Positive Thinking Garbage

"You guys gonna win tonight?"
"I don't know."
"What d'ya mean you don't know? You gotta think positive."
That's a rather familiar exchange between fans and performers, and as a result, there has developed a certain misunderstanding through the years about what positive thinking really is. Most people confuse positive thinking with positive talking, which is what the fan above was concerned with. You don't win games, or shows, or anything or better your performance with positive talking. Saying you are going to win isn't going to make you win. It may be better than walking around saying you are going to lose, but saying anything isn't the answer. Things are won and lost by performers, not talkers.
There probably has never been a loosing person that didn't fill her room, locker, or barn with words like, "We're gonna take these guys. We can do it. Yeah, we'll beat 'em." But they still had no trouble going down to defeat after defeat even though not one of them ever spoke of the possibility of losing.
Good competitors often think about the possibility of losing. In fact, many of them think more about the possibility of losing than they think about the joy of winning, and there is a very good reason for this. Good competitors are usually accustomed to winning, so for them winning carries with it no great joy. A certain measure of satisfaction, yes. But not jumping-up-and-down joy. What motivates a good competitor is not so much any thrill involved with winning, but instead the wrenching disappointment, the agony of losing. You think about losing, about the feeling of walking back to the locker room or the trailer, staying awake that night going over every detail and sitting in class the next day, still unable to get it from your mind. It hangs over you like a sickness and makes you feel like you are suddenly less of a person. Maybe it shouldn't. But it does - to winners.
So, don't think about loosing? Don't talk about it? Maybe not to fans who won't understand, but to yourself or to your teammates, you know how you feel and you know what motivates you. Winning is not going to depend on you telling some fan, "yeah, we're going to give 'em heck!" It depends on preparation and concentration and deep-down desire not to be beaten. It takes not a wish to win -everybody has that- but a gut-wrenching hatred of defeat. "Gut-wrenching hatred" may not sound pretty, but that seems to be something that good competitors  have, even more than a will to win.
In any case, feel free to think whatever you like, and don't be afraid to think hard about losing. Tell the well-meaning fan whatever you like, and remember what you will feel like playing our those last few minutes, behind by ten, having to foul and hope they miss, feeling the gloating joy of their fans and walking home a loser.
Or making a mistake in the ring, watching those other competitors show flawlessly. The feeling when they don't call your name for a place. Watching those other girls taking home the ribbon you and your horse worked so hard for.
Think about losing all you like, because that kind of negative thinking just may be the best motivator you have. In fact, if more players would spend more time thinking of defeat, they probably would loaf less and do more when the victory is still within reach. Down ten with a minute left should not be the first time it enters your mind that you might lose.
Keep your goals and victory in mind, but use defeat as motivation!
Kaylee