Watching athletes and stage performers play at their best, it is easy to conclude that emotion during performance is an asset. To the casual observer, top performers motivate themselves with emotion, allowing anger, frustration, and even self-contempt to light a fire and push them to new heights. If you have reached that same conclusion, you might have missed an important distinction.
Folks might be interested in reading up on the Yerkes Dodson law - studies the relationship between pressure and performance. Too much pressure (and thinking) people tend to get the "Yips".
No. I never thought of reflecting on harnessing passion or said a different way, differentiating between passion and emotion. Your write up would pair great with starting with our why/identify our mission and purpose.
Would love to hear more about what this looks and feels like as well as roadblocks and detours that thwart the kind of flow your referencing.
I can see application to my development as a pickleball player. At my very best I am hyper focused on executing the next action. All auxiliary needs are paused & 100% of my energy is available for the next movement.
Since you are bringing it up in an athletic context... acting emotionally will show up in retaining bad moves into the next serve. Top performers have a short memory, but maintain the energy.
It might look like emotion to less extroverted people, but the attempt is at harnessing energy without emotional investment.
Practice come from behind situations.
Practice recovering from poor shots.
Practice any scenario where you might have the tendency to be overly emotional.
This is awesome and wish I'd read this during my Rugby career. I use to play purely on emotion, and it lead to me being an inconsistent performer. But Rugby was my passion, so the Oprah quote rings true, I just struggled to find the balance I guess.
Interesting to hear your reflection, Ben. Please talk about what it would have looked like for you to be energetic yet without emotion. Might it have appeared to be similar to anyone else watching?
In your endeavor to play rugby without being purely emotional, yet still just as energetic -- would it have looked any different to a fan watching from the sidelines?
Does high energy/low emotion look to others like high emotion?
1. Subtly maybe, but the quality of my play would have been more consistent each week.
2. Not sure. Probably not? High emotion in rugby is players crying during their national anthem, the brain’s way of trying to draw on emotional energy perhaps?
Folks might be interested in reading up on the Yerkes Dodson law - studies the relationship between pressure and performance. Too much pressure (and thinking) people tend to get the "Yips".
That quote from Opera put a nice bow on your article. Great choice.
Got another front runner in mind?
No. I never thought of reflecting on harnessing passion or said a different way, differentiating between passion and emotion. Your write up would pair great with starting with our why/identify our mission and purpose.
Would love to hear more about what this looks and feels like as well as roadblocks and detours that thwart the kind of flow your referencing.
I can see application to my development as a pickleball player. At my very best I am hyper focused on executing the next action. All auxiliary needs are paused & 100% of my energy is available for the next movement.
Since you are bringing it up in an athletic context... acting emotionally will show up in retaining bad moves into the next serve. Top performers have a short memory, but maintain the energy.
It might look like emotion to less extroverted people, but the attempt is at harnessing energy without emotional investment.
Practice come from behind situations.
Practice recovering from poor shots.
Practice any scenario where you might have the tendency to be overly emotional.
This is awesome and wish I'd read this during my Rugby career. I use to play purely on emotion, and it lead to me being an inconsistent performer. But Rugby was my passion, so the Oprah quote rings true, I just struggled to find the balance I guess.
Interesting to hear your reflection, Ben. Please talk about what it would have looked like for you to be energetic yet without emotion. Might it have appeared to be similar to anyone else watching?
I would have been able to execute my role to the best of my ability in the biggest games. But I don't understand your question.
In your endeavor to play rugby without being purely emotional, yet still just as energetic -- would it have looked any different to a fan watching from the sidelines?
Does high energy/low emotion look to others like high emotion?
1. Subtly maybe, but the quality of my play would have been more consistent each week.
2. Not sure. Probably not? High emotion in rugby is players crying during their national anthem, the brain’s way of trying to draw on emotional energy perhaps?