Time dilation
At the gym today, my trainer timed my plank time. He usually times my plank duration and keeps egging me on, announcing progress after ever 15 seconds.
Today, I knew I was doing good but not because he told me how I was doing but because I felt strong and knew I had held up quite long. But then he suddenly announced, I was doing good since I had lasted 30 seconds. My mind reacted in panic, “What just 30 seconds?” This was because I thought I had done longer and not knowing triggered anxiety.
Get The Invisible Host’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
As a result, I decided to abandon my effort at that point. The moment I dropped to the floor, he told me he was fooling around and that I had actually done 1 minute 13 seconds.
I told him if he had he kept announcing my progress, as he had done in the past, I could have crossed 2 minutes.
And then I got thinking. Why did my mind give up when things seemed very difficult or impossible? If for example, he told me I was exceeding expectations, I might have wanted to go on?
So what is the psychology that one can adopt as coaches, parents, teachers and partners. Should progress be announced at regular intervals? Or, should one shower loads of praise on someone they care about as encouragement? Does this positively impact performance? Finally, does misreporting or remaining quite about someones progress slow them down?
