#160 – Mindset Isn’t Enough: How to Find Your Identity Zone
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Episode Summary:
In this episode of Sport Is Life, Ian Hawkins takes listeners beyond the familiar world of mindset coaching and into the deeper terrain of identity, the often-overlooked foundation of consistent high performance. Using NRL player Nico Hynes as a real-world example, Ian explores why athletes, leaders, and individuals can feel stuck even when they’ve done the “mindset work.” The key? Anchoring performance in who you truly are, not just what you think.
Ian introduces the concept of the "identity zone", a place where your backstory, purpose, and lived experience align to unlock flow and sustained success.
Ian challenges listeners to map their life’s timeline to uncover the recurring themes and “golden thread” moments that reveal their authentic self.
Whether you’re an athlete, coach, business owner, or parent, this episode offers a practical and powerful pathway to becoming the best version of yourself, not by adding more tools, but by reconnecting with your truth.
About the Host:
Ian Hawkins is dedicated to showing how sports can transform lives. With extensive experience as an athlete, a coach, PE teacher, community volunteer, and manager at Fox Sports, Ian brings a wealth of knowledge to the podcast. His journey began in his backyard, mentored by his older brother, and has since evolved into coaching elite athletes and business leaders. Ian's commitment to sports and personal development is evident in his roles as a performance coach and active community member. Through "Sport Is Life," Ian shares inspiring stories and valuable lessons to help listeners apply sports principles to all areas of life.
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Transcript
Once it is powerful, but it's not the
Speaker:full picture. As I've mentioned
Speaker:previously, just ask Nico Hines. You can
Speaker:have all the mindset tools in the world,
Speaker:but if you're not anchored in who you
Speaker:truly are, consistency and high
Speaker:performance will always feel just out of
Speaker:reach. In this episode, I'm sharing
Speaker:what it really takes to go beyond
Speaker:mindset, to tap into your identity,
Speaker:your back story, and the golden thread
Speaker:that's been running through your life all
Speaker:along. This is where your best
Speaker:performances live. This is your identity
Speaker:zone.
Speaker:I'm Ian Hawkins and this is Sporty's
Speaker:life. The purpose of sport, as I
Speaker:see it, is to see your vision become a
Speaker:reality, find your voice, create
Speaker:strong connections and learn to trust
Speaker:your body.
Speaker:Few episodes back, I talked about Nico
Speaker:Hines and talked about how he's got a
Speaker:mindset coach, which again, I love the
Speaker:fact that more of these athletes
Speaker:are realising that theydo need to to
Speaker:work in that space. But also thinking
Speaker:about what I talked about is like, what?
Speaker:What is else beyond
Speaker:mindset? What else is it that
Speaker:you need to still be successful? And
Speaker:when I came down to it, it's about an
Speaker:identity shift. At the moment for Nico,
Speaker:he's attached somehow.
Speaker:Rightly or wrongly, through a belief
Speaker:system or something else to this identity
Speaker:that he's not quite at that next level.
Speaker:That he's not able to
Speaker:own those big game moments. That's what
Speaker:people have been talking about for so
Speaker:long, that that's who he is. And.
Speaker:I heard him talk a couple of years ago.
Speaker:They were, it might not even be a couple
Speaker:of years ago, it might have only been
Speaker:last year. And he said that, you know,
Speaker:there's so much more to my life than just
Speaker:football. And that was met with
Speaker:some degree of negativity that like,
Speaker:no, no, it should be the main part of
Speaker:your life. And any older
Speaker:athlete or anyone that's had children
Speaker:knows that there is life beyond your
Speaker:sport. And even the guys at that level
Speaker:say that. That actually frees them up
Speaker:to a certain degree once they have
Speaker:children, that they realise that they've
Speaker:got this other purpose in their life. So
Speaker:part of an identity shift for someone
Speaker:like Nico is to go, who am I beyond
Speaker:being a footballer?But the next level
Speaker:from that to take performance to the next
Speaker:level is how do I bring that in to what I
Speaker:do?So I can
Speaker:absolutely excel, which
Speaker:is his career. So yes, he's got
Speaker:more going on, but in what we do,
Speaker:everything that we do, we want to be the
Speaker:best we can be. We want to be the best
Speaker:versions of ourselves. So who does he
Speaker:need to be to be
Speaker:that version that
Speaker:can own those big moments that can
Speaker:take his team to the next level, that can
Speaker:bring that success?To the
Speaker:Sharks. And so
Speaker:part of it is, and this is something that
Speaker:I take business owners through, or even
Speaker:just someone in a corporate environment,
Speaker:young athletes is their story. Like,
Speaker:who are they? What has been the common
Speaker:threads? What's been the golden thread
Speaker:that has run through their life?
Speaker:That shows up in the
Speaker:different moments where they feel.
Speaker:Connected, where they feel
Speaker:energised, where they have those moments
Speaker:of. An episode I talked about
Speaker:a few weeks back. The authenticity when
Speaker:you have those moments of tingle with the
Speaker:goosebumps that there is a golden
Speaker:thread that's linked.
Speaker:To your purpose, to who you
Speaker:are, to where you show up best,
Speaker:to where you can take your performance to
Speaker:a whole other level. That's where you can
Speaker:start finding that consistency. That's
Speaker:where you can start pushing the
Speaker:boundaries of what you're capable of. And
Speaker:so it's the the activity for you
Speaker:would be to sit and just go through
Speaker:your life and look for.
Speaker:What are the common threads? So if you
Speaker:were at a timeline of your life and
Speaker:you're right, everything you can think of
Speaker:from day dot to now, every
Speaker:moment what you are doing.
Speaker:Where you were, who you were with what
Speaker:activities. How did you
Speaker:feel?What
Speaker:impact did it have on you? Positive,
Speaker:Negative. Can you remember those
Speaker:moments of authenticity when you were
Speaker:being you?We even if
Speaker:maybe you were having challenges where
Speaker:you still. Felt good about
Speaker:you because even in those challenging
Speaker:times that we had through our life, even
Speaker:as kids where it's difficult, there are
Speaker:still those moments. I can
Speaker:remember being a shy, awkward teenager,
Speaker:but I can still definitively
Speaker:remember. A moment
Speaker:with one of my neighbours who wasdown
Speaker:in the local park where I spent a lot of
Speaker:time just him and I, and we're just
Speaker:talking and and he was saying I'm good at
Speaker:nothing. And I can
Speaker:remember even then, like telling him, no,
Speaker:that's that's not true. So it was sort of
Speaker:that coach coming out, that empathy
Speaker:coming out, telling him like all
Speaker:of the reasons why he wasn't
Speaker:no good, like telling him all the reasons
Speaker:why he wasn't hopeless and.
Speaker:He may not remember it, but but I can
Speaker:remember it vividly for whatever reason.
Speaker:But that's those moments, those
Speaker:moments that are. Have patterns
Speaker:through our life because.
Speaker:If you can find those, you can find
Speaker:where you might find them in the future.
Speaker:You can start building a map. You can
Speaker:start finding who you are. You can
Speaker:start building that profile, that high
Speaker:performance identity, that high
Speaker:performance profile of who you are.
Speaker:And then you can start looking for the
Speaker:gaps in your identity Wherever
Speaker:Am I not showing up like that? But I need
Speaker:to? Where am I?
Speaker:Trying to be someone that I'm not and
Speaker:it's detrimental to who I am and to how
Speaker:I'm showing up, to my performance, to my
Speaker:consistency. This is where you
Speaker:find your zone.
Speaker:People have all, if you've had any
Speaker:experience in sport, you've had those
Speaker:moments where you've been in the zone
Speaker:where everything just unfolds naturally.
Speaker:It's almost like, you know, moves ahead.
Speaker:It's like everything's happening on
Speaker:automatic pilot. I was just having a bit
Speaker:of a chat with my brother and having a
Speaker:bit of a laugh about the old days of
Speaker:playing cricket and, and and good
Speaker:moments. We're often
Speaker:it was because we'd had a big night the
Speaker:night before or we were unwell because we
Speaker:were completely detached from the
Speaker:outcome. We're just going out there and
Speaker:enjoying and that's often where
Speaker:everything just sort of clicked. But what
Speaker:if you didn't have to have that?
Speaker:Situation that takes you away from worry
Speaker:about the outcome, but instead being able
Speaker:to still know the outcome but just be
Speaker:yourself through that moment. And relax
Speaker:into whatever you're doing, but still be
Speaker:fully primed and focused to get the best
Speaker:results. And it comes from that identity
Speaker:shift. So that's the
Speaker:step for Niko. To to
Speaker:step into not just
Speaker:a better version of him, but to who he
Speaker:really is and where he's always performed
Speaker:at his best. And he sounds like he's a.
Speaker:Pretty empathetic person as well.
Speaker:He has a deep care for people.
Speaker:He's had a different challenge, mental
Speaker:health challenges, and I imagine there's
Speaker:going to be an element of that instead of
Speaker:putting it all on his shoulders. It's
Speaker:going to be someone like in a sporting
Speaker:environment where he's helping other
Speaker:people through things, not feeling like a
Speaker:tool on him, but actually, well, how can?
Speaker:Lifted my teammate up or.
Speaker:Again, that's just a very.
Speaker:High level guests based on some
Speaker:experiences watching him online on
Speaker:a video clip or or an interview.
Speaker:And as we know, we only see a very small
Speaker:snippet of people's actual lives.
Speaker:And that's the next step for you as well.
Speaker:It's what's your identity shift?Not
Speaker:to be someone that you're not, but to
Speaker:be all of who you actually are.
Speaker:So my challenge to you is to spend some
Speaker:time riding that timeline of your life.
Speaker:And you might do what you've done on
Speaker:other episodes like this, and you might
Speaker:go, yeah, that's something I'll get
Speaker:around to and then not actually take an
Speaker:action. Everything that I talk about here
Speaker:as lessons is stuff that I coach. You
Speaker:could literally listen to every one of
Speaker:these podcast episodes and take the
Speaker:action that I talk about. Completely
Speaker:transform your life. And there's no
Speaker:shortage of information out there. The
Speaker:challenge is not whether there's
Speaker:information, whether you can find it.
Speaker:It's as you know, it's actually
Speaker:implementing it. That's a lot of what
Speaker:people do coaching. That's why I have a
Speaker:coach, because I know I'll implement. I
Speaker:know I don't want to let them down. I
Speaker:want to make sure I do the work and I
Speaker:don't do all of it. I've had that
Speaker:conversation with them before. I'm like.
Speaker:I've done a few of the things that you've
Speaker:suggested I do based on the conversations
Speaker:we've had, and I've got incredible
Speaker:results. Imagine if I did all of the
Speaker:things that you suggested I do. So that's
Speaker:my challenge to you as well. Start with
Speaker:this timeline. Put some time and effort
Speaker:into it. You'll be amazed at what you
Speaker:learn about yourself. Look for those
Speaker:patterns. And then
Speaker:future pays it. What can I bring to
Speaker:my life to bring more of those moments
Speaker:that have already had in my past where I
Speaker:show up as the best version of myself?
Speaker:And what you'll find is that you will
Speaker:continue to improve because you'll be
Speaker:prioritising something that just feels
Speaker:easy, that feels good. That
Speaker:allows you to get good results and then
Speaker:once you've done that, go back and listen
Speaker:to the other episodes again and take that
Speaker:action or if you still need help.
Speaker:Hit me up and let's talk about how we can
Speaker:actually get you taking very specific
Speaker:steps to your best performance,
Speaker:your best results. And what
Speaker:we all want is to enjoy our lives.
Speaker:You've taken the time to listen to this
Speaker:whole episode. Now it's time to take
Speaker:action. Commit to one thing you've
Speaker:learned today and make it happen. And to
Speaker:avoid any obstructions, join the Sporty
Speaker:Life movement by clicking on the link in
Speaker:the show notes.
