In case you missed the BCS Championship Game on Monday night, or you don’t follow college football, or any sports for that matter, but you do take an interest in performance under pressure, please watch Mr. Cam Newton in action.
I had never seen him play before last night, when I watched the National Championship game. From the first snap, I was mesmerized.
Football is a game of high energy and high tension, yet there was Newton, taking the shotgun snap from center with a remarkable sense of ease.
He wasn’t just relaxed. He lacked all tension. His body language was languorous, slow and fluid; he seemed at home in the pocket, as though here were stone cold sober while his rowdy friends were running amuck at a beer bash.
He lacked anxiety, urgency, even concern. He moved slowly and deliberately, handing the ball off to his running backs with careful attention, or whipping a pass to a receiver with a quick flick of his wrist.
Don’t misunderstand. When he had to be, he was quick like a lizard in a thicket. But most of the time, when he was back in his office, he worked with deliberate care.
He was the calm eye in the middle of the hurricane, the still point in the rowdy room, the pole in the middle of the tent. His body language alone communicated confidence, ease, and a sense of pre-ordained victory.
Let us all walk out on our stages with such body language. Better yet, let us all find that sense of confidence and mastery that would allow us to show up in the world the way Cam Newton showed up last night.