‘I don’t have a sprint finish’ was a favourite story of mine early in my running career. I wasn’t very fast when it came to sprinting in training, I lost a few sprint finishes in races and the story took shape. With every repetition the story became more powerful and more self-limiting
It took me a long time and plenty of sprint finishes in many different types of race to change the narrative to:
‘At the end of a hard race when everybody is tired I can sprint at my maximum.’
It’s subtly different. It is framed positively and focused on strengths - in this case my endurance advantage. I started to improve my sprint finishes – I even won a British Milers Club 1500m race in a sprint against guys who were specialists in the event!
When we aren’t getting what we want it is time to re-frame the situation and create a new narrative.