Eileen Gu, a 22-year-old freeskier, describes her mental preparation before competing: journaling, introspection, and deliberate mental practice using neuroplasticity to sharpen her thinking and performance.
Chapters
This isn't supposed to be a rude question, but do you think before you speak? Because you answer questions so quickly and so comprehensively, whether it's about geopolitics or your sport or aerodynamics. Like, can you take us into your brain?
Thank you, Charlotte. That's very kind. Um, oh man. Do I think? I think overall I'm just a pensive person. Like, I'm a very introspective— I'm an introspective young woman. Like, I spend a lot of time in my head, um, and it's not a bad place to be. I, I journal a lot. I break down all of my thought processes. I think I apply a very analytical lens to my own thinking, and I kind of modify it because it's so interesting. You can control what you think. Like, you can control how you think, and therefore you can control who you are. And especially as a young person, like, I'm 22, so with neuroplasticity on my side, I can literally become exactly who I want to be. How cool is that? Like, how empowering is that, right? And so the fact is I get to become every day the kind of person that me at age 8 would revere. Like, I would be obsessed with me today. Are you kidding? I would love me. And I think that's the biggest flex of all time, that you can have like little younger you be proud of you today. And so I guess for me, it's like, yes, I spend a lot of time in my own head. Yes, I think a lot. But it's not really like in an egotistical kind of way. It's in like a tinkering, like a scientist kind of way. I'm always like trying to modify. I'm trying to think, how can I be better? How can I approach my own brain the way that I approach my craft of freeskiing so that I can be better tomorrow than I was today?
