The Peak Performance Expert

(St. Petersburg Times article.)

Coach Jon Gruden of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers explained his philosophy on losing 38-23 at Carolina on Wednesday by saying his team should essentially forget and move on. 

He said, “And I just think you’ve got to have a short-term memory. You’ve got to really live in the future. You’re never as good as you think you are, and you’re never as bad as you think you are, no matter what anybody thinks.”

Gruden further said, “This is about mental toughness, I think, too. You’ve got to continue doing what you’re doing and believe in yourselves. I think we have the character in our locker room that will allow us to do that.”

Well, I’m surely not a football coach but I still say Gruden has it half right.  A mentally tough performer doesn’t simply forget about a failure or a mistake and he or she doesn’t simply “continue doing what you’re doing” but rather, a mentally tough performer will step back and assess what went right and what went wrong and use the mistake or loss as an opportunity to learn and to improve.

So in my work with my clients (who aren’t football players but are business people), I suggest they adopt this useful phrase: “Isn’t it interesting that…”  The phrase helps in creating an attitude of healthy curiosity and also establishes a bit of distance from the negative emotional punch of the loss or mistake.

So, for example, when a client tells me she had a terrible meeting where she fumbled words,  couldn’t answer questions clearly, and seemed to lose the confidence of her team, I would encourage her to do the following:  First, take a moment to acknowledge the pain or embarrassment of the situation (you need to honor that reality).  Second, say, “Isn’t it interesting that the meeting went so terribly; I wonder what contributed to that outcome?”

This leads to a problem solving mode where we can pick apart what, if anything, went well, what went poorly and why, and what she needs to do differently in the future.  This approach builds mental toughness.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Championship Mindset, Mental Toughness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.