The Momentum Formula
The hidden force behind high and low performance.
Why we lose momentum and how to get it back
Have you ever wondered why, on some days, everything seems to come easily, while on others the simplest things suddenly feel awkward? A pass you’ve played a thousand times goes astray. Words that would normally come effortlessly refuse to appear. You walk into a meeting feeling unusually hesitant. The ability is still there, but somehow you can’t seem to reach it.
Most of us put it down to confidence. I’m not convinced that’s the whole story.
I think one of the best examples I’ve ever seen played out in front of millions of people. It happened during the 2022 World Cup Final. It was half-time at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar. 18 December 2022. Argentina are 2-0 up.
Lionel Messi is 35 years old. At the time, almost everyone assumed this was his last World Cup, that the final piece of an extraordinary career was within touching distance.
In the Argentine dressing room, every player knows what that means. Not just a trophy, or a medal. It was the fulfilment of a story a nation had been watching unfold for decades. On the programme I was watching, the commentator called it a fairytale.
You can almost feel what that does to people, even watching on a television screen ten thousand miles away. Forty-five minutes separate them from history, from Messi’s glorious final chapter. Forty-five minutes that feel both enormous and impossibly fragile.
In the French dressing room, the atmosphere was entirely different.
France were losing. Badly. They had barely touched the ball in the first half. By most measures, their World Cup was slipping away.
Later, we learned that it was Kylian Mbappé who delivered the emotional rallying cry inside the dressing room.
His message was along the lines of:
“This is a World Cup Final. It cannot get much worse than this. Either we let them play around us for another forty-five minutes, or we go out there and change things.”
I think Mbappé did something good leaders do instinctively. He changed the nature of the problem in his team’s mind.
Winning the World Cup was still a huge, distant objective. Winning the next tackle wasn’t. Pressing together wasn’t. Finding Mbappé earlier wasn’t. Scoring the next goal wasn’t.
His message did not magically transform France. For nearly thirty minutes after half-time, they still had little to show for it. Argentina remained largely in control, even playing with a swagger.
But France had begun asking a different question.
Not:
“How do we save the World Cup Final?”
But:
“Can we press higher? Can we find Mbappé earlier? Can we put Argentina under pressure for the first time in the match?”
Momentum can be seized back by moving attention away from the size of the threat and towards the next achievable action. Good leaders can do this, so can big moments.
As France grew into the second half they began to have some moments, small wins that started to build evidence. Then came the big moment that turned the tide in the match.
Thirty-four minutes into the second half, France built pressure through Mbappé and won a penalty. Mbappé scored it himself.
Ninety-seven seconds later, he scored again.
2-2.
Argentina would eventually recover and win the match on penalties, which makes the lesson even stronger. Momentum is not permanent. It can be lost and recovered.
Ninety-seven Seconds That Changed Everything
Until then, France had little evidence that the game could be rescued. Now they had all they needed. Belief grew and momentum followed.
At exactly the same moment, Argentina experienced the opposite. Forty-five minutes earlier they had been protecting a lead. Now the fear of losing stole all their momentum.
If you can find the footage, go back and watch it, because what you will see in those ninety-seven seconds is more than a scoreline changing. Argentina’s movement becomes hesitant, even clumsy, their passing tight and cautious.
France suddenly seem a yard quicker. The game looks completely different, and yet the players are the same. Their talent is the same. Their preparation is the same.
So what changed?
There is a phrase I use with every team, every leader and every athlete I work with.
Under no pressure, an average team can look world class.
Under pressure, a world-class team can look average.
There is a simple formula behind this story, and behind every story like it.
The Momentum Formula
Momentum equals a constant divided by pressure.
M = k / P
The constant, k, represents underlying Capability: the skill, preparation and talent of a person, team or athlete.
What changes is P.
So what actually changed during those ninety-seven seconds? Not France’s talent. Their attention.
As pressure rose in Argentina’s players, cortisol and adrenaline began their work. Attention narrowed. Movement tightened. Decision-making slowed. System 2, the part of the brain that keeps thinking flexible and options visible, began to go offline.
France’s players, by contrast, had something new.
Their attention shifted from the enormity of winning the World Cup to the possibility of winning the next few minutes.
As pressure fell, France moved closer to what is often described as a flow state*. Attention became absorbed in the task, movement became freer and decision-making more instinctive.
Behind the scenes, the brain was quietly changing gear. The chemistry of threat began to give way to the chemistry of performance. Instead of devoting its resources to scanning for danger and avoiding mistakes, the brain became better able to access the skills, patterns and instincts that years of practice had already built. Nothing new had been learned in those ninety-seven seconds. The players simply became able to express the Capability they had possessed all along.
That is what I mean by momentum.
Momentum Everywhere
Once you start looking for this, you begin to see it everywhere.
You will almost certainly have experienced it yourself, in situations that have nothing to do with football.
There are moments when everything clicks. You are playing well, thinking clearly, the words come easily and decisions feel obvious. You make the decision, give the presentation, organise the meeting, and it all seems to happen without friction.
The next moment, the same tasks suddenly feel awkward and forced. Your Capability hasn’t changed. k is constant. What has changed is P.
This becomes especially damaging when the difficulty starts to feel Self rather than Other, when a missed pass or a poor meeting stops feeling like a Fleeting problem you will correct next time and starts to feel like evidence of something Lasting about you.
So how do the very best performers recover momentum?
How To Recover Lost Momentum
In every case, the underlying talent has not changed. What changes is the pressure that prevents it from being expressed.
Whether you are the one under pressure or you are the coach, leader, teacher or parent trying to bring out the best in someone else, the first move is to focus Attention Direction somewhere better than the threat. This is what Identify Your Outcome, Skill 1 of the 7 Skills to Impress™, is designed to do.
An Outcome is not a result. It is not “win the match”, “don’t mess this up” or “make a good impression”. Those are all forms of threat-focus and, under the formula, they raise P.
An Outcome is a clear, specific answer to one question:
“What do I want to happen here, right now, that is within my control? What is the next step I can take?“
Too often, a footballer’s Outcome becomes “score the goal.” Great coaches shift attention to the movement, timing and decisions that make scoring more likely. What we call Stops and Shots Outcomes.
When I coached interview candidates, the Outcome was never “get the job.” It was “give the best performance you’re capable of.”
In a way, this is exactly what Mbappé did in the French dressing room. He did not solve the whole World Cup Final. He simply focused the team on what was achievable in the next moment.
When attention moves to a genuine Outcome, System 1, the instinctive, fast-reacting part of the brain, stops scanning for danger and starts Sifting and Sorting for ways to achieve it. P falls, and momentum rises.
High-Performance Imprinting (HPI) takes this a step further. It is the technique of holding that Outcome in mind with enough clarity and detail that it begins to feel familiar, imprinted into System 1 before the pressure situation even arrives.
Athletes who use it go into high-pressure moments with their attention already pointing in the right direction. The pressure is still there, but it no longer dominates because the mind already has somewhere more useful to look.
Mbappé changed the question France were asking themselves. My interview clients focused inwards. Different circumstances, different personalities, but the same underlying psychology. The formula is the same in every case.
So the next time your momentum disappears, the first question may not be:
“What’s wrong with me?”
It may simply be:
“Where is my attention directed?”
Your Capability has not suddenly disappeared. More often, pressure has redirected your attention towards threat, consequence and self-protection.
Threat-focused attention changes what we do. We hesitate. We overthink. We play safe. Momentum disappears.
Change your Attention Direction and your actions begin to change too.
Focus on:
The next sentence.
The next decision.
The next conversation.
Small successful actions compound and build momentum.
Momentum releases confidence and allows your Capability to be expressed.
And that is why the best performers rarely try to recover confidence.
They focus on the next step.
What Are You Thinking?
I may be wrong.
Does M = k / P?
My view is that Capability changes far less often than momentum.
Have you ever had a moment where your momentum suddenly disappeared, even though your ability had not changed?
What happened, and what helped you get it back?
I’d love this to become a community where we share ideas and experiences for our mutual benefit. So I’d genuinely love to hear your story.
*The Neuroscience of Flow State
| Neurochemical | Role in Flow |
|---|---|
| Dopamine | Increases motivation, focus, pattern recognition, learning and reward anticipation. Makes the task feel compelling. |
| Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline) | Heightens alertness, attention and reaction speed. Too much creates anxiety; the optimal level sharpens concentration. |
| Endorphins | Reduce pain and discomfort, allowing sustained effort and making difficult tasks feel easier. |
| Anandamide | Sometimes called the “bliss molecule.” Enhances creativity, lateral thinking and neural connectivity. Helps ideas connect more freely. |
| Serotonin | More involved after periods of successful flow. Contributes to feelings of wellbeing, confidence and emotional stability. May help consolidate learning. |
| Acetylcholine | Supports sustained attention, precision and motor learning. Particularly important in skilled athletic performance. |
