Spain is already in the round of 16. The adventure of De la Fuente’s team continues after becoming group leaders, winning all their games and not conceding a goal. For many they have exceeded expectations, others maintain that they have met them in the face of a twilight Croatia and a lesser Italy. But the question that inevitably arises is Who dictates our expectations? Carlos Bardem told me one afternoon, “I am much happier since I have learned to lower my expectations. “I don’t expect much and I’m grateful for all the good things that come.”
Expectation, the great threat
Anatoly Karpovthe world chess champion, warned that “The threat of defeat is more terrible than defeat itself.” According to the RAE, an expectation is the reasonable possibility that something will happen. Something that is related to the beliefs, ideas or demands that we impose on ourselves to achieve a goal. A concept that is linked to desires, to the education we receive, to the values that govern our lives, to the experiences we accumulate… I have a little sister who has lived in Portugal, Austria, Germany, India and now in Costa Delicious. Being children of the same parents, having studied at the same school and also sharing the same nomadic instinct, she has different life experiences that mean that her expectations have little to do with mine. Getting up, meditating and surfing every morning at dawn before going to work make up her non-negotiable daily routine. I prioritized being a journalist and I live 600 kilometers from the nearest wave. Sometimes…
Those who know say that there are three types of expectations. The predictive They tell us that we are going to win the Euro Cup, anticipating a reality that we still do not know. The regulations, imposed by the social context, they warn that we must also do so by “playing well” because that is what those around us dictate. Although as Filippo Ricci, Gazzetta dello Sport journalist, says: “What does it mean to play well? “Isn’t playing well winning?” Lastly there areso-called “deserved” expectations, the most subjective. They are the ones that drill into our heads warning that we are going to win the European Championship because we deserve it more than anyone else. None of the three guarantees you anything, beyond generating a lot of frustration when they are not met.
The iceberg of failure
Unfulfilled expectations have destroyed the lives of many people. For not complying with what you impose on yourself, and which may be above your capabilities, or because of what others will say. For not living up to what you think others think of you, often wrongly because they don’t even pay attention to you. It is not our responsibility to please the wishes of others. In this scenario, failure emerges like an iceberg. Failure is only the poorly assumed expectation of defeat. Losing is not only possible, it is also necessary because for one to win, another must lose. And you start to lose when you feel the fear of being able to do so. Hence it is only enjoyed when you stop being afraid. Fear blocks you, stiffens your body and clouds your understanding. Those who do not naturalize defeat overvalue victory. And that is the first step to failure.
Defeat is neither good nor bad, it is inevitable. Rafa Pascual boasts of “not having lost any game. When it has happened it is because my rivals have beaten them.” Understanding defeat as a natural fact helps to overcome the fear it produces. I stopped counting the games I lost and the bad decisions I made in life a long time ago. Because I am what I am because of the setbacks I have suffered. One day my father told me: “No ship should sink without its captain.” It was his elegant way of telling me that I must accept my mistakes and continue hauling until the wind turns and I enter astern.
This Spain of De la Fuente is making its way. But every goal he scores and every game he wins increases the expectations that surround him. The predictive ones, the deserved ones and, above all, the normative ones. Three weeks ago, upon arriving in Donaueschingen, few wrote about De la Fuente, if only to ignore him for his lack of charisma. This Tuesday the columns of the sports newspapers, and soon those of the generalists, gloss the achievements of this ‘Españita’ of an author. Now the danger for this team truly begins. When expectations begin to grow and the waves that players surf become huge like those of Nazareth.
The size of your success has to do with how you handle disappointments. And expectations do not improve or worsen the results, they only change the way we live the experience. But if the demands of De la Fuente and Pablo Amo increase from now on, the man who will be key in this phase of the tournament is Javier López Vallejo, the team’s psychologist. Someone who knows perfectly well what it means to drag the heavy weight of expectations. Milan offered 500 million pesetas to Osasuna for him and although the signing was never closed, Javier always carried it. The goalkeeper that Milan wanted to sign… Pure expectation.
2024-06-25 15:30:14
#Teuto #Chronicles #XII #Surfing #expectations
