“Playing to Win” Mentality
When I meet with students and graduates, I typically find myself using a variety of sports clichés to get my point across. Your analysis “was a slam dunk,” or “you knocked it out of the park.” “The ball’s in your court.” “Keep your eyes on the prize.” "Don't let up." “Run through the finish line” during these last two weeks bar preparation.
Sports clichés are used in about 50 percent of corporate boardrooms and everyday conversations, according to psychologist Don R. Powell, the founder and CEO of the American Institute for Preventive Medicine and the author of Best Sports Cliches Ever.
Sports clichés are prevalent when making comparisons between sports and hard work because both recognize grit, dedication, and that never-count-me-out attitude.
Another cliché that graduates sometimes hear me say is “play to win rather than play to lose.” Generally, in pressure situations, athletes tend to forget what they learned in practice and start playing not to lose. Instead of playing in the most efficient way by trusting the skills they learned, they become very cautious and try to avoid mistakes at all costs. It happens most often when a team gains a lead and just tries to run the clock out and hope their opponent doesn’t catch up in time. Often, because their opponent plays to win, their opponent comes back and wins the game.
The “playing to win” versus “playing not to lose” mentality can also be thought of as preparing for the bar exam “to pass” rather than preparing for the exam “not to fail.”
Some might see that phrasing as a small, insignificant change in semantics with little difference, but a positive mindset is important.
When you’re preparing to pass the exam, you understand mistakes are made in practice. It’s part of the process. When you’re preparing not to fail, you might be scared to make a mistake or get questions wrong in practice.
When you’re preparing to pass the exam, you're willing to study outside your comfort zone, focusing on areas that you might not want to tackle for fear of getting questions wrong. When you’re preparing not to fail, you might focus on areas that are more within your comfort area, not pushing the edges of what you know and what you don’t.
When you’re preparing to pass the exam, you might see the bar exam as a challenge—you know it’s going to be difficult, but you also know it’s achievable with the appropriate practice. When you’re preparing not to fail, you see the bar exam as a threat—and threats are intimidating and burdensome.
This distinction between seeing a test as a challenge rather than a threat is highlighted in the book, Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.
In Top Dog, the authors discussed a study conducted by researchers with undergraduates at Princeton University. The researchers presented the students with a test of GRE questions. For half the students, the questions were presented in a threat context—they were a test of the students’ ability, a judgment on whether they truly belonged at Princeton. The other half of the students received the same questions, but in a challenge context. That test was titled “Intellectual Challenge Questionnaire,” and the questions were construed as brainteasers.
The students in the threat context answered 72% of the questions correctly. However, the students in the challenge context, answered 90% of the questions correctly. Again, the tests were the same. The only thing that changed was the students' perception of the test as a threat or a challenge.
I know it might be difficult to do, but try to think of the bar exam as an achievable challenge rather than an intimidating threat. Prepare for the bar exam to pass rather than not to fail.
