It Takes What It Takes

It Takes What It Takes

NFL star Russell Wilson embodies the tenets of neutral thinking.

Russell Wilson, the quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, illustrated the neutral thinking mind-set during the US National Football Conference championship in January 2015. Wilson played poorly for most of the game, throwing four interceptions. With five minutes left, the Seahawks were losing 19-7. Wilson never gave up. He ignored his mistakes, yelling to teammates, “We can still win this game! Let’s go!”

Wilson was a student of neutral thinking, a strategy that trains its adherents to tune out past mistakes and fend off the deflating negative thinking that follows. Wilson could have fallen into an emotional trap. Off the field, he was getting divorced. On the field, his four tactical choices had been disastrous. He could have caved into negative thoughts and decided this wasn’t his day so he’d wait until next year. Instead, he stayed neutral, ignored his disappointment and focused on his task: Some time remained on the clock, and his team needed two scores.

“Neutral thinking is the key to unlocking a set of behaviors that can turn also-rans into champions and champions into legends.”

Improbably, Wilson led two touchdown drives, and the Seahawks pulled ahead, 22-19. However, the Packers had a star quarterback of their own, and he tied the game at 22. Wilson threw the game-winning touchdown pass in overtime, and the Seahawks won. Later, he described forcing himself to forget about his earlier shaky performance and to think about only one play at a time.  

Neutral thinking teaches you to acknowledge your mistakes and move on.

Neutral thinking doesn’t mean that you ignore your missteps. A quarterback shouldn’t pretend he didn’t throw an interception, nor should he repeat his bad decisions. Whether a mistake happens at work or at home, no one benefits from denying reality. However, too many people let disappointments and setbacks consume them to the extent that they can no longer perform. To bounce back, go into neutral thinking. The human brain is much like a car: Your vehicle’s design doesn’t support switching instantly from reverse to forward; it needs a brief pause in neutral to reset.

“The past isn’t predictive. The past isn’t prologue.”

University of Southern California quarterback J.T. Daniels experienced this process in 2018. In a game against Stanford, he threw two interceptions and no touchdowns. Daniels made no excuses. A couple of weeks later, he performed flawlessly. Daniels publicly credited neutral thinking.

When the University of Georgia football team played badly in the first half of a big game, coach Kirby Smart embraced the wisdom of going into neutral. Instead of criticizing his team at halftime, Smart’s locker room speech was straightforward: He told his players to understand that their poor play in the first half didn’t mean their bad performance would continue in the second half. Georgia came back and won in overtime.

Neutral thinking applies in life-and-death situations.

Neutral thinking isn’t only for athletes. The Apollo 13 astronauts used clear, calm thinking to survive a potentially disastrous mission. The trio – Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise – were heading toward the moon when an oxygen tank exploded. They had to figure out how they could all stay alive in the lunar landing module – a vehicle safe for only two people. On the ground, NASA engineers scrambled to come up with a workaround that involved rigging filters with cardboard and duct tape. Positive thinking would have doomed them; false confidence wouldn’t have kept three people safe in space. Negative thinking would have been equally disastrous; a skeptical analysis of the engineers’ outlandish plan to save their lives would have wasted precious time. 

“They didn’t worry about the past. They didn’t think about the odds.”

The astronauts set aside anxiety, doubt and fear. They refrained from judging the wisdom of the engineers’ workaround. Instead, they focused on the moment at hand and tamed their emotions by concentrating on specific behaviors. The astronauts responded with the epitome of neutral thinking – they replaced feelings with action, and they survived.

Neutral thinking allows you to accept failure.

Wilson won one Super Bowl, but lost another in a heartbreaking last-gasp play. In that game, Wilson threw a final-second pass into the end zone and a defensive player intercepted it. Both at the time and for years afterward, Wilson accepted the defeat gracefully. He could have blamed his coach for calling a questionable play – many fans did, but Wilson gave a steady response to questions. By contrast, when quarterback Cam Newton lost a Super Bowl, his post-game press conference proved decidedly uncomfortable.

“People aren’t defined by the past unless they choose to live there.”

Wilson took the high road. His coach accepted responsibility for the Super Bowl loss. Wilson placed the onus on himself. He knew that being a champion meant being in a position to throw a game-winning touchdown. It also required risking a game-losing interception. Wilson accepted the potential risks and the rewards and took pains to keep the setback in perspective. He immediately began working to become an even better athlete.

Committing to smart choices is one secret to success.

Vince Carter enjoyed a prolonged NBA career, in part because he made choices that allowed him to stay in game shape for years longer than most professional basketball players. He stopped consuming junk food and soda. He started drinking more water and stretching. To preserve his knees, Carter didn’t dunk when a layup would suffice. After games, Carter didn’t party; he worked out. Carter wanted to keep playing, so he made the necessary sacrifices.

“It takes what it takes.” (Vince Carter)

When the late author Trevor Moawad spoke to athletes, he would hold a bag of chips in one hand and an apple in the other and ask them if they actually needed a nutritionist to explain which is the healthier choice. Even when the correct choices are clear, making them isn’t always simple.

An NFL quarterback who flamed out illustrated this reality. Blessed with massive size and a rocket arm, JaMarcus Russell signed a $32 million contract. Yet Russell quickly fell apart. He showed up for his third season overweight and the team that had paid him millions cut him from its roster. After that, he was arrested for illegal possession of codeine. Russell later acknowledged to ESPN that he could have and should have made more productive choices – staying in shape, studying more game films and avoiding bad habits.

NFL player Fred Taylor prolonged his career by changing his behaviors.

Football star Fred Taylor could have seen his career flame out, too, but he decided to switch his approach. The running back came out of the University of Florida in 1998 as a physical phenom. He was big – 228 pounds – and fast – 4.3 seconds in the 40-yard dash. He received a $5 million signing bonus from the Jacksonville Jaguars. But Taylor’s constant injuries once he was on the team earned him a derisive nickname – “Fragile Fred.” When the Jaguars hired Moawad to work on the mental side of Taylor’s game, the player was reluctant. Taylor felt coach Tom Coughlin had downplayed his latest ailment, a serious groin injury. Since Coughlin had hired Moawad, Taylor didn’t trust him.  

“People can behave themselves into mediocrity. They also can behave themselves out of it.”

As Moawad gradually earned Taylor’s trust, he learned the running back often stayed out late drinking. Drinking leads to dehydration, which begets minor injuries. Minor soft tissue problems translate to severe injuries, especially for a hard-charging player in a violent sport. Taylor remained in a cycle of undisciplined choices, which led him to feel helpless.

Moawad told Taylor to emulate longtime NFL players, who often arrive at training facilities before 7.00 a.m. Skeptical, Taylor committed in 2002 to arriving at the Jaguars’ facilities by 6.30 a.m. He spent more time stretching, icing and staying hydrated, and he credits his new routine for enabling him to play 13 NFL seasons. 

Don’t verbalize worst-case scenarios – they could come true.

The human brain stopped evolving in an era when imminent death was a real threat. Today’s world isn’t as physically treacherous, yet the brain remains wired for fear. This survival mechanism explains why apocalyptic scenarios resonate so deeply. To spare yourself needless aggravation, follow one rule to achieve neutral thinking: Don’t say idiotic stuff aloud. By cutting back on expressing negative thoughts, you reduce the caustic emotions that hinder neutral thinking.

Baseball player Bill Buckner proved this point in 1986. A couple of weeks before the World Series, Buckner told a TV reporter that his nightmare would be to let an opponent win by sending a ground ball between his legs. Just 19 days later, with his Boston Red Sox poised to win the World Series, Buckner let the winning run score on a routine ground ball. Did his fears lead him to crumble when they came true? That’s impossible to prove, but it remains a haunting possibility.

“I don’t want to play 10 years in the NBA and die of a heart attack at age 40.” (Pete Maravich)

Basketball star Pete Maravich uttered a similarly prescient thought during a newspaper interview when he said he feared playing out his career and having a coronary at 40. He did, in fact, retire from the NBA after a decade, and he died of a heart attack at 40. Speaking his fear aloud didn’t cause Maravich’s death, but speaking your darkest fears aloud goes give those anxieties power.

Olympian Michael Johnson visualized success and planned for it.

Before he won two gold medals at the 1996 Olympics, sprinter Michael Johnson suffered several setbacks. He endured a case of food poisoning two weeks before the 1992 Olympics and failed to make the final. Four years later, Johnson made sure his goals were achievable and put in the necessary work. After training for months, Johnson felt sufficiently confident to visualize himself winning the 200- and 400-meter races in the 1996 Olympics.

“If you can’t run fast, visualizing winning Olympic gold in the 200 meters won’t help you do it.”

Johnson’s visualizations weren’t mere daydreams or positive thinking. He had done the work, and he had the ability, so imagining a first-place finish was an exercise in neutral thinking. Later, at age 51, Johnson suffered a stroke that threatened his ability to walk. Approaching rehab, Johnson applied the same methodical approach that brought him Olympic glory. By visualizing success and pursuing small gains, he recovered far more quickly than doctors expected.

Neutral thinking requires controlling the negativity you consume via the media.

Moawad followed what he called the negativity diet. When he was a child, his father enforced rules that included not watching TV news and not listening to country music. And no one in the family could complain or say they couldn’t do something. Not watching the news made sense since television news taps into the human brain’s penchant for unnecessary anxiety, and country music often features downbeat lyrics.  

“Regardless of your political affiliation or channel of choice, the business model of today’s 24-hour news channels is to make you mad, scared or – preferably – both.”

To test this theory, Moawad decided to go off his negativity diet and spend a month gorging on the mental equivalent of fast food. He watched cable news and listened to heavy metal and country music. The steady diet of depressing fare shook his confidence. He began to feel doubts about himself as a romantic partner and as a businessman. After a time, the emotional melancholy turned physical. He felt ill.

Moawad tried listening an uplifting Christian rock band, but even that couldn’t lift him from his funk. After days of simmering in negativity, Moawad was exhausted. He had become pessimistic. He canceled medical appointments, fearing doctors would deliver horrible news. He began sending unhinged text messages. At one point, he sobbed uncontrollably.

To restore his equilibrium, Moawad returned to a more cheerful media diet – fact-based news, lighthearted shows and inspiring music. 

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