Why Expectations Can Fail Us

Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits.

(William Shakespeare’s: “All’s Well That Ends Well”, Act Two: Scene 1)

The lead up to the ultimate international sporting competition, the London Olympic Games, has been a juggernaut for athletes, who have pushed themselves to the limit in preparation for the Games. The pressure on elite athletes competing in the London Olympics is gargantuan by any measure. Meeting the expectations of the media, the entire country, and the crowd of wild supporters at the event, let alone their own expectations, is unbelievably daunting. Is it any wonder then that more elite athletes don’t choke at the critical moment?

Consider how James Magnussen felt after the humbling 4x100metre freestyle relay result, when the team came fourth. Consider what emotions were raging through Emily Seebohm’s mind when she felt so much pressure to come first, that she broke down, cried and apologised for winning the silver medal in the 100metre backstroke final. Most of us would be deliriously happy at getting to compete at such a high level of competition, let alone win a medal, but not so, our elite athletes. Let’s face it, the build up by the media doesn’t help the situation, it just piles on the pressure.

Believe it or not, there is a ‘science of choking’ as reported in the latest “Time Magazine”, (July 30 – August 6, 2012). Psychology professor at University of Chicago, Sian Beilock, explains in her 2010 book, “Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To”, that often when athletes choke, they can tell you exactly what was going through their mind and what they were doing at the time.

Surprisingly it seems that athletes can ‘over-think’ the race or competition and because of the stress and worry, the athlete’s brain becomes ‘too busy’. The science behind ‘choking’ suggests that the prefrontal cortex of the brain – the part that houses informational memory – is flooded with too many thoughts.

Athletes who are more relaxed and not stressed are more likely to be drawing on their motor cortex, which controls the planning and execution of movements, according to Beilock. Winning athletes, who are ‘in the zone’ often can’t tell you a thing about what was going through their mind or what was happening when they won the event. Basically it seems that if top athletes start thinking about the details of their techniques instead of letting muscle memory naturally take control, then they ‘tend to mess up’ according to the scientists.

So what can be done to calm the mind? According to Davis, a psychologist for the Canadian swimming team, reliving the failure through video, without discussion, triggered the same terrible emotions that the swimmers experienced in the ‘failed’ event. However, Davis found that when he used ‘cognitive intervention’, that requires the athletes to share their feelings about the race and discuss ways to correct their errors, that the athletes could then watch the video without reliving the stress of the race. The MRI showed that the athletes’ brains changed with the blood flow increasing in the motor areas and decreased in the prefrontal cortex. Davis reported that: “Watching the failure washed out the negative emotions.” It was as if the athletes saw the failure in a different light. “Now I can discuss it with you, and it’s no big deal.”

Maybe there’s a lesson here for all of us. The more we build up our own expectations, stressing and worrying about an event or situation, the more difficult it becomes to find a way to move forward. Overanalysing a bad situation doesn’t bring about a better outcome and in fact can hinder us when we are next faced with a similar situation. The secret seems to be, to talk through the bad situation or failure objectively with someone ‘in the know’ and talk about how we might be able to handle the situation better in the future.

Students often repeat the same mistakes at school and rather than seeking the help of their teachers, stress and worry unnecessarily. Talking through past failures and finding better strategies with their teachers and parents, is one sure way to move forward and to improve on previous performances. The teachers are only too happy to help students who ask for help and to assist them in improving on their results. As Patricia Neal once said:

A master can tell you what he or she expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.

Sometimes it’s a simple case of we don’t know what we don’t know until we do something about it. Some of the greatest procrastinators of this world suffer because of the desire to be perfect in what they do or achieve. History reveals that in fact, it is through the mistakes we make and then correct that moves us towards a better outcome – not perfection – but something that approximates perfection. Being less stressed and not worrying about a problem will certainly improve our chances of success, if we seek guidance and counsel from the people around us who know more and have experienced more that we have.

Hiding our heads in the sand is not a solution either. At some point we have to face our worst fears and our failures. It’s how we tackle these fears and failures that will determine our future success (or lack thereof). Take heart from the fact that many famous scientists and athletes failed many time before experiencing success but remember, that the success only came after analysing what went wrong and deciding on a new course of action or strategy.

Maybe we should all take a collective deep breath and take to heart the words of the well known song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”:

Don’t worry, be happy!...
In every life we have some trouble,
But when you worry, you make it double,
Don’t worry, be happy.
(Bobby McFerrin)

Maybe this is the solution we are looking for in our lives.
Karon Graham