We’ve all heard stories about various superstitions and rituals athletes have around play offs and championship games. What they do and don’t do the night before the Big Game.
Turns out catching a local showing of “American Sniper” or binge-watching “House of Cards” episodes on NetFlix may have more sway in the following day’s performance than wearing the same pair of unwashed “lucky” socks for two weeks.
The night before a big event, everything is still possible.
Your team wins the world championship.
Your speech gets a standing ovation.
Your restaurant opening has a line out the door, down the street, and around the corner.
The night before anything that matters deeply to you is scheduled to take place, your job is to remind yourself, just as a great coach would, of the following:
[su_quote cite=””]No matter what happens, it’s going to be all right. You’re going to do your best. You’re going to give it everything you got. You’ve prepared and practiced and planned to your greatest capacity. No matter what happens, at the end of it all, you will be able to hold your head high, look yourself in the eye, and know you’re a champion because that’s what champions do. In the face of victory or defeat, champions show up the next day ready to play.
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And then, go do something that has nothing to do with whatever the next day’s big thing is.
When I was a freshman in college, I had a professor who encouraged his students to go to a movie the night before a big exam. He would say to us:
“The test is going to come and go. Last I checked, no one has died from taking a test. If you’ve done the work, studied hard, and held yourself accountable to learning the new material I’ve taught, a night away from studying will actually help you perform better than if you pull an all-nighter and review everything right up until class starts.”
Scientific research shows how important it is for the brain to “take a break” from focusing on the big thing at hand in order to fire on all cylinders the following day. That what happens the night before may actually matter more to performance the following day than just about any other variable.
No guarantees, of course. But your feet — and loved ones — might thank you.
