Control is an interesting word. It is a word that we would pass over without really ever noticing. But after reading this post my guess is you will have a greater appreciation for this simple little word. Control or a lack of it is at the root of many psychological issues. When we don’t feel like we have control anxiety goes up. When anxiety goes up focus or concentration goes out the wind. When our focus is all over the place confidence takes a massive hit and it becomes increasingly difficult to make good decisions hence our over all performance is far below where it could be.

In all my years of observing, studying, and analyzing high performance—understanding what we have control over and what don’t have control over is possibly the single most significant factor that leads to high performance. Those that channel all their resources into what they have control over, what they CAN DO and learn not to waste their precious resources on what they can’t do achieve incredibly high levels of productivity.

Here is an example from another baseball player, Albert Pujols. Albert is considered be many to be the best player in baseball. This is what he said a few years ago when he had won the MVP award for the National League. The reporter asked him how do you perform so well, so consistently? Albert’s response “I just DO everything I can to help my team win.”

You may think this simple response doesn’t reveal much. But lets break it down. First, he says “do”, which shows that he doesn’t over analyze, he is not over thinking and allowing his mind to get in the way of his performance. Second, he says “everything I can” which tells us he is focusing his energy on what he is doing and is not concerned with what others are or are not doing. Meaning he is taking responsibility for himself and not wasting energy judging others. Lastly, although his mindset is very much attuned to the process of what he needs to be doing, his efforts are directed towards winning. He is playing to win in contrast to many to play not to lose. Further, he is not playing for us own stats, for his own ego. His energy is directed towards the task at hand. Every great athlete I have studied always focus on the task and not their ego.

I told you it would take a while to get through this article. If you listen carefully to what people both verbally and non-verbally (body language) say we can tell a lot about what they are thinking.

I love these sorts of articles because I believe it is best to learn from the best. Yes, research is important and if you read any of my stuff you will hear me often say “research says. . .” But real life experiences, real individuals, real athletes DOING IT triumphs research for me. I will probably take a few days of posting to get through this article as I break down the psychological factors that are attributing to Barry’s performance.

First, Barry Zito signed a seven year, $126 million contract with the Giants back in December 2006. Coming from the Oakland Athletics Barry had been a star with a significant winning record and a Cy Young award (the top award for a pitcher in major league baseball). But through the first three years with the Giants he struggled terribly with mediocrity posting a 31-43 record.

This is what he described as the root of his poor performance. “I signed a big contract and put pressure on myself to deliver for the fans. It turned out to be too results oriented.” When you try to get results instead of going through the process, results don’t usually happen.” Absolutely results don’t come. When we start thinking about the outcome (results) we open the door for fear to come in. Fear only exists in the future, it doe not exist in the moment. In the moment there is only action. When we direct our attention/focus to the moment we rid ourselves of fear and anxiety. Anxiety is a watered down version of fear, and anxiety is never going to help us perform better. Anxiety alerts us to danger, but it is not helpful in allowing us to execute and perform the way we know we can.

When we allow anxiety to get a hold of us, we take our focus off of what we need to do right now and performance immediately takes a hit. Think about how much extra baggage we carry in our performances/lives when we allow ourselves to worry about all of the could’ve, should’ve in our lives. But these could’ve and should’ve are not reality, they have never happen, so why waste energy contemplating them? Our energy is better served getting busy making a difference in the present. If we can improve upon the present we will hopefully make the future a better place.