The Champion’s Mind

If you can spot greatness in someone else, then you already have some of that greatness within you, because only a person with similar traits can recognize those traits in others.

The mental abilities of confidence, concentration, and composure are crucial for being a champion in everything you undertake, be it work or sports or both.

Part of the process requires us to maintain our eagerness to learn and grow, and to take well-trained, disciplined action to make a solid change in our lives.

Attitude is a decision, and it is also a learned behavior, requiring discipline and energy to sustain.

Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, and a vision.

Identify precisely what you do that hurts your own cause the most. Eliminate that action or viewpoint immediately. To perform at a champion’s level, you must break any bad habits. We are all champions until we lose to ourselves.

The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching.

Win the day – This means you should take advantage of the opportunity that each day brings to be the best athlete you can be.

If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse – A winning philosophy that must be embraced to reach personal excellence and competitive greatness.

Feed your positive thoughts so it triumphs against the negatives ones. Feed the right wolf.

Train like you are No.2, but compete like you are No. 1.

Focus on your performances, not on unwanted outcomes.

To perform at a champion’s level, you must cultivate long-term memories for your success, and short-term memories for your failure.

You can hate to lose, but don’t be afraid to lose. Confidence without complacency keeps you on target when you are playing well and winning.

Identify three heroes or role models that you can mirror or mimic when you need a confidence boost during a challenging situation.

Focus, or selective attention, is your dedication to the task at hand to the exclusion of all else.

Full presence produces seamless fusion – you become your performance. Otherwise, you are always one step behind what you are doing because you are judging what is happening and are not fully in the moment. A mind in the moment is not self-conscious or concerned about what opponents or spectators are thinking or doing.

Mental toughness is the ability to remain positive and proactive in the most adverse of circumstances.

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising each time we fall.

Do not take on the additional of being your own coach, parent, spectator, or shrink. Stay in athlete mode by focusing all of your energy on execution, not self-analysis.

Avoid the perils of perfectionism and survive the “paralysis-by-analysis” syndrome – underperforming by overthinking.

It takes 10 years or even longer to become an overnight success.

Motivation will always fluctuate, but it is irrelevant at the moment of truth when you actually act. You’ll discover that full motivation usually shows up during the process, not beforehand.

Know and understand the five stages of loss. The first stage is shock and denial. The second is anger. The third stage is bargaining. The fourth is depression. And the fifth stage is acceptance.

Deal with the small before it becomes large. – Lao Tzu

Find the good, it’s all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you’ll start believing it.