5 Reasons Athletes Don’t Do Mental Training
Over the many years that I’ve been working in the field of sport psychology, I have championed the benefits of mental training for sports to thousands of athletes. This work has ranged from talks to junior programs to ongoing consulting with individual athletes and teams. As many of you know from my dozens of articles […]
Read MoreMake Mental Training a Priority in the Off-season
This article is a challenge for you to take an essential, yet often neglected, piece of the ski racing success puzzle and make it a priority during the off-season. Let me elaborate in three ways. First, I speak to racers, coaches, and parents around world about the psychology of ski racing. Whenever I get the […]
Read MoreEven the Best Struggle Mentally
Here’s a great article about Rafael Nadal in which he describes struggling mentally this year on the pro tennis tour. Roger Federer also discusses his mental difficulties. For most people, it’s hard to imagine that such such gifted and experienced athletes who have had so much success in their careers could, for example, lose confidence and get […]
Read MoreTaylor Radio Interview about the psychology of sport
I was recently interviewed by Glenn Whitney of SportsCoachRadio.com about the many different aspects of the psychology of sport. A good listen (scroll to bottom) if you want to learn more about how the mind impacts athletic performance.
Read More“Be Different” for Increased Performance, Productivity, and Profitability
I’m asked regularly by companies to help them find ways to increase their individual and organizational performance, productivity, and profitability. In these situations, two old adages come to mind: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever […]
Read MoreLeader-as-Performer: Lead the Way to Maximum Success
In a recent post, I introduced you to The 5 Things Great Leaders Do Very Well, in which I described the five essential roles that leaders must fulfill to be successful:
1. Leader as person
2. Leader as performer
3. Leader as team builder
4. Leader as decision maker
5. Leader as change agent
In the follow-up post, I explored Leader as Person in which I argue that who you are is how you lead.
In this post, I will examine your role as Leader as Performer and how this focus ensures that you and your team have the necessary tools to maximize your performances and, as a result, your successes.
Performance is so vital because it is the foundation for two higher-order goals of individual and organizational success in the business world: productivity and profitability. The only way to maximize these two is to maximize performance.
Read MoreFor Athletic Success, You Pay Now or Pay Later
Just about every sport has an off-season during which a key focus should be on building your fitness that acts as the foundation for all of your other sports efforts. Because all aspects of sports preparation have become so sophisticated in the last decade or so, regardless of your sport, without the necessary strength, agility, and stamina, you have little chance of achieving your athletic goals no matter how good you are technically, tactically, or mentally.
The problem is that, for most young athletes, conditioning isn’t all that fun, in fact, it can be downright tiring, boring, and, yes, painful. Which means that you may not be entirely psyched to work out as much or as hard as you should. I heard this complaint twice recently from young athletes I’m working with. Both knew they should be in the gym regularly, but when it came time to head out the door, they just couldn’t pull the trigger as often as they know they should. Plus, when they got to the gym, they just couldn’t seem to push themselves as hard as they knew they should.
If you feel this way, don’t feel too bad because even the most successful and committed athletes don’t always enjoy their time in the gym. Even for the world’s best athletes, conditioning isn’t always fun and it is usually really painful. But each of them make a choice and you can too.
Read MoreUnified Model of Performance Psychology
A fundamental question I have been exploring in the 30 years that I have been working in the field of performance psychology is: What does it take to succeed? My life’s work has been devoted to answering this question so that anyone who is willing to pursue their dreams can find success. Yet, in recent years, I have […]
Read MoreThe 5 Things Great Leaders Do Very Well
Leadership is one of the truly hot topics in the corporate world. Can you believe that there are more than 17,000 books on leadership available on Amazon? That statistic tells me that there are no clear answers on the best way to lead a company, organization, or team. Given that I work extensively in both the corporate and sports world, where effective leadership is essential, I wanted to share my perspective on what makes a great leader.
Let’s start with where I stand on leadership. First, what is a leader? Your answer may include inspiring employees, having a strategic vision and plan, or knowing how to hire or delegate. All of these are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for being a leader. But the purest definition of a leader I can offer is: someone with followers. Without them, there is no leader.
I also want to add a rather heretical view of leadership: I don’t believe in leadership styles. We certainly hear plenty from all sorts of business gurus that this style or that is ideal. You hear about autocratic, democratic, collaborative, visionary, transactional, transformational, participative, laissez-faire, servant, the list goes on. I would argue, however, that talking about styles has little value because we are incapable of leading in a way that is inconsistent with who we are as people. However you lead, there are certain roles you must fulfill to be a successful leader of your team and to achieve the goals you have established for your business. I believe that leaders have five essential roles to fulfill to be effective.
Read MoreIn Sports, Results Matter, But to Get Them, Ignore Them
There are a lot of misconceptions about the role of results in achieving your athletic goals. Of course, you need good results to be successful, but the question is how to go about getting those results and, ironically, the answer is not what parents, coaches, and athletes often think.
First, I want to define ‘outcome’ and ‘process.’ An outcome focus involved focusing on results, rankings, and beating others. Notice that this focus is on things outside of you. A process focus involves focusing on what you need to do perform your best such as preparation, technique, or tactics. In contrast to an outcome focus, a process focus is entirely on you.
Now it’s time to discuss the paradox of outcome focus. Most people think that, to get the results you want, you need to focus on those results. But, and here’s the paradox, by having an outcome focus actually reduces the chances of your achieving the results you want. Here’s why. First, when does the outcome of a competition occur? At the end, of course. If you’re focused on the outcome, you aren’t focused on the process, namely, what you need to do to perform your best from the start to the finish of the competition. Second, what makes you nervous before a competition, the process or the outcome? The chances are it’s the outcome, more specifically, a bad outcome such as not winning or achieving your goals. The bottom line is that when you focus on the outcome, you are far less likely to get the outcome you want.
In contrast, when you focus on the process, you increase your chances of getting the results you want. If you focus on the process, that is, what you need to do to perform your best, how you are likely going to perform? Pretty well, you can assume. And if you perform well, you’re more likely to achieve the result you wanted in the first place.
Here is my wish for you: never think about results. In an ideal world, I would like you to be entirely process focused and basically never have results cross your mind.
Read More