Developing Young Leaders: Identifying Your Fears & Frustrations
Mike Collette • November 15, 2024
Identifying Your Fears & Frustrations

Identifying Your Fears & Frustrations
Last week, we explored self-drive and how it is a trainable skill. This week, we started to scratch the surface of how fear and frustration affect how we think and how we take action. When we make decisions from a place of fear or frustration, those decisions are often poor. So, how do we get out of that mindset and allow ourselves to think more creatively and make better choices? It’s a skill that requires practice, but the first step is to take a step back and identify what our default tendencies are when we feel frustrated or fearful.
In this week's LTAD sessions, we did some CDC (Cross-Domain Coaching). We created a simple game designed to generate low levels of frustration, and we tracked when and how that frustration emerged. This exercise helps build awareness of their default tendencies and hopefully helps them recognize similar behaviors in other areas of their lives.
Here are some quotes that came up during the game:
- After getting 0 points on the first 2 turns:
"I hate this game."
- After scoring 6 points on the next turn: "Only goal is not to come in last."
- After scoring 0 points on the first 3 turns: "I'm not trying."
- After scoring 7 points on the last turn: "If I did this every round, I would have won."
These comments aren’t groundbreaking, but they show how, when faced with early struggles or failure, the kids can quickly shift into frustration and blame the environment.
You might be wondering, how does all of this tie back into the self-drive work we did last week? One thing we’re seeing is that, in areas where we have self-drive, we tend to reduce fear and frustration more quickly. It doesn’t stop us from taking action, and we can make better decisions as a result. Understanding our tendencies when fear and frustration appear—and recognizing how they differ in areas where we feel driven—is key to making progress.
In today’s class, we’re experimenting with adding video games into the workout to see how we can dial up competitiveness and observe how frustration affects performance.
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Kathy has been an amazing member of the PTS community for 12 years and an incredible part of our community. Here, she shares her journey with Prototype. Thank you for being you — you truly deserve to be our July POM! 1.) Share your experience at Prototype I love Prototype. I knew Mike and Brian from BSC and Mike approached me one day, saying that he thought I would really love a crossfit workout. Naturally, I thought he was out of his mind. I have loved every minute of my time for the past 12 years. 2.) What is your favorite part about being at Prototype? The community. No matter what class I take, everyone is warm and welcoming. It isn’t always easy to walk into a new class, at Prototype that is never an issue for me. 3.) What are your hobbies and activities? I love to travel. I enjoy hiking, walking, tennis and swimming. 4.) How has Prototype helped you or solved a problem for you? When I am at Prototype, I can block out the noise of the world around me and just breathe. 5.) What are you continuing fitness goals to this point? My dad lived until 101.5 years old. He always did some form of exercise and it paid off for him. My goals are to continue to be active, get on the floor with my grandchildren and be able to get up. I really feel that exercising is akin to making a deposit for the future. There will come a time when I will have to make some withdrawals, and I want to have enough deposits to cover those withdrawals. 6.) Favorite Quote In a world where you can choose to be anything, choose to be kind
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