We as humans suffer from an inaccurate view of ourselves. We see others accurately and they see us accurately but we don’t see ourselves accurately. The Freudian observation is “We are not accurate observers of our own behavior”. We give ourselves disproportional credit for when we win and blame outside influences for when we lose.
Often when winning timing and circumstances outside of our control play a big part but we want to take all of the credit. Often when we lose, we want to blame it all on external circumstance when we should take more responsibility for our part. It seems a paradox but in fact it is not. If you place all of the blame on losing on outside circumstances it renders you impotent to be able to effect change. If you take all of the credit for winning you become ungrateful and can distance ourselves from our support team.
That is why coaching can be such an effective method for achievement. Teaming up with an outside agency who’s sole goal is to focus on performance through a higher level of self awareness and setting up the processes to succeed and holding folks accountable to the process.