Dump the Slump

You must accept your disappointments and triumphs equally.
—Harvey Penick, Golf Coach

The first thing I do after losing is forget it.
—Nancy Lopez, Golf Hall of Famer

Confidence is an interesting concept. No one would argue this point: the athlete's belief that she is about to perform well actually causes her to do well more often. There are other factors in performance, of course, but a well-qualified athlete without confidence is unlikely to perform very well. At best, she will be inconsistent. It is tough to find a poorly qualified athlete with confidence because no one can lie to themselves, but those athletes whose confidence is a bit higher than their skill level are often rewarded for this belief.

The foundations for confidence are preparation and positive experiences. However, a well-prepared athlete with a history of success still may not be confident today. This is because ultimately, it is how the performer thinks about her preparation and experiences that determines her specific level of confidence right now. Emphasizing a recent mistake makes confidence plummet. Re-experiencing a Personal Past Peak Performance in her mind makes it skyrocket. Learning to consciously build confidence by emphasizing positives and de-emphasizing negatives is an important step in consistently becoming the best version of yourself. This thinking pattern of exceptional athletes is called an Optimistic Explanatory Style.

Neither behavior nor outcomes are constants. Therefore, trends of successful outcomes and trends of “failures” are inevitable. Quote marks for “failure” and “slump” de-emphasize the negative by reminding athletes that these words, as they are typically used, are not correct.

When times are tough, a leader’s thinking pattern expects improvement. If an athlete does not believe in a “slump,” it does not exist. She may be struggling, scuffling, unlucky, and even frustrated, but she is not slumping. Slumps are real. “Slumps” are not. Outcomes will go up, down, and stay about the same. When they go down for a while, other people will label that trend a slump. A smart athlete, however, does not fall into that trap because she understands that by believing in a slump, she makes it real. The last thing she wants is a self-fulfilling prophecy that saps her confidence, magnifies problems, and anticipates rocky roads ahead. (Another sneaky version of a lousy self-fulfilling prophecy: “today is not my day.”) A “slump” is simply a recent decline in performance. It happens. Recently poor outcomes are simply an inevitable part of the process of approaching her potential. Instead of validating her “slump,” she believes that she is overdue. Overdue and slumping report the same past. The difference is the athlete’s expectations for what is ahead.

If the equation of an Optimistic Explanatory Style was balanced, quote marks would be used for successes, too. This would indicate that trends are just things of the past; they do not predict the future. But a self-fulfilling prophecy that says “I am doing my job well and expect that to continue” is useful. This is the unbalanced rationality of athletes who build their confidence through their self-talk.

Slumps (sans quotes) can debilitate a well-meaning, hard-working athlete. When deep in a slump, an athlete “knows” that something significant must be wrong, so she looks for and tries almost any adjustment she can find. Major changes are an option and perhaps a necessity. On the other hand, if others say she is “slumping” and she disagrees, she is demonstrating an understanding of the normalcy of this tough period. She knows that while things have not gone her way lately, she is still doing many things right. Therefore, she will look for subtle adjustments that might help her get back to her normal level of performance, or higher. Sometimes no adjustment at all is needed, or perhaps only a mental adjustment is useful, not a physical one. Often, for example, the “slumping” athlete is pressing, especially if she is not using those quote marks. Perhaps all she has to do to get back to a best effort performance is relax and see the ball well. Sometimes, one “little” tweak to mechanics will make a huge difference. Whatever the case, she will not lose major parts of her confidence by validating the “slump” into a slump. It may seem like voodoo, but the reality is that an athlete mired deep in a slump can end the “slump” simply by changing her focus from slump to overdue!