AASP Newsletter - January 2021

David Fletcher

David Fletcher, PhD, Loughborough University

Occasionally in life something stops you dead in your tracks. This happened to me last year when I settled down to read a newspaper and came across an article about an American student-athlete named Kelly Catlin. Kelly was a postgraduate student at Stanford University studying computational and mathematical engineering, and an elite cyclist having won three world championship titles and a silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games. As a performance psychologist, I was immediately drawn to Kelly’s story because not only was she achieving at the highest level, she was doing so in two intensely demanding arenas. As I eagerly read further, however, I was stunned to learn that Kelly had died by suicide two days earlier. She was 23 years old.

Kelly was a paragon of performance excellence and, it would appear, had everything to live for. In addition to having a realistic chance of winning a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games and the prospect of a career in Silicon Valley, she played classical violin, was fluent in Chinese, and was loved by family, friends and her peers - how could Kelly find no reason to keep living? In the weeks following her death, however, some accounts of Kelly’s state of mind emerged.

In the months before her death, Kelly had been writing a blog in which she stated that managing her graduate studies alongside her cycling career was like “juggling with knives” and “I really am dropping a lot of them.” She had also written an email to her parents, a coach, and a friend, that her thoughts were “never-ending spinning, spinning, spinning” as if they were “never at rest, never at peace”. Her father, Mark, a pathologist, subsequently wrote a memo putting her death down to a combination of factors, including various personality traits and environmental stresses.

Thriving or Surviving?

Over the past couple of decades, I’ve researched and consulted with high achievers from a variety of performance domains, including Olympic and world champions from a range of sports, special forces and military personnel, and senior leaders and their teams in FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies. Although being very successful at what they do, I have observed that for some (if not for many) their accomplishments have come at a heavy cost. Their extreme drive to succeed, sometimes characterized by obsessional, perfectionistic, ruthless and/or selfish tendencies, combined with them constantly seeking out challenging situations, was taking a toll on their health and well-being. These high achievers were not displaying the complete physical, mental, and social well-being considered essential for human health.

This was no more apparent to me than during the build-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games. Many of the athletes I was supporting and observing were performing better than ever, and so it proved as Team GB won more medals than at any other Games in living memory. But behind the scenes, some of the athletes were exhibiting worrying symptoms of mental ill health such that their psychological functioning in daily life was impaired. Put another way, although outwardly they were excelling as performers, inwardly some were merely surviving as persons.

As much as I respect and want to support high achievers in their quest for success, I was increasingly questioning the price some of them were willing to pay in their endeavors. I undertook further professional development in mental health first aid and treating clinical psychiatric disorders but, after a chance encounter with Gretchen Rubin (2009) and hearing about her Happiness Project to discover what proactively leads to true contentment, I realized that to more effectively support this unique group of individuals, I needed an approach that enabled high achievers’ well-being alongside their performance. The concept that I felt best represented this objective was thriving.

The Evolution of #ProjectThrive

Following the London 2012 Olympic Games, I began what has evolved into an ongoing project to better understand and support human thriving. My mission was simple: to enable people, teams, and communities to be better persons and performers. To underpin this project, I developed a line of research investigating thriving in high achievers (Brown et al., 2017b; Sarkar & Fletcher, 2014) with the aim of advancing knowledge of the joint experience of development and success (Brown et al., 2017a; Fletcher, 2019). At the same time, I spoke with high achievers from multiple performance domains and established three guiding principles and values for the project:

1. Ethically grounded: Decision-making guided by the fundamental principles of respect, competence, responsibility, and integrity.
2. Evidence-based: Practice underpinned by the best available research that attests to the robustness of constructs and the effectiveness of support.
3. Psychosocially informed: Knowledge gleaned from principles and reflections from a range of psychological- and social-related scientific disciplines.

As the research was disseminated, it became apparent that there is an appetite across different walks of life to better understand how to better support high achievers. Professionals and organizations were hungry to distill the main findings of the project to provide insight and direction to their own work. I have found that using a model (see Figure 1) has been particularly helpful in facilitating understanding of human thriving and initiating conversations about how to most effectively provide support in this area.
Figure 1. #ProjectThrive: A basic model of human thriving

To be described as thriving, an individual must display evidence of development and success at that time in his or her life (Brown et al., 2017a; Fletcher, 2019). The development aspect of thriving involves progressive improvement that may be physical, psychological, or social in nature; for high achievers, this could respectively be refining a technical skill, developing mental strategies, or integrating into a team. The success aspect of thriving involves personal achievement that may be mastery focused or self-referenced, or comparative or normatively focused in nature; for an athlete, this could respectively be posting a personal best time or winning a race. With these components in mind, thriving encapsulates other related concepts associated with human development and success, such as growth, prospering, resilience, and flourishing.

To realize development and success, high achievers need to be functioning fully and effectively at a holistic level, typically indicated by high levels of well-being (e.g. physical, emotional, psychological, social) and performance (e.g. artistic, cognitive, motor, work) (Brown et al., 2017a; Fletcher, 2019). High levels of well-being are important for thriving because of its association with the personal and social functioning necessary for development to occur. High levels of performance are important for thriving because of its association with the efficient and effective functioning necessary for success to occur. If high levels of well-being and performance are perceived across a series of situations, then the likely continual development and success will lead to sustained thriving (Brown et al., 2017a; Fletcher, 2019).

A significant message of the model is that indications of both high levels of well-being and performance are required for thriving (Brown et al., 2017a). If either is lacking then, although someone might appear to be thriving (e.g. successful in their performance domain), he or she should not/cannot be described as thriving as a human being (e.g. due to a lack of personal development and well-being). This is particularly relevant for high achievers who may seem to be accomplished individuals but, in reality, might be deficient in some important areas of life. This is not only a superficial form of functioning because these individuals may be struggling behind the scenes, it is also a fragile form of functioning because if the basis of their achievements is compromised for any reason, they will be left very psychologically vulnerable. 

In applying the model to support high achievers, I have made a number of observations. First, the notion of thriving typically changes over time at different ages and across the lifespan. What “works” for a high achiever at one point in time might not be effective at another, so support should continually adapt and evolve accordingly. Second, thriving is contextual and experienced differently across areas of life and/or in specific scenarios. Just because an individual is high achieving in one domain doesn’t mean that he or she will be thriving in another. Third, high achievers are, by definition, social outliers with unique characteristics and needs that should be recognized. This means that support should, as far as practically possible, be individualized and “fit” the specific requirements of a high achiever and his or her surroundings. Fourth, the environment and those operating within it should cultivate caring and compassionate relationships. Although high achievers desire constructive challenge to raise their performance levels, a nurturing culture is fundamental for supporting their aspirations and well-being. Fifth, accountability for thriving does not lie with an individual person but rather with everyone who directly or indirectly influences them and/or others. There should be a shared responsibility for high achievers’ thriving whereby it is everybody’s business.

Psychologists’ Role

At Kelly’s burial, her sister, Christine, slipped a handwritten note into her coffin before it was closed, that included these words, “Kelly, if I could trade my life for yours, I would. I love you without all your accomplishments.” No one should go through what Kelly and her family suffered. There needs to be a greater awareness of the psychology of thriving on the part of high achievers themselves, those who support them, and their family and friends. Particularly noteworthy is how aspects of high achievers’ psyche and environment can, sometimes, enhance performance whilst compromising well-being or vice versa. It is essential that high achievers have access to expert and trusted professionals who are able to collectively provide holistic support across lifestyle, rest, recovery, health, and other related areas. Psychologists have an important role to play not only in supporting high achievers from all walks of life, but also in advising governments and organizations on creating environments that enable well-being alongside performance.

If you, or someone you know, have been affected by any of the issues addressed in this article, please refer to the following:

• https://www.apa.org/topics/depression/index.html
• https://www.apa.org/topics/emotion/index.html
• https://www.apa.org/topics/suicide

First published in The Sport and Exercise Scientist, Issue 66, Winter 2020.

Published by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences – www.bases.org.uk

References

Brown, D. J., Arnold, R., Fletcher, D., & Standage, M. (2017a). Human thriving: A conceptual debate and literature review. European Psychologist, 22, 167-179. https://doi.org/gbz43w

Brown, D. J., Arnold, R., Standage, M., & Fletcher, D. (2017b). Thriving on pressure: A factor mixture analysis of sport performers’ responses to competitive sporting encounters. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 39, 423-437. https://doi.org/gdbd9x

Fletcher, D. (2019). Thriving. In D. Hackfort, R.J. Schinke & B. Strauss (Eds.), Dictionary of sport psychology: sport, exercise, and performing arts (pp. 303). London: Academic Press.

Rubin, G. (2009). The happiness project. New York City, NY: HarperCollins.

Sarkar, M. & Fletcher, D. (2014). Ordinary magic, extraordinary performance: Psychological resilience and thriving in high achievers. Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology, 3, 46-60. https://doi.org/gc95hh