What separates champions from ordinary people

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In How Champions Think, psychologist Bob Rotella answers the question of how the thoughts of champions differ from those of ordinary people. We have selected the most useful information from the book.

It's hard not to be skeptical about How Champions Think. Nevertheless, I decided to buy this book on Amazon and read it - pretty good reviews made me do it.

But first, I decided to read the biography of Bob Rotell. It turns out that he wrote eight best-selling books, taught sports psychology at the University of Virginia, and even managed to visit LeBron James's personal psychologist (LeBron James). If you squeeze out only the most useful from the book, you get this.

You are your main rival

Rotella believes that the main difference between champions from the rest is not the ability to set goals, but the ability to achieve them. As an example, we can cite a well-known quote in business:

The idea is worthless. Its implementation is what is important.

Moreover, outstanding personalities set goals that, at first glance, seem impossible. If you're a sales manager looking to triple your commissions, you need to start by setting goals. For example, make twice as many calls before noon, or triple the number of meetings.

Fearing failure, people set simple goals that they are confident they will achieve. Rotella disagrees with this - it is better to set an unrealistic goal and complete it in half than to achieve a simple goal.

A positive attitude is more important than you think

In 1954, running experts stated that it was impossible to run a mile in less than four minutes. As a result, the athletes did not even try to do it. And only (Roger Bannister), through hard work and perseverance, was able to refute the words of experts and for the first time in history ran a mile in 3.59, 4 minutes. Thus, he opened the eyes of other runners, proving that the impossible is possible. Subsequently, his record was broken several times.

The author of How Champions Think believes that pessimism and failure follow each other. At the same time, optimism will not guarantee victory. It is akin to faith: you are not sure that everything will work out, nevertheless it helps to overcome difficulties.

How to become confident

It is believed that confidence comes with winning. Then how can each of us win for the first time?

Rotella cites LeBron James as an example. At the start of his career, the basketball player had a low percentage of three-point hits - 29%. To improve his results, LeBron consulted with many people, in particular with the author of the book.

Rotella advised James to do 400 3-point variations every day. By repeating the same actions, as well as visualizing his goal, the basketball player was able to improve the percentage of hits by two and a half times.

Habits as a way to reach your goal

If you lose a lot, it can be difficult to think about future victories. Such a state in psychology is called learned helplessness. According to Rotell, it's all about habits. By the way, psychologist Charles Duhigg thinks the same way.

The first step is to analyze the habits that are relevant to your goal. For example, you want to lose weight. A key habit that can get in the way is overeating. It is difficult to get rid of it, so it is better to try to replace it with a positive habit. If you're rewarding yourself with food for accomplishment, try swapping out the reward for something else., Bob Rotella.