The Peak Performance Expert

The transformative power of imagery or visualization is well known by sport psychologists and by successful athletes.  It is one of the tools that can enable you to create the brain you want. 

Yes, that’s right.  It is possible to systematically create the kind of brain you want – a brain that will stay focused on what you want to focus on and not get rattled by distraction; a brain that will be reflective and responsive and not impulsively reactive. Sound good?  (You’ll be hearing much more on this topic as time goes on…) Read the rest of this entry »

Mental preparation is often overlooked when people prepare for that big presentation, court date, or interview.   

If you would like to enjoy similar success as Olympic athletes, the first step, as mentioned in my previous post is to establish clear daily goals. 

The second step is to include imagery training in order to: Read the rest of this entry »

As mentioned yesterday, Olympic athletes who are most likely to win medals are those who are mentally ready.  Mental readiness was more important to Olympic success than physical and technical readiness. 

The good news is that mental readiness is something that can be learned and used by everyone.  You don’t need to be an athlete to benefit from mental readiness training; these powerful techniques can help you perform better in your chosen field. Read the rest of this entry »

How do you prepare for a big event like a major presentation, sales call, jury trial, or job interview?  Do you have and use a mental preparation plan?  If you’re like most people, you do not have such a plan which is too bad because you’re missing the opportunity to work on and improve the most important factor in performance success.  Read the rest of this entry »

It may be hard for you to picture a bunch of Marines meditating but that’s just what they did under the guidance of The Mind Fitness Training Institute  in a study to boost resilience. 

The short version of this story is that mindfulness training works.  That’s not news to the many people who already practice a mindfulness based program but it certainly was news to the Marines who engaged in this project. 

Here is an example of one of the mindfulness exercises the Marines were taught:

An early exercise was to have the men consciously shift attention between 2 places.  They were asked to sit quietly and simply bring their attention to the point of contact between their feet and the floor or their seats and the chairs or their hands on their laps. If or when they noticed their minds wandering, they were asked to bring their attention back to that point of contact. 

Once their attention had stabilized, they were then asked to shift their attention to a new bodily sensation or sound.  It could be a focus on breathing or sounds in the environment.  When attention moved away, they were asked to bring it back to the breath or the sounds.  After that had stabilized they were then asked to shift back to the original point of focus. 

The shifting back and forth trains the mind to be able to place attention where you want!  And when distractions occur, to bring it back to where you want it to be. 

This is an easy and portable exercise that works to boost working memory capacity which is essential to healthy cognitive and emotional functioning.

You might think that Marines are already mentally tough!  Well, sure – those who become Marines are brave and willing to put themselves in harms way but mental toughness represents a specific constellation of qualities and behaviors that some Marines may lack. (These include ability to concentrate and manage distractions; ability to bounce back from set-backs and mistakes; ability to manage emotions, etc.)  

For example, we know that the number of suicides among Marines increased from 33 (among a total troop level of 208,000) in 2007 to 42 in 2009. After eight years of war, record numbers of troops are experiencing depression and anxiety, as well as the more severe conditions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).  According to the Pentagon, American troops in Afghanistan are suffering the highest rates of mental health problems since 2005, and morale has deteriorated. Mental problems send more men in the U.S. military to the hospital than any other cause.  

 Being a warrior in the ambiguous battlefield that is Iraq or Afghanistan induces high stress that can lead to impulsive, erratic behavior and anxiety and depression.

Liz Stanley of the Mind Fitness Training Institute  along with her colleague Amishi Jha has created a program to teach Marines mindfulness.  The goal is to build a resilient Marine who is able to withstand the rigors of combat stress.

Bottom line?  It works! Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since Osama bin Laden met his demise, there has been significant interest in the mystique of the Navy SEALs.  Who are these tough guys and how do they train? Can an average citizen learn some of these mental toughness techniques? 

Well, if you have any fantasies of becoming a SEAL, think again.  The training and initiation is beyond rigorous and somewhere between 75 – 90% of applicants don’t make it. 

Still, you can learn some of the techniques used by SEALs and in fact, you probably already do! Read the rest of this entry »

Pitching for the World Series might give anyone the jitters.  Not Cliff Lee.  The ace pitched a complete game and beat the Yankees 6 – 1 but it was his cool-as-a-cucumber demeanor that stood out.  How does he do it? 

Mr. Lee told the New York Times: Not nervous at all,” he said, before pausing and adding: “It’s been a long time since I’ve been nervous playing this game. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life. I put all the work in. You do everything you need to do to prepare, and I try not to leave anything to chance. So what’s the point in being nervous? I’ve already done the work. It’s game time. Time to go out there and have fun and execute and let your skills take over.” 

He has a point.  A peak performer knows how to prepare well and is sure to spend adequate time prepping not only his or her physical game but the mental game as well. As I’ve said many times, “winning is the science of being totally prepared” and Cliff Lee showed us all what that looks like.

Hooray for the army for recognizing that their soldiers can benefit from emotional resilience training. 

Approximately one-fifth of troops returning from combat have mental health problems. War is hell – you bet – and what used to be called “shell shock” back in WWI is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a serious constellation of symptoms that can lead to prolonged depression, significant under-functioning in all areas of life and – sometimes – suicide. 

The program is going to cost $117 million dollars.  It is based on the research of Dr. Marty Seligman, chairman of the Positive Psychology Center at U-Penn.  Dr. Seligman is a big name in psychology circles for his illustrious academic career and his ground-breaking research and interventions. 

What do they mean by resilience?  According to Gary Tallman, an Army spokesman, “Resilience can be defined as having the ability to grow and thrive in the face of challenges and bounce back from adversity.”  

Sounds good to me.  It’s nothing new, either; at least to those of us in the peak performance and sport psychology world. Many of the techniques and interventions derived from sport psychology are designed to help people become more resilient.  We sometimes use the term “mental toughness” to describe it. 

A mentally tough person is able to perform at an optimal level no matter what the circumstances.  How you get to that point is what my coaching and training programs are all about. 

Stay tuned as I write more about what the Army is doing and how you might be able to incorporate this into your life.

So the fabulously talented LeBron James refused to shake hands with his opponents after the Magic won at Amway Arena in Orlando because, as he said, “It’s hard for me to congratulate somebody after you just lost to them.”  

Of course it’s hard.  And therefore…? So if something’s hard, you shouldn’t do it?  

Mr. James also said, “It’s not being a poor sport or anything like that. If somebody beats you up, you’re not going to congratulate them. That doesn’t make sense to me.”  

Sure if someone beats you up in the schoolyard or in an alley, you would not congratulate that person but this is organized sports where there are traditions and expectations.  The tradition is that the losing team acknowledges the success of the winning team and that everyone acts like a gracious gentleman and/or lady.  Pouting and sulking are frowned upon. 

I do not want to take anything away from Mr. James’s exceptional athletic prowess and fierce determination to win but this behavior is unseemly and tarnishes his otherwise glowing image. 

There are several qualities that contribute to mental toughness and one of them is what I refer to as the championship mindset.  This refers to individuals who are willing and eager to assess their performances in an objective fashion in an effort to learn from mistakes and improve.  This objectivity allows them to control their emotions in order to assess, learn, and move forward.  

A championship mindset includes the ability to recognize that sometimes the other guy wins and when that happens, a true champion will be able to step back and be curious as to why that happened. This curiosity encourages an objective stance, a learning perspective that promotes questions such as: “How did the other team win and why did we lose? What can be learned from this?” 

Sure it hurts.  It hurts a lot especially because of the heroic effort Mr. James delivered but with a little more effort he could show us that he is mentally tough not only on the court but in life.