Ignorance is bliss – is that good or bad? Ignorance means being unaware, young, and naïve. I work with youth and juniors who are at many different performance levels. Some are just starting out. Many are a little further in the process of growth and progress. While others are firmly rooted in it.

At every level, there are challenges and clients who need to develop their mental skills to work with the variety of situations that can come up on a daily basis. However, in my opinion, the most challenging ages are 14 – 18 years old.

Why? Generally, they’ve experienced ‘success’ when they were younger, and fear set in with regards to how to continue to remain successful. It is typically an unconscious phenomenon when this happens. Your skills seem to have fallen but you are practicing hard. What is going on?

Ignorance is bliss changes

When we are young, we are learning and discovering. For many of our younger years, up until the age of 9, 10 or 11, this process happens unconsciously and mostly free of fear. Sure, conditioning starts at a very young age and kids do experience adversity, but they are unaware about what’s happening and how they should be responding to what’s happening.

Unfortunately, time, experience, and success end up changing all of that. To a certain degree, it’s a good thing because it means that things are changing, and kids are growing. The challenge is that because growth and change can happen quite unconsciously, kids aren’t ready for it. They aren’t prepared and they don’t know what to do with it.

One minute ignorance is bliss – they are free to run around and have fun and the next minute they seem to be aware of everything and are no longer as ignorant or free. This thing I am doing was fun and I was successful at it. Now it’s no longer fun, and they are scared, and success feels uncertain.

When we are prepared

One of the best reasons for kids to develop their mental skills around the ages of 11, 12 and 13 is because they are just coming out of their ‘ignorance is bliss’ stage. They are not too grounded in fear. At these ages they may have experienced success and may just be starting to fear success but it’s not too instilled. I find that arming kids with mental skills at these ages helps set them up for success. They can get clarity around:

• the meaning of success
• what they must focus on to achieve success
• the mental skills to develop that support that

You can never go back to ignorance

There have been many situations where a high school aged client will say, I can’t wait to get back to where I was. I can’t wait to get back to being me. The bad news is, that isn’t going to happen. The good news is, they can figure out who the new me is and again develop the mental skills to support that.

Even though we can’t go back, we can go forward and in a better way; armed with better skills.

To embrace change and move with it means to:

1. Realize that ignorance is a true part of being young
2. Understand that you can’t be ignorant forever
3. Get in the habit of reflecting on what IS happening
4. Accept that change is happening
5. Figure out how to incorporate those changes
6. Develop the proper mental skills to continue to move forward in the best possible way

And, while going from being ignorant to fearing success is only one transition, it’s a major one and sets the stage for all other transitions.

How to remain successful

Recognize that success is not a bad thing. If you’ve been successful, you can continue to be successful. You probably can be more successful. And to make that happen, you need to build your mental skills. You need to be more aware and recognize what is happening, so you don’t fall into a negative spiral.

You are growing and learning, and you can be stronger. And that fear is okay. Once you develop the right skills and put them into practice, you will realize that they can help you in so many areas of life, and not just sports – relationships, school, work.