Make Change Your Ally

Anita Brick: Hi, this is Anita Brick and welcome to CareerCast at Chicago Booth. To help you advance in your career. Today we're delighted and in awe of our guest today, that is Roger Crawford. Sports Illustrated named him as one of the most accomplished physically challenged athletes in the world. In recognition of his extraordinary athletic achievements, he was given the prestigious ITA Achievement Award presented by the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

His remarkable story is a powerful example. The challenges are inevitable, but defeat is optional. He is the host of the weekly feature Motivational Mondays, which can be seen worldwide on the Tennis Channel. As a member of the Hall of Fame for people with disabilities, he shares this impressive distinction with fellow honorees such as Christopher Reeve, Helen Keller and former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Roger, as you'll find out, is very prolific in many ways, and he's written multiple books. But today, our focus and I loved it, by the way, just a fabulous read and so encouraging, is How High Can You Bounce? I highly recommend it. So Roger, thank you so much for making the time. I know you're super busy.

Roger Crawford: Well, thank you indeed. I've been really looking forward to this, and I'm just honored that you give me the privilege of being a guest on your program. So thank you.

Anita Brick: Oh, well thanks again. So let's start off. You and I both know that change and challenge go hand in hand.

Roger Crawford: Absolutely. You had mentioned about that. I was born with a physical challenge. It affects all four of my limbs. From the elbows down and from the knees down. I have two fingers on my left hand, one finger on my right hand. I had an underdeveloped left leg amputated when I was five years old, so I wear an artificial leg or prosthesis and I have three toes on my right foot. Now for people listening, that probably sounds like quite a daunting challenge, but I was very fortunate growing up that I had a mother and father that instilled this mindset in me. Everybody faces adversity, some challenges you can see and some you can't. So I guess I grew up believing that, you know, challenges were going to happen. That was inevitable. But defeat is optional.

So I think it begins with saying, okay, reality is we're going to face change and challenge. Then the question becomes, how do we manage that effectively? How can we turn change into opportunity?

Anita Brick: I agree, but different people get challenged by changes that occur, especially if they're not under their control. One of the alums said, I went through a major change recently that impacted my life personally and professionally. I feel that I've lost part of who I am and part of who I was, and with it, my purpose and motivation. How would you advise someone to regain what they lost?

Roger Crawford: I think the question is a really profound one. Any time we go through loss, I think there is always a lesson to be learned. When this person is saying that they lost part of them, or they lost their motivation, or they lost their sense of purpose. What I would ask them is, what did you learn through this? Did you learn about your resiliency? Did you discover courage that you didn't think that you had before? And then I'd ask them to think about, look at where you are and where you want to be and how do you close that gap.

I think mindset is the single best predictor of our success. I mean, I think everybody would agree that the better that you choose to think, the better results you get. I mean, my own life, it got better when I was able to accept what I could not change. My hands and my legs are never going to change. That's the way it is. But my life got so much better when I reached that point. So oftentimes we're working against the unchangeable. You know, in life it is what it is. But Anita, I'm sure you've seen this. We all have. Our mindset determines how we see what is.

Anita Brick: And how do you put that in practical terms? It sounds good theoretically, hypothetically. But it's one thing to say, oh, you know, change your mindset, be more positive, etc., etc. but it falls flat. If someone is in the midst of a big challenge or the change that has occurred is really not of their own making and they're not happy with it. How do you take that from trite to actually actionable?

Roger Crawford: And I understand that people, when they hear a comment like just have a positive attitude, it falls flat. And the truth is it falls flat for me as well. Because it's much more complex than that. It's not just about having a positive attitude. Here's what I believe about motivation. It's thinking about it and then doing something about it and being consistent. That's what I know about motivation, but it always comes down to the individual person. Nobody can give you that motivation. You need to find it yourself. So the first point I would say is what are the controllables? The second thing I would ask them is what can they take from their past that will give them courage for today?

Here's what I mean by that. Oftentimes when we're in a state of discouragement, we feel defeated by change and we look into our past. Sometimes we forget what we probably should remember, and we remember what we probably should forget. If you go back into your past and you relive experiences of past hurt past disappointment, what happens is you start to rehearse similar results. In the same respect, if you go back into your past and you can relive those moments of courage and resiliency and grit, you can then rehearse future results. A mindset really creates the window through which we see our life experience. The book Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck is so powerful about, you know, growth mindset and fixed mindset and the difference between the two.

Someone who has a growth mindset they believe that they have some efficacy. They have the ability to make changes in their life. They can change their attitude. They can change their level of motivation, can’t always change their circumstances, but they can change how they see their circumstances.

Anita Brick: So let's stop for a moment or just pause for a moment and let's put this in context. One of the Boothies said: I find myself around so many people who are negative, from work to family to friends, and I can't eliminate all of them from my life. So where do you start? And if you think about growth mindset when you're surrounded, I would add to that when you look at the media, I mean, that's another whole other layer and that you can shut off. But here's a person who is around a bunch of people who she deems as negative. How would a growth mindset shift her experience of those people?

Roger Crawford: First of all, it's about perspective. Here would be a negative comment a person might make. You can't do that. That's impossible. When somebody says that what they're really communicating is I couldn't do that. Or I think it's impossible. Impossible is just someone's opinion. It's not a fact. Secondly, why are people negative? Why is some people's default negativity? It relieves us of responsibility. It gives someone or something. It allows us to blame that for where we are in life. It gives them a false sense of security.

Anita Brick: But I think we're getting off point a little bit here. You're around people. They're talking about what's bad. Maybe they're not telling me that what I want to do is impossible, but just blaming and complaining and it just goes on and on and on. It's your team. It's your family. It's people that you genuinely like, and you can't just shut them all out. I'm trying to understand at a practical level, how does mindset help you shift? They may not be telling me I can't do something right, but I just can't stand to be around them anymore. I mean, I think that's what this person is saying because it is so weighty and I'm just not sure how to change it. I think that's what she's asking. So how can we help her in very practical terms?

Roger Crawford: Absolutely. So Anita what I would say to her, number one, is remembering that she is ultimately in control of her own thoughts and her own actions. Number two, when somebody is negative like that, it does give this person an opportunity to demonstrate to this other person a different point of view. In other words, when somebody is negative, to give them an alternative view of how they're seeing their circumstances or how they're seeing change. Number three, some of the negativity that comes from people, you must make it a habit of blocking some of it out, because you're going to face it from other people all the time. And if you can somehow block that out, what I mean by block it out is be able to balance that negativity you might hear from what's positive in your own life.

I would say that the question that she asked is a very good one, because I get this question quite a bit from clients I work with, and they'll say things to me like my coworkers are negative, how do I help change their attitude? And I say to them, you can't. It's ultimately up to them.

You know, Anita,  I was thinking about this question because it's such a good one. I thought about an experience that I've had numerous times in my life, and I think, again, it might put other people's negativity into perspective. I've had people approach me after presentations and they've said something similar to this. You know, Roger, I have an aunt, uncle, brother, sister, spouse, whatever who's gone through a difficult time and they're very pessimistic. They're hard to be around. All I hear is negativity. And then I say to them, well, how was that person's mindset before they had these challenging circumstances? And almost to a person they say, you know what? It was just about the same. So what I communicated was it's not about the circumstances, is it? Now it's more about mindset. And I think it's important to understand where that negativity comes from. As I had mentioned to you, it comes from not wanting to take responsibility, not feeling that it was either your actions or your level of motivation that brought you to where you are. And then number two blame’s easy to do. I mean, it's easy to blame other people, but if you want to increase results, you got to decrease excuses because excuses and negativity become a self-imposed limitation.

Anita Brick: And you lose credibility tremendously.

Roger Crawford:  Of course, also negativity comes from fear. If people are afraid, then their tendency, their default is to blame circumstances or other people because they're afraid.

Anita Brick: So how do you have compassion for others who may be in that fix mindset? A fixed mindset can certainly develop in childhood depending on how we are treated. I mean, it was extraordinary. I remember in your book, you talked about being a young child and as many young children in school, you do handprints and clearly your handprints look very different than everyone else's. You wrote your name at the bottom, your parents certainly helped you with this growth mindset. And your mom said to you, which I was like, oh my gosh, what a wonderful thing to say and what an amazingly awesome person. She said, Roger, I'm so glad that you put your name on it. How would I have known it was your hand?

But what if someone hasn’t had that? How do you have them develop resilience? Because when you have more resilience, you're able to have a different perspective, a different mindset, especially in the midst of change that you don't control what something that you would help like a beginner in that quest do?

Roger Crawford: First of all, I would ask people if it's possible that they're underestimating themselves and they're overestimating their challenges. See, oftentimes we can easily overlook our own strengths, our own ability to overcome, our own ability to be resilient. I think everybody has resilience in them. I believe that to my core, the question is, how do you cultivate that resilience? Well, absolutely. And how do you do that without being preachy and say, oh, you know, you're underestimating your strengths and you're overestimating your challenges and they're in the midst of a big struggle.

It can sound really condescending. And off putting. Hw do you build the bridge to let them know that you're there for them, but you're not looking down on them?

Roger Crawford: You know, I make that comment as I look at my work over the years. I think that's been a common challenge that people have faced, that they're underestimating who they are. They're underestimating what they can become. The first thing that I would say to them is, again, I get back to looking at your past, and I want to tell you why I really believe in the power of wisdom. I think it's a really, really valuable wisdom just doesn't happen. It's not automatic. Wisdom is intentional. It's going back and evaluating life experience and learning from life experience that give us wisdom. So the first thing that I would say for somebody who might be struggling is what can you find in your past that would be inspiring about you? And it doesn't have to be anything dramatic. I mean, you talked about my handprints in school. Everybody's done handprints, but it was really a significant moment. The rest of the story is, you remember I said, you know, my mom and dad put that picture of my hands on the greatest art gallery in the world, the Crawford refrigerator. Well, what are your refrigerator moments? Is there anything from your past that you can draw from to fortify your strength today?

Number two, I would ask them, as they're looking forward in their life, is there a way to turn this challenge into an opportunity and just begin to think about that? What happens, Anita, is that if we believe that we can't do something, if we believe that we're not resilient, we work really hard at proving ourselves right.

We really do. And what happens is, if you have the mindset that you know what, I'm going to turn this change into opportunity. What happens is that's what you start to see. In the same respect, if you look at change and you say, I'm defeated, I'll never overcome this. That's what you're going to see. That's what you're going to feel every day.

What I'm sharing really has a practical application. Absolutely. We really can change how we think. We have control over that. We do. We can change our perspective.

Anita Brick: Let's go back and get a little practical again. I love what you said about the past. I think it's really good to unpack those experiences and document them, because sometimes we don't know when we're going to need them. And if they're already unpacked and documented, that can help. And I think you refer to this in the book, it's good to understand other people's experiences, even if they're not the same as yours, because you can gain encouragement and even a path through that. We talk about it in, again, in practical terms. In addition to unpacking the past, what else could not just this person, but what could anyone listening who feels that the change is beyond their control and they want to create a new path, but they just need some starter points to either remind themselves of their resilience, which we've been talking about. But what else is it that they can do in a very actionable way, to shift their mindset, to increase their resilience? Because we know that both are possible?

Roger Crawford: Let's talk about the importance of living in the present. And I saw a great example of that when I was doing some work with Tennis Channel, and I heard Rafa Nadal during an interview. For people listening, they may not have any idea who Rafa Nadal is, but what is important to know is he is a champion tennis player. And they asked him, they said, what's your next goal? And I thought he was going to say something like, well, I want to win a major, I want to win the US Open or Wimbledon. Here's what he said, Anita. He said to have a good practice tomorrow. And then he explained, he said, because if I can just have a good practice tomorrow, then that's going to better prepare me for the next day.

And I thought, wow, what a powerful principle and how it can make our lives and challenges and change a little more manageable, that we do the best that we can with what we have in that given time? Does that make sense?

Anita Brick: It does make sense. It seems that part of what you're saying, especially when you use the example that you just did, is that we need to have actions that we completely control. He had his action of practicing is something he could control. So in the midst of change, finding even one thing that you can control and master, that seems like that would give people a new level of confidence that they could build from.

Roger Crawford:  It's controlling the controllable. And the good news is that when you control the controllable, it builds your confidence. It shows that you are taking action. I think that's so important today because opportunity and change always go hand in hand. It seems to me that you really can't have one without the other.

Anita Brick: True, but how do you foresee that opportunity? I feel like what we're talking about is a little circular, because yes, there is opportunity. We all have challenges. We've all created value from those challenges to some degree or another. But are there things that a person can do? Does it mean that you zero in in your field and start following people who are visionaries, who are predicting the trends, or at least observing the trends and extrapolating it from there? I think most people need something concrete to do, because if they don't have something concrete to do, their mind can go. And coming up with not so great visions of the future. When you are thinking about people who you have helped in the past, what have you suggested that they do concretely? Do you suggest that they experiment with changes that are low risk? What do you suggest that they do in concrete terms? Because although what you're saying absolutely makes sense without the concreteness, I don't think it will be taken as seriously.\

Roger Crawford: This is what I would suggest to people. Just to clarify, find something in your life that requires an emotional commitment. Here's what I mean. Goals are something cerebral, goals are valuable because it's a way to measure our progress, and goals require an intellectual commitment. But a sense of purpose requires an emotional commitment, and it's something you can wrap your heart around. When you can identify your sense of purpose, it fuels your resilience because of that emotional commitment. So does that make sense, Anita? Because I want to make sure that I'm answering your question as far as it being concrete.

Anita Brick: Yeah. But again, I feel that purpose. People think of it is I am going to find the cure of whatever. Let's talk about you. When you came up with it sounds like tennis was a goal. What was the underlying purpose? So that it wasn't just getting balls over the net?

Roger Crawford: I think it was wanting to prove to myself and wanting to prove to other people that I was an athlete that happened to have a physical challenge, not a physically challenged athlete.

Anita Brick: I love that that's really good because number one, sometimes people think of purpose as being massive. And I'm not saying that that wasn't important to you, and it may have been massive to you, but it was something that you control. You didn't control people's opinions, but you controlled your commitment to that. Which is the emotional connection, which is incredibly powerful.

So maybe what we're saying, I mean, you're saying is that purpose is your underlying why for the goal.

Roger Crawford: Right. And I think maybe where people might get tripped up is the idea of purpose, because I understand what you're saying. You need it. Sometimes people put the idea of purpose on this grand scale, and that's really not what I mean.

It's more about what are you emotionally committed to? What drives you? I also think at the end of the day, Anita, most people want to be a difference maker. They want to have impact. How can you as a person take your unique skill set and mindset? Because no one has the same skill set in mindset that you do, you're it. How can you take that and really make an impact? And what I mean about making an impact is contribution, because I really think at the end of the day, that's what most people want. I mean, do they want to be financially compensated? Of course. But we all know that that's fleeting over time. It doesn't mean as much as it did, you know, early on in your career.

I think it's more about meaning. And Covid has really shown this in how people are thinking about their future, because this was a radical change for all of us, and it was unexpected. I mean, like I said, we can expect change, but this was one of those black swan events, but those happen through this experience. There's been a lot of good that have come out.

Anita Brick: You just landed on a very, very important point. I think that point is with contribution, you look at your strengths, you look at the contribution that you want to make. And as you look at the change that at whatever level you're engaging with that change, the purpose can be, how can I use my strengths to create value, to create a positive outcome in the midst of the change? And how am I the person to do that?

Roger Crawford: Absolutely. I think that's a terrific point. As I'm listening to you, I'm thinking about that connection of purpose and adding value and contribution, and it's crystal clear to me how important that is. I really believe that that is such an important driver, finding those areas of your life where you can add value, that you can make that contribution. I think that also is what fuels that emotional commitment.

Anita Brick: I agree, I also think that it fuels the growth mindset because now you're saying, all right, I have these strengths as a commitment to make a contribution. Well, I can't figure it out like based on what I've done in the past. So maybe I just think about it a little bit differently. Maybe all of this fuels and starts flipping around. Even the person who had all these negative people around them, they start thinking differently because now it's based on their strengths and new a renewed commitment.

Roger Crawford: That's a great point, Anita. My take is you should identify your strengths, those unique strengths align them with a sense of purpose or your passion, and then align them with your path where you want to go. Spend your time and energy on that identifies your strengths. You work really hard at making them even better. You align them with your sense of purpose and your path. Then you can reach the level of extraordinary.

Anita Brick: Agree, agree, and then the changes that come along, either you foresee them or they happen and you don't foresee them, can be fuel to make those strengths even better rather than being wiped out by it.

Roger Crawford: Right. It makes life better, and it makes motivation easier.

Anita Brick: And the whole thing about change and challenge and and so on is that some of it depends on–my friends would call it life condition. Like, you know, how strong or weak do we feel at any particular time? Because when we do feel stronger and if we have that foundation in our strength, right, we feel stronger, we're more capable.

Roger, do you have time for one more question?

Roger Crawford: Of course.

Anita Brick: Okay, good. All right. So here we need to be super practical. What are three things that you would advise individuals to do to make change your ally or their ally so that they can have greater success and dare I say, happiness?

Roger Crawford: Well, first of all, you had mentioned earlier about the fact that I had played tennis and you said it was more than just hitting the ball over the net, which I totally agree. The experience of playing tennis taught me, however, that consistency was more important than perfection. So the first thing I would say to the people listening is that make your benchmark consistency and not perfection. One thing that erodes our motivation fairly quickly is trying to be perfect. Do strive to be consistent. Strive to be better.

Number two, focus as much as you can on the controllable instead of the uncontrollable. Find what are the areas that I can take action on right now that I have control over? Now, you don't have control over the economy. You don't have control over the weather. There are some circumstances that are out of your control, but you do have some areas of your life that you're totally in control of. So what can you do today?

What action can you take in those areas that are controllable? And number three, as you look into the future, what do you see? What would you like to accomplish? Develop as much clarity as you can about what you'd like to accomplish in the future. Make it crystal clear, because the more clarity you have, the more focus you have and the more drive you have.

So know exactly where you want to go knowing that that may change. Change is going to happen. It's inevitable. So we're more easily accepting of change when we're expecting change, not being surprised by it, but knowing that it's going to happen. So those are three ideas that I would have, Anita, for the people listening

Anita Brick: I think those are great ideas and I think that they're very actionable too. So thank you for that. Thank you for indulging me and getting very practical. And Roger, I know you've written multiple books. When I think about How High Can You Bounce?, it is encouraging. Some of the things were good reminders for me, and there's some new things too, and it really shows your heart and where your commitment is. So thank you for writing that and all that you do and being an example as you are, that excuses don't really get us anywhere in action, even if we have things that happen that were unexpected, that we can't change, that we don't control, we still can win on our own terms.

Roger Crawford: Absolutely. Thank you. Such a pleasure to be with you. I really, really appreciate the opportunity.

Anita Brick: Well thanks again, Roger, and keep doing the work you're doing because we all need it now more than ever.

Roger Crawford: Great. Thank you.

Anita Brick: And thank you all for listening. This is Anita Brick with CareerCast at Chicago Booth. Keep advancing.