Think of the last time you had an important performance event coming up. What were your expectations leading up to this?
That things would go well? – Or, things would go badly?
What scientific research shows is when two possible outcomes are possible, your expectations influence the most likely outcome. That’s very powerful for performance.
If you have a mindset that is repeatedly playing out mental stories of success – you are more likely to succeed.
If you have a mindset that is constantly giving you expectations of failure – you are more likely to fail.
Why does this happen?
The brain is incredibly complex in some ways and rather straightforward in others. What you repeatedly give the brain in terms of input, is given greater level of significance over other things. With a mindset playing out mental stories and narratives of expected failure, your brain perceives this as important. Your perception is now tuned into signs and evidence of upcoming failure, and your attention gets diverting to picking these up.
There is a lovely parable that sums this effect up: The Story of the Two Wolves.
A grandfather sits with his grandson and says he has something important to share. “I have a fight going on in me,” the grandfather says. “A fight between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, anxiety and ego.”
The grandson listens on wide-eyed. “The other is good. He is joy, peace, love, hope, confidence, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. Both wolves are fighting to the death. The same fight is going on inside you and every other person, too.”
The grandson takes a moment to think. Finally, he looks up at his grandfather and asks, “Which wolf will win?”
The grandfather gives a simple reply. “The one you feed.”
Of course, with mental stories and narratives serving you expectations of failure, you get the associated dysfunctional emotional and physiological reactions that come with it. Even if it is made up in your head. And then your performance suffers.
How do I change?
The process of change begins with AWARENESS and turning towards the mental stories and narratives you are feeding yourself. What are you feeding your mindset?
Now, this takes effort, and the reason for this is that when you notice negative metal stories and narratives you will want to turn away from them, to ignore them, or distract yourself from them. But by doing that these mental stories and narratives keep their power and will influence your mental, emotional and physical reactions and behaviours.
You can use your skill of ATTENTION to acknowledge the triggers to your negative mindset and when you begin feeding the negative wolf. Repeatedly noticing these triggers and having awareness to them serves to prime you to when they may arise.
Consider a helpful ATTITUDE response when you have awareness to your negative mindset and to expectations of failure. Offer yourself kind words as you would a friend. Offer yourself a supporting narrative.
Then, offer yourself a REFLECTIVE REAPPRAISAL, where you consider the reality of your performance experience and bring some critical thinking to the situation.
- What personal resources do you have that will help you perform well?
- What evidence from past performances shows that you can succeed and achieve?
- How have you overcome obstacles and challenges in the past?
- How have you learned from past performances that maybe didn’t go well and can apply now?
- How can I, and where can I skilfully direct my effort so that I can perform well?
If you want change, practice playing out mental stories and repeatedly saying narratives that support performing well. What you are doing now is feeding a performance mindset for success.
These notes are intended to inspire further thought and offer some insight. All of these processes of change I have described above are best done with the guidance of a professionally trained psychologist. If performing well is important to you, whether you are an elite sportsperson or corporate executive, then looking to professional mental performance coaching may be a wise investment.
Stuart is a trained psychologist, registered with the British Psychological Society, and offers mental performance coaching to athletes and corporate executives. He is a leading researcher and expert in integrating performance psychology with mindfulness psychology. He has developed an 8-session program called Munro Performance Empowerment Program™ which develops self-awareness, psychological empowerment and resilience has a solid evidence-based from research at Loughborough University and Staffordshire University. Contact Stuart now for more details.