Momentum: Taking Charge of Your Personal and Professional Success

The Boston Red Sox were down 0-3 in the 2004 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees. They had been pummeled 19-8 in Game 3. The Sox tied game 4 in the ninth inning and went on to win in extra innings.  Their momentum carried them to wins in the next three games, completing the single biggest comeback in baseball playoff history.

Cornell’s lacrosse team was beating Syracuse 9-6 with 5:31 left in regulation of the 2009 NCAA Championship.  Suddenly,  9-7, with 3:37 on the clock.  Before I knew it, the score was quickly 9 -8 with 2:46 remaining.  The Big Red eventually lost 10-9 in overtime.  Syracuse scored 4 goals in under 7 minutes, despite having only scored 6 times in the previous 54 minutes.

In 2005, the final 4 minutes of regulation against Arizona represented the greatest comeback in Illinois basketball history. They scored 20 points in 4 minutes. A remarkable 12 of those points came in 50 seconds.  My Illini won the game 90-89.

All of these comebacks have something in common…well, two things.  The first is that these were very personal for me.  Unfortunately, the Sox swept my St. Louis Cardinals in the World series to win their first championship in 86 years.  I went to graduate school at Cornell.  Illinois is my undergraduate Alma Mater.

The other thing these wins have in common is the feeling of inevitability about them.  The teams that were behind managed to rally behind a key play to steal the momentum from their opponents.   Their energy higher, their faces more determination, their minds more focused.  Despite the score and the time on the clock, it just seemed like they were going to win. The teams that were ahead seemed to play back on their heels and hold on to a win instead of playing the way they did to get the big leads.     

Momentum is powerful in sports, and very easy to see.  It is also very important in life, but harder to see.  In fact, we generally only pay attention when the momentum is working against us.  How many times have you had one bad thing happen to you, only to be followed by a string of bad things?  We remember those times, but often overlook those times when we have a string of positive things.  Here are some tips for creating positive momentum in your life.

• Control what you can - When something undesirable happens in your life, ask yourself, “Is this really beyond my control?”  While you obviously can’t control everything that happens to you, you will often find that many of those things are related to some prior decision you made.  And that is fine.  You can’t truly experience success without some failures along the way.
• Put things that you experience in proper perspective - Bad things happen to everyone, but some people choose to react to them differently.  Again, you can’t control or predict everything that is going to happen to you, but you can control your reaction to these experiences.  Always think about how little these isolated incidents matter in the grand scheme.
• Learn from your mistakes - If you are not making mistakes, you are not taking risks.  Just try to ensure they are the kinds of mistakes from which you can rebound.
• Learn from others’ mistakes - I have never subscribed to the notion that one has to experience something to learn from it.  Observe, listen, analyze…become a student of life.  Making mistakes is fine, but not the same ones everybody around you has made.
• Help others avoid the same mistakes you made - Imagine the gratification you would get from helping someone avoid the pain that you have already experienced.  You would probably get more from helping them than they would get for avoiding the mistake.
• Take time to appreciate when good things happen - Our minds force us to harp on the negatives without recognizing when momentum is actually going our way. The wonderful things in our lives are sometimes put on the back burner, particularly our relationships with the ones we love.

Just as the Sox, Syracuse and Illinois seized the moment and refused to let opportunity pass, you can take control of your career, health, and family. It won’t play itself out in minutes like the sports examples I have used.  Positive momentum requires your energy, determination and focus over time.  Just as spectators in the stands can feel who will win, the people in your life will feel that way about you.