The Inner Game

 


The formula of “Performance = Potential – Interference” got me thinking of a recent incident. Not too long ago, I received a call from my mom, she was experiencing car problems and was stopped by the side of the road. Sounding distressed she told me that her car engine was vibrating violently and had stopped running. I rushed over to her location and arranged for her car to be towed to the nearest workshop. While waiting for the tow truck, I started walking through with her the sequence of events prior to her car stalling to try and identify potential causes of the engine stalling. She told me she had just filled her car with “petrol”. I thought it was rather odd that her car would stall after a refuel and requested to see the receipt… and that’s when I realised she had accidently pumped diesel instead of petrol.

As I reflected on this incident, I immediately drew parallels to the lesson in this webtorial. Just like the vehicles we drive, we have the potential to deliver optimal performance as long as we have the right fuel. Just like putting diesel in a petrol powered engine, the presence of the wrong fuel (or the absence of the right fuel), can deteriorate or even hinder performance altogether. 

To me, the Inner Game is essentially the fuel that either helps us or hinders us from performing at our best. And I believe the question really is, are we aware of the “fuel” that we have flowing in us? Are we fuelled with negative self-talk, limiting beliefs, and/or distractions or determination, perseverance and grit?

Timothy Gallwey describes the Inner Game as ”the game that takes place in the mind of the player, and it is played against such obstacles as lapses in concentration, nervousness, self-doubt, and self-condemnation. In short, it is played to overcome all habits of mind which inhibit excellence in performance. . . Victories in the inner game may provide no additions to the trophy case, but they bring valuable rewards which are more permanent and which can contribute significantly to one’s success, off the court as well as on.”

To help us excel in any game or endeavour we embark on, we need to master this Inner Game, but before we even master it, we need to be aware of what Inner Game is at playing. I believe we all have it in us to achieve what we want. We have the potential and we have access to the right fuel. We just need to be aware and deliberate in “filling” ourselves with the right fuel.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Questions... Questions... Questions

Image
Asking good questions is a key skill in coaching. I learnt in webtorial 12 that questions have the power to trigger a mental reflex known as “instinctive elaboration”. An “instinctive elaboration” is when the brain, for a brief moment focuses its resources solely on answering the question asked. This got me curious and I decided to look into “instinctive elaboration” a little further to see how I could leverage this mental reflex in a coaching conversation.  I discovered that while questions can cause the coachee to experience “instinctive elaboration”, something they have no control over, their response is absolutely under their control. The quality of the questions we ask as a coach could either lead the coachee to think deeper and initiate profound shifts in thinking OR it could cause further confusion and maybe even anxiety for the coachee. Good or even power questions allow us to harness the power of the coachee’s brain to spark deep thinking, creating opportunities for perspe...
Read more

Explore Coaching Models

Image
Coaching models… what are they and why do we need them? Coaching models are essentially a framework of sorts to provide a structured approach to the coaching process. A coaching model can help a coach prepare and plan for a coaching session, help guide the coaching conversation and help a coach stay focused.  I realised there are many models out there and there isn’t a “one size fits all” model. But, while looking at some of the models, I found some similarities. They each have some form of the following components; - Establish a goal - Explore options - Enact a plan While coaching models are designed to provide a framework, a structured approach to coaching, I believe as coaches, we should allow a model to constrain us. Coaching isn’t a “linear” process, coaches need to be flexible and flow with the coachee… not the coaching model.  The model is like a vehicle we use to get our passenger (the coachee) to their destination. As the driver, we need to pay attention to wher...
Read more

Neurological Levels

Image
  It took me quite some time to properly process the lesson and it dawned on me to try and find something familiar or a metaphor, something I can easily relate to, to help summarise my learnings for the webtorial. To help me understand the lesson better in this particular instance, I realised applying this framework in coaching is like trying to “debug” a faulty software code. Software codes are basically a collection of “instructions” and algorithms that are put together to perform a certain task. Without going into much technical detail, software codes are structured into parts or levels, each part/level is designed to perform a certain function. Some parts/levels need to work with other parts to complete a function, while others may work independently. Collectively, they come together to make the software whole. Like most software (or applications), there is a “user interface” that we interact with, the part that we see, touch and feel, and then there’s the part we don’t see, th...
Read more