8 October 2000

World famous professional heavyweight boxer Joe Louis used to hang a quote above his locker. It was there to push him, to drive him to greatness, and to answer the beckoning call of success. It merely said "Remember that while you are not working out, somebody else is, and when you meet head to head, he will beat you." Who is this "someone" that so inspired this boxer to international fame? What was it about this invisible "someone" that made such a big, fierce, and violent man so afraid of failure? The answer: his own emotions.

Examples like this are many. In fact, many athletes are pushed by the phantom of failure. Ask a runner, any runner. In fact ask me. I remember a routine training run by myself in the rain. Nobody else was around and I was doing a speed workout. For ten miles, the only footsteps I heard were my own and mile by mile I drifted into my own competitive world with a "nobody is going to beat me" attitude. At about mile nine when my legs were dead and I still had not seen anyone else, I though I heard footsteps closing in on me. I dared not turn around otherwise he might pick up on my "fear" of being overtaken. So I picked it up; I ran the last miles faster than any other ones on exhausted legs. After I finished, I turned around to see who this man was who had been following me all along and who had pushed me to a new pain threshold.

So I looked, and I saw nobody. I saw my own emotion of fear and it was that which inspired my speed. Antonio Damasio makes this point a bit more vaguely and a bit more scientifically, but it is examples such as these which make his point clear.

Now let me use another example, a place kicker for any football team, specifically, a man named Gary Anderson for the Minnesota Vikings. Let me take you back to the 1998 season where these incredible and seemingly unstoppable Vikings went 15-1: near perfection. Then, after rolling over two playoff teams, they advanced to the NFC Championship Game–the game right before the Super Bowl. To win this game, they needed a field goal, just three points, from the sure leg of their perfect (42 for 42) field goal kicker throughout the year. So Anderson missed it, he pulled it wide left and the game was over. Anderson again let his emotion of fear conquer his seemingly perfect ability to place the ball through the uprights.

What is this emotion that so inspires these unflappable athletes to act differently than normal? Why fear? It is not plainly obvious, but it also works the other way as well. Take a baseball team. They play 162 games a year from April to maybe October. Why? Because from day one of spring training, the Coach instills in them that feeling of winning, what it would feel like to clinch a World Series Title, how well deserved that big diamond ring is and how that feels when it is put on and worn around. They want to get that trophy, to pop the champagne bottles, to call themselves champions just by being able to hit a ball, throw a ball, and catch a ball better than any other team.

Why does a bike rider spend 21 days riding up the Class V Alps in an event called the Tour De France? What does tearing up your legs and making your heart race mean? They know that going down hills at 70 miles per hour on slick roads, they know that wearing the yellow leader’s jersey, and that getting kissed by those two girls at the end of a 200 mile stage is the feeling of success, and they want it.

Not to overuse the support of examples but look at Olympians. They jump far and get rewarded for it. They run 100 meters fast and get recognition. They jump and skip and smile and cry because four years of intense training makes them leap the highest in the world. It was that feeling that comes with a gold medal that pushed them those four long years.

This link between emotions, be it fear or success, and actions is what Damasio is trying to establish on a level which is apparent through these many examples. The similarities between the emotions behind these examples and the outcome of the actions, however, are many. In fact, they can all be narrowed down to physical desire of that emotion. That is, the hope that one day, one’s actions will lead to actual sensation of those emotions even if it is for just one second or hour or day. It is that feeling you get when you stand up at the plate with the winning run 90 feet away, the crowd on its feet cheering, whistling and making any noise that they think can inspire you to greatness. They are feelings and emotions which pull the greatness out of you and that is what Damasio is getting at.

These inspirational sentiments are quite amazing. They are the cause for men’s and women’s careers. They sometimes make or break a game, a season, or even a life. They create smiles, tears, celebration, and mourning. They inspire greatness on so many levels and shame on others. They are directly linked to the lives of the runner, the football player, the boxer, the baseball player, and every other sport imaginable. They are what make people get up early and lift weights, they make others run throughout the snows of winter, they make athletes do anything for that one chance at success; Just one chance to grasp that illusive moment which contains success. That one at-bat, that one kick, that one punch, that one outreached hand asking for nothing but a momentary sensation of what one has desired forever. And that is the link between emotions and actions.