The Best of Times, The Worst of Times
I confess, I came this close to flaking out on you. For many of you, our relationship started at last year’s Mental Toughness Summit. I had plans to make it an annual event but when April rolled around this year, I was overcome by overwhelm and inertia everytime I thought about putting together another Summit. Then synchronicity intervened. One of my former clients introduced me to the work of Dr. Les Fehmi, the author of Open Focus. I had a ...
How Jeremy Lin Deals with the Pressure of Expectation And You Can Too
Seven weeks. That’s how long it’s been since New York Knicks Jeremy Lin burst onto the NBA scene — and already there’s speculation whether he can take his game to the next level as other teams gear up for him, or is he just a “one-year wonder?” In a matter of weeks, Lin went from sleeping on his brother’s couch to being in the glare of the global spotlight. On top of it all, he’s carrying the hopes and dreams ...
[INTERVIEW] Michael Bigger On How Traders Achieve Creative Flow
Information is abundant and technology is cheap. At the same time, the good ‘ol financial models are changing. Linear, analytical thinking is not enough, and traders who don’t figure out how to access their creativity will fall behind. Listen in on the recording of my teleseminar interview with veteran trader and author Michael Bigger about his latest book, How Traders Achieve Creative Flow. Here are a few of the topics we covered in this truly content-rich call: Why creativity is ...
What’s Your M.O. — Crash and Burn, or Rest and Recover?
Are you operating at your maximum or your optimum? Nido Qubein, president of High Point University, asked this question and it highlighted one of the behavioral mysteries I’ve long observed in the business world: So many people operate in maximum mode, running as fast as they can, barely keeping their head above water. Crash and Burn They rush around in reactive mode, relying on external pressures and sheer willpower to create adrenaline-driven motivation. Pushing as hard as they can for ...
Fight-or-Flight: It’s Now Optional
Imagine it’s 1 million BC and you’re Zog, the caveman. Every day you wake up with one mission: to go out and hunt for food to feed you and your family. At the same time, you have to constantly be on the lookout for the predators that want to eat you. That primitive, automatic instinct that prepares us to “fight” or “flee” from a perceived attack or threat to our survival came in very handy when we ran into a ...
[Book Review] 8 Ways To Great: Peak Performance on the Job and In Your Life
I love lists. And the book, 8 Ways To Great: Peak Performance on the Job and In Your Life, by Dr. Doug Hirschhorn, is my favorite kind of list: what successful people do to stand out from the crowd. Dr. Doug, as he is known among the Wall Street elite, offers no earth-shaking surprises in his eight core peak performance principles. But that’s not the point. Because, for the most part, we know what to do to achieve excellence, just ...
Why Not Sleep While You’re Still Alive
“Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.” – Arthur Schopenhauer Here, in New York, where there’s a bravado culture — especially among lawyers and investment bankers — of who can survive on the least sleep, I’ve always felt a bit wimpy because I’ve always made sleep a priority ...
Five Habits of Happy High-Achievers
When Shannon Bahrke won bronze in women’s moguls at the 2010 Winter Olympics, in her excitement she “hugged first-place winner Hannah Kearney so tightly that she almost knocked her U.S. teammate over.” Next to them on the podium, however, Canadian skier Jennifer Heil looked crestfallen after taking silver. From our vantage point as a spectator, it might be hard to imagine feeling disappointed at “only” winning a silver medal. On the other hand, we can kind of understand how, after ...
Navy Seals: The Ultimate Test of Mental Toughness
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
This MSNBC video goes behind the scenes of Navy Seals training, the stage for extreme fitness. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Only 20 – 25% make it through the training and it’s not always the biggest and baddest: What psychologists studying the results have found is that more than physical fitness, mental toughness and “mission focus” are the number one indicators of success. How important is mental toughness in the business world?
How To Handle Getting Kicked In The Head, and Six Other Life Lessons I Learned From Martial Arts
Back in the mid-90s,I had just returned to New York after graduating from business school in France. I was feeling a little ungrounded career-wise – I had an MBA but no real interest in typical MBA professions like investment banking or consulting – and so, in the meantime, was temping at a mindless 9 to 5 job. Being a night owl, I realized, I still had a good six hours after work before bedtime and the idea of taking martial ...
