High achievers are often highly superstitious as well

There’s an interesting article in Psychology Today about magical thinking: what happens when our natural ability to find and recognize patterns in events goes a little haywire and we start to believe (or half believe, which is enough) in some strange link between events and the outcome we want.

. . . you are wired to find meaning in the world, a predisposition that leaves you with less control over your beliefs than you may think. Even if you’re a hard-core atheist who walks under ladders and pronounces “new age” like “sewage,” you believe in magic.

Magical thinking springs up everywhere. Some irrational beliefs (Santa Claus?) are passed on to us. But others we find on our own. Survival requires recognizing patterns—night follows day, berries that color will make you ill. And because missing the obvious often hurts more than seeing the imaginary, our skills at inferring connections are overtuned. [All quotes are from the Psychology Today article]

The more stressed we are, the more we are — unconsciously — pulled towards superstition and magical thinking. It helps if we feel that someone or something is guiding our life towards some good end — even if we can’t yet see it. It makes our situation seem less bleak if only we can sense some meaning in it.

Wishing is probably the most ubiquitous kind of magical spell around, the unreasonable expectation that your thoughts have force and energy to act on the world. Who has not resisted certain thoughts for fear of jinxing oneself? Made a wish while blowing out birthday candles? Tried to push a field goal fair mid-flight using nothing but hope and concentration?

Those high achievers . . .

Why are high achievers especially prone to superstition? The more important success becomes, the worse failure feels; even if — especially if — you’ve never experienced it.

High achievers dread failure in a way most ordinary people can scarcely imagine. It’s the ultimate disgrace; the very worst thing that can happen in their world. If your whole persona and ego is wrapped up in being the “wunderkind” who excels at everything and never puts a foot wrong, even a small mistake can undermine your whole edifice of self-confidence and start making other people think that perhaps you’re not so special after all.

Why do sports champions sometimes have odd pre-game rituals? Because the superstition — the magical thinking — helps them ward off fear of failure? Why do they become so upset and highly-strung about setbacks? Because they try so very hard to be perfect.

Perfectionism is it’s own source of magical thinking

We live in a society that rewards success grandly and tends to despise failure. Many of our attitudes are linked to virtual worship of those people who make it to the top of their profession or sport. We idolize them and — as Eliot Spitzer found out — become almost irrationally upset if they show evidence of being just as human, fallible, and sometimes stupid as the rest of us.

Macho organizations have a particularly strong bias towards over-playing success. In those cultures, winning is everything — so losing quickly becomes the worst of “sins” anyone can commit. “Get on or get out” is their only career advice.

But perfectionism — too much value given to over-achievement — soon generates its characteristic forms of magical thinking and superstition. People start to believe that they have some magical force guiding them; that they cannot put a foot wrong, because, somehow, the universe is on their side; that they are the “chosen ones,” the “masters of the universe.”

Thus egos grow and ordinary people become objects of derision, to be exploited and manipulated in any way the super-successful wish. It becomes the “right” of the high achievers to claim massive rewards for themselves, while denying a decent living to those below them in the ladder of life.

Hubris brings Nemesis

In Greek mythology, “hubris” — excessive pride and ego — quickly attracted the attention of the goddess Nemesis, whose job it was to humble those who went too far. In our own times, stress and burnout are often her favored tools; along with being caught out ignoring society’s norms and acting as if the world owes you anything you want.

Magical thinking won’t save anyone from the consequences of his or her own actions; nor from looking stupid when what you fondly believed was the result of your undoubted brilliance turns out to be nothing but dumb luck.

The only true way to ward off the stresses and fears that come along with success is to stick to being as realistic as you can.

Magical thinking can be plotted on a spectrum, with skeptics at one end and schizophrenics at the other. People who endorse magical ideation, ranging from the innocuous (occasional fear of stepping on sidewalk cracks) to the outlandish (TV broadcasters know when you’re watching), are more likely to have psychosis or develop it later in their lives. People who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder also exhibit elevated levels of paranoia, perceptual disturbances, and magical thinking, particularly “thought-action fusion,” the belief that your negative thoughts can cause harm.

Reality is going with the flow

Enjoy your successes; just don’t ignore the amount of luck involved, or the way that others helped you. Try to avoid failures; only don’t dread them in some superstitious way, or you’ll never be able to learn from them. Accept the high points happily — but accept the low times as well.

The only true magic in this world is the magic of life itself. Some of that is positive and some negative. That’s the way things are. There’s nothing any of us can do to change it.

Winning isn’t all that matters. There’s living a happy, satisfying, and useful life — and that counts for far more, believe me.

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