Mental tough, or mentally tough is a trait of high-performers.
What do you, Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin and Jordan Wieber have in common? Maybe nothing, maybe lots? If you are a high performer in your field, if you are, you may share some of the success traits that I have found in many of the Olympians, professional athletes and business leaders that I have mentally trained over the past several decades (I have not mentally trained the individual athletes mentioned above). In the NBC/KUSA 9News interview below, I share some of the success secrets that …
Mental Tough is a great success trait
high performers need to mentally for success in most any field. Some mental tough traits include:
- Have the courage to fail… on the path to success!
- Be maniacal about your mindset!
- No blaming, complaining or excuses!
- Passion is the fire to accomplish your dreams!
The “Olympic lesson” we can all learn is, mental tough, or mentally tough is critical for high-performance success in any field. This was a short interview on KUSA 9News which is no longer available, but here is the conversation between Greg Moss and me.
Olympic Athletes Can Inspire in the Workplace
Greg Moss 9News: Hard not to have Olympic fever right now but if you find yourself watching these superhuman athletes on television and saying to yourself, “Man, I could never do that!” you’re not alone! But you can become a gold medallist. Maybe not in the field or in the pool – but certainly in your office. Joining me right now is Dr. TC North. He is a sports psychologist and business-performance consultant. Good morning and thank you for coming in.
TC North: Good morning. It’s good to be here.
Greg Moss 9News: It’s good to have you. Let’s just call you our own personal business coach for the next few minutes – all right?
TC North: All right! Great!
Greg Moss 9News: You have actually coached – been a personal coach, not a physical coach but a personal coach – to more than thirty Olympians. That’s pretty amazing.
TC North: Yes, a mental coach – and you know, I live in Boulder so we have lots of them there and I worked with the USSA for a while as an outside consultant.
Greg Moss 9News: What can we learn from Olympic athletes, as business owners or business people in the office place?
TC North: Well, Missy Franklin – you know, first of all I’ve got to say I’m so proud of her, you know, being from Denver, from Colorado, and representing our country. She’s such a great example: here’s a teenage girl who has learned how to manage her energy. You know, last night she swam the 200 and qualified and then had fifteen minutes to swim the 100 – and she won a gold medal, which is absolutely amazing. It’s not even her best event.
Greg Moss 9News: Yes – and she’s got more to go!
TC North: Yes! And what can we learn from that? It is she didn’t complain about that setup, you know? And most of us put a lot of energy into blaming, complaining and making excuses in our life – and she is so not the victim of that schedule.
Greg Moss 9News: You know, you’ve hit upon something that’s pretty important I think, and it’s part of the four tips that we want to impart to people today – and we’ve got a full screen of these. First up is, “Have the courage to fail.” What do you mean by that?
TC North: Yes, it’s actually one of the differentiators I’ve found in all elite people, is they have the courage to take the risk that maybe they could fail at what they do. And certainly Michael Phelps – I mean, lucky he didn’t, you know, he came in fourth in his first race in the Olympics – he didn’t have anything to prove in this Olympics but he’s back, for whatever his reasons.
Greg Moss 9News: And, “Be a mindset maniac” – what is a mindset maniac?
TC North: [laughs]
Greg Moss 9News: Is it that positive attitude and not being negative?
TC North: These guys – let’s go back to Missy Franklin: she had to manage her energy before that race; she had to think the right thoughts. If you read her quotes, she has thought about this moment so many times, done the imagery to prepare this, and what she said I love: she said, “Swimming is so mental.”
Greg Moss 9News: Yes.
TC North: And so they mentally prepare before, they have to keep their focus during, and then they have to learn from their mistakes and what they were successful in after.
Greg Moss 9News: And, “Own it.”
TC North: And own it.
Greg Moss 9News: “No blaming” I’m assuming is what you mean by that.
TC North: Yes – no blaming, complaining. It’s like, you know, the good stuff is yours, the bad stuff is yours – it’s all yours. And if you want to blame it, then you have no control so you can’t improve.
Greg Moss 9News: The most successful athletes that we see today absolutely have some incredible passion – and that’s what you mean by this, “Excel with fire.”
TC North: Yes. I have not met anybody – business, athletics, dancers, performers – they have so much passion for what they do, you know, they would do it no matter what their pay.
Greg Moss 9News: Anybody can do this.
TC North: Anybody can do this. You know, think of – let’s use Missy Franklin because she is so in the news and so present right now – most of us work during the day and then we go home at night. What if we took that fifteen minutes that Missy Franklin did last night to switch mindsets; instead of carrying all our stuff from work, all our stress, all our frustration and maybe our anger and taking it home with us, what if we could do what she did and put it aside, put it behind us and get present again?
Greg Moss 9News: I’m going to do it. Right now.
TC North: Great.
Greg Moss 9News: How about that? Thank you for coming in. I appreciate it.
