Flubbing a field goal kick doesn’t just bruise your ego — new research shows it may actually change how your brain sees the goal posts. In a study of 23 non-football athletes who each kicked 10 field goals, researchers found that players’ performance directly affected their perception of the size of the goal: After a series of missed kicks, athletes perceived the post to be taller and more narrow than before, while successful kicks made the post appear larger-than-life.
Professional athletes have long claimed that their perception changes when they’re playing well — they start hitting baseballs as large as grapefruits, or aiming at golf holes the size of a bucket — but many scientists have been slow to accept that performance can alter visual perception.
Although many scientists are surprised, Witt says subjective perception is a concept most of us are already familiar with. For example, she said, when running around a track, you may know logically that the long, straight stretch is always a constant 100 meters — but by the end of a run, those same 100 meters appear to stretch on forever.
The researchers used a small, adjustable replica of a goal post to test players’ perception before and after attempting 10 kicks. While standing in front of the real-life goal, participants were asked to adjust the width and height of the model to scale.
The players’ pre-performance estimations didn’t correlate at all with their subsequent success rate. But after 10 field goal attempts, their perceived goal size was highly correlated with performance.
Interestingly, the change in players’ perception didn’t just depend on how many goals they missed — it also mattered how they missed their goals. Folks who failed because they didn’t kick high enough perceived the crossbar to be taller, while those who kicked to the side viewed it as more narrow.
Dr. Judd’s Comments:
It seems that our perception is indeed our reality. In this study those that had failed at the assigned task perceived that their goal was more difficult to attain. We are all guilty of that to some degree. So, was the goal in the study truly smaller than normal? No, of course it wasn’t. Those in the study chose to see it as smaller than normal. The state of our life is OUR choice. The world knocks us around sometimes, but the world will go on despite what we think of it. So we get to decide if we are a victim or a creator. I choose to create! I create a positive environment by seeing the world as a place full of potential. I decided many years ago to be a happy person. If you ask me, “How are you today?” you will get some crazy answer like “Phenomenal” or “I’m having the best day of my life!” This causes people to either smile or give me a suspicious look wanting to know why I am so upbeat! Either way it improves both of our days! Try those words the next time someone asks, “How are you today?” Happiness is infectious so you will both have a better day. It could be the first step to your world being a better place!
Keep your chin up and have a “Phenomenal” day!!
Dr. Judd Wattenbarger
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Don't Miss Out On Your Tax Advantage!
Oct. 30, 2009 (Bloomberg) -- About 35 million Americans may have as little as a month to take full advantage of a tax subsidy for out-of-pocket medical expenses under a health-reform bill Congress is debating. The legislation unveiled in the House yesterday would set for the first time a cap on contributions to Flexible Spending Accounts, a benefit offered by employers that allows workers to pay some medical expenses with pretax dollars. Employers currently set their own limits, generally $3,000 to $5,000.
The proposal is similar to one adopted by the Senate Finance Committee. An average worker could lose about $625 in tax savings by failing to take the full amount before the limits are set. The “open enrollment” benefit-selection period now under way at 95 percent of employers may be the last opportunity to claim a higher amount. “If you’re a parent and your kid needs braces in the next year or two, you may want to expedite that,” said Joe Jackson, chief executive officer of WageWorks Inc., a San Mateo, California, company that administers 1.5 million flexible spending accounts for some 2,800 employers.
The House limits wouldn’t apply until 2013, while the Senate limits would take effect in 2011. The current open-enrollment period, which typically lasts a week or two, is generally the only time workers can decide how much to contribute to their accounts in 2010. About 35 million Americans have flexible spending accounts and they have an average salary of $55,000, said Jackson, who is also chairman of Save Flexible Spending Plans, a coalition of business groups, medical providers and plan administrators opposing the caps.
Employers increasingly are offering such accounts, said Beth Umland, director of research for health and benefits at Mercer, a New York-based human resources consulting firm. About 83 percent of employers with 500 or more employees had health spending accounts in their benefit plans in 2008, up from 52 percent in 1995. The plans let workers deposit money before taxes into accounts that can be used to pay health-related expenses. Typically, all the money must be spent within a year to 15 months or it’s forfeited.
Under current law, depositing $5,000 to pay for a medical procedure such as laser eye surgery would save a worker in the 25 percent income-tax bracket $1,250 in taxes. An employee in the 15 percent tax bracket would save $750. Those tax savings would be cut in half under the proposal to cap the maximum annual contribution at $2,500.
“For the first time people are taking their benefits package and really looking at them,” Gibbs said. “Now is the time to put as much money in there as possible.” The House legislation would generate an estimated $13.3 billion in tax revenue to help fund broader health reforms, according to the nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. The House bill also would place limits on tax-advantaged Health Savings Accounts, which share some similarities with Flexible Spending Accounts, except money in HSAs doesn’t have to be spent by a specific date. It also would prohibit purchases of over-the-counter drugs using Flexible Spending Account contributions.
Dr. Judd’s Comments:
The government giveth, and the government taketh away. Flexible Spending Accounts and their cousin Health Savings Accounts have allowed the American Public to save a substantial amount of money on their medical bills over a number of years through tax breaks. Somebody noticed and the tax-shielded limits are coming down. Now is the time to look ahead. What are you going to do for your health in 2010? Put that money aside now so you don’t lose out on the last year of the maximum tax advantages. Also remember that FSA and HSA funds can be used for most of the services that we provide at Maximized Health.
Yours in abundant health,
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