Jason Selk is one of the world’s leading peak performance and mental toughness coaches. He won a World Series ring as the director of mental training for the St. Louis Cardinals and he’s written a number of great books we’ve covered including Executive Toughness and 10-Minute Toughness.
In Organize Tomorrow Today he tells us that our MIND needs to be trained just like our bodies. And, just as our physical fitness begins to deteriorate within seventy-two hours of our last workout, so does our mental toughness. Therefore, he says, we need to make sure we never miss more than two days of training our bodies OR our minds.
He offers a super-quick and equally powerful 5-step, 100-second mental toughness workout. Here’s a quick look.
1. Take a nice, deep Centering Breath. In for 6. Hold for 2. Out for 7. Ahhhh… A strong mind is a calm mind and there’s no (!) better way to calm down than through a centering breath like this.
2. Silently say your Identity Statement. Come up with a simple mantra that captures who you aspire to be. A pro athlete’s example he shares: “I am more mentally and physically prepared than the competition. I am a dominant Major League pitcher.” (A version I like to use? “I am a Professional Philosopher. I love helping people Optimize their lives so we can change the world together.”)
3. Walk thru your Personal Highlight Reel. Quickly replay three things that were awesome over the last twenty-four hours and see three things that WILL be awesome over the next twenty-four (in about thirty seconds total).
4. Repeat your Identity Statement.
5. Take another nice Centering Breath.
Voilà! You’re mentally tougher.
You do that every.single.day #compoundeffect styles? You’re WAY tougher.
Today’s +1. How about 100 seconds of mental toughness training?
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