Fishers High School

GETTING TO NEUTRAL A few years ago I stumbled upon the work of renowned mental performance coach Trevor Moawad, who emphasized a unique framework he called "neutral thinking," designed to help people excel in the highly competitive world of sports, business, and life. In his book, It Takes What It Takes, Moawad - who sadly passed away from cancer back in 2021 - defined neutral thinking as “a high-performance strategy that emphasizes judgment-free thinking…[It] shuns all attempts at illusion or outright self-delusion…[and it] strips away all the bull and the biases, both external and internal.” I found this concept unique and intriguing. I had of course experienced plenty of negativity and plenty positivity in my life as an athlete and as a coach. I believe both can be powerful drivers of performance, and I’m guessing you’ve probably experienced each in the important areas of your own life. But the idea of thinking...neutrally? That was new and different, and it offered me an alternative to my own approach to performance. I'm hoping it might for you here today, too. At its core, neutral thinking is really about managing what Moawad calls “the innate privileging of the past. We elevate the past,” he says. “We give it too much importance.” I could relate to that idea, about the privilege and the power we can give to the past. It’s easy for any of us to allow what’s happened previously to influence what’s happening presently. We don’t make, or worse, even take the shots because of the ones we’ve shot and missed before. We let our previous mistakes dictate our current decisions. But neutral thinking is a skill that allows us to move on from the past, so we can perform in the present, and more effectively influence the future. It’s easy for any of us to allow what’s happened previously to influence what’s happening presently. That’s not to say we should ignore what’s happened or try to act like it didn’t exist. Instead, Moawad encourages us to put the past in the appropriate place. That starts by recognizing the three different states of our reality. First, there’s what has happened. Then, there’s what is happening. And finally, there’s what will happen. Those of us who say we want to win in any important area of life are responsible for recognizing that regardless of our past, the road to our future success is narrow, and at this point all we can control in getting there is to take the right next step. How do we do that? “The only way to stay on that path is to stay neutral,” Moawad insists. “To be aware of the past. Grounded in the present. And in control of the next behavior.” That formula frees us from what’s happened already by clarifying that the next event is independent from the last - and that it can actually be different. This is a key, core belief of neutral thinking, that regardless of what’s happened before, the past is not predictive of the future. Here’s how Moawad puts it: “A mistake at work, in a marriage, as a parent, in a big-time college football game - it’s real. It happened. I don’t believe in pretending it didn’t. I don’t believe in telling yourself anything other than what it is. But I also don’t believe in enlarging it, in viewing it as the end of the world, which is what many of us do. What happened happened. Okay. Fine. What happens next has nothing to do with that. What happens next will be determined by what you do next, and what you do next will be the absolute right thing, I promise, if you focus on that thing and that thing alone.” That’s a good word for me to hear today, and I thought it might be a good word for you today, too. I don’t know the details of your past, but I do believe there’s power in this approach to your performance here today. That starts with recognizing that the road to future success is narrow, and at this point all you can control in getting there is to take the right next step. Don’t allow what’s happened previously to influence what’s happening presently. Be aware of your past, be grounded in the present, and be in control of your next behavior. It's ironic, but I think it's true. Sometimes the most effective way to move forward is by getting to neutral.