The demon of expectation is a beast. Growing up in cricket, the demon of expectation for me was that to be a great batter you needed to score hundreds. All of the best batters scored hundreds. All through my teenage years, it was drummed into me. All of my expectations were around needing to score hundreds, and that flowed on into my Test career. When you have that outcome in your mind, as you get closer to the milestone, you start to pay more attention to it and stop focusing on the A factors, the process of execution that got you there.
And this was a pattern that started for me as a kid, all the way through my teenage years and then into my international career as well. The following example shows the same patterns of thinking that most often entered my mind ever since I can remember.
It was during a Test match in the 2010-11 Ashes series in Perth. I was batting really well, and I was on 95. It was a beautiful wicket to bat on and the ball was coming on so nicely as it normally does at the WACA. At this very moment in time, I started to think, “Wow, this is going to be my first Ashes Test hundred, how am I going to celebrate? How amazing is this going to feel? What am I going to do?”
My mind moved to the outcome, to this expectation that I had always set for myself. “I’m going well. I’m nearly there. I am so close to achieving one of the dreams that I have had since I was a kid. How am I going to get to a hundred? With a six or a boundary or just get five singles?” Whereas up until this moment, I had not been thinking about how I was going to score runs. I was just in the moment, trusting my instincts with aggressive intent, ball after ball. This mindset was what had got me to 95.
I should have been thinking, “What do I need to do right now? And what do I need to keep doing to be able to give myself the best chance of getting there?” I didn’t know how to grab hold of that mental script that had started to come in, thanks to that little bird on my shoulder, and say, “Be quiet!”, and pull myself back into the exact same mindset that had worked so well up to that point.
I ended up getting out LBW to Chris Tremlett. The ball angled into middle stump and I just missed a straight one. My mind had moved forward to the future and the outcome, instead of just staying present in the execution mode and doing that over and over again, and what would be would be.
Where the stress and anxiety lie is in the gap between where we are currently and what our expectations are. If we have started off poorly, then our mind shifts to the gap between where we are and where we need to get to. This normally causes a large amount of worry, stress and anxiety and shifts our minds away from being in the present, totally focused and process driven. Instead we start singularly focusing on the result and how big this gap is. And this means that our ability to close the gap by moving back onto execution has stopped.
Yes, we all set goals. I had always dreamed of an Ashes hundred. In business, for example, everyone has set targets. Most of the time, everyone is setting targets or goals that they must achieve to get bonuses or a promotion, for example. Or to achieve high marks in exams or assignments.
But all this does is build up this anxiety and stress and focus on results. And particularly if you’re not on target, then everyone starts to freak out. But there might be B factors at play. You might be bringing the best A game that you can and the whole group might be bringing the best A version of themselves.
But there might be some things that are out of their control, which are having a significant impact on the results. But everyone starts to worry about the results. They start worrying about losing their job or having their salary reduced.
The better way to think of targets, expectations, or goals, is to use them as a guide. They are like the mountaintop in the distance, only to be glanced at, because the ability to achieve them can change when B factors influence things that are out of your control. It’s a fine line between results-driven and resultsfocused. The stress and worry of being results-focused has a huge impact on your ability to achieve your desired outcomes, and even your health. Results-driven, on the other hand, is being desperate and very disciplined to do all you can to get the best results possible, which is pulling yourself back to your best A’s.
Interestingly, when I was having all those troubles getting out in the 90s, I talked to Michael Clarke about it. He said, “My goal is actually 150, it’s not 100. So, when I’m in the 90s I don’t care because my goal is to get 150, not 100.” That’s why he hardly ever got out in the 90s. He just cruised through it. I couldn’t believe how easy he made it look. But he said, “My goal is way above that so that I’m just going to continue to focus on what I’m doing.”
Key takeaways
The demon of expectation pulls your mind into how you are doing and the gap between where you are and where you want to be instead of what you need to do right now to stay on task.
Goals are important to push yourself but a fixation on achieving them no matter what is disastrous.
We can be results-driven but not results-focused − a very important difference.
Excerpted with permission from The Winner’s Mindset, Shane Watson, HarperCollins India.