The wonders of reality distortion!

There is a simple theory in sport which is ‘sometimes you win and sometimes you lose’

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However, if you look at Men’s Tennis for past 3-4 years and particularly at Novak Djokovic’s record, you may start doubting this theory. When he plays, he always wins. Almost.

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He has won 73 out of his 77 grand slam matches spanning >3 years and won 8 of the last 12 grand slam events.

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So, how does he do it?

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For one, a tennis match is not just a tennis match for Novak. It is much more. May be when he steps in there, he thinks of it is a battle-field and he, a gladiator out to decimate his opponent. Novak practices visualization techniques. He has often spoken about his ‘wolf energy’ on court and also said that even when he is not playing well, he visualizes hitting perfect ground strokes in his mind. He creates an alternate reality in his mind.

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His intensity of visualization can be summed up from excerpts of his post-match press interview after winning Wimbledon 2019 final against Federer in a classic 5 set thriller.

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One of the interviewers asked him how he was able to maintain his focus in front a crowd overwhelmingly in favor of his Swiss opponent with chants of Roger! Roger! reverberating across the stadium throughout the match. He replied saying that he visualized it as them (audience) chanting his name – Nole! Nole! Everybody in the pressroom laughed. Not him though.

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In Feb, 1990, James ‘Buster’ Douglas (perceived as a nobody in boxing) fought Mike Tyson (one of the most dominant fighters in his era) who was on a 37 match winning roll. In one of the biggest upsets that shocked the world, Douglas won in a 10th round knockout. A few weeks before the bout, Douglas’s ailing mother, to whom he was very close, passed away and left him crestfallen. In Douglas’s words ‘She came a week before I left to talk to me and see how I was mentally. She was telling her friends before she passed that I was going to win. Mom’s intuition.” When Douglas played Tyson that day, how much do you think winning meant to him? It surely wasn’t just a match for him but may be a way to fulfil his mother’s last wish. How do you beat that really?

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Well, it’s not just Novak or Douglas and not just sport where a “reality distortion field” can work wonders.

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Infact the first time the word ‘Reality distortion field’ from ‘Star Trek’ was used in the business world was to describe Steve Jobs and his ways in Apple Computers in the 1980’s.

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As an article later described this as follows:

“Steve Jobs’s “reality distortion field” was a personal refusal to accept limitations that stood in the way of his ideas, to convince himself that any difficulty was surmountable. This “field” was so strong that he was able to convince others that they, too, could achieve the impossible. It was an?internal?reality so powerful it also became an?external?reality”

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Steve Job’s own musings reveal this streak.

“We are aware that we are doing something significant. We're here at the beginning of it and we're able to shape how it goes. Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future. We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why else even be here?”

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These are familiar words in the corporate world. I have personally worked with and seen many leaders in my 2-decade career who have seemed to be in their own “reality distortion field”. When they spoke about how they saw the business, some of us thought “Does she/he even know that the reality on the ground is different?” Or “Are we talking about the same business here, because we seem to be in dire straits”. And yet, bizarrely, magically, soon the reality on the ground started changing as if to fit the alternate vision that the leader had painted months back. It was surreal when it happened.

Reality distortion can work wonders at an individual level or at an enterprise level. Deploy your own version of it at work or in life and see the wonders for yourself.

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However, make sure that you have a way to come out of it periodically. There are many a cautionary tale from individuals who got so consumed by their reality distortion field that they became delusionary and lost perspective.

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In fact in Steve Job’s case itself, regrettably, he refused to go for surgery post detection of cancer for a crucial 9 months (post which he did) instead choosing to go for dietary treatments & alternate methods against the advice of doctors & family. This was more than just resistance to surgery as mentioned in his biography.

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“I think that he kind of felt that if you ignore something (cancer) or if you don't want it to exist, you can have that through magical thinking. And it had worked for him in the past” noted Walter Isaacson (his biographer)

We have seen several sportsmen becoming so high-strung that they forget to step out of the “field”. But they should, we all should.

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After one of the most crushing losses for Nadal ending his French open winning streak this June (Nadal has won 13 of the last 18 French Opens and he was going for his 14th French Open and his 21st Grand slam when he lost to none other than Djokovic), he said “I am sad to have lost in the most important tournament of the year for me, but life goes on, it is nothing more than a defeat on a?tennis court.” Well, for me, that was Nadal stepping off the “field” that he so often creates while playing and winning on the tennis court.

As this old adage affirms: "Keep two pieces of paper in your pocket at all times. One that says “The world was created for me” and the other “I am a speck of dust” (Rabbi Simcha Bunim).

Symbolically, the first - a reality distortion to help you fly and the other - a stepping away to keep you grounded!

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Happy reflecting!

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PS: Views expressed are personal