Thought precedes actions

"All that a person achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his/her own thoughts."

Story Line (from "The Psychology of Winning" by Denis Waitley):

It's the baseball world series: the New York Yankees versus the Milwaukee Braves.  The game has gone down to the wire.  It's the ninth inning, and the score is tied.  There are 2 men on base and 2 men out. The pitch count is 3-2. On the mound is one of the greatest left handed pitchers of the time, Warren Spahn.  At bat is the great Yankee catcher Elson Howard.

The Braves manager decides to come out of the dugout to give some encouraging, motivational advice to Warren. "Don't give him a high outside pitch" said the manager, and walked back to the dug out. Warren wondered "Don't give him a high fast ball?  Why did he have to tell me in that way, why is he telling me what not to do?"

Too late ... as obvious as a neon sign, Warren throws that high fast ball his mind was obsessing over. The Yankee player smashes the ball out of the park and the game is over.  The Yankees win and Braves loose.

Warren wondered for the rest of his life "Why would anyone motivate someone with the reverse of an idea?" Winners know that all of their actions are controlled by their currently dominant thoughts.  Winners focus on the rewards of success, not the penalty of failure.

Reflection:

A few points to ponder from an article "Positive Talk" sent by Anil Deora, Selina Saw and Thad Gardner:

Specific words affect our mental pictures, the words are a powerful programming factor in lifelong success. The mind has a very difficult time processing a negative image. In fact, people who rely on internal pictures cannot see a negative at all.

You can't visualize not doing something. The only way to properly visualize not doing something is to actually find a word for what you want to do and visualize that.  Psychologists claim it takes seventeen positive statements to offset one negative statement. I have no idea if it is true, but the logic holds true. It might take up to seventeen compliments to offset the emotional damage of one harsh criticism.

Comments

[Zhou]

I don't know baseball but I understand the message of the story. Very good. Thanks

[Rajen]

You are what you eat and you become what you think.

[micro CEO]

I have mixed feelings about this story and its reflection.

First off, the story details how a negative (don't do this) advice actually results in the opposite, undesired result. This is certainly a well known quirk of the human brain. We are psychologically compelled to think about doing something when an authority figure tells us not to do so... There is an oft quoted example in my culture on how to use this quirk to your advantage, in other words to apply reverse psychology.

The example is as follows: Let us say that you, as a parent, want your child to read a classic book such as Moby Dick (H. Melville). Of course if you say, "Here is a great book. I know you will like it. Why don't you read it through?", the result will be an absolute failure. Instead, hold the book in the child's presence and say, "Someday you will enjoy this book, but unfortunately it's a bit too mature for you just now. I'll put it up here on top of this book shelf, and maybe when you are in college I will give it to you." Now you will have a pretty good chance that the book will be read and enjoyed (to spite you, of course!).

Now the reflection comments lead us to the concept of positive reinforcement and its relative power vs. negative criticism, etc. No issue here. I can certainly vouch for the amount of time and effort I have spent apologizing and making up for a careless comment toward my wife, as well as the amazing effects of a well timed comment about dinner tasting good or her pretty appearance with the new haircut.

But the point where I may take issue is this: There is tremendous power in observing and learning from bad examples and the actual effects of not doing something right. I could watch Pete Sampras all day long and my tennis game would not get much better. I might not appreciate the finer points of Sampras' stroke until I am able to observe (and yes visualize) what a bad backstroke looks like in comparison. For one in the learning stage, a peek at an ungraceful player, or a comment like "Don't swing this way or you'll slice the ball" can be very instructive. We do sometimes need the negative to appreciate the positive.