Focus requires a quieted mind. Fear and distractions are two of the biggest culprits that rob us of the ability to quiet our minds and neither can co-exist with focus. They quickly become discursive thoughts that pull you away from being your best. That’s why we always strive to play or work in the absence of fear and distractions.

The Freedom of Focus

Focus flows from confidence and trust. When you have confidence in your preparation and abilities and trust in yourself and your teammates (on the field or in the office), then you’re freed up to be able to focus on what’s in front of you in the moment. And when you’re truly focusing, there’s nothing to worry about and nothing holds you back from being your best.

Confidence comes from the process of preparation — through practice and effective training, you gain an awareness and assurance of your ability. Confidence is connected to knowing the truth — truth about yourself and your abilities. And at the foundation of confidence, you’ve got to know who you are and what your philosophy is so you can operate from truth.

Confidence lays the groundwork for you to be able to trust yourself and the people around you, because you have seen the preparation and know that you and your teammates are ready to make the most of the opportunity in front of you.

Focus Training

Confidence and trust get your mind to the optimal place to achieve focus. When confidence and trust are working hand-in-hand, focus flourishes. You will have a knowing beyond all knowing that you’re going to be your best.
Training your ability to focus allows you to work, play, and perform like you’re capable. That’s all we can ask for! If we can simply perform like we’re capable, then we’re really hard to beat.

So when you’re focused, you’re at your best. And there’s nothing better than that.

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Back in 2012, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll invited high performance psychologist Dr. Michael Gervais to attend training camp to experience the culture he was working on building in Seattle with his team. “It was beautiful,’ remarked Gervais about what he witnessed. “One hundred alpha competitors, pointing their noses in the same direction toward the same shared vision.”

Could the coaching philosophies and mental disciplines developed for high performing athletes be just as effective in a business or personal setting?  That question inspired Carroll and Dr Gervais to co-found Compete to Create – a coaching and training platform built on their shared vision that living a life with meaning and purpose, while also striving to be your best, requires training not only around your personal craft, but increasingly around your mind.

During these uncertain times, we could all benefit from some “coaching up”, so we brought together Coach Carroll and Dr. Gervais in this week’s Leading Through Change episode to explore how we can apply the art and science of high performance psychology to define our authentic selves, and develop the strength and conviction to deal with the physical and mental challenges at work and in our daily lives.

Following are highlights from our conversation with Coach Carroll and Dr. Gervais, in their words. They have been lightly edited for clarity.

Having a Personal Philosophy in Challenging Times

“I needed to get clear on who I am and how I can best define myself so the people around me could act in accordance.” — Pete Carroll

Carroll:

“In football, we’re coaching individuals within a relationship-based organization. It’s no different when you step into the corporate world.  Being a great teammate comes down to being in service of others. It’s how you demonstrate how much you care about what’s at hand and the people around you. If you give your best to those around you, you’re going to receive so much in return.”

“I’ve spent my career helping people find their best and uncover their unique and extraordinary qualities, champion and celebrate them, and bring them to life. There’s nothing more important than knowing who you are, where your center is, and how you can handle all of the challenges that we’re all facing.  That’s your personal philosophy. You have to share your philosophy and be really succinct about it.”

A Unique Approach to Achieving a Personal Best

“You can only train three things:  your craft, your body, and your mind” – Michael Gervais, Ph.D.

Dr. Gervais:

“What is exciting and unique about Compete to Create is that we take the methodologies and practices that help people become the very best and move it out of the laboratory and into the amphitheater of high stakes, high-pressured performance.”

“Based on the idea that you can only train three things – your craft, your body, and your mind – we’re double clicking into how to actually train one’s mind.  Confidence, just like any skill, can be trained. When becoming your very best by training your mind works in tandem with a culture that supports people with a shared vision, that one plus one equals something very different than two. We’re also talking more about the science and art of recovery, so people can wake up with zest and zeal on a consistent basis to work towards the upper reaches of their potential. Finally, technology is right at the center of how we’re able to share those approaches and insights with individuals and enterprise organizations.”

The Truth About Winning and Losing

“Successes are just as difficult and challenging as the defeats” — Pete Carroll

Carroll:

“Whether it’s a Super Bowl victory or a Super Bowl loss – both extraordinarily impactful events – we have to discipline ourselves to come back to where we want to be so that we can be at our very best. It’s not all about the winning and the losing, it’s really about the performance.  It’s constantly being at your best so you can be available for the wins and for the successes, and not get distracted when you come up short.”

Responding to Challenging Times

“Come to peace with what you stand for.  Whatever the challenges are, whoever comes after you or whatever they want to question – know you have your way to feel centered and grounded.” – Pete Carroll

Carroll:

“A good optimistic outlook is hugely important. Operate as if something good is just about to happen. Our ability to support others and make them feel strong and feel good about where they are is crucial and gives us a chance to be successful.”

Gervais:

“Change begins with each individual, and ‘tier zero’ for that change is mindfulness — becoming more aware, being able to sustain that awareness, so we are more aware of our thoughts, our words and our actions, and how they align with helping others be their very best.”

Compete to Create, with the help of Salesforce, has been more connected with their customers, and freed to engage them in more immediate, creative, and purposeful ways.

Note: This article was created by Salesforce and originally appeared on salesforce.com.

The post Perform Like An Athlete At Work And In Life appeared first on Finding Mastery.

From Pete Carroll:

Writing down your personal philosophy is a process that takes a lot of work, but everyone is capable of doing it. Living your philosophy is how we share who we are, what we stand for, and is the lens that guides our thoughts, words, and actions.

Over the course of my career, I found myself getting fired a number of times. And the last time I was fired became the most significant one. Through the discomfort of being fired, which I thought was one of the worst times of my life, came some of the most important lessons that I’ve learned. Personally, I hate to learn the hard way, but in this case, it was one the most beneficial transitions that I was able to make, and it set me on course to where I am today. Sometimes, life looks so hard, and it feels so stressful, but this is an example of where perseverance can lead to us to our best work.

During that experience of getting fired, I went through the rigorous process of self-discovery. I realized that if I was going to get my act together, I better figure out what I’m all about.

Of all the words that could define who I am, the one word that I kept coming back to was competition. Competing had been at the core of my life as far back as I could remember and a precise way to define myself would be, “I’m a competitor.” It became clear that my personal philosophy could be simply stated as: “Always Compete!” I see life as a competition of “striving to find your best” in all aspects. Some thoughts and phrases that have helped expand on this philosophy and guide my thoughts and actions are “you’re either competing or you’re not” and “we’re in a relentless pursuit of finding a competitive edge in everything we’re doing!” And, “we don’t want to be the best ones doing something, we want to be the only ones doing it!”

Once I was able to articulate and write down my personal philosophy, it gave me a clear understanding of who I am at my best and these thoughts have guided my teams and programs ever since. It was obvious that competition would be the “central theme” of my team and program because it’s so true to me, and I could help the team stay connected to it easily. From that point forward, we were competing in all aspects on a daily basis. We were striving to find our best, individually and as a team.

The power of knowing your personal philosophy comes from knowing yourself. When you are clear on what’s important to you and what you stand for, you are equipped to handle life. This “knowing” gives you strength and conviction to deal with life’s challenges. And your philosophy allows you to believe and trust in yourself, and so you can help those around you.

Having your own personal philosophy is critical when you’re facing challenging times. It’s important when you’re on course, and things are going really well, but when you’re challenged, and things don’t go right, your philosophy is the mechanism that keeps you on track and connected with the person that you know yourself to be.

My philosophy has helped me stay true to myself during major challenges and setbacks.

Let’s go back to the second time we played in the Super Bowl. We get down to the very last sequence of the game, and right on the precipice of victory, a second consecutive Super Bowl victory is snatched away from us in the flash of a moment. The defeat is there, right in front of us. Just when we’re ready to win it all.

In the few seconds that followed losing, I knew that I was going to have to step up to supporting all of the people who were going to be crushed by this outcome.

It meant supporting all of the people who supported us and giving them guidelines for how we were going to deal with the loss and move forward. We were going to compete to handle this well. That meant me taking personal accountability for the loss and shouldering the blame.

My philosophy guided my actions, as well as the actions of the team. We would compete to come back from this. It showed up in the language, with the way we stood up, dealt with it, and also with how we would use our approach moving forward.

I don’t think that there’s anything more valuable than knowing who you are and what you stand for when you are facing challenges. It gives you the best opportunity to be resilient, to respond, to jump back into getting on course as soon as possible, and to return to being effective, as soon as possible.

We all have a way that is guided by our beliefs. We are all living by a philosophy, but you might not be able to articulate it. Doing the hard work – of writing down what’s important to you and the words that make up who you are at your best – accelerates the self-discovery process. I’ve been honored to share our process with both individuals and corporate teams, and now I have the honor of sharing our process with millions of Audible listeners around the world with Compete to Create, our Audible Original with Dr. Michael Gervais. This process isn’t easy and I challenge you to put in the effort and find the time – go for it!

The post How Your Personal Philosophy Leads To Perseverance In Uncertain Times appeared first on Finding Mastery.

People often fall into the trap of believing they need to find that one thing they are passionate about – whether it’s writing, traveling or weaving baskets — and do that in order to be fulfilled and happy. i.e. “I have to leave my corporate accounting job and join an ashram.”

The trap: the false belief that you have to do something (the right job) in order to be something (passionate). This model is dependent solely on what you do, not how you experience what you do.

Be Here Now

Passion isn’t a by-product of an action you take. It actually springs from your ability to be in the present moment. It makes clear sense that those of us who struggle with the ability to “be here now” would use a specific action as the driver for feeling passion. Put another way – if you struggle with anxiety or are easily irritable or are pervasively sad or chronically fatigued, of course, it would be hard to feel passion or a regular basis. Of course, you would need an ambient activity to change your inner experience, to release passion. In that light, the activity then becomes the forcing function for experiencing passion. Therein lies the trap – with passion being beholden to a set of actions, rather than passion threading through all actions.

The sustainable keyhole to living with passion is greeted at your ability to reorient your mind back to “this moment” – regardless of what you are materially doing.

Passion becomes readily available once we become skilled with working with our inner life. When the narrative we have running on a loop inside our heads is telling us, “this moment is boring, not meaningful, not good enough…” passion will be a casualty of that story.

Reconnect

Doing something that naturally creates the internal space for you to feel passion does, however, play a vital role in reconnecting with your passion. It reminds us of what passion feels like. So, camp in the woods! Paint that painting! Build that birdhouse for your son or daughter! Play in your sandbox, whatever that is! But just know that the activity itself is not the reason for passion. It’s your ability to let go, to become absorbed in the present activity. To appreciate the wonders of the unfolding moment. To love the rush that comes with unlocking something new.

The real work is to bring that inner fire into every part of your life, so you can live with passion everywhere you go. And the gateway to doing that is increasing your ability to be in the present moment.

With Fire,

Mike

Michael Gervais, PhD
Co-founder, Compete to Create
Host, Finding Mastery
“Every day is an opportunity to create a living masterpiece.”

The post The Passion Trap appeared first on Finding Mastery.

We are living in the midst of a cultural transformation. And we’ve never needed it more than now.

Racial tensions are elevating to unprecedented levels as black men and women continue to be murdered and mistreated in unjust fashion. The impact of the pandemic has seemingly faded into the background as we process and react to yet another horrific tragedy.

These days are challenging and call on all of us to search our souls.

The current tumultuous time of racial injustice has led to protests that have demonstrated extraordinary images of diversity and solidarity.

Out of this moment, let us seize the opportunity to discover a new caring, one grounded in a new awareness, a new compassion, a new empathy. This philosophy will guide our decision-making as we rebuild our communities, reform our institutions, and demand justice for all.

While there are many ways to contribute to the change, we can start by making a heartfelt commitment to treat all people equally and with the respect they deserve. The fundamental place to begin is to treat others like you wish to be treated.

Please consider living out a renewed commitment to empathy. Make a conscious effort to listen, to understand, to care, and to build bridges.

Be a part of this cultural transformation by moving toward a new caring for others. Together we can capture this moment and create a culture of New Empathy — one day at a time, one person at a time.

– Pete Carroll

The post Where Do We Go From Here? appeared first on Finding Mastery.

No judgment in this, but how many of us wake up and the first thing we do is pick up our phone? When I ask this in a room full of people, usually the majority of the hands go up accompanied by a knowing laugh. Now, let’s think about this for a moment…

Before we take a moment to check in with ourselves (mentally, physically, or emotionally), before we check in with a loved one, we dive into our phones that typically offer a roulette of texts, e-mails, or even more of a gamble, WE CHECK THE NEWS. So, from the moment we wake up we immediately jump into external sources and external noise, oftentimes letting them dictate our mood before we even get out of bed. There might be days where this works in our favor and we get some good news that makes us want to conquer the day, but along with that comes the other side of the coin.

At Compete to Create, one of the core principles we teach is how to train control, and what science tells us is that one of the links behind motivation and resilience is how well we are able to focus and place our attention into those things that are within our capacity to control. As humans, we typically get more and more anxious when we focus on the external and all of the things that we might care about, that matter, that can have real consequences but are ultimately outside of our capacity to control.

One way to anchor our thoughts and behaviors to what is within our control is to commit to a short, but powerful, morning mindset routine.

What would it look like if you created a little bit of space in the morning to choose how you wanted to navigate the day, how you wanted to engage with challenges, how you wanted to show up for yourself and those around you, before letting external sources “tell you how it was going to go”? As we likely know now, more than ever, we cannot always control the challenges we will face day to day, but what often dictates our experience is how we choose to show up for them.

If you want to train control and enhance your skill of dictating your own experience, it could look something like this…

1. Wake up and turn off your alarm. SET THE PHONE DOWN
2. Take one deep breath, focusing on a long exhale.
3. Take a minute to think and feel about something you’re grateful for.
4. Set an intention for the day. What do you want to be about today? (Not WHAT you are going to do, but HOW you want to show up)
5. Get out of bed and just feel your feet on the floor.

The more we are intentional about how we respond to the inevitable challenges throughout our day, the more we can regulate our emotions, reduce stress, and continue to stay motivated and resilient regardless of what is going on around us. This simple exercise can prime your mind to focus on what’s within your control at work, and I have a feeling your loved ones might even notice a change in how you show up in the morning as well!

With fire,
Courtney Thompson

The post One Moment In The Morning To Change Your Whole Day appeared first on Finding Mastery.

Every day, every game, every meeting, every opportunity — things rarely ever go as planned. Disruption seems to be a consistent part of the moment-by-moment fabric of our lives.

You might not be able to control how things play out, but you can control how you respond. We always say that “attitude is everything!” And it’s never more real and true than when you’re faced with having to adjust to disruption.

Attitude matters first and foremost because having a positive and optimistic outlook can buoy you when the storms of life create waves in your world. When you’re committed to having a really solid and positive perspective, you start to rise with the waves instead of getting crushed by them.

For us, attitude and self-talk go hand-in-hand. We use the phrase “something good is just about to happen” to encourage positive self-talk. When you start to believe that “something good is just about to happen,” your perspective shifts and you reframe your vision to start looking for the good things. And then, as if on cue, good things actually do start happening all around you! It’s because when your mind is primed to notice good things before you know it, an avalanche of positives is occurring everywhere you look.

As you look intently for how things can go right, they often do.

In coaching our players, we focus on telling them what they’re doing right or how to do something right — instead of bashing what they’re doing wrong. Putting the attention on the positive draws out more of your desired outcome. What you focus on you draw to yourself, so putting the attention on the negative would only surface more negatives in your path.

So as you take hold of a more positive outlook, then you can focus on where you’re directing your next steps. With an optimistic perspective, your next steps are drenched in hope instead of dread, and good things start appearing before you.

When disruption happens in a football game or at work or in life, we’ve got to seize our outlook and turn it to the positive. The shift in mindset primes your brain to look for positives, and this perspective helps you adapt to whatever challenges you’re facing — whether it’s in the third quarter of a football game, over a Zoom call, or with your family.

Take hold of the belief that “something good is just about to happen,” and you’ll notice that disruption can actually become a good thing!

Pete Carroll

The post Adjusting To Disruption appeared first on Finding Mastery.

Perhaps the distinguishing feature of world-class athletes and performers is how they psychologically respond to the unfolding, unpredictable unknown.  Unlike most of us, they are conditioned to embrace change and discomfort, and they are particularly skilled at handling adversity. Whether it’s a traumatic injury, a job loss, or just the ball bouncing the wrong way, they are nimble and able to adjust when things don’t go according to plan. Their insights and mental dexterity are directly applicable to the conditions we now face. Whether they’re battling COVID-19 or trying to navigate life under quarantine, anyone can learn from how the best in the world psychologically respond to unexpected turns in life.

1. Stay Optimistic