Episode #543
Notice when doubt changes your behavior.
Negative self-talk can show up as expecting a meeting to go badly or lowering a goal before attempting it. Pay attention to those ordinary moments.
Practice remembering why you can succeed.
Use a success log to collect accomplishments and challenges you’ve handled. Record it as a voice memo and revisit it regularly.
Give a setback a useful review.
Identify what you can learn, then return your attention to successful performance. Jim’s Tony Gwynn example illustrates that sequence.
Recognize effort, success, and progress.
The ESP questions give you a way to review the day even when the unfinished work is getting most of your attention.
Put mental preparation on the calendar.
Choose one repeatable practice, such as the success log, visualization, a spoken mantra, or work with a coach. Give it a place alongside the work you already do.
“Mindset is a big piece of winning. How you think, which is oftentimes the default, is not the best way of thinking.”
“ Are you working really hard, but skipping the keystone habits that will truly unlock what is possible for you?”
Two equally trained athletes line up to race. One expects to win. The other is already questioning whether he can keep up.
Who are you betting on?
Of course you’d back the athlete who trusts his preparation… yet you can walk into a meeting with years of experience and let one past mistake convince you it won’t go well?! Because when you expect things to go badly, you’re more likely to hold back in the very moments you’ve worked hard to be ready for.
I experienced this as a wrestler at UVA. I was voted the hardest worker on my team three years in a row, yet fell short of becoming an All-American in the first two. When I started practicing how I thought about mistakes and prepared for competition, I began getting more from the work I was already doing.
In this episode of “Success for the Athletic-Minded Man,” I show you how to make that mental preparation part of your routine. Drawing on Dr. Nate Zinsser’s The Confident Mind, I explain how to build a success log you can turn to when doubt creeps in and use a brief daily reflection to keep unfinished work from overshadowing the progress you’ve made.
Before you talk yourself out of your next opportunity, listen to this episode. You’ve earned more reasons to believe in yourself than you’re giving yourself credit for.
