Paradox of the Product Goal

Steve’s way of thinking is an all-too-common mistake that athletes make with goals. I call this the paradox of the product goal. The paradox of the product goal is that the more you think about your product goals in competition, the further you are from achieving them. The mistake Steve made was that during the game, he let his mind dwell on the product goals he had set at the beginning of the season. Product goals are result-oriented goals that people set for themselves. Steve’s primary product goals were to have an ERA of 3.5 or less and to win sixteen or more games. Both of these goals are outcome oriented and are pretty good goals to have. Setting product goals isn’t the problem; in fact, I highly recommend using product goals. However, athletes must learn when to promote product goals and when it is more appropriate to concentrate on their process goals. A simple guideline is to use product goals before and after practices and competitions, and to use process goals during practices and competitions. Steve doesn’t pitch better when he thinks about his ERA. As a matter of fact, thinking about ERA while pitching actually impedes his ability to pitch well. Steve would gain ground from thinking about his process goals, or what it takes to have a low ERA. He could have been occupied with keeping his weight back and his arm on top, so as to keep the ball down in the strike zone. (“Weight back, arm on top, down in the zone” is also Steve’s performance statement.) Even though Steve was successful for the day in lowering his ERA and getting his team a crunch-time win, he did not help himself for his next outing. The next time he pitched, he again focused on his statistics, and he left half of the pitches he threw up in the strike zone. When Steve instead keeps his mind on his process goals (what it takes to have a low ERA), he is able to pitch with much better success. Steve and I trotted out to the practice field with a ball and glove one day to conduct an experiment. For the first ten pitches, I had Steve think right before he started his windup about how nice it would be to have an ERA lower than 3.5. After each pitch, I asked him if he placed the ball down in the strike zone where he wanted it. Of those ten pitches, only three were down enough in the zone, according to Steve. For the next ten pitches, I asked Steve to think about “weight back, arm on top” just prior to pitching. For this set, he said that he was able to command six out of ten down in the zone where he wanted them. In time, Steve learned to get command on eight out of every ten pitches, by training his mind to think only about the process goals, or what it takes to be successful, rather than thinking about the success itself. I repeat: thinking about the success is of value, but do it before and after practice and competition, not during the performance. I advised Steve to think about his targeted low ERA in the evenings to motivate him to get a good night’s sleep and his desired sixteen wins in the morning when the alarm went off to get out of bed and get in a full day of training. Let your desire for success motivate you to make good decisions about healthy living and effective training. A Cy Young Award–winning pitcher once told me that one of his best outings was in a crucial playoff game in which he surrendered a late-inning game-winning home run. He said that while he was obviously disappointed that his team lost, he recognized that he had stayed focused on his keys for success throughout the game. He kept the ball down in the strike zone, and he worked the inside and outside of the plate while changing speeds. Even though he came out on the losing end, he pitched his game, and he knew that by staying focused on his process of success, he would undoubtedly win more games than he would lose. He was right on: he eventually led his team to a World Series victory.