Body By D-Rock

Via Seth's Blog:

All the evidence I've seen shows that positive thinking and confidence improves performance. In anything.
Give someone an easy math problem, watch them get it right and then they'll do better on the ensuing standardized test than someone who just failed a difficult practice test.
No, positive thinking doesn't allow you to do anything, but it's been shown over and over again that it improves performance over negative thinking.
Key question then: why do smart people engage in negative thinking? Are they actually stupid?
The reason, I think, is that negative thinking feels good. In its own way, we believe that negative thinking works. Negative thinking feels realistic, or soothes our pain, or eases our embarrassment. Negative thinking protects us and lowers expectations.
In many ways, negative thinking is a lot more fun than positive thinking. So we do it.
If positive thinking was easy, we'd do it all the time. Compounding this difficulty is our belief that the easy thing (negative thinking) is actually appropriate, it actually works for us. The data is irrelevant. We're the exception, so we say.
Positive thinking is hard. Worth it, though.

Seth's right when he says positive thinking works. Seth is also right when he says positive thinking is hard.

You WILL succeed! You WILL reach your goals!

Even I fall into a spiral of negative thinking, so I'm taking Seth's words to heart: Thinking negative emotions is easy. Staying positive is more productive.

Update: A version of this two-part blog post can be seen on Google Knol at http://knol.google.com/k/derek-peruo/the-importance-of-failure/s6gewbr4tge8/3. I invite you to review the article and suggest revisions.

Failure is defined by Wikipedia as, "the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. It may be viewed as the opposite of success." By identifying why and how we fail, we can reduce the possibility of the same failure re-occurring in the future. In part 1 of this post, I look at the reasons behind failure and our initial response to it.

Why We Fail
I would like to talk about failure in the present-tense, in terms of a specific trial period. During the pre-trial period, we prepare for the attempt; during the post-trial period we look at the effect the pre-trial preparations had on our measured variables. The trial period itself is when we attempt to meet or exceed a pre-determined standard to test our theory. The trial might be as short as a single repetition or as long as a macrocycle or an over-all program.

In the gym we fail because, (1) Something—a value—in our control was not appropriate for the desired outcome, (2) a value outside our control entered or left the system before we could adapt accordingly, or (3) a combination of 1 and 2 happened during the same trial period.

Values outside our control are difficult to anticipate. Values inside our control are much easier to monitor and maintain. The more values in our control, the less opportunity there is for an unexpected outcome to our trial. We use the pre-trial period to modify, adjust and augment the values in our control to produce the best results we can when the trial begins. A solid training and nutrition program, for example, is designed to produce the best results it can before the deadline for the goal. For athletes, the goal is a winning season; for powerlifters, it's more weight on the bar at competition; for you, it might be a slim and sexy body by summer. It's what you do during the training sessions (the pre-trial) that influences how you look on your first day at the beach (the trial).

What Happens When We Fail
For some reason, you failed. You did not meet the objective and now you must deal with the consequences of your failure. Most likely, you will have an emotional response to the event. These emotions are normal and necessary. Anger, sadness, surprise, guilt, rage, relief, whatever—they are your feelings and you are allowed to feel them. You are also allowed to express them in an appropriate manner. Emotion is all part of the post-trial period, and we must allow our emotions to carry us into productive action.

Oftentimes, we replay the event in our head looking for an explanation of the failure. This is a wonderful process and can be of great value—but only if we stay objective during our review. Emotion, while necessary, can also cloud judgment and should not be carried into the subsequent stages of the post-trial period. Feel your feelings, then move on.

An objective after-action review can lead to great insights. Ask yourself, "What was out of my control?" Things outside our control must be recognized and accounted for. Write them down. After writing them down, ask yourself if there is any way to prepare for those things in the future. If there was bad weather, can you get a weather report before the next event? If you wore new shoes, will they be broken-in before next time? Once you've compiled a list of items outside your control that can be compensated for, discard whatever remains. There is nothing you can do about them and you should not waist time trying to fix them.

Next ask yourself, "What was in my control?" and write those items down as well. Which items were truly ineffective? Which items were ineffective because they were not taken seriously? Did you stick to your diet? Attend every training session? Use appropriate resistance? Separating the ineffective from the incomplete will help establish the over-all quality of the pre-trial period. Sometimes we're lazy and let a good program go bad. Other times, the program is bad to begin with and there is nothing we can do. It is important to understand which type of program we are dealing with before we can make improvements to its design.

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In part 2, I discuss methods to prevent and overcome failure. Stay tuned.

Original post published Jan 10, 2009