Archive: Success
Discipline Equals Freedom – Your Path to Greatness
June 24, 2020Discipline equals freedom. Have you heard this phrase before? If you’ve read the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Bain, then you are familiar with the concept and this post will be a refresher. Otherwise, you may be confused about the relationship between discipline and freedom. On the face of it, discipline and […]
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The Necessity of Surrender for Growth
June 18, 2020The pursuit of mastery requires many things, but one of the most important is surrender, specifically, the necessity and willingness to surrender. It may sound strange, but surrender is actually necessary for victory. Now, this may be an unintuitive thought, but keep in mind what kind of surrendering we’re actually talking about. We don’t mean […]
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The Cognitive Revolution Hits Sports
May 11, 2020Something really interesting happened in the world of psychology during the 1950s. Students of psychology know it as: The Cognitive Revolution. Before this, a school of thought called “behaviorism” was rooted in the psychological status quo. This approach was, unsurprisingly, focused on the behavior of humans and animals. Think of Pavlov’s famous experiment with the […]
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What does a return to sports look like?
April 28, 2020Depending on your location, your ability to train and compete has been restricted for up to eight weeks or more. And, you’re probably tired of the situation. I think we are all starting to feel quarantine fatigue. It’s no longer novel. Is there an end in sight? Hopefully. Because as athletes and coaches, we want […]
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PERMA – E is for Engagement
April 21, 2020During this lockdown for Covid-19, you are probably spending a lot more time at home than usual. Are you bored yet? Of course, there are a lot of things you could potentially be doing with your free time – if you have any. Reading books, watching informative videos, taking online courses, etc. are all possible […]
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The True Importance of Good Sportsmanship
April 15, 2020In the philosophy of sport, the ethics of athletes’ behavior is a big focus. It should come as no surprise, then, that the idea of sportsmanship is a very popular subject for sports-minded thinkers. There isn’t an athlete or player out there that hasn’t heard all about it. But I don’t need to tell you […]
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Mental Skills Training Plan for the Corporate Athlete
April 15, 2020Do you work in an office or work for a company? Perhaps you’re in sales. If so, you’re not just an employee. You’re also a corporate athlete. And athletes have to train in order to manage their physical, mental, emotional, and motivational energy. In today’s environment, that could be more challenging than ever. For many […]
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Practicing Against A Wall – Find A Way
April 8, 2020In 1974, I started playing tennis. I was 6, and tennis was booming in the US. It was so popular, that it was difficult to get a court at our swim and tennis club. Fortunately, there was a backboard. It was always available. Over the next few years, that wooden backboard became my most reliable […]
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To Be Truly Great, You Must Be Humble
April 1, 2020As athletes and high performers, we all have dreams of achieving true greatness. But what is true greatness? What does being great mean to you? And how do you achieve it? These are important questions to consider. And here is a first principle of being on the path to greatness: If you want to be […]
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PERMA – P is for Positive Emotions
March 30, 2020Admittedly, it can be difficult to be positive during a global pandemic. People are sick and many are dying. The economy is shattered. You’re probably concerned about your family, your health, money, food, safety, etc. These primary concerns need your attention. However, positive emotions can be helpful in getting you through this crisis. They are […]
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Simplify – The Best Adjustment You Could Ever Make
March 26, 2020One of the realities of sport, especially a sport like tennis, is that sometimes we don’t play well. Sometimes things don’t go our way. It could even be that the opponent is playing out of his or her mind – that’s annoying. In these moments, our natural tendency is to be judgmental and overanalyze the […]
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Developing Coping Skills Through PERMA
March 25, 2020Living during a global pandemic certainly presents its share of challenges and stressors. How are you holding up? Admittedly, it’s not easy to be plucked out of our normal lives and placed into lockdown. We are all having to get used to different ways of doing things and taking care of ourselves. And you may […]
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Building Toward the End
June 12, 2019In competition, you are always building toward some end, some culmination. It might be the end of a tournament, the end of a match, or the end of a performance. The present moment is almost never the end itself, but this is where things can get confusing. What you are doing in the present moment […]
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The Most Important Point
March 28, 2019Note: Even though this post is written from the perspective of tennis, it applies to any sport in which the action can be broken down to the next play, the next pitch, the next possession, the next 1-on1 battle, the next move, the next moment, the next whatever. It’s always about what comes next. When […]
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Adversity Makes Us Better
March 15, 2019One of the great paradoxes of striving for improvement and mastery is that we expend a lot of energy avoiding situations that will make us better. We avoid adversity. We avoid obstacles. We avoid challenges. But the reality is that all of these things are normal. Adversity is normal. Challenges are normal. Trying to avoid […]
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