The Power of Superstitions
What are your personal superstitions?
I can’t recall when I started developing them, but at some point, I began subconsciously creating my own superstitions. Unlike the commonly known superstitions, which are about luck, my superstitions were more about how they affected my own performance or success, kind of like rituals. For example, throughout my years of playing soccer, I’ve developed the superstition that I won’t perform well in a game if I wear a different pair of cleats than the ones I practiced with. I’m not sure when it started, but it was probably after I played a poor game and wanted something to blame it on, blaming it on the fact that the Predators I played with weigh and feel completely different from the Alphas I practiced with.
Although I know it's some BS I came up with one day, I freak out whenever I bring the wrong pair to my games. It's almost become a mentality issue that if I don't bring the right pair, I will play badly like that one day years ago, and the thought of that actually affects my gameplay. Breaking this superstition is, in my mind, like opening an umbrella indoors. Just like most people are afraid to try, just in case it causes bad luck, I am afraid of bringing a different pair of cleats, just in case it ruins my game. And so, I am writing this essay after packing my second pair of cleats, knowing darn well that I’m not going to wear them even if my other pair gets wet or torn.
I have plenty of these kinds of superstitions that are able to control my mentality and confidence. While these can have negative effects on me, there are also plenty of superstitions that help boost my confidence. For example, a few weeks ago, I saw a video on how track star Noah Lyles does tuck jumps before his races and started implementing that as a pre-game ritual for myself. And because I played well that game, I have started doing it since then. Now, although this jump is indeed scientifically proven to help by activating the nervous system and muscles, it doesn’t specifically mean that I’ll perform well overall. However, in my mind, this pre-game jump has become something that brings good performance, boosting my confidence before games.
From these experiences, I’ve learned that, if used correctly, superstitions can be a very powerful way for me to gain confidence in whatever I do. They give me a sense of control—the feeling that my actions can influence my performance in a positive way. Additionally, if I can figure out a way to manipulate these superstitions, I can change negative thinking to be positive. Instead of worrying that a different pair of cleats will lead to a bad game, I can choose to see that preparing well by wearing the same cleats will lead to a good game. In the end, it’s not the superstition itself that matters, but how it shapes my mindset, which is why it can be a confidence booster or killer.
The Power of Superstitions
Even though I believed in things such as ghosts and aliens when I was younger, I never really believed in the “traditional” superstitions. That’s why I never understood in elementary school when everyone made a big fuss over someone opening an umbrella indoors. I mean, it’s just an umbrella. The one superstition I did believe in was that four-leaf clovers were good luck, and I often spent hours at parks looking through the patch of normal clovers, picking them up, thinking they were four-leafed, just to realize that the leaves were just overlapped with each other. But this belief was also crushed when I learned that four-leaf clovers were just genetic mutations usually caused by people stepping on them, and that some guy found a sixty-three-leaf clover in his backyard. For a while, I was superstition-free.I can’t recall when I started developing them, but at some point, I began subconsciously creating my own superstitions. Unlike the commonly known superstitions, which are about luck, my superstitions were more about how they affected my own performance or success, kind of like rituals. For example, throughout my years of playing soccer, I’ve developed the superstition that I won’t perform well in a game if I wear a different pair of cleats than the ones I practiced with. I’m not sure when it started, but it was probably after I played a poor game and wanted something to blame it on, blaming it on the fact that the Predators I played with weigh and feel completely different from the Alphas I practiced with.
Although I know it's some BS I came up with one day, I freak out whenever I bring the wrong pair to my games. It's almost become a mentality issue that if I don't bring the right pair, I will play badly like that one day years ago, and the thought of that actually affects my gameplay. Breaking this superstition is, in my mind, like opening an umbrella indoors. Just like most people are afraid to try, just in case it causes bad luck, I am afraid of bringing a different pair of cleats, just in case it ruins my game. And so, I am writing this essay after packing my second pair of cleats, knowing darn well that I’m not going to wear them even if my other pair gets wet or torn.
I have plenty of these kinds of superstitions that are able to control my mentality and confidence. While these can have negative effects on me, there are also plenty of superstitions that help boost my confidence. For example, a few weeks ago, I saw a video on how track star Noah Lyles does tuck jumps before his races and started implementing that as a pre-game ritual for myself. And because I played well that game, I have started doing it since then. Now, although this jump is indeed scientifically proven to help by activating the nervous system and muscles, it doesn’t specifically mean that I’ll perform well overall. However, in my mind, this pre-game jump has become something that brings good performance, boosting my confidence before games.
From these experiences, I’ve learned that, if used correctly, superstitions can be a very powerful way for me to gain confidence in whatever I do. They give me a sense of control—the feeling that my actions can influence my performance in a positive way. Additionally, if I can figure out a way to manipulate these superstitions, I can change negative thinking to be positive. Instead of worrying that a different pair of cleats will lead to a bad game, I can choose to see that preparing well by wearing the same cleats will lead to a good game. In the end, it’s not the superstition itself that matters, but how it shapes my mindset, which is why it can be a confidence booster or killer.
What is up Yutwin!! To preface, why did you never believe in "regular"/more common superstitions? Was it because you didn't hear about them? What was it? Why was the four leaf clover superstition different from the umbrella one? I also had something similar to my own superstitions growing up, however for me they were simply just nightmares. ANYWAYS I feel like you're also being too hard on your younger self, after all, you have to consider the good aspects to such as wild imagination. It must've fostered itself in other things that you have done positively, right? I also really like how you bring back opening the umbrella indoors, that was a really smart choice. Overall, ts is the tuffest in tuffland!
ReplyDelete-Ana Artz