Rewiring Our Wiring

Dec. 11, 2020

Getting a big win isn’t easy

Even if things are going well.

Especially if things are going well.

Why? Because we’re wired exactly the wrong way.

We’re programmed to worry about tigers in the bushes or panthers in the high grass.

Our instincts are constantly looking for everything that can go wrong.

On top of that, we’re also deathly afraid of pain. We want to avoid that at all costs.

And on top of that, we’re twice as sad about losing as we feel great about winning.

Most coaches can’t really remember their big wins.

But they can tell you in detail about their worst losses.

So, if we happen to find ourselves doing well, we have an avalanche of psychological forces conspiring to screw us up.

Is my luck going to reverse?

I’ll go crazy if I lose a 5-2 lead on the #1 seed.

See, I knew it couldn’t last.

How do we stop this cycle?

We can recognize all the obstacles working against us and fight like crazy anyway. That’s hard work. And brute force may never solve the problem.

Or we can choose not to play that game.

We could expect that it’s possible to do well. No need for “luck” to reverse on something that obviously can happen. Tomorrow, we’ll still be able to successfully brush our teeth. We expect it. Luck won’t turn against us, and we won’t start missing our mouths.

We could ignore the implications of our lead and just keep doing our most favorite things. If we spend the next fifteen minutes hitting our favorite shots, the odds are on our side. No need to consider anything else.

We could stop worrying the bad things that might happen. Looking for the tiger that may or may not be there prevents us from walking on safely to our destination.

With this rewiring, the old rules don’t apply.

We don’t care what might happen. We’re not afraid.

And as soon as we don’t care what happens, we’ll perform exactly up to our potential.

We’ll leave our brains alone.

There are a lot of ways to sabotage a big win.

But none of those will affect us if we stay out of the bushes.

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My book is called The Inevitability of Becoming Rich, and you can find that here.