#46 : #When it Matters Most

 

When it matters most

I distinctly remember that beautiful, sunny Sunday morning; the cool breeze was blowing across the lush green ground of Wiltshire county cricket club in the UK when I was in  UK Swindon and was participating in corporate cricket league   Finals. 

 Although I may not look like one, I was a decent medium-paced bowler when I was there. I had a pretty good season and was the highest wicket-taker. Captain trusted me and handed over the ball to me to start the innings.  Excited and confidently, I took the usual run up and came down the pitch, bowled the batsman, and immediately looked curiously towards the Umpire. He expectedly brought his finger UP, and slowly unexpectedly, he brought another one; the ball went out of the boundary for a six. And the same treatment was given to my 2^nd ball as well. I failed to deliver when it mattered most.

  It may sound familiar, as we had seen with teams like South Africa / England, who had reached finals several times in tournaments but failed to perform when it mattered.  And if this is repeated, they are termed as Chokers.

We choke when we need our best foot forward, Like, an interview where you could have performed your best, we mess up, or when we meet with our Senior leaders, and we want to give an elevator pitch, we faux pas, we perform worst. BUT we know we could have done better as we have prepared so much for that event.

So why does this happen?? Why do we sometimes fail to perform up to potential under pressure which we are capable of  ??  What is that, with which we can achieve our limitless potential?

It can be broadly attributed to two things :

1.     our own self

2.     Conditions & environment around us.

It's not surprising that in a stressful situation, we worry a lot, and become inward-focused, and try to concentrate too much on ourselves. We try to control everything, even those that should have been taken care of unconsciously in an autopilot mode,  in normal circumstances.

Think of the situation where you are dribbling on the stairs, and if I tell you to watch your knees, there is a good chance you will fall on your face. We as humans can only focus on a few things and pay attention.

Researches have concluded that this is called a phenomenon of “over attention, “ and we call it paralysis by analysis. When the pressure is on, we are often concerned with performing our best, and as a result, we try to control what we are doing to force the best performance. The result is we screw it up.

To improve the situation, what we need to do

1.     For things like dancing, speeches, etc., We need to follow 3Ps, What is that?? Practice, Practice and Practice, after a good practice, we should just go for it, just do it. Don’t try to control things, as I should stand like this; I should make this move and speak like this when performing, etc; this you can cover this in practice.

2.     We should be practicing under the same conditions, which will help to perform better when the time comes, that’s why nowadays, we see 2-3 pre-board exams for class X and XII  Students, to get students accustoms to pressure and environment. We have warm-up matches, Mock interviews, all this to get accustomed to the environment.

Our environment also matters because of which we thrive or Choke. Our parents, teachers, coaches, and bosses all influence whether we can put our best foot forward when it matters most. For example, our parents / Bosses doubt our capability; they compare, they nag. If we get a positive environment around us, this will help us thrive instead of choking.

What happens in our heads really matters, and knowing this, we can learn how to prepare ourselves, not just by getting training for that skill but need to train our brains for coping up under pressure. If we achieve that, We will thrive instead of Choking