Do you follow your head or your heart? Do you obsess over every detail leading up to race day? Or do you roll out of bed, show up and chase? Are you a worrier or a warrior? When you create a training and racing plan it's important to work with, not against, your personality. "Knowing your personal strengths and liabilities will help you maximize your ability."*
So how do you figure out which you are, worrier or warrior? There's a quiz for that! The Worrier or Warrior Quiz is one of my favorite sections of the Believe Training Journal, co-authored by Lauren Fleshman (Lo) and Roisin (Ro) McGettigan-Dumas. Ro created the W.o.W Quiz drawing from her expertise as is a sports psychology consultant and Olympian.
I had the honor of talking to Ro as I dove into what it meant to be either a worrier or warrior and asked her about the inspiration for the quiz.
"I became fascinated by psychology, the science of behavior, as a student-athlete at Providence College. As an aspiring Olympian I was intrigued to know more about how my thoughts could affect my performances. Over the years I read a lot about how being super positive is optimal for performance, but I noticed that some of my world class sisters-in-sport weren’t always optimistic AND they were the ones consistently kicking everyone’s asses! It baffled me.
When I first read about Warriors and Worriers in the book “Top Dog- The Science of Winning", I had my answer. I learned about genetic factors that contribute to each of our personality and performance styles; what helps my Worrier teammates perform optimally is truly different to what I, a Warrior need. The funny thing is, that together Worriers and Warriors can bring out the best in each other. And the best Warriors most likely have a few Worrier traits, and vice versa.
I was so excited to bring this information to the wider running community via the Believe Training Journal and turn it into this quiz. I want help other athletes increase their self-awareness so they stop shooting themselves in the foot and know what they need to thrive. And, of course it will be fun to find out if runners are mainly Worriers or Warriors!"
Want to take the quiz? You're in luck! Ro published the quiz online. Take the Worrier or Warrior Quiz below! Share your results with #runwarrior or #runworrier.
And if you liked this quiz but haven't checked out the Believe Training Journal, you totally should! This training journal is so much more than a log of your workouts. It's a guide to becoming a stronger athlete, competitor, and human.
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Big thanks to Ro! Follow her on Twitter at RunRoRun and at BelieveIAm.com.
*from Worrier v Warrior quiz, page 40.
