Focus on the game – not the feeling you’re after

ANTICIPATION: “I can’t wait until I can go inside a pub again.” “Won’t it be amazing to play live music again?” “Imagine the feeling when we’re allowed to be inside Croke Park with 80,000 others for an AllIreland final!”

Our lives are full of anticipation these days. Biding our time until restrictions are lifted so we can do that magical thing we have been waiting to do for so long. But does the event itself always live up to the anticipation?

For years I anticipated the feeling of winning a county final.

Won’t that be incredible? That feeling when the final whistle is blown and we have won. I see what it’s like for others. People running round the pitch, hugging teammates, others sinking to their knees, emotional. I can’t wait to experience that. How will I react?

But the anticipation got in the way of the event itself. And for a long time I never got to experience that feeling because we as a team never focused on the event itself sufficiently to actually win it. Too busy anticipating how it might feel after the event. One golden rule which is regularly espoused by successful coaches and players is to control the controllables.

In other words, you can’t control how your teammates play, how the opposition plays, how the referee performs, what the weather will be like, or indeed how you react to the final whistle in a big game. However, you have more control over your own performance. Your preparation, nutrition, rest, mental state, training. So focus on that instead. If you and enough of your teammates do that right, the chances are that some day you will get to experience those other feelings.

It tied in with a message I received before the final we eventually did win. It came from a man who trained me for a few years in Dublin, and read something like this: “Focus on the game, not the feeling you want after the game. Best of luck.” It was like he could see into my soul! They were the exact words I needed to hear, and we finally got to experience that feeling of winning something a few days later. And it was every bit as good as we hoped.

Anticipation can be a great thing. The feeling of looking forward to a holiday, for example, means we get value for the money spent on the holiday before we even leave our house. It is when it overshadows or somehow inhibits the event itself that we can be left with disappointment.

Kieran Quinn plays piano and brings people together in music. You can sign up for his weekly email letter by visiting kieranquinn.ie/letter and he can be contacted by email at kieran@kieranquinn.ie

lWon’t it be amazing to play live music again?