When Tori Bowie became the World Champion in the Women's 100m dash two-days ago, she made an adjustment in her race place before she went to the line.
Different than her past championship appearances, when she would get nervous because of the competition, this past Sunday she was going to "block out the noise and just focus on what I needed to do. Although I couldn't believe who was in the race, I knew that thinking about them was not going to do anything for me, so I just had to focus on what I had to do."
Success does not come from always thinking about what others are going to do. Sure, you need to be aware of what is going to happen in the race and the situations that you are in (we spoke about that recently when talking about Jenny Simpson's first round 1500m race) - but if you let it control you, you will loose sight of what you specifically need to do in order to be successful.
Champions know that they need to control their emotions, ease their minds, and focus on their plan. This is how winners win. It's how Tori Bowie became the World Champion by 0.01 of a second over the best field in the world. The competition didn't (and shouldn't matter) - all that mattered doing what she needed to do.
Try this for yourself next time - I think you will like the results.