Casey Stengel, who managed the New York Yankees to seven World Series titles, said, “The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.” Stengel knew that just one or two players can poison a whole group. That applies to any team, whether it’s in an […]
T.J. Oshie impressed more than than the man in the street with his shootout performance that lifted the U.S. over Russia in a hockey game at the Winter Olympics. He even drew a rave from a big-league baseball player at spring training. “It was awesome,” St. Louis outfielder Matt Holliday said at the Cardinals’ camp […]
You’ve already seen athletes spin and twist through the air at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Those feats are nothing compared to the gymnastics that take place in their minds. “You have to train your mind like you train your body,” Olympic decathlete Bruce Jenner once said. This Huffington Post article by Carolyn Gregoire explains how […]
In just one day, the Winter Olympics have given us breath-taking glimpses into the mental game, from snowboarder Jessika Jenson’s reframing to single skater Jeremy Abbott’s defeated body language. Abbott fell on his first jump in the team competition, finished seventh, and put his head between his knees and covered it with his hands. Jenson […]
You’ve probably heard that there’s no such thing as a stupid question. You’ve heard wrong. There definitely are stupid questions, and if you keep asking them, you will keep getting stupid answers. Here’s an example: “Why does this always happen to me?” Exactly how do you expect your mind to answer when you ask a […]
Forty-four years ago this weekend, Joe Namath changed our world. By leading the New York Jets to an upset over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, Namath rescued the Super Bowl and pointed it toward the iconic event we know today. He did it by avoiding the two biggest mistakes people make: underestimating themselves, and overestimating […]
A few years ago, a friend of mine predicted that the sport of American football would disappear within a generation or so. This friend, a sport psychologist, said a growing awareness of concussions would lead parents to keep their children away from the game. Evidence is growing to help his claim. An August episode of […]
Take a moment to look around your life. At your job, who is the most committed person, who is the least and where do you fall on this line? Same question for your family, your team, your school, you name it. How committed are you? One day a chicken ran around the barnyard, telling all […]
Here’s a wonderful article about failure. There’s just one problem with it. Author Laura Vanderkam lists five reasons why you should fail more often. All those reasons could be boiled down to one, namely, without failure there is no progress. Babies are born with an ability to profit from failure. They try to walk, fall […]
Do you want to be a great coach? Athlete? Entrepreneur? No matter what you’d love to do, you must rely either on nature (innate talent) or nurture (skill acquired through practice and feedback). The question is, which one? For baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb, there was no doubt. His opinion — and Cobb had […]