“If I could pass only one thing on to my kids it would be to be optimistic about everything in life” -- Michael Jordan
The power of optimism is becoming clear after several psychologists have done scientific studies of salesman, military recruits, athletes and people suffering from depression. Optimists tend to do better than pessimists in work, sports and life by often more than 2 to 1. The field of Positive Psychology, or the psychology of successful people, was founded largely on the work of Martin Seligman. In Learned Optimism he makes the argument that optimism may be more important than any other mental skill when it comes to achievement in life and in sports. Michael Jordan certainly thinks so.
Optimism tends to come naturally to some people, while for others pessimism seems ingrained in their nature. If you are curious on how you rank, you can take Seligman’s test online here: (http://web.stanford.edu/class/msande271/onlinetools/LearnedOpt.html).
But you can get a general sense of what side of the divide you are on by paying attention to what you say to yourself after something bad happens. Optimism is not about waking up smiling every day, or thinking everything will work out for the best. Optimism is about your internal reaction to disappointment and adversity.
Do you blame yourself every time something goes wrong in your life? Do you think bad things will always keep happening and good things never will? Do you believe you lack qualities other people have? If you tend to answer ‘yes’ you may be a pessimist. Or, when something goes wrong, do you point to specific things as the causes? Do you think bad events are temporary and bound to change? Do you believe you are good at many things? If you tend to answer ‘yes’ to those questions, then you may be an optimist.
So the first step is to pay attention to how you think and feel when you meet adversity on any level. It could be big adversity, or just the little problems you deal with all day long. Optimists and pessimists will both feel upset or disappointed immediately after a bad result, that’s natural, but the pessimists continue to beat themselves up about it, while the optimists determine specific, temporary causes for the problem, believe they can correct them next time, and then move on.
Whether it is a slow swim in practice, or in the final meet of the year, it’s how you react to that event which affects the outcome of your next challenge. Back to Jordan:
“Michael Jordan was not a very gifted basketball player. That may seem an outrageous (even stupid) thing to say, but it is true – at least by many objective measures. Grab your record book and follow along. Jordan ranked ninth in field goals made, eighteenth in total points, sixth in field goal attempts per forty-eight minutes. Jordan does not rank first in any major NBA statistic. Even in his prime, Jordan was not the fastest or most accurate shooter; he certainly was not a rebounder or brilliant at defense . . . Michael Jordan does hold one record: He has missed more shots than any other player in basketball history. And, as Jordan knows full well, it is because of that statistic that he is the greatest . . . Jordan never reacted to his mistakes as if they were a problem. He would make a foolish play, and as soon as it was over, there he was with the ball again, his tongue hanging out, winking at somebody, looking to make a move toward the basket.” Overachievement – The New Model of Exceptional Performance by John Eliot
Amazing isn’t it? Most missed shots, blows my mind. Imagine if after each time he missed a shot Jordan got upset, embarrassed, mad at himself, thought he was a bad player, and felt like sitting down on the bench. Next time a set doesn’t go well, or you swim a slow time, or lose a close race, remember how Jordan reacted to a missed shot (which he did more than anybody). He wanted the ball and he wanted to shoot again. Jordan did work very hard, and he did review his mistakes, but the time to do that was in practice the next day with his coach, not during the game. Another example is Brett Favre who has the record for most interceptions, yet he is one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play football.
Here are three keys to the optimism/pessimism divide as laid out by Seligman. Let’s look at pessimists first to contrast them with optimists. Pessimists explain bad events to themselves as being permanent (“I always swim slowly at big meets”), pervasive or general (“Nothing ever works out for me”), and personal (“I’m just not any good”). So the first key is permanence, the idea that the problem can’t be fixed and isn’t going away, unlike a temporary cause such as “I had a bad turn” etc. The second key is that the problem is pervasive or general i.e. the cause of my slow race was that everything goes badly for me, versus some specific issue like not enough sleep last night, hard workouts all week, stress at school, a technique flaw, etc. And the final key is personal i.e. my slow race shows a problem with me as a person, rather than a particular problem with my swimming. You see, the pessimist feels helpless to change the problem.
The optimist does exactly the opposite in all three ways. The bad event of swimming a slow time is temporary (“I’ll be fast in my next event”), specific (“I had a bad turn”) and not personal (“I was slow in practice today because I worked hard all week and I’m tired”). Can you see how dramatically different these two views are? Unlike the pessimist, the optimist feels the power, or agency, to fix the problem.
And when it comes to good outcomes, everything is reversed. The optimists see them as permanent, pervasive and personal, while pessimists see good outcomes as temporary, specific and not personal. The optimists see their achievements as justification, or evidence, for their optimism. It’s a virtuous cycle, the optimistic outlook makes it more likely they will succeed, and the successes feed the optimism. Pessimists can’t fit good outcomes into their views, so they dismiss them as lucky or not a big deal.
Learning to be optimistic may be hard for some of you, but I can’t think of another skill that will help athletes (and us coaches) find success more than optimism.
Charlie Dragon
Head Age Group Swimming Coach, Peddie Aquatics Association
@SpeakDragon