Presupposing failure: your wish is my command
Last week England limped out of the Euro 2016 with an abysmal performance, prompting Roy Hodgson to deliver his resignation speech to the waiting press conference. Not a surprise. But what did surprise many commentators was the speed at which his resignation speech was put together. His well crafted, considered speech was written down and well rehearsed despite having hardly any time between leaving the pitch and speaking to the media. Did he have his resignation in mind before the match even kicked off? What difference would it make if he did?
We are told that Roy's speech was written in the dressing room immediately after the match. However, it seems unlikely that he would have had time after the game to debrief his players and write and rehearse such a speech before going to the near immediate press conference. It is widely believed that he had the speech pre-prepared.
Doesn't preparing for failure make sense?
Now you be might thinking "what difference does that make?". After all, it was well known that failure to win this match would mean he had to either resign or be sacked. Isn't better to be prepared?
While it can be wise to preparing for all eventualities let's explore what happens when you prepare for, or presuppose, failure.
Your unconscious mind is like a genie-your wish is my command!!!!!
Your brain focuses on whatever you give your attention to. It's helpful like that.
It loves straight forward instructions and filters out the negatives (see my previous blog). This means that when you think "What if it goes wrong?" You have to conceive what everything going wrong will look and feel like.
Let's take the example of playing golf.
-Imagine you are preparing to take a shot and you spot a bunker
You think to yourself "I mustn't hit the bunker"
Your unconscious mind deletes the negative, 'mustn't'
You are then left with: "I" "hit" and "bunker". So your mind focuses on these.
In order to think about not hitting the bunker your mind has to construct an idea of what that might look like. You start to visualise your ball hitting the bunker.
Not only that, you start to explore what that would sound like. What would people say? What would you say? How would it feel?
You are now, without realising it, mentally rehearsing a bad shot while you do your practice swings which effects the movement of your arms
Your muscles are starting to tense up at the thought and feeling of hitting the bunker.
You take your swing and where do you think the ball ends up?
Yes that's right-in the bunker. You've been focusing intently on the bunker so where else would it go? You haven't given any thought to where the ball should go so it ends up in the place you've been focusing on.
The worst part is that many people then follow up this self-fulfilling expectation by congratulating themselves saying, "see, I told you I'd end up in the bunker" whilst displaying their best smug-face.
What difference does it make?
So let's think about Roy Hodgson's resignation again. If his resignation was going through his mind before the match:
What mental rehearsal was going through his mind?
How would that have affected his body language and facial expressions?
How would that have changed the language he used?
Therefore what atmosphere or impression would that have created among the players?
What impact does that have on motivation and motivation and performance?
Now consider these questions again but with a manager mentally rehearsing success. Answer them for a manager presupposing a victory speech. How would the answers differ?
Watching England play last week it seems that they as soon as the team went behind, failure loomed heavy on the minds of the players. The mindset appeared to be one of "we can't screw this up" and as we know the unconscious mind is a like a magic genie "your wish is my command!".
The game seemed to be more about a fear of losing rather than excitement about the possibility of winning. Had the team focused on winning they would have focused on successes rather than shortcomings and they would have tuned into opportunities rather than what felt hard of frustrating. Furthermore, focusing on the possibilities feels much nicer than focusing on disaster, giving you more enthusiasm and energy-all of which seemed to be lacking as the final whistle blew.
Don't get me wrong, there was more to England's failure than a pre-rehearsed speech but that kind of thinking must have created an atmosphere that contributed to underperformance. I also agree that there are many areas in life where it's good to prepare for all eventualities but the bottom line is you get what you focus on.
You get what you focus on
What do you focus on?
You can't be aware of everything all the time. Your reticular activator is the part of the brain that helps prevent against the overwhelm of stimuli. The reticular activator decides what will get into your awareness (what you will become conscious of), and its decisions are based on survival instincts plus anything else you deem as really important.
Ever noticed that when you are thinking of buying a particular car you see loads of them on the road all of a sudden?
You know when you have days where you think the world is a lovely place you notice all the kind things people say and do? You know how the opposite happens when you think the world is a bad place?
All these things are happening because you have directed your attention to something. So the question is what do you want to focus on?
Opportunities or barriers?
Successes or failures?
Excitement or fear?
Consider the likely outcome for someone who:
Wants to ask someone on a date but is convinced they'll get rejected vs someone who feels confident ?
The person who is going for a job promotion who believes they wont get it vs someone who feels they have as much chance as anyone?
Stands on the start line of a race thinking "I've never gone under 60 mins" vs someone who thinks "I'm going for 55 minutes".
Want's to lose weight but fears crashing off their plan vs someone focused on how to get the body they want?
You can't always control the results but you can seriously influence your chances.
Whichever you choose your wish is your unconscious mind's command.
Over to you?
What are you thoughts? Leave your comments in the comments section below.
If you liked this blog please like and share it using the buttons below. Don't forget that if you want to be notified about more blogs like this, sign-up for the mailing list.
