Granted not everybody has the physique of Michael Phelps, but repeat wins have to do more with other aspects of a champion’s preparation than their apparent “innate” athleticism. If you ask any leader in any field, they had to do many things before they seem unbeatable. And the most important one is developing a champion’s state of mind.
There are three apparently mundane yet fundamental pillars of winning, that you could adapt to your business or professional practice, derived from the power of thought:
- Routine. It is hard to plan a day, or a whole week in advance, but you must come as close as you can to a daily routine for your business days. Sticking to it requires discipline, but not having a routine requires even more discipline. Everybody knows the fortitude of mind and spirit required to be at the top of the game. What many don’t realize is that routines, boring to most of us, are the key to consistent growth, commitment, and determination. It takes a lot of strength of mind to set a routine, but it’s the only way. More than being disciplined, it’s about being “rigorously repetitive”.
- Intensity. During the time of execution of a given task (a meeting, a report, an interview), not only you must focus and be present, but you have to be intense. Athletes channel all their accumulated energy, positive and negative, passion and aggression, through their execution at a given time: a heavy lifting set, the last 50 meters of the race, the last 30 seconds of the round. It is intensity what separates average people from those who excel in the game. You must find ways to collect your thoughts, clear you mind, and put yourself 100% into it, right at the moment of execution of the task at hand. That concentrated power of mind makes the difference.
- Rest. Without plenty of rest, there is no growth. Without relaxation, there is no concentration. Resting is counter-intuitive for high-performance individuals, but they eventually learn that they have to rest more than the average person to win again, and again, and again. High performers’ instinct is to go at it 100% all day, every day. Their mind plays tricks on them, and they want to show the world and themselves that they can go at it nonstop until they learn that self-mastery is more important than ego. Research proves it, but we tend to dismiss it. If you don’t want to believe it, simply try it, and you will see the incredible difference in your ability to get maximum results.
#BeWise and be a champion of mind.
As you can see, if you want to own your destiny, you must learn how to own your mind.
#leadership #development #growth
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on May 8, 2017.
Originally published at medium.com