Defeat

"Keep your head in the game!" "Shake it off!"  "Keep your focus!" "You're beating yourself!"  These are some of the things I shouted at the television last night during the NCAA championship (Go Butler!).  A good game, but really difficult to watch at times.  By the time the game clock read 8:00 minutes left in the second half, you could tell Butler's leaders were trapped inside their own heads.  And no matter how many fans, supporters, coaches, and teammates cheered, screamed, yelled, and threatened, they could not reach into their heads and pull them out.  No one could.  They were in a place of no, and it was building.

At about that same time, you could see UConn's confidence growing.  You could practically hear their positive thinking by the way they carried themselves, and literally feel the momentum of the game shift.  A place of yes, and it was building.

Have you been in that place before?  I suspect you have.  We all beat ourselves up, lose our focus, and miss the goal we set sometimes.  We all get trapped inside the negative thoughts, tell ourselves we can't do it, we aren't good enough, there is nothing more we can do.  People cheer us on, tell us to get out of our funk, but it doesn't help so much.  We are stuck in the negative and it has a great spiraling effect.

What could those team leaders have done differently last night?  What would have happened if they stopped telling themselves negative thoughts and started with positive?  What if Butler was able to get to that place inside their heads, would it have made a difference?

What could you do to get yourself out of the negative space you are in, and move into the positive?  Would it build?  Would it make a difference?