How many football games have we seen – high school, college, NFL – where the players didn’t “warm up”? Football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, field hockey, soccer, bowling, badminton, softball, track and field – players warm up at all of them. In fact, in my times of attending sporting events as a fan – or player – I can recall ZERO times when the players didn’t warm up before the game.
How about you?
That’s what I thought.
What makes “warming up” so important it’s done before every game? What does “warming up” do for the players?
- Warming up gets muscles loose and prevents injury.
- Warming up helps players focus on the upcoming game.
- Warming up gets players into the rhythm of the game so it’s more like stepping onto one of those moving sidewalks instead of jumping onto a speeding train.
- Warming up helps eliminate (or at least minimize) pre-game jitters.
Golfers also have a “pre-shot” routine. Most golfers focus on what NOT to do (i.e. DON’T hit in the water; DON’T hit out of bounds; DON’T hit into the sand; DON’T move my head, etc.). Good golfers focus on what TO do (i.e. keep my head still; hit it straight swing easy, hit hard). Great golfers focus on the OUTCOME (i.e. high, straight drive off the tee, two bounces and rolling to a stop ten yards left of the tree at the dogleg).
Essentially, it’s a “warm up” for every shot.
What happens? Golfers tend to get what we focus on. Most golfers hit into the water, out of bounds, into the sand. Good golfers tend to keep their heads still, hit it straight(er), swing easier and hit harder. Great golfers tend to hit the high straight drive off the tee, two bounces and rolling to a stop ten yards left of the tree at the dogleg.
It happens for almost every shot.
A couple of days ago, I was out calling on new business. I was dragging my ……errrr..… feet. Trudging to the entrance of an office building in North Texas, I was focused on how hot it was, how hard it is with the current economy, how much harder it is to find businesses willing to invest in their people. Walking toward the mirrored glass building, I saw my reflection. I didn’t like what I saw.
My posture looked dejected. If I was a business owner and saw a salesman with my look coming in, I wouldn’t want that person talking to my people. I wouldn’t have believed him or her when they were talking about changing attitudes and behaviors for the good, overcoming stress and worry, creating a more positive work environment. I would’ve thought: “You need to take your own medicine.”
So, I did.
At the risk of sounding Pollyanna”ish,” I realized my “negative” self-talk was affecting my results negatively. At least it was affecting my own attitude negatively. So, I changed my self-talk.
I noticed an immediate change in my attitude, motivation, posture, and expression.
William James said it many years ago:
“Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.
The voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully. and act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. To feel brave,act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end, and courage will very likely replace fear. If we act as if from some better feeling, the bad feeling soon folds it tent like an Arab and silently steals away.”
Will this make the economy better? Probably not. Can it help us deal more effectively with whatever comes our way? Probably so. Can it help my results? Maybe. Will I enjoy it more. Definitely.
We all have “warm-up” or “pre-shot” routines we perform regularly. The big question is: “does your warm-up routine help you – or hurt you?”