The Mental Game

When it comes to performing at just about any task, what holds us back isn’t our coach or teacher. It’s not our training and practice. It’s often ourselves. When we are in the middle of a performance, our mind almost always searches for an out. A rock to step on during a race, an excuse…

I first came across Dave Hamilton’s work when presenting at a conference put on by the Seattle Sounders. At the time, he worked with USA field hockey, after serving a similar role with British field hockey for the 2012 Olympics. As Dave stood at the lectern presenting his findings, my inbuilt skepticism dissipated into a…

  Think back to a recent poor performance. What was the cause? Maybe you were sick, had poor sleep leading up to the race, overcooked the workouts leading up to the race, or simply ‘gave in’ when the pain set in. Chances are you have an answer to why you ran poorly. It might not…

Self-Improvement Science in the Real World Our ultimate goal for each of these newsletters is to leave you with a better understanding of a performance practice that can help you in your daily life. In service of that goal, we tend to combine academic research and personal experience. We are especially big on the research…

Imagine something unexpected and negative just happened. Perhaps you performed poorly in an interview, blew up in a big athletic competition, lost a job, or worse yet, lost a loved one or suffered some other tragedy. Why do some individuals bounce back from these events more easily than others? According to the latest research, the…

On a recent trip to Seattle, if you asked my hosts, Steve Fassino and Phoebe Wright, what the major topic of conversation was for the weekend, they’d likely answer cults. It started with two documentaries. One, called Holy Hell, that documented an actual cult. With 20 years of video footage, we saw firsthand the indoctrination…

I’m fascinated by the inner workings of the mind and how we make decisions. As whether it’s in running or life, the decisions we make end up defining who we are and where we are going. I also love self-experimentation. Life can be thought of as a running a million little self experiments and seeing…

Why do I do this? There are so many other sports I could do. Why couldn’t I be good at baseball? I’m about to be in a world of hurt – remind me again why I signed up for this? Okay, stop thinking like this. You’ve been through this a million times, this one is…