No, maybe not in the typical use of the term, but for sport, hear me out…
Life is spontaneous and random, and at times, seriously annoying when things don’t go our way. In sport, this is trait of life is multiplied.
But when we get frustrated at these moments of “getting stuck at all the red lights when we’re already late” or “poor refereeing ruining the game”, we are letting the ‘uncontrollables’ win. Instead, a more helpful way to view these situations is to simply “control the controllables”.
To avoid this frustration and the all-too-frequent negative chain of events that follows, it is important to understand the difference between knowing which bits of a situation we CAN control, which bits we can INFLUENCE, and which bits we have NO control over whatsoever. Knowing and acknowledging this difference means we can accept the parts we cannot control and instead shift our focus and energy onto parts we can control, and which will boost our performance.
This fundamental differentiation can be very useful when applied to 1) how we define success; 2) reducing the chance of failure; 3) preparing for performance; and 4) responding effectively to mistakes.
How do you define success?
Given the modern world and our education system, it is very likely that “success” has been defined to you by the tangible elements of glory, such as winning, especially when they include trophies and medals. This is completely understandable.
However, there is a fundamental flaw with this definition of success which explains why when people achieve these (amazing) things, they often feel relief, rather than joy and pride. The flaw is that these success definers are Outcome driven. They are based around the results or consequences of an action, not the quality of the action itself. This may feel like a menial difference, but it can have a huge impact on the resulting happiness and future performance of an individual.
Let’s look at a figure skating example. Figure skating is a beautiful, but subjective, sport. So, no matter what the skater does, their score is decided by the judges. Another example is athletics. It is an easy mistake to say running the fastest is in your control, but are you really able to control how fast the other athletes are? I suppose you could make sure they’re slower by pushing them over, but you’d be disqualified (not to mention a poor sport), so that would be no help.
The reality is that much of how we commonly define success in sport, the outcomes and the results, are out of our control. By defining our success in this way, we put ourselves at risk of being disheartened and demotivated by giving our absolute best, and still not being good enough.
To overcome this flaw is simple. Instead, we need to define our success by things we can control, such as our motivation, our effort, our response to mistakes. These make up the process. By focussing on and acting on what we can control in the run up to, during and after key sporting moments, we are logically much more likely to experience the outcome success also, the trophy, the win. For example, getting a strong start, accelerating hard, keeping a pace, and dipping the shoulders at just the right moment, are all controllable parts of the performance process that just might produce a world record performance.
With this approach, this athlete can feel proud of their achievements irrespective of the outcome, because they did their best in the process.
In your sport, try thinking of which parts of the process are most in your control and comparing them to outcomes which are not.
Have a go at these questions:
The outcome is naturally out of our control.
Success should be defined by acting on controllable aspects of the process.
3 categories of control
Following on from using the difference between things we can control and things we cannot, let’s consider this deeper and within a performance setting.
Let’s say a football team is playing a match against their local rivals away. When thinking about controllables, there are 3 categories:
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For example, the players have no control over the weather, or how loud the fans are for the other team. They do, however, have influence on the referee’s decisions, dependent on how the players act towards them, or have influence on whether the opposition makes mistakes, dependent on how much pressure they put on them. Finally, and most importantly, they have complete control over how well they are warmed up, the accuracy of their passing, or the creativity of their play.
By acknowledging the difference between these categories, it makes it far easier to focus on helpful aspects in the game and therefore increase performance.
How to prepare for performance
Mental preparation, whether it be moments, hours, or weeks before a performance can assist in making it the best you can. A key aspect of preparing effectively is focusing on what we can control, the most obvious being how well we prepare – Inception!
Preparation can include being ready for all eventualities during a race or match. Missy Franklin, five-time Olympic Gold Medallist swimmer, explains how preparing through knowing what she can control and how to control it gives her the edge against her fellow competitors:
“All my competitors are walking out for their first 200m backstroke final. I’m walking out to my 50th 200m Olympic final because that’s how many times I have imagined it, and that’s how many scenarios I’ve played with, and how many situations that “Oh something goes wrong, how am I gonna handle it?”. “I slip on my start, how am I gonna control it?”. [...] I felt prepared for anything, even though it was also my first time walking out for a 200m backstroke final, too.”
Visualisation is a really powerful tool in this preparation stage and can help prepare us for all eventualities in sport. Some refer to is as a “Free Run”, as there are no downsides to running through an eventuality ahead of time and plotting how to recover from whatever events your mind puts before you.
How to respond to mistakes
Having gone through all of the above, you’re hopefully now understanding just how powerful this differentiation between the controllables and uncontrollables is. Let’s look at one final situation where this mindset can be used.
Through the visualisation and mental preparation, we were able to plan in advance when things go wrong. Naturally, it is much easier to think rationally about how to respond to a mistake when it has only happened virtually, in your own imagination. But let’s consider how to approach when mistakes happen in real life, in vitro, in real time.
There is a hockey player making a tackle inside the D. They try to block the ball, it hits their glove but the umpire sees it as a foot and blows for a penalty corner. To fight the uncontrollables would be to try to convince the umpire to change their mind; unlikely, unless there is the option for a VAR referral. The decision of the umpire cannot, in most cases, be taken back. The event has occurred. One of the biggest rules is to remember that time in the past is always out of our control. So, there is no reason to mull it over. If we choose to mull it over, it is as if there is only light shining on the past, but it is a dim light because it can’t be changed.
The event in the past must be acknowledged and accepted as soon as possible, to re-focus the light onto future events. Having accepted the event, the player can look forward to aspects which are now in their immediate control, such as organising the defensive players for the penalty corner, correctly positioning their protective gear, and doing their best to defend the goal.
If the player is still churning over the wrong decision while they need to be preparing for the corner, they will not be ready when the time comes. This acceptance and shift in focus is paramount for a subsequent successful performance.
It is worth noting that this “control the controllables” technique is extremely effective within all aspects of life, not just sport.
Think of all the times you have been frustrated about your flight being delayed, or the internet dropping during an important call. My hope is that you are now able to review those situations and understand a more effective way of performing at your best. First, we must accept what we cannot control and then, we must focus on what can be controlled in the present and future. This is effective whether that performance is interviewing for a job or just relaxing on holiday.
