The Power of Creativity \(Book 1\): Learning How to Build Lasting Habits, Face Your Fears and Change Your Life pdfdrive com

I’m Afraid of Success
When the World Chess Championship began in 1990, Garry Kasparov (b. 1953)
was a success. His opponent at the championship was Kasparov’s long-time rival
Anatoly Karpov, and the odds were in Kasparov’s favour.
The  two  chess  players  competed  in  24  games  over  three  months,  with  12
taking place in New York and 12 in Lyon, France.
Although  Kasparov  began  the  competition  strongly,  he  began  to  commit
mistakes.  He  lost  the  seventh  game  and,  at  the  close  of  the  first  half  of  the
tournament, the men were tied.

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After losing a big game, Kasparov looked fragile and afraid. He was in real
danger of losing his world title.
The New York Times reported, “Mr Kasparov had lost confidence and grown
nervous in New York.”
Instead  of  quitting,  Kasparov  turned  to  a  secret  mental  strategy  for
conquering  his  fear.  When  he  sat  down  at  the  board  for  a  decisive  match  in
France,  Kasparov  puffed  up  his  chest,  adopted  a  fiercely  aggressive  playing
style. He acted as if he were confidence itself.
Chess player Josh Waitzkin wrote:
Everyone in the chess world was afraid of Garry and he fed on that
reality. If Garry bristled at the chessboard, opponents would wither.
So  if  Garry  was  feeling  bad,  but  puffed  up  his  chest,  made
aggressive  moves,  and  appeared  to  be  the  manifestation  of
Confidence itself, then opponents would become unsettled. Step by
step,  Garry  would  feed  off  his  own  chess  moves,  off  the  created
position, and off his opponent’s building fear, until soon enough the
confidence would become real and Garry would be in flow. He was
not  being  artificial.  Garry  was  triggering  his  zone  by  playing
Kasparov chess.”
Through  acting  like  a  champion,  Kasparov  subsequently  won  the  sixteenth,
eighteenth and twentieth games and retained his title as World Chess Champion.