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Josh Kerr: The Hidden Habits of Mental Strength

ByMark Sapsford

Bulletproof confidence under pressure: what Josh Kerr can teach us

Josh Kerr did not feel particularly good warming up for the men’s 1500m at the inaugural Ultimate Championship in Budapest. After winning, he told The Guardian how he had approached it:

“To be honest, I didn’t feel amazing in the warmup. But these are the things you have to overcome. I knew I was going to be in with a shot. It was a case of not overpressing too early and leaving a couple of gears for the last lap.”

He noticed how he felt and kept his attention on how he wanted to race. An uncomfortable warm-up gave him something to manage. His confidence in his preparation remained.

That same habit appeared in his account of a much more serious setback.

Kerr spent two weeks on crutches after tearing his calf at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Six months later, he was talking about the injury, his recovery and his ambitions.

He described the rehabilitation and the support of his mother, who is also his physiotherapist. Then he said something that grabbed my attention:

“So I’m not going to change who I am and my goals.”

That is the tell.

Kerr puts who he is and what he wants to achieve together in the same sentence. His body needs to recover, and his preparation needs to accommodate that recovery, but his Identity and his direction remain intact.

Across interviews about training, winning, losing and injury, Kerr keeps returning to his preparation, his own judgement and what he wants to achieve. Those habits help us understand the certainty he brings to competition.

He trusts his own preparation

Kerr knows that some of his competitors complete training sessions he could not manage. He has said so openly.

For many athletes, that comparison would be unsettling. If the person you need to beat can do more than you, perhaps you should be doing more too. Their training becomes the standard against which you judge your own.

Kerr recognises the difference without accepting that conclusion. He has evidence that his preparation works for him.

After winning in Budapest, he addressed the criticism of his racing schedule in an interview with BBC Sport:

“Obviously I get a lot of stick for not racing so much. But it allows me to come here fresh and ready to go.”

He knows what people say and has his own reasons for the decisions he makes. His attention stays on preparing for the championships he wants to win.

That is an Internal reference at work. He can see and understand what is going on around him while making up his own mind about what he should do.

Speaking before the 2026 World Indoor Championships, Kerr expressed complete belief that he was the best athlete in the world over his distances, adding:

“I’m not looking for opinions on that.”

He has reached his own judgement about his ability. He can enter a championship certain of what he brings, even when other people favour someone else.

That includes deciding whose advice he values. Kerr has spoken warmly about the honest conversations behind his relationship with coach Danny Mackey. Trusting his own judgement includes choosing whose expertise to trust.

Under pressure, an Internal reference helps us weigh other people’s opinions without automatically accepting their judgement of us. Our Inner Compass keeps our values and chosen Outcomes in view, so we can decide how to respond.

Someone else taking a different route does not automatically make ours wrong.

He practises trusting himself

Before winning the world 1500m title in Budapest in 2023, Kerr wrote in his journal:

“If you trust that it’s going to be there, it’ll be there”

He later explained that he meant trusting his legs to feel good, his mind to make decisions and his readiness to race.

Notice where he directs his attention. He looks ahead to the capabilities he will need when the race begins and focuses on them.

In a 2022 interview, he described meditation, journalling and limiting morning phone use as part of his mental preparation.

Within the 7 Skills framework, this connects with Manage Your State and Attention Direction. Kerr rehearses trusting his preparation and his ability to make decisions. The Stroop Magnet gives us a way to understand that habit: what we repeatedly attend to becomes easier to bring to mind under pressure.

He judges success for himself

At the Paris Olympics, Kerr wanted gold. Cole Hocker beat him, and Kerr took silver in a British record.

Afterwards, Kerr acknowledged that Hocker had been better on the day and expressed pride in his own performance. He explained that judging himself entirely by the result would leave his satisfaction dependent on how everyone else performed.

He had his own criteria. Had he prepared properly, executed his race and produced a performance he could be proud of? In Paris, his answer was yes.

He still wanted Olympic gold. His attention, however, was on what he could do to achieve it. He could improve his preparation, make better decisions and run faster. Hocker’s performance was beyond his control.

This is where Internal reference and Towards motivation support one another. Kerr can recognise the quality of his own performance while keeping his attention on the title he still wants. He can also give another athlete credit without thinking less of himself.

Winning silver tells him something about his progress and the competition. It gives him no reason to abandon an approach that has just helped him run the fastest race of his life.

The same distinction matters in our working lives. We can prepare thoroughly for an interview and still lose the job to a stronger candidate. It helps to understand why we were unsuccessful and what we could improve, while giving ourselves credit for what we did well. The decision tells us who got the job; it cannot tell us everything about the quality of our preparation or our ability.

He limits what a setback means

The calf injury presented a different challenge. Kerr’s immediate task was to recover sufficiently to train and race again.

With his mother’s help, he began rehabilitation in a pool the following day. When he discussed the experience months later, he considered whether it exposed a problem with his wider approach. Significant mistakes would have given him a reason to review his methods. His judgement was that this injury did not require such a change.

That is the distinction behind his comment about retaining who he is and his goals.

He accepted that his body was injured and that recovery would take work. He did not treat the injury as evidence that he was less capable, that his ambitions were mistaken or that his career would now go wrong.

The Elevate Formula helps us understand that response. Under pressure, we can make a difficulty Self, Broad and Lasting. An injury can become a belief that our body always lets us down, that everything we have worked for is threatened and that we will never get back to our best.

Kerr’s account keeps the meaning more specific. He has an injured calf to rehabilitate. It interrupts his preparation for a time. His abilities, ambitions and sense of who he is remain.

In his account of the recovery, Kerr distinguishes between what the injury requires him to change and what he still trusts about himself. That gives him a clear direction for the work ahead.

The Inner Compass behind the confidence

Kerr’s Internal reference helps him judge his preparation and performance for himself. His Towards motivation and Sense of Purpose keep him working towards Outcomes he has chosen. Together, they give his Attention Direction a consistent focus: what he wants to achieve and what he can do next.

That combination is consistent with a High IDQ. A disappointing result or an injury can require him to make changes without becoming a judgement about his worth or his future.

Kerr often speaks with great confidence before a race. We learn more about that confidence when he loses or gets injured. Across the situations examined here, he acknowledges what has happened, considers what it means and returns to the work that will help him progress.

For the rest of us, there are useful questions in that pattern:

What am I trying to achieve, and why does it matter to me?

What evidence am I using to judge my progress?

What does a setback actually require me to change?

Before your next difficult conversation or important decision, answer those three questions. Give yourself clear reasons to trust your preparation and decide what you will do next. That is something we can practise in our own lives.

Kerr’s confidence starts with trusting his own judgement. Want to build more of that trust in yourself? Subscribe to Pressure Reveals to explore the hidden habits that help you think clearly, back your decisions and act with confidence under pressure.

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