Don’t be perfect: just be great.

"The mistake is to imagine that perfection is possible when the very idea is unthinkable." Luis Figo

On a regular basis I am confronted by clients who refer to themselves as being perfectionists. Very often this is stated with a certain pride and belief that this is the only way to be if you want to become a great performer. Unfortunately, the quest for perfection tends to provide far more negatives than it does positives.

The problem is that ‘perfectionists’ are pursuing something that is completely unattainable so rather than focus on what they achieve they tend to focus on the bits that are preventing them from being perfect. So when they make a mistake they will tend to ruminate on the mistake, often beating themselves up in the process. This causes people to mentally rehearse the mistake rather than desired performance thus programming the mind so that it is more likely to repeat the mistake when a similar situation comes about. The pursuit of perfectionism can also lead to anxiety, fear and, ultimately, a loss of motivation, all of which can further hinder performance.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have big goals. In fact, we are all capable of achieving extraordinary things.  We just need to aim for something that we can define. The greatest performers have never been perfect. Even when Nadia Comaneci scored a ‘perfect’ 10 for gymnastics in the Montreal Olympics, there was still room for improvement.

So don’t aim for perfect. Brilliant will do!

Andy Barton
Wider Vision Ltd

Motivation: When a question is the answer

It’s that cliché you will see often in films and books when the hero stands in front of the mirror riddled with self doubt and procrastination. He takes a long considered look at himself, takes a deep breath and, in a calm, clear and unwavering voice, says to himself something like “I will do it!”. This statement is enough to make the difference. The hero now finds he is motivated and determined to go out and succeed (which he invariably does).

The things we say to ourselves have a profound effect on our motivation and our ability to achieve goals and succeed in tasks. However, a paper by Ibrahim Senay, Dolores Albarracin, and Kenji Noguchi which was published in ‘Psychological Science’ suggests that declarative statements such as “I will do it!” (as made by our hero) actually can have a detrimental effect on our performance whereas interrogative statements which involve asking yourself a question (“Will I?) will actually have a far more effective impact on motivation and performance.

In one of their studies, they told their subjects that they were testing individuals’ handwriting ability and asked one group to write “I will” 20 times on a piece of paper and a second group to write “Will I?” 20 times. They were all then asked to attempt a series of challenging anagrams. Interestingly, the people in the group that had written “Will I?” actually solved nearly twice as many anagrams than the group that said “I will”.

The same handwriting exercise was then used for a second study. This time after completing the assignment they were asked how likely they were to start exercising (or continue if they already were). They were also asked questions around whether they felt that they would exercise because it was something they considered to be important or whether it was something they would do so they didn’t feel guilty or ashamed. The people who wrote “Will I?” were far more likely to exercise. They also considered doing exercise because it was important whereas the “I will” group were more likely to do it to avoid guilt.

It seems that the “I will” group would lost motivation for exercise because once they made the statement it became an obligation. When we are obliged to do something we actually tend to be less motivated than when we feel we have a choice. The “Will I?” group actually do feel that they have a choice and so embrace their decision to exercise in a far more positive way. It is the same effect when you ask someone to close a door. If you just say “Close the door” to someone they are far less likely to want to do it than if you say “Can you close the door?”

So next time you want to get motivated don’t tell yourself – ask yourself instead!

Andy Barton
Wider Vision Ltd

The Power of Posing

I can remember at the age of around thirteen, my mother gently encouraging me not to slouch, to take my hands out of my pockets, to stop dragging my feet on the pavement and to stop frowning.  I’m sure her motivation was to stop me looking like a grumpy teenager as I stumbled alongside her down the street. Grudgingly, I would give in to her wishes and adjust my posture accordingly only to find that after a few minutes a profound change would take place in me. I would find that I steadily became more energetic, then, weirdly, I would develop an urge to chat to my mother about my day. I also felt more confident and - even more surprising - I felt happier. It was from such incidents at this point in my life that I learned to appreciate how our body language affects our mood, our behaviour and our sense of self-belief.

People tend to think of body language being a one way street in that it is a reflection of how we are feeling at any moment in time. For instance, when we are feeling depressed our body language reflects that feeling; we look down at the ground, we hunch our shoulders, we grimace and shuffle along unsteadily. Conversely, when we feel confident, we stand tall, we hold our heads up high, we push our shoulders back, we smile and bounce along with a spring in our step. What I came to realise, as a teenager, is that it also works the other way round. If you adopt a particularly body language for a few minutes, you start to feel the way you look. It is as if the body stores particular algorithms and you put the right algorithms together and you get a positive emotion as a result and if you put the wrong algorithms together you end up with a negative emotion.

Psychologist Amy Cuddy, and her team at Harvard Business School have done studies into this area and have come up with some very interesting results that support my early casual observations. They found that by carrying out a series of what they refer to as ‘power poses’ – essentially these involve making the body bigger such as when athletes raise their arms when they win a race – it actually impacts on the hormones released in the body. By adopting a power pose for as little as two minutes they found a significant increase in testosterone and a decrease in cortisol (the stress hormone). As a result it brings about an increase in energy, confidence, assertiveness, calmness and the ability to think clearly.

This has significant implications for sports performance. When a sports performer’s head drops it has the opposite effect of the power pose as it feeds a person’s negative emotions leading to doubt, fear, lethargy, tunnel vision and a tendency to self criticism. As the saying goes, “fake it ‘til you make it”. If you want to be confident, clear thinking, calm and determined, just act as if you are and very soon you will be.

Andy Barton
Wider Vision Ltd

Mind Your Language (Article for Fighting Fit Magazine)

It is said that “sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you”. Unfortunately, this is far from being the case. The words we use can cause all sorts of problems which can hurt your personal life, your working life and also your ability to train and fight effectively. There is a great power in the words we use to ourselves. The writer Rudyard Kipling once said “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used my mankind.” Kipling’s theory is supported by scientific research which has found that we respond emotionally to the words we hear or say to ourselves even though we are usually unaware of it. If you want to improve your performance in the ring, it may just be time to take out the dictionary and start improving your language skills.

Choose your words carefully

It has been found that we respond literally to the words that we hear. If we hear the word ‘bad’, we tend to feel worse than we did before we heard it. If we hear the word ‘good’ we tend to feel better.

An interesting study was carried out at an American university where one group was given a test to do which involved putting together a puzzle containing a lot of random words on it. Afterwards they recorded how long it took each member of the group to leave the building. They then took a second group and asked them to repeat the exercise; this time using a puzzle that contained a lot of words relating to being old such as ‘ancient’, ‘Florida’ and ‘bingo’. Significantly, it was found that those in the second group took considerably longer to leave the building because of the aging effect the words had on them.

It is therefore important to consider the kind of language you tend to use when you are training or fighting. I have demonstrated this to my clients by getting them to repeat the word ‘weak’ to themselves while they are trying to bench press a weight that they would normally be able to lift comfortably. In every case the client has struggled to lift the weight and in most cases has failed completely. I then ask them to repeat the exercise whilst repeating the word ‘power’ in their heads. In this case, each one of them has lifted the weight easily. So, if you want to feel strong, just say the word.

Say what you want (not what you don’t want)

One of the biggest problems I have found when working with fighters over the years is the language they use when they talk to themselves. This inner chat, otherwise known as self-talk or internal dialogue, is that voice we hear in our heads when we are thinking to ourselves. When we are stressed, angry, anxious or generally in a negative mindset, we tend to speak far more using negative statements. The anxious fighter, for instance, would say things such as “don’t mess up”, “don’t miss your punches”, “don’t make yourself look stupid” or “don’t drop your guard”. This becomes a problem because our brains cannot process negatives. If I was to say to you “whatever you do, do not think about a purple rhinoceros with pink spots” what do you think about? Exactly, you think about the purple rhinoceros with pink spots. When you make a negative statement to yourself you actually end up playing an internal movie of doing the thing you do not want to do. If you are a coach you can be sure that if you want your fighter to be scared the best way to go about it is to say “don’t be scared”.

Unfortunately, we do seem to spend a lot of our time using negative language. How often, when you ask a person how they are feeling do you hear them say “not bad”? “Not bad” certainly doesn’t mean “good” – it actually means “bad”.

Accentuate the positive

A fighter’s ability to perform to his best is largely dictated by the emotions he is feeling. Our emotions are the by-product of the way we think and our language can play a massive role in deciding how we feel at any given moment. A fighter will tend to perform well when he feels positive emotions and will tend to perform poorly when he feels negative emotions. However, very often there is a tendency for people to use words or phrases that make the negative emotions even worse and at best will neutralise the impact of the positive emotions.

I once worked with a boxer who was so good at using words that reinforced his negative emotions that by the time he got into the ring he always thought he was going to have a panic attack. The way he would achieve this state of near collapse before the fight had even begun was by putting great emphasis on his fears by using highly emotive negative words. When I asked him how his previous fight had gone he used phrases such as “my performance was dreadful”, “I was shocking”, “I was shitting myself” and “the result was sickening”. As he talked, I could see the emotion building up in him to a point that he was almost in tears. However, when I asked him to describe a fight that went really well for him the best he could summon up were phrases like “it was okay”, “my jab was alright”, “my movement was acceptable” and “my counter-punching was fine”. Here, the positive emotion was completely lacking.

An important thing to know about emotion is that it plays a big role in allowing us to recall memories; the stronger the emotion the easier the recall. Because my client was putting so much emotion into his bad performances, he found it far easier to remember them than his good performances. This meant he had a distorted view of himself and considered himself to be far worse than he actually was.

Interestingly, I had a client who was constantly using words like “fantastic”, “brilliant”, “excellent” and “superb”. His words were reflected by his body language, his energy, his tone of voice, his self-belief and his ability to draw on past successes. However, when I asked him to tell me about a poor performance, he struggled to find one, because he put so little emotion into them.

If in doubt change the label

I am very often working with fighters to overcome what they refer to as “nerves”. They tell me that they experience dreadful feelings which make it impossible to perform well. The problem, however, isn’t usually the feelings themselves but how they are labelled. The singer Carly Simon had to give up touring because of the immense stage fright she suffered from. She described how her heart would beat really fast, she would feel butterflies in her stomach and a buzzing in her head. She said she was terrified. Bruce Springsteen heard this description and stated that he couldn’t perform without these feelings. They had exactly the same feelings but one of them labelled them as “terror”, the other labelled them as “excitement”.

The words you use to describe how you feel about a fight will have a massive impact on you, so remember - always choose your words wisely.

Andy Barton

Fair weather sports performers

How many of you are fair weather sports performers who believe they can only perform well if the sun is shining, there is no wind and the temperature is just right? If you are one of these people ask yourself how often such conditions exist. The fair weather sports performer is almost always at a disadvantage as they see rain and wind and cold as being bad. I think it was Billy Connolly who said 'There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing'. If you want to be successful in all weathers, it is important that you learn to see the good in all weathers.

When I was a young rugby player, I used to love playing in the snow. There was something about it that brought out the kid in me and I used to especially love sliding along the ground for several metres to steal a ball that was lying out in the loose. Padraig Harrington thrives on playing in wet, windy conditions. Give him a choice between wet or dry conditions for a tournament and he would pick the former every time, because he feels this gives him a head start on the majority of his competitors.

Instead of getting down about the weather, learn to embrace it (or don't play!)

Andy Barton

Black and White Thinking

One reason that people get stuck with problems can be because they don't give themselves enough options. We have a tendency to see problems as a choice between two options, neither of which give us what we truly want. I call this "Black and White thinking". An example of this would be where people feel they should be modest, self-deprecating, reluctant to take compliments and feel they should beat themselves up when they make a mistake. The only alternative they will see to this would be to be arrogant, brash, full of themselves and egotistical. All the other options just seem to get deleted so people then think "well at least if I am modest people might like me" and they stick with the problem state that they already had.

If you have a problem, find some new options. For instance, you can be confident without being arrogant. You can learn from mistakes without beating yourself up. You can feel good about a compliment without being egotistical.

The more options you have, the more flexibility you have to deal with problems. So move away from "Black and White thinking" and look for all the other colours and shades. You'll be surprised how many choices there really are.

Andy Barton

How to win The Open

Louis Oosthuizen won the Open Golf Championship last week and also gave a fantastic demonstration of how to win a major championship. Although he had never been close to winning such a big event before, Oosterhuizen's victory was one of the most comprehensive in recent years. So what was the key to such a great performance? One word "consistency".

Throughout the whole tournament Oosterhuizen remained totally consistent. He was consistent in his approach; he was consistent with his routine; he was consistent with his play making and he was consistent with his body language. Most importantly, he was consistent with his emotional state. He stayed in the moment, took one shot at a time and remembered to enjoy himself. In fact he had a constant smile on his face throughout each of the rounds, even when he hit a poor shot (This is very reminiscent of Tom Watson, one of the greatest players of the game who always has a benign smile on his face every time he plays). Smiling plays an important role in maintaining a positive attitude as it releases the neurotransmitter serotonin into the body. This neurotransmitter is very important for regulating our emotions and has the effect of reducing anxiety and making us happy. Exactly how you want to be going down the back nine on the last day of a major.

So, if you want to win a major, remember to smile, stay in the moment and be consistent.

Andy Barton
Wider Vision Ltd - Specialists in Mental Performance Training for Sport