I recently had a conversation with Olympic Champion Jade Carey, and woah there is a lot I continue to learn from being around her. The obvious is she is probably the most competitive person I have ever been around. Jade’s desire to win and be the best is unparalleled! She trains at a level most will never understand or comprehend…
But what stood out to me even more in our conversation was, she doesn’t just train differently, she THINKS different. Her perspective on things is what really allows her to stand out!
Everyone sees Jade Carey with medals, the routines, skills but few get a peek inside her brain and how she thinks. This is the ultimate separator!
People don’t see or understand her mindset, the standards she sets for herself, the discipline she lives not sometimes but all the time, and the way she thinks about hard work, failure, and pressure.
That’s what this conversation was really about the way champions and high achievers like Jade Carey think.
And if you’re a gymnast, coach, or parent, this is the part that matters most, because mindset is what determines how far someone actually goes.
Here is a quick breakdown of some of the elements that make Jade Carey exceptional:
1. Hard Work Isn’t What Most People Think
We throw the phrase “hard work” around all the time, but Jade Carey said something that really stuck with me.
Hard work isn’t just showing up. Too often gymnasts think that “showing up” is enough and they fall into the trap of only checking the box versus breaking out of the box. She continues to push and challenge her standards and that takes a level of attention 99.9% of gymnasts are not committed to.
Hard work is doing more than showing up and “trying”. Trying is another trap! Jade Carey does what is required to win. It goes beyond doing the bare minimum. She constantly stays curious on what is possible and her hard work is doing “more more”.
Not just a little more but working to a point where no matter what others do it will never be good enough to catch her.
At some point in her career, Jade stopped trying to just be good compared to the masses but rather started asking a different question:
“What would it take to be the best ever?”
Asking questions like this changes your standards, it changes the way that you prepare. Jade Carey understands that preparation leads to execution and few on the planet prepare at a level she is committed to doing.
Most athletes do what they think is good enough. She trains at the exceptional level meaning, she does the exceptions constantly pushing boundaries.
So the real question becomes:
Have you defined what hard work actually looks like for you? Because if you don’t define it, you’ll never know if you’re actually doing it.
Most people think they are working hard but compared to what and who. Are you working hard compared to only people in your gym or are you working hard compared to the best in the world?
This level of clarity is what the greats have.
2. Discipline Is Easier When Your Life Is Structured Around Your Goals
One thing Jade Carey talked about was how structured her days were growing up around school, training, and her recovery.
And some people hear that and think, “That sounds boring.” And this is where many gymnasts make the mistake of looking for the next shiny object. The truth is the basics win! The hard part is not getting started, the hard part is continuing to do the simple things that work.
The basics can get boring real fast and our brain wants something new and sexy. Jade has the unique ability to stick with the basics and this builds the disciple muscle…
And champions understand something most people don’t:
Confidence comes from discipline. When we are disciplined and do what we say we are going to do that builds evidence and when you build evidence we build confidence.
When you know what you’re trying to accomplish, you stop negotiating with distractions, Jade does not negotiate with her standards…
Jade Carey does not ask:
Do I feel like training today?
Do I feel like doing the basics today?
She already knows who she is. She built a strong identity and she lives it every day!
This is why structure around identity matters so much for athletes. Having this level of structure eliminates distractions, hesitation on what to do and most importantly builds confidence.
Because confidence doesn’t come from hype. Confidence doesn’t come from words or 100 youtube videos, it comes from knowing you did what you said you were going to do and knowing you lived as the person you said you were going to be.
3. Curiosity Led To Jade Carey Collapse Time
One of the most powerful things Jade Carey talked about was how she would watch older gymnasts and study them. Not just watch study. I tell so many athletes and gymnasts to stop watching meets and videos as a fan but as a student.
Become a student of your sport! It’s not copy and pasting what others are doing but modeling them. And the best thing to model is to find out what they believe and start hardwiring the same beliefs that they have.
What is their perspective on the world? How do they view themselves and the stories they tell themselves that put themself in a powerful state.
This is something I wish more athletes understood:
You can learn in 1 year what took someone else 10 years if you pay attention.
Be a student of the sport. Watch those you look up to or have accomplished what you desire. Ask questions and be obnoxiously curious!
Curiosity is one of the fastest ways to improve because it keeps you in a growth mindset.
The best athletes I’ve ever been around are incredibly curious.
4. Clear Vision Creates Powerful Athletes
One thing that really stood out Jade Carey didn’t just have dreams, she had clear goals. There is a big difference between dreaming big and dreaming clear. She was not only extremely clear on her dreams but clear on the person required in order to achieve her dreams.
She had vision boards. She wrote her goals down.She had reminders everywhere. It was in front of her face every single day. She talked about the wooden board she had sitting next to her bed so that it was the first thing she saw every morning.
She wasn’t just saying, “I want to be successful.” She flooded her brain with reminders, Jade Carey created an environment that constantly reminded her of her destination.
Clarity creates intensity.
When gymnasts don’t have clear goals, they train casually. When gymnasts have clear goals, they train with purpose. LOL and there was nothing casual about her training and preparation!
This is something I tell teams all the time:
Vague goals create vague effort. Clear goals create powerful effort.
If your goal is clear enough, it will pull you forward on the days you don’t feel motivated.
5. Confidence Is Built by Recognizing Wins
This was something Jade Carey said she learned more as she got older, especially in college celebrating wins matters. It’s more than just stacking evidence she gave that evidence strong meaning. And our confidence is built on the meaning that we give the evidence we have.
A lot of gymnasts are really good at disempowering themselves. I call this living in the “yeah but” world, as soon as something good happens they start saying things like “yeah but it was on the low beam”, “yeah but it could have been better”…
They become addicted to things never feeling enough. Versus leaning into their wins and actually celebrating them.
Win → “ Still Not good enough.”
Good routine → “But I stepped on dismount.”
If you never acknowledge progress, you never build confidence. Progress is what drives happiness.
Confidence is built by stacking proof:
Proof you have done hard things. Proof that you have made progress and then giving strong meaning to these things. Then you actually start to feel like a powerful competitor.
If you only focus on what’s wrong, what’s wrong will continue to show up. You train your brain to believe you’re never good enough.
6. Leadership Isn’t Just Being the Best, It’s Helping Others Be Their Best
Jade Carey talked about how leadership changed for her over time.
When she was younger, leadership only meant to lead by example, but then she learned leadership has a voice too. It’s more than just leading by example that she had to communicate with teammates around her.
As she got older, leadership started to take on a new meaning and what was to communicate. Encouragement. Help others believe in themselves.
That’s a critical shift.
Real leaders don’t just raise their own standard.
They raise the standard of everyone around them.
7. Enjoy the Process (This Matters More Than You Think)
Jade Carey talked about enjoying the journey. This was HER dream so at some level this should be fun! No one else decided her dreams for her. Living someone else’s dream is the fastest path to frustration and feeling like you’re burnt out.
Most people struggle to decide on exactly what THEY want. Not their parents, coaches, friends or what society wants us to go after.
You can find more joy in the daily grind when you have painted the picture about your destination. It becomes inspiring and don’t find yourself trying to motivate yourself daily to go to the gym and prepare.
If you’re not living your dream, you won’t last long enough to reach your potential.
And that’s a big difference.
Bringing It All Together
If I had to sum up Jade Carey’s mindset in one sentence, it would be this:
Jade Carey didn’t just want to see how good she could be she was clear that she wanted to be exceptional. She wanted to not just dream about it, she wanted to live in a world others only dream about.
And that’s the question every athlete should ask themselves:
Am I just participating in this sport…
Or am I trying to see what I’m truly capable of?
Because those are two very different paths.
And one of them leads to a completely different life and experience.
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