Brian Page

“Turn up no matter how you feel…” Alexi Pappas, former Collegiate athlete, now filmmaker, talks about the importance of consistency…consistency of action-taking irrespective of our feelings. Interesting… Thoughts, emotions, feelings happen to us all. We don’t really do them on purpose. And our day-to-day performance moments in sport, business, and life can be heavily influenced by those thoughts, emotions, and feelings. I feel anxious I feel down I feel frustrated I feel hesitant I feel fearful We don’t really do these on purpose, and it’s useful to recognise that. And so this is where the crucial words of control comes in. Alexi Pappas wants us to commit to our actions irrespective of our feelings. And that process is a common one in modern day psychological intervention - accept your feelings and commit to action. That to me is exciting - I don’t have to act out my thoughts, emotions, and feelings. I have the ability to think, emote, and feel a certain way inside of me, and still carry out the actions that are vital for my performance moments. The inside doesn’t have to drive the outside. But there’s more. And this is where I lean on an older idea in psychology (Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy)…fused with newer thinking in brain science (the Predictive Brain)… I can change the typical thoughts I have in order to change my brain predictions. I can feed myself new ways to see the world around me and the challenges that hit me, in order to change my predictive perceptions of the world around me. I can shift what I tend to experience inside of me to change the patterns of emotions of feeling I tend to have (this is detailed heavily in Professor Lisa Feldman-Barrett’s book ‘How Emotions Are Made’). Back to Alexi Pappas… I can better take action during my performance moments irrespective of how I’m thinking, emoting, and feeling…AND…I can change my typical tendencies of thoughts, emotions, and feelings so that they tend to be more useful in performance moments. I have the best of both worlds… (Video from The Winning Difference)