THE SCIENCE OF WINNING PART 1

What makes winners think differently?

What separates them from those that work so hard,

yet still miss the target?

When you buy a lotto ticket do you really EXPECT to win?

Do you go into shock with utter disbelief when you learn your ticket was another ‘dud’?

EXPECTATIONS

Winners expect to win.

They don’t just want it,

They don’t just wish for it,

They don’t just dream it.

They EXPECT IT, THEY own IT ALREADY.

Building Powerful Expectations

Expectations:

“A strong belief

that something

will happen or be

the case.”

Wikipedia

When you buy a lotto ticket do you really EXPECT to win? Do you go into shock with utter disbelief when you learn your ticket was another ‘dud’?

So where do our expectations come from? Expectations are a Somatic (gut feel) recollection of past experi-ence combined with the imagination of a future event which we then run through our ‘judgement filters’. Our ‘Judgement filters’ (a combination of thought processes in-volving our fusi-form gyros and our Amygdala/Hippocampus brain centres) work on the basis of a ‘Forward Modelling’ type process. What the???

I’ll explain… our Fusi-form Gyros is like our voice recognition software (actually it involves ALL our senses) which then ‘talks’ to our Amygdala & Hippocampus to check for our stored emotional response in order to determine our future actions towards the object or person in front of us. (These are critical pathways for our Flight or Fight response)

Basically, these brain centres tell us if what we’re looking at (or imagining) is important enough to ‘wake up’ other parts of our brain and body.

So now; we’ve fixed our attention on something we want. (Achieve a large business objective, financial

goal or sporting event etc.) And using our imagination of the future event we begin to JUDGE the event

in advance in an attempt to make our future actions more efficient.

(Forward Modelling) – Forward Models are a predictive internal model of

motor control that takes the available perceptual information, combined

with a particular motor program, and tries to predict the outcome of the

planned motor movement. – Wikipedia

Example: We need to quickly judge “should I chase after that deer for food or should I relax and con-serve my energy – what are my chances of success?”

We use our ‘Expectations’ and ‘forward modelling’ all the time; they’re not only critical to our major de-

cisions but form part of our everyday ‘motor movements’.

This is why a 5 year old child can have far greater dexterity and fluidity (control) of movement than even

the most advanced robot on the planet. Our brain (Cerebellum and Posterior Parietal Cortex) are much

more advanced in predicting and adjusting to our environment (based on our past experiences)

The truth is – we run these thought processes in the ‘blink of an eye’; we do it on a daily basis for even the most mundane of activities (should I try and overtake this car / run the orange light or ‘play it safe’.)

Where we get into trouble is when we become CONTINUOUSLY EXPECTANT of negative outcomes which in turn, contributes to us being unmotivated or disengaged from trying something new.

Over time, if the event is either SINGULARLY SIGNIFICANTLY TRAUMATIC (Freud’s theory of the Cathexis Charge) or, GIVEN RELATIVE IMPORTANCE (again, Freud’s theory of weakened Ego and Super Ego unable to cope with underlying Instinctual drives) combined with REPETITION will cause our brain to store a ‘CONDITIONAL RESPONSE’.

There’s the Clue! (Right there, those last two words…)

We fall into despair and ‘give up’ trying to be creative or innovative; often repeating the same mistakes over and over as we MISTAKE the comfort and ease of ‘being efficient’ with losing the battle of dealing with change or achieving new goals.

(Remember we have an ‘in built’ survival process to be efficient, we’re not just lazy…)

So What To Do?

Start by examining the

experiences of your past against

a (realistic) framework that’s

more accurate and supportive

of you going forward.

The ‘clue’ I pointed out earlier is ‘CONDITIONAL RESPONSE’.

That means our response is CONDITIONAL; I.e. Our RESPONSE will be based on our assumptions of the CONDITIONS. This is where our Object Relations Patterns ‘come into play’ but that’s a whole new story for a whole new day…

In essence – Change our view (perspective) of the Conditions,

change our Response.

(Change our EXPECTATIONS)

Anyway, we can use ‘Pre-Programmed’ thought processes to ‘trick’ our mind into Associating different (more supportive) beliefs by Reviewing (JUDGING) our past experience with a different perspective.

Now remember, I said earlier that our Expectations are a Somatic (gut reaction) recollection of past experience. Our memory is literally stored not just in our mind but in our MOTOR SYSTEM (muscle memory) so to change this depth of feeling we need to ‘disrupt’ our old pattern of think-ing and kind of ‘get out of our body’ to become successful.

OK, ‘round about now you’re thinking I’ve been ‘slipping a little something’ into my coffee. Stay with me.

Ever heard of the PLACEBO EFFECT?

Simply put for now, we often put more RELATIVE IMPORTANCE to new information (when we’re

weak, under threat or highly expectant – provided we deem the source Credible) than we do to

our own past known experience.

So, let’s use this to our own advantage.

Let’s combine our imagination and object referral patterns to build new beliefs; like this…

I designed a framework back in 2001. It’s called the Kinetic Planning Growth Matrix.

(Kinetic being the realisation of potential energy – as you remember…)

I was working with a professional athlete to overcome a severe neck injury so he could confidently return to international racing. (Darryll King – 2x world #2 with over 45 National titles to his name)

Over time I stumbled upon the relative importance of thoughts and actions on a ‘circular expanding’ basis, rather than the traditional ‘quadrant thinking’ associated with positive mental conditioning at the time.

This model has proven so successful that it has been further enhanced by my business partners (Tony Vidler & Kevin Smee) and now forms the basis of the course and workshop design for nearly all of the material developed and delivered by us here at The Elite Professionals Programme Ltd. (but that’s another story…)

Anyway, here it is.

“If I can dream it, can I achieve it?” - “nah bro... You’re still just dreaming...”

This framework helps us to replace reflecting on a past experience (good or bad) and JUDGING the

result (OUTCOMES) by instead, Reviewing (no judgement here – only detached observation) the

(INPUTS) to see how RELEVANT your past experience is going forward.

You see, we can use our natural ‘positive self-talk pattern’ of “if I knew then, what I know now” and ‘over-lay’ it against my model to achieve the following…

Q: What was my mind set prior to and during the event?

How focused and confident was I?

Q: Did I have the skills necessary to complete the task successfully?

Were my skills developed in anticipation of the task or did I assume my old skills would be adequate?

Q: Did I have all the resource I needed?

Did I make best use of the resource at my disposal?

Q: Were my final actions consistent with a successful outcome?

Did I ‘follow through’ and utilise everything I could? Did I give it 100% and what can I learn from this past experience?

Mind Set

Skill Set

Resource

Actions

We can all agree;

performance is a reflection of both our efforts (inputs/actions )

and the external environment.

What we do in the world we live…

OUR PERFORMANCE

Sometimes our results are not a fair reflection of our potential for many reasons.

The ‘art’ of mental conditioning is to build an honest understanding of our potential capabilities and practice the focus to ensure we ‘stay on task’ when things get tough. We need to be honest in our appraisal so we know the difference between being persistent and being stubborn.

Positive Mental Conditioning is much more than a ‘rah rah session’ – it’s about building effective thought processes that help us reach our peak; to understand the difference between bravery and stupidity, fear and avoidance and to ‘get up more than we get knocked down’…

Want to develop positive expectations patterns for yourself?

Want to start using better mental frameworks so you stop procrasti-nating?

Start conditioning yourself for Success and increase your PERSONAL FOCUS!

Visit www.mikebarnescoach.com to learn

more about developing your career…

“I coach professionals to do

the things they won’t do on their

own”

COACH

MIKE BARNES

About the Author

The Professional Development Coach to Accountants, Lawyers & Financial Advisers.

“The learning from this has been amazing!” says Mike. “The very real threat of serious

injury combined with the pressure of being a professional athlete is the perfect place to

find what really works, and throws out all the garbage that most of the ‘self-

help’ books promote”.

MIKE & KAYNE

Mike regularly consults throughout NZ to increase the leverage within professional services firms and speaks on a variety of topics, including ‘Closing the Skill Gap’ and ‘What Blocks Professional’s From Selling’.

Mike considers himself a ‘coaching addict’ – “It’s WHO I am, not WHAT I do” explains Mike, “It’s how I’m wired; it’s in every part of my life”.

Mike is a passionate exponent of The Enneagram Personality Profiling System, (He attended in New York at the hands of the ‘masters’ Don Riso & Russ Hudson) which allows Mike to explore the ‘blockages’ that stop people from reaching their own true potential.

“I coach professionals to do the things they won’t do on their own” says Mike, “my greatest sense of self-worth comes from watching others grow and knowing I played a critical part in it”.

Engaged to the love of his life (Natalie) and so very proud of his 3 kids, Mike still finds time to coach and

mentor NZ’s fastest motocross riders. “It’s an extremely demanding and dangerous sport and the pro-

fessional riders I work with have everything on the line every time they race. Want to learn how to fo-

cus the mind and overcome fear? – you’ve come to the right place…”