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I’m reading this book, Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence.
I was going to wait until I finished it to send you my notes but wanted to send along this piece first.
Whatever your age, whatever your game, you can learn how to use your mind more constructively. You can learn how to stay focused. You can learn to deal with adversity. Stay motivated during difficult times. Avoid distractions. Building mental muscle, like building physical muscle, requires time and effort. The more you work on the inside, the more it will show on the outside. What you think affects how you feel and perform. Training your brain is as important as training your body.
There are seven characteristics of “mental toughness” - behaviors and beliefs about yourself, your work, your sport, and how you interact. A person who is mentally tough looks at competition as a challenge to rise up to rather than a threat to back down from. Like physical skills, mental toughness can be learned through quality instruction and practice.
Competitive. Professional golfer Nancy Lopez clearly defines a competitor. “A competitor will find a way to win,” she said. “Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up.” Michael Jordan’s flirtation with a major-league baseball career is testimony to his competitive fire. Why would the greatest basketball player in history attempt to play another sport? Because he couldn’t accept not trying. Late in life, Joe DiMaggio said he would give away all his trophies and records to be twenty-five years old and able to compete again. “The one thing I both loved and now miss the most,” DiMaggio said, “was the competition.”
Confident. Tiger Woods said, “Every time I play, in my own mind I’m the favorite.” Confident athletes have a can-do attitude, a belief they can handle whatever comes their way. They almost never fall victim to self-defeating thoughts. Jordan said he went into every game believing he was the best player on the court until someone proved otherwise. Very few did.
Control. Successful athletes are able to control their emotions and behavior. They focus on what they can control and don’t allow things that are out of their control to affect them. The hallmark of mentally tough athletes is the ability to maintain poise, concentration, and emotional control under the greatest pressure and the most challenging situations.
Committed. Mentally tough athletes focus their time and energy on their goals and dreams. They are self-directed and highly motivated. Listen to John McEnroe: “There are scores of players who can hit every shot in the book who never make it into a Grand Slam event. Those who make it are there because they are mentally tougher. They wanted it more.” After his free fall from the top of the tennis rankings, Andre Agassi rededicated himself to the game. He worked hard to get back into shape. The results speak for themselves.
Composure. Mentally tough athletes know how to stay focused and deal with adversity. In working with hockey teams, I’ll sometimes approach a player in the locker room and give him a shove when he isn’t looking. I want to see his reaction. Oftentimes the player will instinctively make a fist and draw back his arm, ready to throw a punch. In hockey and basketball the athlete who retaliates is usually the one who gets penalized. I tell tennis players they can expect two or three bad calls in every match, sometimes more. How they manage their emotions can determine whether they win or lose. A mentally tough player will say to himself, “OK, if I’ve got to beat the other guy and the referee, then fine—I’ll do that.” The motto I give to firefighters in the Phoenix Fire Department also applies to you: keep your cool when the heat is on.
Courage. A mentally tough athlete must be willing to take a risk. That’s what peak performers do. In the book Adversity Quotient author Paul Stoltz compares success with a mountain. Only climbers get to the top. The campers, those who get part of the way up and decide to stay where they are, will never feel as alive or as proud as the climbers. As the philosopher said, it takes courage to grow up and to achieve your full potential.
Consistency. Mentally tough athletes possess an inner strength. They often play their best when they’re feeling their worst. They don’t make excuses. Competition is won or lost on the six-inch playing field between the ears.
Practice the seven C’s of mental toughness. Learn to love the competition.
Me and Lucca will see you at the game tonight.
I think you’d like this book. It’s on my kindle, but I’ll buy you a copy if you’ll read it. It’s mostly short stories about world-class athletes with plenty of quotes to remember.
Lucca,
You are growing up fast, so we’ll have to have a talk about “mental toughness” soon if you plan on becoming a superhero.
Love,
Dad