At its core, doing the impossible is a choice. A loser says, “It may be possible, but it’s too difficult.” A winner says, “It may be difficult, but it’s possible.”
The lesson Lou Holtz learned in his very first game as a head college football coach. You can only coach one team — yours.
Real toughness isn’t throwing fists or getting in someone’s face. Real toughness is absorbing negative feedback, stepping back from its sting, and re-examing it for ways to improve.
Like famous magician Harry Houdini, people who do the impossible aren’t more gifted than others. They’ve just found the right strategy.
Malcolm Butler, unlikely hero of the Super Bowl, just kept getting better. It’s harder than it sounds. Improvement takes focus, persistence and the mental toughness to work outside your comfort zone, all without any guarantees.
It took the impossible to create the Super Bowl. Forty-six years ago, the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, despite entering the game as 19 1/2-point underdogs. “We’re going to win on Sunday. I guarantee it,” said Jets quarterback Joe Namath, who backed up his words with a 16-7 victory […]
“And the impossible dream comes true!” With those words, broadcaster Al Michaels put an exclamation point on the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s gold medal. Now, 35 winters later, that gold medal reminds everyone that what seems to be impossible can actually happen. For the next 17 days, Dr. Rob Gilbert and I will be offering […]
Comedian W.C. Fields, while riding in an air balloon, yelled to the ground to ask, “Is this Kansas City, Kansas?” When told he must be lost, Fields replied, “Kansas City is lost. I am here.” Not many people go through life with the certainty that Fields did. Fear of the unknown and the fear of […]
“With Jeter there are no surprises,” says my friend and co-author Dr. Rob Gilbert, a professor of sport psychology at Montclair State University. “He’s like a restaurant chain. You can go anywhere in the world and get the same thing. He’s never made an error off the field. He’s made some on the field, but never off.”
No pain, no gain. You’ve heard it many times. But do you apply it to your own life? Katie Ledecky, 17-year-old swimming champion who looks very much like the next Olympic superstar, does. After smashing her own world record in the women’s 1500-meter freestyle over the weekend, Ledecky referred to what it takes to compete […]