The statement really relates to confidence and fear. Have you ever seen a squirrel leap between tree tops or run along telephone wires? The squirrel has total confidence and no fear.
The difference between the squirrel and us is when the squirrel decides to leap from the telephone wire to the tree, the squirrel will look and run, where as we would look, think and then run. It’s the difference between the training mindset and the trusting mindset. With sports and in business, there is a lot of training and preparation but the key is to perform at a high level on game day or in the sales presentation. If you think back to when Michael Jordan was dominating the NBA and making the craziest shots, he didn’t do a lot of thinking on the court about what he was going to do, he Just Did It.
As people think more about performing and create pressure on themselves, fear creeps in with the possible risk of failure looming. It is exactly this that holds people back from being the best they can be.
Dr John Elliot told a story of the 2x4 board test to his class in sports psychology, he asked the class, “with the 2x4 on the ground, could they walk across it without falling off?” Of course they all answered “yes, no problem”. He then said, “now if we raise the same board up in the air 50’ feet, could you make it across without falling?” Now, the number of people that felt they could do it dramatically decreased. The same task in a different situation had totally different results.
So when you have done the training and preparation, work to develop the trusting mindset, don’t let fear or other influences creep in and affect your performance. By applying the trusting mindset, you will become a clutch performer and the person everyone goes to for the win.
RC
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