When speaking on the 'An Irishman Abroad' podcast recently, Padraig Harrington made a fascinating point about the power of positivity, and the impact a positive mindset could have on a golfer who has just hit a shot into the trees.
If you walk off with a smile, you will get a better 'lie' than the guy who walks off grumpy.
And of course, everybody would stand back and say, 'Well, that's physically impossible. The golf ball is where it is.'
But somebody who is grumpy never sees all the options. They'll pick the wrong option of the limited options they have, and they'll execute the wrong option badly.
Whereas somebody who is positive will see all the options. They will see everything. They'll make the right choice. And when they go to execute it, they'll be so much more excited and happy about it that they'll have a far greater chance of it coming off.
They do have a better lie. They are in a better situation.
One could forgive Michael Conlan for complaining about his lie. He bounced off to the Olympic Games in Rio with a smile on his face and excitement in his stride. Any time he was interviewed he was generous with his time and conveyed the mood of a man filled with the expectation and anticipation of somebody who had devoted four years of his life to perfecting a craft of which he was already a master.
We all know what happened to Conlan in Rio, and that he could have spent those four years building up more money to support his young family. That he could have become a world champion. That he could perhaps have saved himself a few years of fighting for a living, when now he is only really beginning that process.
Sinking into a deep depression. Refusing to engage with a public who cared so much but couldn't possibly know his true anguish. Keeping quiet and dealing with the situation by burying himself in silence. These are all paths Conlan could have gone down to deal with his disappointment. Paths we could in no way have criticised him for taking.
But instead he has done the opposite. Conlan has somehow taken what he might see as four wasted years, a cruel injustice, cause for endless anger, and turned it into something positive.
His behaviour since the Olympics is indicative of this, not least in his demeanour just hours after he 'lost' the fight.
When the dust settles, the only thing we have that matters is family❤️ thanks for the amazing support 2day everyone! pic.twitter.com/tWF7hhsE3d
— Michael Conlan (@mickconlan11) August 16, 2016
In his interview with RTE immediately after the fight:
You know what? I've a big career ahead of me.
Speaking to Kieran Cunningham of the 'Irish Daily Star' in Brazil shortly afterwards:
For some reason, this isn’t meant to be. My career isn’t going to take the Olympic champion path. This was meant to happen for a reason. Look at the champions it happened to before. Holyfield, Mayweather, Roy Jones Jr. Look at what they all became.
Feel sorry for himself?
He chose to praise the positivity of his team-mates.
The O’Donovan boys are brilliant. They were coming into our room to use the scales. Every time they’d come in, I’d be going, ‘Youse are going to win gold, lads’.
I just kept giving them positive energy every day.
They were able to have the craic and enjoy it. That’s what I liked about them ‘uns.
Or emphasise (to The Irish Times) his desire to protect future generations from what he went through.
One of the main reasons I did it was because I want no young athletes and no young boxers to go through what I went through.
I dedicated 18 years of my life to boxing and for my dream to be ripped away from me the way it was, was horrible. If I can help boxing in the future I’ll be very, very happy.
And, last night on 'The Late Late Show', he told Ryan Tubridy how he intends to use the rage within him to achieve the maximum within his sport.
It will be the driving force in my career, a catalyst to me becoming a world champion and the greatest fighter Ireland has ever had.
Conlan's conduct and attitude since his fight has been nothing short of an extraordinary display of positive psychology; a study of how to turn a devastating negative into an empowering positive; an example of how to acknowledge a heartbreak but not let it hold you back.
Michael Conlan has taken this blow and has come out with his chin up and eyes forward, demonstrating more than any success in the ring could have why he has what it takes to become a world champion. Why he has the mental resolve, the ability to fight through forces working against him.
Unmanufactured, unfiltered, honest: it's how Conlan operates, with no hiding place for himself. He states his objectives and feelings openly, and you can be sure that if on his professional journey he loses, he will address the reasons for it head-on. Perhaps it's a conscious decision to pressurise himself into maintaining the high standards he sets for himself. More likely it is just simple and brutal forthrightness that is a feature of the place where Conlan and Paddy Barnes were formed. In the part of Belfast that shaped them, there is an honesty and an intolerance for bullshit of any kind that forces you to acknowledge what's right in front of your face.
It means that Michael Conlan refuses to run from disaster in the same way that he refuses to run from the triumph that he fully believes lies ahead of him.
And, in treating those two imposters just the same, he's as much of a man as he would be standing before us with Olympic gold around his neck.
