P.A.C.E

PERFORMANCE AFTER CRITICAL ERROR (P.A.C.E)

Jared Goff is my favorite NFL quarterback.

Why, you may ask? Well, it has nothing to do with his play on the field and everything to do with a concept he introduced to me.

Performance

After

Critical

Error

Years ago, I was listening to a podcast where Jared shared that this was one of his key mental tools used to perform as a quarterback at the highest level.

Here is a link to the full podcast: https://youtu.be/G7GoKYblq4k?si=Bc77UW0lgXNg_dMo

It's a fact of life. Errors happen. We all make mistakes. We all have our own equivalent of throwing an interception in a tie game.

Jared had learned early on in his career as a quarterback that you are truly judged by how well you can perform after making an error. To perform best after an error, as soon as it happens, it's done, it's over. Flush it and don’t let it compound on itself.

You have control over what happens after the error; the error doesn’t change everything. It's still the same game and anything can happen. There is a next play, a next game, a next season. Dwelling on the mistake itself and playing scared is where problems arise.

It has been captivating watching Jared’s story unfold knowing that this was a mental model of his.

For those who aren’t familiar, Jared was drafted by the LA Rams, took them to the Super Bowl, but regardless, has largely been considered mediocre and the Rams chose to go in a different direction and swapped him for Matt Stafford of the Detroit Lions. He went from a Super Bowl-contending team to one of the worst teams in the NFL. Many people wrote off that this was it, his true colors as a quarterback would be seen and this would be the beginning of the end of his career.

Since Jared joined the Lions in 2021, they went from a 3-13 record to a 12-5 record last season and one game away from the Super Bowl.

That is excellent P.A.C.E. In this case, he was likely viewing it as controlling his performance after the Rams' error, who didn’t believe in him. The Rams did end up winning a Super Bowl with Matt Stafford, but Jared has shown he was not just a system quarterback and has been a key piece to the Lions now being a contender and performing better than the Rams last season.

Application

In the lives of us who aren’t NFL quarterbacks, the best performance after a critical error usually involves honesty and acceptance.

Don’t dig yourself a deeper hole, fess up, tell the truth even if it stings; you will be better for it. A little sting is better than letting it grow and grow until something gives, and the pain is much stronger. The truth will set you free.

Accept it. Accept that sometimes in life you throw interceptions. Of course, we shoot for excellence but even the best QBs throw picks. Accept that it happened, move on and perform well after the error. Don’t let the error itself affect your performance moving forward.

This ties into my piece from last week. https://resonance.beehiiv.com/p/remembering-danny-kahneman Wasting precious cognitive capacity on worrying about a past error is less you have available to avoid them in the future.

The best stories have ups and downs, a story with no mistakes or difficulties wouldn’t be an interesting story; why would we want that for our life? Battle, triumph, overcome, be the hero of your journey. Sit back and enjoy all the phases.

Keep the P.A.C.E.

G