Read this article on Substack!
I like winning. I like athleticism. These are things that I hope to explore further in my life. I want to be the gracefully aged person who still looks good and is physically capable. Your ability to achieve great feats with your body is more than a genetic predisposition. It is difficult for me to fully articulate the value and feeling associated with being a peak performer. I don’t claim to be one. As a humble brag I am one of the best Pokémon players in the world, but that isn’t saying much at all. Not because that isn’t a noteworthy accomplishment, but rather because it isn’t all that noteworthy coming from me. I wouldn’t want to compete with a Luca Ceribelli, the point is however, that I could hold my own and potentially win if necessary.
I wasn’t a great sports player either. I ran a touch of division 3 track in college. Nothing to write home about, but I was present. I was on the football team in high school. I didn’t say I played, but I was on the team. My lack of athletic prowess however, while I can make multiple bones about it, hasn’t taken away my longing to be a peak performer. I want to be the very best like no one ever was, not just in Pokémon (which again I’m not, it’s just a pun) but in life, in my decision making, in my athleticism, and in my character. I am a competitor. I like to compete. I want to compete. I want to be able to compete. At whatever it is and at a high level. This means being a winner. This is something I value.
This is not existential for me, but I want to get better at it. I don’t subscribe to “the only competitor you have is the version of yourself that you were yesterday” crap. I think that is what it is. Competing against yourself is off brand for me. You should support yourself, not compete against yourself. That’s why certain people who do subscribe to that line of thinking probably aren’t where they would like to be today. Instead of integrating themselves they try to outdo themselves. Your life should be a symphony, every aspect of you should play its role in building up and creating the sound of your life. That can’t effectively happen when you consciously and subconsciously constantly tear yourself down.
Maybe you’re like me, not a great athlete on paper, but competitive AF, and willing to out survive anyone. Ruthless in nature and when necessary, but humble in character and perspective. Maybe you are on your way to great things and want to hone your edge. Or maybe you don’t want to live your life inconsequentially. Besides the tenure and drive that peak performers have, the only thing separating you from being one of the best is how you curate your mind. Olympians, professional sports players, and competitors of all kinds have the brain to back up and support their impressive feats. Here’s how you can get your brain to do the same for you.
First Thing’s First
Before I dive deep into this subject, I want to make it clear that you don’t have to only be a “physical athlete” to reap the benefits of the brain of an athlete. As I will go into in a moment, the parts of your brain that contribute to high levels of performance are “amorphous” as it relates to the activity. The same or similar mentality and brain development can be identified in athletes of all kinds whether it be a physical athlete (football, basketball, soccer, baseball player etc.) or a “thinking athlete” (competitive cook, chess or checkers player etc.).
It boils down to willpower. Do you have the itch to experience that kind of success? I could insert some commentary on participation trophy award culture here, but I am uninterested in that. Admittedly, the drive to want to be the best at whatever you do can be elusive to explain and is subject to subjectivity. But at the end of the day, you must want it, and you must know that you want it, even if you can’t necessarily fully articulate why.
It wouldn’t be in you if it wasn’t meant to be fulfilled through you, and objectively speaking there is nothing wrong with operating with a spirit of excellence. Wanting to put your best foot forward all the time, every time, is not a bad thing. It’s how society claims it would like to promote people, even though anyone who has never been the winning complexion or has known the right people, can attest isn’t the case. Sometimes the best sleep you can get at night is knowing you did your best, regardless of the outcome. There is virtue and value in that. But that virtue and value is something you must find a connection for and to within yourself.
Gray and White Matter
The interesting thing about an athlete or peak performers and competitors of any kind, is that they all have increased gray and white matter in their brain. The brain is composed of gray and white matter. Gray matter is tissue in your brain and spinal cord that lends itself to your everyday functioning. It is composed of several concentrated neurons, axons, and dendrites. White matter, again located in your brain and spinal cord, is tissue made up of nerve fibers, specifically myelinated axons. When you look at a brain outside of the body, and it has that pinkish hew to it, you are looking at gray and white matter.
Gray matter is responsible for various critical thinking capacities in your brain. It lends itself to information processing, learning and memory, social cognition, emotion regulation, and decision-making. White matter focuses on function. It communicates and orchestrates the execution of tasks. White matter lends itself to information processing and coordination, and motor control. Individuals at the top of their game exhibit increased levels and activity in these aspects of their brain. What’s notable is these increased levels and activity don’t mean increased size or capacity. Top performers don’t have larger brains. In fact, there is at least no, if not a negative correlation between a large brain and increased functionality.
What happens in an athlete’s brain is gray matter increases or becomes more concentrated, in various aspects of their brain. As an athlete performs and executes various activities, they develop a proficiency to do so. That proficiency is associated with various parts of the brain, whether it be the motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, ganglia, cerebellum, hypothalamus, and so on and so forth. The way your brain helps you function is segmented. Different parts of the brain do different things. An athlete specifically, not exclusively, from a neurological perspective, develops increased gray and white matter in the areas of their brain that help them perform the skills they need to perform. They are more proficient on the basis of an increased concentration of neurons in a certain aspect of their brain that is dedicated to helping them execute a certain task.
The brain as a structure has something called neuroplasticity. Essentially, you have the ability to change your brain. Your brain is malleable and pliable as it relates to creating new connections and optimizing functions. When you do things, your mind adapts to those things you do, to help you do them better. In the case of an athlete, a key differentiating factor for them is that they likely have been doing the things they do for years if not decades. The neurological composition of the brain of an athlete is one that is refined via a concentration of gray matter, to do a certain skill or skills extremely well.
When you democratize this reality what you discover is that it doesn’t matter what activity you do. Any activity that you apply time and commitment to you can develop the brain of an athlete in, at least neurologically. Through repetition your brain will amass gray matter through neuroplasticity in the areas required for you to do the skills you are constantly repeating. As these new neurological connections are created, they become more efficient in processing ability, making it easier for you to do those skills and therefore allowing you to do them at a higher level. Think of it like your muscles. As you exercise your muscles the fibers tear and regenerate, making you stronger, and therefore making you able to do more of that exercise and under more pressure. Subtract the muscle tearing and apply that same anatomic process to your brain. As you do a skill more you become better at it and can do it better. This is the brain of an athlete.
Sports Psychology and the Mindset of a Top Performer
There are two aspects to this, however. There is the neurological aspect, which was just covered, then there is the psychological component. What makes an athlete an athlete, in addition to their ability to perform, is their mindset and behavioral approach. It’s not enough to have the brain composition of an athlete. You also need to have the mentality associated with being an athlete. It’s the mentality that takes you from being decent, to good, to great, to GOAT. There is an entire sub-discipline of psychology dedicated to this called sports psychology. Sports psychology is an area of study in regard to human behavior that focuses on the mannerisms and mindsets associated with being a winning athlete and performer. It’s all about getting and keeping you at the top of your game.
Some of the psychological approaches required to be a top performer include motivation, confidence, visualization, and levelheadedness or being calm under pressure. Additionally, a little scrappiness, ruggedness, and or identifying as an underdog can help as well. When you can effectively and in this case intentionally, cultivate your neurology and psychology, you can have the brain of an athlete in virtually any area of your life you deem worthy of your commitment to do so.
And this is my final point, the way you optimize this potentiality to become a relevant reality in your life is to uncover and discover what you have enough drive to pursue relentlessly. As I highlighted at the top of this article and have discussed in various other works, my desire to be competitive hasn’t always effectively translated to the “field” or in my ability to do so. You can’t just want to be the best while at the same time not being the best at anything. For me competitiveness means you can win in the face of opposition or a challenger no matter who or what it is.
In professional football for example, all 32 teams are technically competitive. All the teams have professional athletes, a great coaching staff and apparatus, and a drive to win. That said, despite upsets that can happen every season, some teams are just better than others. I want to at least be in the realm of if I’m present that means I can compete. I can cause an upset. I may not go all the way every year but count me out to your own detriment.
I am a survivor with the goal and win condition of thriving. I am willing to do virtually whatever it takes in nearly any scenario to ensure my prosperity and viability. I also like to have fun along the way. That is concrete enough for me. It’s also subject to change, but for the foreseeable future, this is worth my relentless commitment. Conclusively, you need to find a version of this for yourself. You need to find the thing that makes you want to be your best. Once you discover what you value that also brings the best out of you, pursue it relentlessly. Apply repetition and a winning mentality to it to develop your athlete brain. Then be humble enough to remember that while you can have the legacy of an athlete in whatever you do, no one is an athlete forever. Submit to the process and journey of being the best. This is how you can have the brain of an athlete.
Updated February 02, 2025.
Subscribe to Life with Ken on Substack to have new content sent to your inbox:
Leave a Comment