other spiritual practice or even just working on your mindset through any other practice of mantras, awareness and conditioning does not matter too much – it just has to fit to your personal, individual needs and take you where you want to be. That is all what it is about.

Get ready for a magnificent year 2022 and all the best for now,

Wilhelm