Archive: Success
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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Leadership and Discipline – 50 for 50 Ideas #48 and #50
December 31, 2018In my experience, athletes often want to be leaders. There’s a certain amount of prestige that comes with the title of leader or captain. It’s an honor. However, you don’t need a title to be a leader, and having a title doesn’t necessarily make you a good leader. A few years ago, I wrote a […]
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Turn Professional in Preparation & Recovery – 50 for 50
December 9, 2018In The War of Art, author Steven Pressfield writes about the attitude of going pro in the things that you do. The true professional doesn’t wing it every day. He or she knows what it takes to be successful, and does those things systematically. There are no shortcuts, only the commitment to do what is […]
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Vision and Skin Care – 50 for 50 Ideas 39 and 41
November 20, 2018Idea #39 – Get your vision checked In April of 1990, I started working at Shawmut Bank in downtown Boston. It was my first job in the big city, and I was excited about it. Unfortunately, that’s when my vision problems began. For several hours per day, I was staring at a mainframe terminal with […]
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Who Do You Want To Be In The Next 3 Months? – 50 for 50 Idea # 33
October 6, 2018When athletes think about achieving goals, their focus generally goes to what they need to do in order to achieve the stated goal. That makes sense. They want to get to work right away. However, by going straight to the “what,” they are missing an important part of the goal achievement process. They are missing […]
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Listen to a podcast once a week – 50 for 50 Idea #32
September 28, 2018One of the more interesting innovations of the modern age relative to information and entertainment is podcasts. Formerly known as “audioblogging”, the podcast format started to become more popular in the early 2000’s, and now in 2018 they are ubiquitous. Everyone seems to have one; I even did a single episode (and would like to […]
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Daily Inspirational Quotes – 50 for 50 Idea #31
September 21, 2018Everyone loves an profound or inspirational quote, so let me begin with one of my favorites. “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” -Samuel Johnson, English Author & Critic (1709-1784) That quote could probably be a blog post on its own, but I decided to use it here because […]
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50 for 50 Idea # 28: Develop a Personal Philosophy to Compete Better
August 6, 2018A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about the 3 components of Mental Toughness (Philosophy, Character Skills, and Actions & Behaviors). In there, I described Philosophy as the over-arching factor because it could determine how well you could execute the other two components under pressure and through adversity. All great competitors excel at […]
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50 for 50 Idea # 25: Pay more attention to your equipment
July 10, 2018“Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?!” That’s what I said after using a polyester string in my tennis racquet for the first time in my life. The year was 2005, and I couldn’t believe the combination of power and control that I was experiencing with this string. It was like magic. Everything went in […]
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50 for 50 Idea #22: Read 10 books this year
May 31, 2018In one of my previous 50 for 50 posts, I wrote about developing a reading habit of 10 minutes a day (or more). Being consistent with this habit will lead to finishing more books than you could have imagined. It will also help you develop and improve your talent and skills in the long term. […]
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50 for 50 Idea #21: Watch your sport more
May 24, 2018When Bill Belichick was a youngster, he used to watch a lot of football film. At the time, his father, Steve, was a coach at the Naval Academy and one of his duties was to scout Navy’s upcoming opponents. That meant a lot of watching of film, and young Bill was there by his side. […]
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50 for 50 Idea #19: Pursue an Outside Interest
May 9, 2018As human beings, we are more than what we do. We are complex creatures with different strengths and interests, and these are part of what makes us unique. However, sometimes we can get fixated on what we do and we lose sight of the interests that make us happy. Being all consumed with your job […]
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50 for 50 Idea #17: Weekly Reflection Practice
April 19, 2018Do you ever feel that time flies by? Days, weeks and months pass and you can hardly believe that it’s April already. We more or less spend our lives on auto-pilot going through each week while looking forward to the weekend before the cycle starts over again. This is normal behavior, but being on auto-pilot […]
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