177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class

The Thought Processes, Habits and Philosophies of the Great Ones
by Steve Siebold | London House Press © 2010 · 282 pages

I’m not sure exactly where I saw this book referenced. But, when I saw the title I figured it would be a good addition to our ever-growing collection of Notes on mental toughness books so I got it and here we are. Steve Siebold founded Mental Toughness University in 1986. He’s the author of a number of books and has worked with elite performers around the world for decades. As per the title, this book is PACKED with “177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class”/ “The Thought Processes, Habits, and Philosophies of the Great Ones.” I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!

While average people spend more time organizing and planning their yearly vacation, the great ones are structuring and restructuring their daily lives.
Steve Siebold

Listen

Big Ideas

“When I started to implement the ideas in this book, my whole life changed. It wasn’t overnight, but sometimes it seemed like it. There’s no magic here, just practical thought processes, habits and philosophies drawn from the greatest performers in the world.

This book contains no theories. Every secret comes straight from the street of experiences, either my own or that of our clients. This book is loaded with ideas you can implement immediately. Some will be familiar, and some new. All of them have the power to catapult your results, no matter how high you’re flying. As a matter of fact, the people who will get the most value out of our mental toughness process are the world class. They are always trying to gain an edge and get better, which is one of the reasons I think so highly of them.

I’ve held nothing back in this book, which means that at times you might find yourself slightly offended. This book is constantly comparing ‘average people’ with ‘world class people.’ These terms are used to get your attention and make you ask, ‘Which one am I?’ We are all equal as human beings. I simply use these terms in reference to performance and results.”

~ Steve Siebold from 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class

I’m not sure exactly where I saw this book referenced.

But, when I saw the title I figured it would be a good addition to our ever-growing collection of Notes on mental toughness books so I got it and here we are.

I read the book in the same (DEEP WORK!) week I read Move by Move by the first African American Chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, The Confident Mind by Dr. Nate Zinsser, Unstoppable Mindset by Alden Mills, Scars and Stripes by Tim Kennedy, and Elevate and Dominate by Deion Sanders.

Steve Siebold founded Mental Toughness University in 1986. He’s the author of a number of books and has worked with elite performers around the world for decades.

As per the title, this book is PACKED with “177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class”/ “The Thought Processes, Habits, and Philosophies of the Great Ones.”

I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!

Turn Up the Heat

“In thirty years of competing, coaching, and working with performers from various fields, I’ve discovered most amateurs suffer from mild to severe delusion in their efforts and competencies. In other words, most people delude themselves into thinking they are working harder than they are, and that they are more competent than they actually are.

Of the five major levels of conscious awareness (poverty, working, middle, upper, and world) my experience has been that performers at the middle-class level of consciousness suffer the grandest delusions. The poverty level is barely surviving. The working class is punching the clock and counting the days until retirement. They’re usually not expecting much, and no one around them expects much, either. They are typically not concerned about climbing any higher.

It’s the middle class that is most incongruent with reality. They are operating at a high enough level to understand that higher levels exist. Although they don’t expect to get there, the thought crosses their minds from time to time. Because of their low expectations, their actions are incongruent with their desires. In other words, they want to live the life of the world class, but are unwilling to pay the price.

Since this reality is too harsh to bear, they delude themselves into thinking they are doing everything in their power to get ahead. Of course, they’re not. They’ll tell you they’re putting in far more time than they are. They’ll swear they are thinking about their vision all the time, but they’re not. The world class is brutally honest with themselves, and they tend to look reality in the face. They err on the side of overpracticing and overpreparing. Champions know that to ascend to the top, you must first be operating from a mindset of objective reality. Self-deception and delusion have no place in the professional performer’s consciousness.”

That’s from the VERY first chapter.

And... That’s why Siebold warns us in the introduction that we might find his approach a bit (or a lot!) offensive. He doesn’t mince words as he uses different frames to capture the difference between the “average” and the “elite”

As I read that passage, I immediately thought of Joe Manganiello’s BRILLIANT passage from his book Evolution. Although he shares it in the context of working out, it’s one of my all-time favorite distinctions.

He tells us: “Truth: You think you’re working out at an 8. You’re actually working out at a 2. I don’t care how long you’ve been training; that’s just the reality. If that hurts your feelings, I’m sorry. It’s time for you to reestablish your baseline in order to define intensity.”

I repeat: YOU THINK YOU’RE AT AN 8. YOU’RE REALLY AT A 2.

Laughing as I echo Joe’s line: Sorry if that hurts your feelings. It’s time for us to reestablish your baseline and properly define INTENSITY.

When I think of INTENSITY, I think of one of my friends who happens to be an elite (capital ELITE) military officer. He fell in love with the idea of “activation energy” and came up with our new Heroic phone number: (212) 451-2000.

Water boils at 212 degrees. Fire ignites at 451 degrees. Swords are forged at 2000 degrees.

I repeat: If we want to hit that activation energy point where one thing transforms into another, we MUST turn up the HEAT!

Note: One of our awesome Heroic members encouraged me to add “+1” to the number to remind us turn up the heat moment to moment to moment.

So, next time you want to go next level, call your Heroic batphone at: +1 (212) 451-2000.

Additional Note: I always like to complement that super-ambitious energy with some equally intense spiritual wisdom.

Here’s how Joseph Campbell puts it in A Joseph Campbell Companion: “Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘Do not seek illumination unless you seek it as a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond.’”

Here’s one more way we can frame it up. If the idea of “middle class” vs. “upper” and “world class” offends your sensibilities, how about we juxtapose “mediocre” and “excellent”?

As we’ve discussed MANY times, the word mediocre literally means “to be stuck in the middle of a rugged mountain.” There are a LOT of synonyms for mediocre (average, ho-hum, middling, etc.) but only ONE antonym: EXCELLENCE.

If we want to activate our Heroic potential we need to close the gap between who we’re CAPABLE of being and who we’re ACTUALLY being. We need to live with ARETÉ.

Not once in a while and when we *feel* like it. All day, every day. Especially, as always... TODAY.

The only way you’ll ever out-work one of the great ones is to become one.
Steve Siebold
If a man has done his best, what else is there?
General George S. Patton
The great ones operate with a keen sense of urgency, dreaming of the future while firmly rooted in the present. Average people are smart enough to make their dreams come true, yet tend to wait so long to attempt anything substantial that, by the time they have failed enough to have learned the lessons they need to succeed, their life is over.
Steve Siebold
Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets.
Nido Qubein

You Journaling Your Hopes and Dreams?

“Average performers set up their goals on New Year’s Eve and don’t look at them again until the next New Year’s Eve. The world class is in a constant goal-setting mode. Champions are goal-setting machines—they know the cornerstone of all achievement is mental clarity. Professional performers are evolving so rapidly they usually find it necessary to review—and sometimes reset their goals on a daily basis. One of the secrets of their success is this daily exposure to their goals. Only 3 percent of Americans have clearly defined written goals, and less than 1 percent can identify their primary goal and objective in life. …

As average performers begin to forget what their goals are because of lack of exposure to them, the pros are embedding their goals deep into their subconscious minds daily. Their minds are like guided missiles, always adjusting and correcting to maintain accuracy toward the target. Champions have a singleness of purpose most people will never take the time to discover, and this thought process allows them to climb higher every day.”

That’s from chapter #60 entitled: “The World Class Are Obsessed with Their Goals.”

When I read that line about most/average people setting their goals on New Year’s Eve then forgetting them until the following New Year’s Eve, I thought of that study that was once done on New Year’s Eve resolutions.

According to those researchers (that we talk about in this +1!), the average American gives up on their New Year’s Resolutions THIRTY-TWO DAYS into the New Year. That’s February 1st.

Oops.

Sonja Lyubomirsky tells us that there’s a better way.

Rather than set goals and then forget them, we’d be MUCH better off to spend a few minutes EVERY DAY reminding ourselves of that hoped-for future.

In fact, in The Myths of Happiness, Sonja tells us that journaling for as little as TWO minutes can change your life.

Here’s how she puts it: “Whether our optimism is big or little, many of us waver in our expectations of the future. Fortunately, numerous research-tested activities have been shown to boost positive thinking. The most robust strategy involves keeping a journal regularly for ten to twenty minutes per day, in which we write down our hopes and dreams for the future (e.g., ‘In ten years, I will be married and a homeowner”), visualize them coming true, and describe how we might get there and what that would feel like. This exercise—even when engaged in as briefly as two minutes—makes people happier and even healthier.”

NOTE!!! When someone of Sonja’s caliber (she is one of THE most respected well-being scientists in the world!!) says something like “The most robust strategy...” I sit up a little taller and pay a little more attention and then DO WHAT SHE SAYS WE SHOULD DO!!!

Which is why one of my Heroic Work Targets is “I Crush My 3-Minute+ Strategic Vision Journaling.” I’ve hit that Target 701 times. Our community has hit the “Journal” target 332,900 times so far.

How about YOU?

Are YOU following the lead of one of THE world’s best scientists who tells us that this is one of THE MOST ROBUST strategies to boost our well-being?

If not, turn up the heat and GET ON THAT!

Finally, when I read that passage, I ALSO thought of Maxwell Maltz’s old-school classic: Psycho-Cybernetics. The whole book is based on the idea that we are programmed to hit targets.

But... We need to know what they are to hit them!

As Maltz says: “Man is by nature a goal-striving being. And because man is ‘built that way’ he is not happy unless he is functioning the way he was made to function—as a goal-striver. Thus true success and true happiness not only go together but each enhances the other.”

P.S. Check out our Notes on Goals! by Brian Tracy (which Steve recommends) for more!

P.P.S. Sonja Lyubomirsky has become a friend over the years. One of the things I am MOST proud of in my life is the research we did with her and her team. We’ve done TWO studies: one on our 300-day Heroic Coach certification program and the other on our Heroic app.

As I’ve mentioned a number of times, Sonja says that, in THIRTY-FIVE YEARS (!) of research over her career, she has NEVER seen results as powerful as what we created with our Heroic Coach program. The reason it works, in my mind, is simple: We have integrated Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science with some Practical Tools that work.

If you want to move from Theory to Practice to Mastery, fundamentally and permanently changing your lives while helping others do the same, join us!

Then we have the Heroic app. In 2023, we did a randomized controlled trial with one of our corporate clients. We had three groups: a waitlist control, a Heroic app-only, and a Heroic App + Coaching condition.

In the Heroic App + Coaching condition, we saw improvements in EVERY SINGLE THING while moving people from the 53rd percentile of flourishing to the 70th percentile in THIRTY days.

Plus, if you hit just ONE TARGET in the app (which means you took the time to set up your Big 3 protocol and actually used the Target Practice part of the app!), you were 23% (TWENTY-THREE PERCENT!) more Energized than those who hit 0 Targets.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man—and I will show you a failure.
Thomas Edison
Profitability is a necessary condition for existence and a means to more important ends, but it is not the end in itself for many of the visionary companies. Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.
Jim Collins
To succeed in life, one must have determination and must be prepared to suffer during the process. If one isn’t prepared to suffer during adversities, I don’t really see how he can be successful.
Gary Player
Recovery is an important word and a vital concept. It means renewal of life and energy. Knowing how and when to recover may prove to be the most important skill in your life.
James E. Loehr

Champions Are Products of Their Habits

“Average performers think of habits as something to break, like smoking or eating too much. Professional performers know successful habits are the keys to the kingdom. Each and every day, the great ones reinforce their success habits, such as exercise, proper diet, showing up early/staying late, and studying their field.

Champions have a sacred respect for the power that habits exhibit in their life. The pros know if they allow their championship habits to slip for even one day, the habit will begin to atrophy. The great ones know it’s more difficult to develop a championship habit than to lose it.

They understand the magnificent force of momentum can work for or against them. As a result, they tend to protect their success habits with an almost religious fanaticism. …

Habits are the raw materials from which the great ones are made.”

That’s from chapter #65: “Champions Are Products of Their Habits.”

Note: I should mention that simply reading the titles for each of the 177 micro-chapters in the book was enough to fire me up!

HABITS!

They do a Hero good.

How are yours?

I won’t belabor the point that we built OUR ENTIRE HEROIC APP to help you dominate your Habits—helping you BE the person you aspire to be while embodying the virtues you aspire to embody and DOING THE THINGS YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE AT YOUR BEST.

Every. Single. Day.

Steve has a little micro-exercise in every chapter of the book.

Here’s the one from this chapter: “Make a list of five habits that could lift you to higher levels of success and fulfillment. Now, select the single habit that would have the most impact and make a commitment to make it a part of your life. Remember, it takes an average of three to four weeks to form a new habit, whether it is positive or negative.”

I love that. And, I like to do something similar.

Take out a piece of paper. Draw a line down the middle from top to bottom. Write “DO” on the upper left and “DON’T” on the upper right.

Now, think back to a time in your life when you were absolutely CRUSHING IT. What were you DOING? And, what were you NOT DOING?

Now, look at your current life.

What’s ONE THING you’re not currently doing that you did do when you were at your best that, if you started doing it again consistently, would MOST change your life? START DOING THAT.

And, what’s the one thing you need to STOP doing that you *weren’t* doing when you were on fire. STOP DOING THAT.

And, QUIT GIVING UP YOUR GAINS! If you have achieved a high level of performance success in the past, WHY DID YOU STOP DOING THOSE THINGS?!

It’s time to treat our habits with the same reverence as the most elite performers as we make our PRIOR BEST OUR NEW BASELINE.

P.S. This is PRECISELY why I hit 101+ Targets in the Heroic app every day. To use Steve’s words, I protect my “success habits with an almost religious fanaticism.” How about YOU?

The unspoken rules of negotiation are simple: be fair, and make it a win-win deal. A champion knows every symbiotic negotiation opens the door to more business. More importantly, a champion lives and does business according to one major philosophy: do the right thing.
Steve Siebold
The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don't like their rules, whose would you use?
Dale Carnegie
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
John Dyrden

True Mental Warriors

“While the masses see obstacles as their primary adversary, champions view them as opportunities to expand their level of thinking and competence. Professional performers know the only way they can truly become mentally tough enough to manifest their vision is to struggle and fight their way through obstacles. There is no other way.

The great ones are conscious of the fact that success is trial by fire. The middle-class consciousness avoids obstacles at all costs and looks for the easy way out. The world class builds their own roads and forges ahead, knowing the strength of character gained from overcoming obstacle after obstacle will be the measure of their true success, and with that rock-solid character, even greater things can be accomplished.

If you remove obstacles, you remove the opportunity to grow. The world class becomes great by overcoming more obstacles than the middle class. They get tough because they’re in the game, getting hit and taking shots. Professional performers are good at overcoming obstacles because they are always engaged in this process. Amateurs spend so little time staring down the dragon that they simply never get tough enough to become pros.

The fear of failure looms deep in the psyche of the masses. The great ones are sometimes fearful, yet develop more courage with each new obstacle, until they stand up one day as true mental warriors. ”

That’s from chapter #92: “The World Class Catapults Their Consciousness by Overcoming Obstacles.”

Of course, reading that requires me to reiterate RULE #1 of a good, noble, Heroic life...

IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE CHALLENGING.

Heroes are SUPPOSED to fight dragons.

THAT’S THE ONLY WAY WE CAN GET STRONGER.

We don’t go to the gym to lift Styrofoam weights. Those won’t make us any stronger. We go to the gym to lift REAL weights—knowing *that* is how we build the strength for two.

Yet...

For some reason, in our less-than-Heroically-enlightened moments, we FORGET the same rules apply to the rest of our lives.

We MUST learn to say, “BRING IT ON!” to our challenges as we APPROACH them rather than AVOID them—remembering the fact that our INFINITE potential exists *just* on the other side of our comfort zone.

Chant it with me now...

OMMS: Obstacles Make Me Stronger!

The ONLY way to summit the peak of our potential and avoid getting stuck in the middle of that rugged mountain that is our Heroic life is to use all of life’s obstacles as FUEL for our next-level growth.

Let’s do that.

TODAY.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual lives far within his limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.
William James
Just for today, operate with complete integrity. Do every single thing you promise yourself and others. Experience what it’s like to operate like one of the great ones. A word of caution: you may become addicted to the results you achieve through this experience!
Steve Siebold

About the author

Authors

Steve Siebold

President/International Personal Development Association
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