Take Me Out to the Brain Game - SBNation.com

The go-to phrase from Moneyball. Dyktra was going to "stick" future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton in a spring training game, when all the other rookies had stars in their eyes. Classic.

Take Me Out to the Brain Game - SBNation.com:

“Lenny didn’t let his mind screw him up. The physical gifts required to play pro ball were, in some ways, less extraordinary than the mental ones. Only a psychological freak could approach a 100-mph fastball aimed not far from his head with total confidence.”

- Michael Lewis, Moneyball

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Coach Traub's Core Concepts for Mental Toughness

MENTAL TOUGHNESS TRAINING

CORE CONCEPTS

This came in the mailbox, so I thought I would share. Good advice and a good resource for working on the mental side of the game. An important an often overlooked side of the game IMO. Enjoy.

Focus – Do you clutter your mind with too much thinking while you're trying to perform?  Focusing on the task-at-hand is a vital performance skill that can be learned with quality practice.  You'll learn to block out regrets about the past and worries about the future, recognize the correct present-tense object for your focus, and find that "trust mode" where you can truly give your best effort.

Positive Self-Talk – Self-Talk is not optional…you're going to think and the quality of your thoughts is going to determine the quality of your attitudes. Are your thoughts helping you excel or holding you back? This is where the rubber meets the road, and everyone has some good and some bad habits. Identify the good ones so you can do them again and identify the bad patterns so you can make an adjustment. It is exciting to think of what you can achieve. Your potential is absolutely astounding, and training your brain to move towards the things you want can help you fulfill that potential.

Confidence/Trust – Is there anything more important for you to perform the way you are capable of than to trust? To do this, you must not get in your own way by thinking too much and you must be confident. Great athletes consciously control their confidence level. They don't lose confidence after mistakes and they do gain it after successes. Their self-talk has a consistently Optimistic Explanatory Style that is always honest, but emphasizes positives and de-emphasizes negatives.

Self-Control – You must first control yourself if you are going to control your performance. You have little to no control of what goes on around you, but total control of how you respond. Learn to recognize your "red light" and "green light" signals. The goal is get yourself into your ideal state when it is time to practice and perform. Your internal state is comprised of your attitude and your physiology. It is useful to have multiple routines for getting you on track, both before and during competition. Your sport will provide adversity. No one stays in their ideal state all of the time, but consistent competitors come closer.

Perspective – Anyone who's ever "choked," meaning that they played below their potential when they perceived that it was a particularly important situation, should realize this: a performance/self-concept link is extremely damaging to the quality of a performance. Worry is counterproductive because it prevents the athlete from being in the moment and often turns attention towards uncontrollables. If you're worried what others will think of you, you're going to be partially distracted from the task-at-hand. Training in this area will clarify for you the perspectives that allow for the greatest performances. There is plenty of evidence to support the truth of these beliefs. Ultimately, your perspective on performance is your choice, but if you are competing with less information, you may be fighting an unnecessary uphill battle.

Routines – Wouldn't it be great if you could GUARANTEE giving your best effort every single time? You can. Not best effort ever, of course. That's not realistic. But you can control the controllables and give the best effort you possibly could give at this point in time in this situation. By using your experiences effectively, you can build routines that will make sure that you are physically and mentally at the right place at the right time. And if you define success in controllable terms (Coach Wooden: "the peace of mind that comes from knowing you did your best," this means you can guarantee success.)

Imagery - The mind/body connection is powerful, but communicating from mind to muscle can be challenging. Learn about the impact imagery has for many famous athletes and work to improve your imagery skills. Imagery is free and always available! You can use imagery before, during, and after your performances to maximize growth and winning. By running experiments (games and practices), you will figure out how and when to use imagery most effectively for you.

Goal-Setting Process – You have some big goals already. You want to prevent frustration at the distance of big challenges and prevent complacency from destinations already achieved. Certainly, you are already demonstrating goal-directed behavior often, but mounds of research indicate that writing down S.M.A.R.T. and Controllable goals will help you maintain goal-directed behavior more consistently. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." A formal goal-setting process will also ensure that each step is headed in the right direction. It is a process rather than a one-step resolution because monitoring and adjusting goals is critical.

Captain Clutch! Jeter scripts walk-off in home finale

When Pearce hit the HR to tie and knowing that Jeter would be up third in the bottom of the inning, you just felt something like this would happen. He's done stuff like this too many times in the past. What a way to go out!!

from MLB.com
Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees - September 25, 2014 | MLB.com NYY Recap:

 NEW YORK -- There had been a healthy amount of discussion about orchestrating Derek Jeter's exit from the field, how best to provide that chance to say goodbye after this final game in the Bronx. The Yankees should have known that no one was going to script it better than he would.

After choking back tears for nine innings on his last night wearing pinstripes, Jeter stamped an exclamation point on the end of his New York career, slashing an opposite-field walk-off single in the ninth that lifted the Yankees to a 6-5 victory over the Orioles on Thursday at Yankee Stadium.

"This is all I've ever wanted to do, and not too many people get an opportunity to do it," Jeter said. "It was above and beyond anything I'd ever dreamt of. I've lived a dream."

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Dr. Tom Hanson, a highly regarded mental performance expert who also used to work with the Yankees full-time back in 2001, wrote today in his newsletter some important reasons why he believes this finish happened the way it did:

I left the Yankees feeling I'd be thrilled to have our son grow up to be like Jeter and I still feel that way.

.....

p.s. Actually, the first place to check is how much love you are blasting at yourself.  That's what I really want for my son to emulate about Jeter (and hopefully me).  Jeter loves being Jeter.  "That's easy for him, " you might say, "he's Derek Jeter." 

"No," I say, "he's Derek Jeter BECAUSE he thinks that way."  You don't become great and THEN think great.  You think great first.

Consistently, that is what you hear people say about #2, If you has a son, you wanted him to carry himself like Derek Jeter and if you had a daughter, you wanted her to marry someone like Derek Jeter ( and she probably agreed with you, like a jillion % ).

But the second point is even more important as it goes to the heart of why Jeter has been successful throughout his career.

First, he was well-prepared for success by his parents. Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay brought up some of the methods Jeter's parents employed raising him that were strong on personal responsibility, accountability and having a strong belief system in place. They raised him up well.

Second, and this is what Dr. Hanson was alluding to, he didn't put the cart before the horse as many players (and sons) do by thinking, OK when I'm successful, I'll work hard and do the things successful people do (like have an indomitable, positive mind-set). That's putting the cart before the horse. You have a positive mind-set and that leads to success.

I hate to go all Norman Vincent Peale on you, but it's true, and once again Derek Jeter demonstrated that, and many other great qualities last night.

RE2PECT!!

Sports Are 80 Percent Mental: Coaches Should Reward The Effort More Than The Skill

This articles (below) have an awful lot of Carol Dweck and Mindset: The New Psychology for Success and Angela Duckworth's True Grit in them. Perseverance and effort as the keys to success in sports as well as many other life endeavors.

Football coaches verbalize it better with "It's not how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get back up". Of course, in football they spend a lot of time knocking each other down, so that makes sense from a coaching / motivational perspective. 

But think about baseball. 

Not a lot of time spent getting physically knocked down in baseball. Unless you're the high school version of Barry Bonds watching your moon shots leave the yard. Then maybe getting some extra dirt in your diet.  

But think about the mental aspect of the game or your life outside the game. How many times do we mentally or emotionally get knocked down and stay down rather than bounce right back up? Or check out and stop playing hard, so to speak, for innings or games or days or weeks on end? Oh yeah right, I'm the only one this happens to!! OK folks!!

There is so much valuable wisdom for athletes, students, teachers, parents and coaches tied up in some of the quotes below that they do bear repeating.  Definitely something to work on. 

Those life lessons from the ball field, you gotta love 'em!! Now, if we could just stop giving everyone in T-Ball a trophy, we might just have a chance to turn things around a bit.  


from 80percentmental.com:
Sports Are 80 Percent Mental: Coaches Should Reward The Effort More Than The Skill:

Our youth sports culture is similar to the classroom.  Kids who are divided into “A” or “B” teams at an early age are taught that their development path is set; the skills they have now are the same skills they will have in the future.  It becomes a self-fulfilling cycle as the “A” teams get better coaching, play in the better leagues against better competition and the talent gap widens.

 Often, parents can also, unknowingly, contribute to this cycle.  As in school, when a child is told that his or her success is due to his brain not his effort, the perception begins that when they do eventually struggle with a math test or a tougher opponent, there is little they can do to improve.

Jin Li, a psychology professor at Brown University, has also been studying cultural differences in learning and teaching.  One of her research projects recorded conversations between parents and children to hear the language used.  

 There were subtle differences between American and Asian parents when complimenting their kids.  While the Americans praised with phrases like, “you’re so smart”, Asian parents focused on the struggle, “you’ve worked so hard on learning that and now you did it.”

 “So the focus is on the process of persisting through it despite the challenges, not giving up, and that’s what leads to success,” Li said in the same NPR interview.

 Every young athlete will face challenges as they move up the ladder from youth clubs to high school to college.  Instilling them with the belief that they can improve through hard work will keep them motivated to get to the other side of the wall.  Their support team of parents and coaches can help this process by rewarding the learning process.

“Think about that [kind of behavior] spread over a lifetime,” Stigler concluded. “That’s a big difference.”

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Why Boosting Perseverance Predicts Success More than a Harvard Degree

Posted: June 25th, 2010 by Michele Borba

http://www.micheleborba.com/blog/2010/06/25/why-perseverance-counts-more-than-a-harvard-degree-focus-on-what-really-matters-mom/

Did you know that more top CEOs in United States graduated from a state college than an Ivy League University such as Harvard, Yale, or Princeton?

Shocked?

Research is showing there’s a far more important predictor of a grad’s future success than the prestige of the school or faculty or even the price of tuition. What matters far more is the  graduate’s “personal drive quotient.”

Nothing beats stick-to-it-ness and hard work when it comes to boosting success-absolutely nothing. And research continues to confirm that crucial fact.

 One of the most fascinating recent studies on student achievement was conducted by Harold Stevenson, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. Stevenson sought to answer a question many Americans ask, “Why do Asian students do better academically than American students?”

Since 1979, Stevenson’s team of researchers conducted five intensive cross-national studies analyzing students’ achievement in the United States, China, Taiwan, and Japan. Hundreds of hours observing students and interviewing their teachers, the researchers reached a conclusion: a critical key lies in what parents emphasize about their children’s learning. Here’s the difference in parenting styles:

Asian parents strongly stress the value of effort with their children.  Over and again they tell their children, “Work as hard as you can, and you will be successful.” By expecting their children to work hard, and emphasizing the attitude: “there are no excuses for poor grades, you just didn’t work hard enough,” perseverance is nurtured in Asian children. And the parental expectations had a remarkable effect on their children. The researchers found on the whole, Asian children worker longer and harder than their American counterparts because they had recognized their success was based on how hard they worked.

Instead of prioritizing how much effort our kids put into their learning attempts, research found that most American parents emphasized: “So what grade did you get?” or “How many did you miss?” or “Did you win?”

The researchers also found that the effort a child put into their process is not nearly as important to the American parent as the end product of the grade or score.

Stevenson also found American parents place a greater emphasis on their children’s innate abilities. They tend to lower their academic expectations for their children if they perceive them to have lower academic abilities.

An Asian parents’ philosophy is different: any child can succeed regardless of an IQ score or handicap–success is all a matter of how hard you are willing to work.

Just think a minute of the long term effect of stressing effort could have on our children!

Our kids would learn from an early age that there’s nothing that can stop them from succeeding if they put their heart and soul into their endeavors. They would see mistakes or failures as just temporary setbacks, instead of as excuses to quit. If they just keep on trying, and use their mistakes as learning clues, they’ll ultimately achieve their goals!

Daniel Wolpert on Why you have a Brain - To hit a fastball, of course!!

Yogi Berra is credited with saying "You can't think and hit at the same time". As usual, Yogi was correct, apparently you cannot 'consciously' think and hit at the same time. However, you can think 'subconsciously' and hit. Who'd have thunk it?

Metrics for the subconscious organization
http://blogs.sas.com/content/valuealley/2012/01/17/metrics-for-the-subconscious-organization/

Think about what it’s like to learn to ride a bicycle, or play the piano, or hit a fast ball, or to coach a group of middle schoolers to do the same. If asked to explain how you stay balanced on a bicycle, you probably couldn’t do it. If you tried to think about each finger finding the right piano key, you could never play a series of chords let alone an entire song. A fast ball reaches home plate in four-tenths of a second, two-tenths faster than your conscious brain can register it. Yet somehow, you still manage to ride a bike, play the piano, and hit that fast ball, often with considerable skill. What’s going on here?

A new book out by David Eagleman entitled, “Incognito – The Secret Lives of the Brain”, investigates these types of abilities and explains how much, how very, very much of what we do and what we think is managed by subconscious processes completely outside of our conscious control and often beyond our conscious awareness (i.e. temperature control, digestion). It was Freud who first described this “iceberg” of mental processes, with 90% of it below the conscious surface, now further advanced by modern science, which has discovered that your subconscious makes its own decisions several tenths of a second before the conscious mind is aware of that decision. The “you’ of your subjective conscious experience is a minor player when it comes to most of what it is your body does, primarily brought into action only when there is a tie vote or a conflict among your subconscious processes. How do we know this is true, that the brain really works that way? Because you can hit a fast ball. Some part of your brain made the decision to pull the trigger and swing away before your conscious self was made aware of that decision.

Great stuff from Sports are 80 Percent Mental. This is where science meets real-life, on the baseball field.

"So, our brain is constantly doing Bayesian calculations to compute the probability that the pitch that our eyes tell us is a fastball is actually a fastball based on our prior knowledge.  Every hitter knows when this calculation goes wrong when our prior knowledge tells our brain so convincingly that the next pitch will be a fastball, it overrules the real-time sensory input that this is actually a nasty curve ball.  The result is either a frozen set of muscles that get no instructions from a confused brain or a swing that is way too early. "

Sports are 80 Percent Mental...

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Daniel Wolpert On Why You Have A Brain Posted: 31 Mar 2012 06:35 PM PDT Daniel Wolpert is absolutely certain about one thing.  "We have a brain for one reason and one reason only, and that's to produce adaptable and complex movements," stated Wolpert, Director of the Computational and Biological Learning Lab at the University of Cambridge.  "Movement is the only way you have of affecting the world around you."  After that assertive opening to his 2011 TED Talk, he reported that, despite this important purpose, we have a long way to go in understanding of how exactly the brain controls our movements. Daniel Wolpert The evidence for this is in how well we've learned to mimic our movements using computers and robots.  For example, take the game of chess.  Since the late 1990s, computer software has been playing competitive matches and beating human master players by using programmed tactics and sheer computing power to analyze possible moves.  However, Wolpert points out that a five-year-old child can outperform the best robot in actually moving chess pieces around the board. From a sports context, think of a baseball batter at the plate trying to hit a fastball.  It seems intuitive to watch the ball, time the start of the swing, position the bat at the right height to intercept the ball and send it deep.  So, why is hitting a baseball one of the most difficult tasks in sports?  Why can't we perform more consistently? The problem is noise.  Not noise as in the sense of sound but rather the variability of incoming sensory feedback, in other words, what your eyes and ears are telling you.  In baseball, the location and speed of the pitch are never exactly the same, so the brain needs a method to adapt to this uncertainty.  To do this, we need to make inferences or beliefs about the world. The secret to this calculation, says Wolpert, is Bayesian decision theory, a gift of 18th century English mathematician and minister, Thomas Bayes.  In this framework, a belief is measured between 0, no confidence in the belief at all, and 1, complete trust in the belief.  Two sources of information are compared to find the probability of one result given another.  In the science of movement, these two sources are data, in the form of sensory input, and knowledge, in the form of prior memories learned from your experiences. Thomas Bayes So, our brain is constantly doing Bayesian calculations to compute the probability that the pitch that our eyes tell us is a fastball is actually a fastball based on our prior knowledge.  Every hitter knows when this calculation goes wrong when our prior knowledge tells our brain so convincingly that the next pitch will be a fastball, it overrules the real-time sensory input that this is actually a nasty curve ball.  The result is either a frozen set of muscles that get no instructions from a confused brain or a swing that is way too early. Our actions and movements become a never-ending cycle of predictions.  Based on the visual stimuli of the approaching baseball, we send a command to our muscles to swing at the pitch at a certain time.  We receive instant feedback from our eyes, ears and hands about our success or failure in hitting the ball, then log that experience in our memory. Wolpert calls this process our "neural simulator" which constantly and subconsciously makes predictions of how our movements will influence our surroundings. "The fundamental idea is you want to plan your movements so as to minimize the negative consequence of the noise," he explained. We can get a sense of what its like to break this action-feedback loop.  Imagine a pitcher aiming at the catcher's mitt, releasing the ball but then never being able to see where the pitch ended up.  The brain would not be able to store that action as a success or failure and the Bayesian algorithm for future predictions would be incomplete. Try this experiment with a friend.  Pick up a heavy object, like a large book, and hold it underneath with your left hand.  If you now use your right hand to lift the book off of your left hand, you'll notice that your left hand stays steady.  However, if your friend lifts the book off of your hand, your brain will not be able to predict exactly when that will happen.  Your left hand will rise up just a little after the book is gone, until your brain realizes it no longer needs to compensate for the book's weight.  When your own movement removed the book, your brain was able to cancel out that action and predict with certainty when to adjust your left hand's support. "As we go around, we learn about statistics of the world and lay that down," said Wolpert.  "But we also learn about how noisy our own sensory apparatus is and then combine those in a real Bayesian way." Our movements, especially in sports, are very complex and the brain to body communication pathways are still being discovered.  We'll rely on self-proclaimed "movement chauvinists" like Daniel Wolpert to continue to map those routes.  In the meantime, you can still brag about the pure genius of your five-year-old hitting a baseball.

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Try This!!!
From exploratorium.edu
http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/reactiontime.html

Click on the "play ball" button, then move your cursor over the part of the screen that shows the baseball field. As soon as you see "swing batter," click on your screen as fast as you can.

Fastball Reaction Time imitates a 90-mph fastball thrown by a major league pitcher. While this exhibit doesn't test if you could actually hit a fastball, it does test whether you could react in time to hit one. When you see the "swing batter" screen, a signal in your eye sends a message to a part of your brain that controls your muscles. Your brain must then send a signal to your muscles, telling them to click. Although it takes some time for the signal to travel along each nerve, the major delay in your reaction time occurs at the junction points in between the different nerves involved, and between the nerves and the muscles in your fingers.

Are you a Creature of Bad Habits?

There are many days I wonder about falling victim to practice. Definitely a creature of habit, just have to make sure that I'm choosing the right habits and mind-sets.

When I coached, I had to struggle to remember not to frame the talk around negatives like "Don't walk this guy" or "Don't give him anything good to hit". "Don't" leaves too many open variables and options for the mind to consider. You don't effectively convey what you want the athlete to "DO". Often you end up subconsciously talking the athlete into the outcome you wanted them to avoid.

From the New York Times:
A Creature of Bad Habit: Why Mistakes Are Repeated
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: July 18, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/sports/baseball/19score.html

Daniel M. Wegner, a psychologist at Harvard, is a professional scientist, not a professional athlete, and in a recent issue of Science magazine, he reviewed the research on the problem. A recent article in The New York Times explored the social implications.

When the pressure is on, Wegner wrote, the unconscious attempt to avoid errors consistently increases their likelihood of occurring. The same happens with words and thoughts as it does with physical actions. Tell someone, “Don’t think about a white bear,” and you can almost be guaranteed that for the next 10 minutes, white bears are all the person will think about.

Under even a little stress, the problem becomes worse. If you tell people not to think of a given word, then give them a word association test under time pressure, they are likely to blurt out the forbidden word as a response. The concentrated attempt not to think about it becomes just another way of thinking about it. Wegner calls this “the ironic return of repressed thoughts.” Baseball managers, and athletes suffering with the disorder, may have other words for it.

It can become quite embarrassing, and not just on a baseball field or a golf course. Experiments have shown, for example, that if you ask people to concentrate on suppressing prejudices like racism, sexism or homophobia, they blatantly express those biases despite — or perhaps because of — the effort to control them.

In one experiment, researchers put eye-tracking cameras on soccer players and instructed them to avoid a particular part of the goal in making a penalty kick. Guess which part of the goal their gazes most often fell?

Are you Mentally Tough Enough?

From the Sports Performance Bulletin:
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/are-you-mentally-tough-enough-42023

Good article explaining what mental toughness is and how it can be developed and improved.

Four factors that allow athletes to have mental toughness include:

1) Self belief -- an unshakable belief in your ability to achieve something.
2) Motivation -- an internal desire to succeed and to respond to setbacks with increased determination.
3) Focus -- an ability to concentrate only on the task at hand and completely ignores any distractions from others or from your own internal voices.
4) Composure -- regaining psychological control after any unexpected events or distractions.

A seven-step program to develop mental toughness would include:

1) Have the right attitude -- have confidence and stay positive, through thick and thin.
2) Develop your mind for success -- use visualization or mental imagery techniques.
3) Develop Good Habits -- develop systematic routines.
4) Develop poise and composure -- let go of mistakes and trust your stuff.
5) Control negative self-talk -- give yourself positive suggestions.
6) Know that failure can lead to future success -- stay focused on the process, not the results.
7) Be a Clutch Player -- be willing to step it up and do your best when it matters most.

FEAR OF SUCCESS OR FEAR OF FAILURE?

Sometimes you have to make an honest evaluation of where you are before you can decide where you are going.

Otherwise you're just lost.

Some great stuff on the topic from greater minds than mine. The clip from the movie Coach Carter is awesome. A very underrated book and sports movie.

Many of us are familiar with the concept of the fear of failure. But what about the fear of success?

Believe it or not, having a fear of success is actually quite common. Many people who have this fear aren't even aware that they have it, which is why it's holding them back from achieving their goals and dreams.

The passage has such inspirational power that it is now a stand-alone mantra for a generation of exceptional individuals who wish to motivate themselves and others to live up to their fullest potential.

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From the movie Coach Carter:

Our Deepest Fear...



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OUR DEEPEST FEAR
by Marianne Williamson. from A Return to Love


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

(A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3])

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FEAR OF SUCCESS:

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/fear-of-success.htm#nopopups

Fear of Success

Overcoming Fear of Change

Laura's boss has just announced that the company has won a bid to create a national marketing campaign. And he's asked Laura if she wants to head this project. All that she has to do is let him know that she's interested by the following Friday.

Laura always hoped for an opportunity like this. She knows her work and management skills qualify her for the job - and she knows that it would likely lead to a promotion, or at least to some much-deserved recognition.

However, by the time Friday arrives, she has created a list of reasons not to head the project. And by the end of the day, she still hasn't talked to her boss.

Does this situation sound familiar?

Fear of success is actually quite common, and it can cause us to lose out on opportunities in life. When we're too afraid to take risks and move forward on our goals - either consciously or subconsciously - we get stuck in one place, neither moving forward nor backward.

In this article, we'll examine the fear of success: what it is, how to know if you have it, and what you can do to overcome it.

Fear of Success

Psychologist Matina Horner first diagnosed the fear of success in the early 1970s. Her findings, especially as they related to fear of success in women at that time, were incredibly controversial.

Since then, however, most scientists and psychologists agree that fear of success exists for both men and women.

Fear of success is similar to fear of failure. They have many of the same symptoms, and both fears hold you back from achieving your dreams and goals.

Signs of Fear of Success

The biggest problem for many people is that their fear of success is largely unconscious. They just don't realize that they've been holding themselves back from doing something great.

If you experience the following thoughts or fears, you might have a fear of success on some level:
You feel guilty about any success you have, no matter how small, because your friends, family, or co-workers haven't had the same success.

You don't tell others about your accomplishments.

You avoid or procrastinate on big projects, especially projects that could lead to recognition.

You frequently compromise your own goals or agenda to avoid conflict in a group, or even conflict within your family.

You self-sabotage (member only article) your work or dreams by convincing yourself that you're not good enough to achieve them.

You feel, subconsciously, that you don't deserve to enjoy success in your life.

You believe that if you do achieve success, you won't be able to sustain it. Eventually you'll fail, and end up backing a worse place from where you started. So you think, "why bother?"

Causes of Fear of Success

Fear of success has several possible causes:
We fear what success will bring - for example, loneliness, new enemies, being isolated from our family, longer working hours, or being asked for favors or money.

We're afraid that the higher we climb in life, the further we may fall if we make a mistake.

We fear the added work, responsibilities, or criticism that we'll face.

We fear that our relationships will suffer if we become successful. Our friends and family will react with jealousy and cynicism, and we'll lose the ones we love.

We fear that accomplishing our goals, and realizing that we have the power to be successful, may actually cause an intense regret that we didn't act sooner.
Overcoming Fear of Success

You can use several different strategies to overcome your fear of success. The good news is that the more you face your fears, bring them to the surface, and analyze them rationally, the more you're likely to weaken those fears - and dramatically reduce your reluctance to achieve your goals.

Take a realistic look at what will happen if you succeed with your goal. Don't look at what you hope will happen, or what you fear will happen. Instead, look at what is likely to happen.

It's important not to give a quick answer to this. Take at least 15 minutes to examine the issues, and write down answers to questions like these:
How will my friends and family react if I accomplish this goal?

How will my life change?

What's the worst that could happen if I achieve this goal?

What's likely to happen, and what's the best that could happen?

Why am I scared of accomplishing this goal?

How motivated am I to work toward this goal? How can I increase this motivation?

What am I currently doing to sabotage, or hurt, my own efforts?

How can I stop those self-sabotaging behaviors?
Where you identify risks and problems, make a plan to mitigate those risks or solve those problems. And where you identify actions that need to be taken, add these to your To Do List or Action Program.

Another useful technique is to address your fears directly, and then develop a backup plan that will overcome your concern.

For instance, suppose you don't push yourself to achieve a promotion partly because you secretly fear that you'll be so busy working that you'll never see your family, and partly because you might be forced to make choices that would destroy your integrity.

To overcome these fears, start by addressing your workload. You could set a rule for yourself that you'll always be home by 7 p.m. You could tell this to your boss if you're offered the new position.

For issues involving integrity, you always have a choice. If you set maintaining your integrity (member only article) as your top goal, then you'll always make the right choice.

By creating backup plans that address your fears, you can often eliminate those fears entirely.

Tip:
Sometimes people will react negatively to your success, particularly if they've been perceived as being more successful than you in the past. If people are this small-minded, and they can't rejoice in your success, do you really want to know them?

Key Points

Fear of success is common, but many of us don't realize that we have it. Self-sabotaging activities - such as procrastination, negative self-talk, and fearing what the success will bring - may hold us back from achieving our goals and dreams.

If you think that you suffer from a fear of success, identify why you're afraid of accomplishing your goals. The more you face your fear and analyze what you're worrying about, the better able you'll be to deal with these issues and move forward with your life.

FEAR OF FAILURE:

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/fear-of-failure.htm#nopopups

Overcoming Fear of Failure

Facing Fears and Moving Forward

Have you ever been so afraid of failing at something that you decided not to try it at all? Or has a fear of failure meant that, subconsciously, you undermined your own efforts to avoid the possibility of a larger failure?

Many of us have probably experienced this at one time or another. The fear of failing can be immobilizing – it can cause us to do nothing, and therefore resist moving forward. But when we allow fear to stop our forward progress in life, we're likely to miss some great opportunities along the way.

In this article, we'll examine fear of failure: what it means, what causes it, and how to overcome it to enjoy true success in work, and in life.

Causes of Fear of Failure

To find the causes of fear of failure, we first need to understand what "failure" actually means.

We all have different definitions of failure, simply because we all have different benchmarks, values, and belief systems. A failure to one person might simply be a great learning experience for someone else.

Many of us are afraid of failing, at least some of the time. But fear of failure (also called "atychiphobia") is when we allow that fear to stop us doing the things that can move us forward to achieve our goals.

Fear of failure can be linked to many causes. For instance, having critical or unsupportive parents is a cause for some people. Because they were routinely undermined or humiliated in childhood, they carry those negative feelings into adulthood.

Experiencing a traumatic event at some point in your life can also be a cause. For example, say that several years ago you gave an important presentation in front of a large group, and you did very poorly. The experience might have been so terrible that you developed a fear of failure about other things. And you carry that fear even now, years later.

Signs of Fear of Failure

You might experience some of these symptoms if you have a fear of failure:

A reluctance to try new things or get involved in challenging projects.

Self-sabotage - for example, procrastination, excessive anxiety, or a failure to follow through with goals.

Low self-esteem or self-confidence – Commonly using negative statements such as "I'll never be good enough to get that promotion," or "I'm not smart enough to get on that team."

Perfectionism – A willingness to try only those things that you know you'll finish perfectly and successfully.
"Failure" – A Matter of Perspective

It's almost impossible to go through life without experiencing some kind of failure. People who to do so probably live so cautiously that they go nowhere. Put simply, they're not really living at all.

The wonderful thing about failure is that it's entirely up to us to decide how to look at it.

We can choose to see failure as "the end of the world," or as proof of just how inadequate we are. Or, we can look at failure as the incredible learning experience that it often is. Every time we fail at something, we can choose to look for the lesson we're meant to learn. These lessons are very important; they're how we grow, and how we keep from making that same mistake again. Failures stop us only if we let them.

It's easy to find successful people who have experienced failure. For example:

Michael Jordan is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time. And yet, he was cut from his high school basketball team because his coach didn't think he had enough skill.

Warren Buffet, one of the world's richest and most successful businessmen, was rejected by Harvard University.

Richard Branson, owner of the Virgin empire, is a high school dropout.
Most of us will stumble and fall in life. Doors will get slammed in our faces, and we might make some bad decisions. But imagine if Michael Jordan had given up on his dream to play basketball when he was cut from that team. Imagine if Richard Branson had listened to the people who told him he'd never do anything worthwhile without a high school diploma.

Think of the opportunities you'll miss if you let your failures stop you.

Failure can also teach us things about ourselves that we would never have learned otherwise. For instance, failure can help you discover how strong a person you are. Failing at something can help you discover your truest friends, or help you find unexpected motivation to succeed.

Often, valuable insights come only after a failure. Accepting and learning from those insights is key to succeeding in life.

Overcoming a Fear of Failure

It's important to realize that in everything we do, there's always a chance that we'll fail. Facing that chance, and embracing it, is not only courageous – it also gives us a fuller, more rewarding life.

However, here are a few ways to reduce the fear of failing:

Analyze all potential outcomes – Many people experience fear of failure because they fear the unknown. Remove that fear by considering all of the potential outcomes of your decision. Our article Decision Trees will teach you how to map possible outcomes visually.

Learn to think more positively – Positive thinking is an incredibly powerful way to build self-confidence and neutralize self-sabotage. Our article Thought Awareness, Rational Thinking, and Positive Thinking is a comprehensive resource for learning how to change your thoughts.

Look at the worse-case scenario – In some cases, the worst case scenario may be genuinely disastrous, and it may be perfectly rational to fear failure. In other cases, however, this worst case may actually not be that bad, and recognizing this can help.

Have a contingency plan – If you're afraid of failing at something, having a "Plan B" in place can help you feel more confident about moving forward.
Using Goal Setting

If you have a fear of failure, you might be uncomfortable setting goals. But goals help us define where we want to go in life. Without goals, we have no sure destination.

Many experts recommend visualization as a powerful tool for goal setting. Imagining how life will be after you've reached your goal is a great motivator to keep you moving forward.

However, visualization might produce the opposite results in people who have a fear of failure. In the article "Tantalizing Fantasies: Positive Imagery Induces Negative Mood in Individuals High in Fear of Failure" (published in the journal Imagination, Cognition and Personality, Vol. 21, No. 4), researcher Thomas Langens showed that people who have a fear of failure were often left in a strong negative mood after being asked to visualize goals and goal attainment.

So, what can you do instead?

Start by setting a few small goals. These should be goals that are slightly, but not overwhelmingly, challenging. Think of these goals as "early wins" that are designed to help boost your confidence.

For example, if you've been too afraid to talk to the new department head (who has the power to give you the promotion you want), then make that your first goal. Plan to stop by her office during the next week to introduce yourself.

Or, imagine that you've dreamed of returning to school to get your MBA, but you're convinced that you're not smart enough to be accepted into business school. Set a goal to talk with a school counselor or admissions officer to see what's required for admission.

Try to make your goals tiny steps on the route to much bigger goals. Don't focus on the end picture: getting the promotion, or graduating with an MBA. Just focus on the next step: introducing yourself to the department head, and talking to an admissions officer. That's it.

Taking one small step at a time will help build your confidence, keep you moving forward, and prevent you from getting overwhelmed with visions of your final goal.

Note:
Sometimes, fear of failure can be a symptom of a more serious mental health condition. If fear of failure affects your day-to-day life, it's important to speak with your doctor to get advice.

Key Points

Many of us sometimes experience a fear of failure, but we mustn't let that fear to stop us from moving forward.

Fear of failure can have several causes: from childhood events to mistakes we've made in our adult lives. It's important to realize that we always have a choice: we can choose to be afraid, or we can choose not to be.

Start by setting small goals that will help build your confidence. Learn how to explore and evaluate all possible outcomes rationally and develop contingency plans; and practice thinking positively. By moving forward slowly but steadily, you'll begin to overcome your fear of failure.

But the cowardly , the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers , the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. - Revelation 21:8

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.” -Patrick Henry

Finger Length Predicts Mental Toughness in Sport

Hand with index finger being shorter than the ring finger, resulting in a small 2D:4D ratio, pointing to a high exposure to testosterone in the uterus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_ratio

Who knew? I was aware of the fact that it also correlates nicely with your chances of getting a date on Friday night. But this is an added bonus.

Finger Length Predicts Mental Toughness in Sport
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101202124846.htm:

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2010) — Mental toughness and an aptitude for sport may be biologically determined.

This is one of the findings of an ongoing research project involving post-doctoral and doctoral research by Dr Jim Golby and Jennifer Meggs from Teesside University who will present their work on November 10 at the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology's Annual Conference being held at the Holiday Inn London -- Camden Lock.

Previous research has shown that the 2D:4D ratio (index finger/ring finger) has the potential to explain sporting success. An index finger that is much shorter than the ring finger is caused by exposure to testosterone in the womb. This research investigated the relationship between 2D:4D and mental toughness, optimism, aggression and performance.

The results showed that participants with 2D:4D ratio were more likely to demonstrate mental toughness and have higher levels of sporting achievements.

Dr Golby explained: "It appears that high prenatal levels of testosterone may result in increased mental toughness, optimism and hence aptitude towards sport. This provides tentative support for the conclusion that mental toughness may be partially biologically predetermined."

More Words of Wisdom from the trenches

NIGHTLINE - The Talent Factories

Innate or in-born talent versus good coaching, practice and good old-fashioned hard work. Talent is not born, it is made. Practice, practice, practice is the key, just as the old joke about "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice makes perfect, but not just any practice, deep practice. Developing myelin in the brain, the old concept of reinforcement. Muscle memory, yes. But remembering the fundamentally correct mechanics to perform. So not as much 'practice makes perfect' but instead 'perfect practice' that leads to talent development and therefore, success.

Great coaching. Who the teacher is, is very important. A knowledgable, patient teacher that demands the correct fundamentals repeated in the proper sequence leads to success. A watchful eye, making small but important corrections under deep practice conditions.

Total concentration. Finding and fixing small technical mistakes. Making corrections leads to better skill development. Getting in the proverbial "zone" in practice. Resilience and perseverance lead to Talent.




THE TALENT CODE - Daniel Coyle

A trailer for Daniel Coyle's book, The Talent Code, which explains how talent grows in the brain, and how you can grow more of it. Included are a discussion of tiny, wildly successful talent hotbeds in sports, art, music, and academics; their distinctive patterns of practice, motivation, and coaching; and a bit of neurology (after all, every skill is located in the brain). The clip also includes the author's performance of a Tiger Woods golf trick--a trick with an extremely unplanned ending.

How parents and kids can develop Olympic-style mental toughness - from Jim Murphy

Olympic athletes and parents can use the same tools to train themselves and their kids. Jim Murphy, author of the new book by McGraw-Hill, Inner Excellence: Achieve Extraordinary Business Success Through Mental Toughness, explains how to use the mental skills of Olympic champions.

1. Focus on values. If you want your kid to have more confidence in their sport, encourage them when they show compassion, teamwork, and discipline. When you focus on values, you give them the freedom to fail, which allows them to win more often. [Top Olympians lead with their heart and connect with what they value most.]

2. Detach from the outcome. If you're like most parents, you're happy when your kid succeeds in sports, and disappointed when they don't. It's natural. But it also connects your love to their success. Don't get too excited about the outcome (win or lose); it sends a subconscious message that ties their performance to your love for them. Go to their games, cheer for them, and love them for who they're becoming, not how they performed. [Top Olympians focus on how they want to feel and let the outcome take care of itself.]

3. Write 3-5 goals everyday as if they were already true. For example, if your kid wants to be the starting shortstop on the baseball team, you may have him write: I love playing baseball and being the starting shortstop. Have some school ones too. For example: I am focused and confident every day at school as I achieve a B average. [Top Olympians affirm their goals every day as if they were already true.]

4. Remember the great moments. Spend five minutes every day with your kid visualizing great performances from the past. Remind him or her of a great performance and ask about that moment and how it felt. Then tell your child to "re-live" that moment and get the feeling again. This can be a powerful time you spend with your kids every day. [Top Olympians are continually re-visiting great memories of past performances].

5. Weed out the negative thoughts. Every day you and your kids will have negative thoughts. This is perhaps the biggest obstacle either of you will ever face. Here's four ways to deal with them:

a. Wear a rubber band and snap it each time you have a negative thought.
b. Replace the negative thought with the complete opposite. (I'm going to fail becomes I'm going to succeed.)
c. Yell "stop!" in your mind and picture an oversize STOP sign.
d. Tell yourself, "It's only a negative thought" and go back to what you're doing.

Negative thoughts only have power over you by what you give them, and you give them power when you let them linger in your mind.

[Top Olympians develop keen self-awareness of their thoughts and feelings and continually direct them towards their goals and dreams.]

The essence of "The Cody Ross Experience". Explained by Cody Ross

"Every time I went to the plate, I knew I was going to do something, do some damage. When you feel like that, you've got to ride it as long as you can, because you rarely feel like that."
—Cody Ross, a month after the World Series, looking back at his fabulous postseason.

Ex scientia pecuniae libertas. - "Out of knowledge of money comes freedom."

How to teach the mental game of baseball

I am happy to recommend to all players, coaches and parents out there, the launch of a program to help learn how to teach the mental side of the game of baseball from an acknowledged national expert on the subject.

Dr. Tom Hanson lives in the same general area in Tampa as we did before we relocated to Illinois, so I have been well aware of his work for many, many years. His book "Heads Up Baseball" co-authored with Dr. Ken Ravizza is one of the best books on the market on the subject of the mental game of baseball.

I have listened to Dr. Hanson speak numerous times at conferences and he never fails to leave you feeling better equipped to teach a side of the game that I believe is very much under-coached among teams from the youth to collegiate level.

Oh sure, coaches always say they want kids to learn the mental and emotional aspects of the game. Many pay lip service to having a team that is well-prepared, doesn't hurt themselves with mental mistakes, stays cool under pressure, etc. But how many actually spend valuable practice time teaching these valuable skills? Not many in my experience.

Dr. Tom gives you the tools and teaches you how to use them.

Beginning tomorrow -- September 15th at 12: noon -- Dr. Hanson will launch his newest program from this site "Baseball Success Secrets".

I have included Dr. Hanson's professional resume below as well as his e-mail explaining further details of the program.

www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com Dr. Tom Hanson - Baseball Success Secrets


----------
HIGHLIGHTS OF DR. HANSON'S PROFESSIONAL RESUME:

Career highlights include:

Full-time Performance Enhancement director for the New York Yankees (2001)

Performance Enhancement Consultant for the Texas Rangers (1999, 2000)

Performance Enhancement services for Anaheim Angels & Minnesota Twins

Head baseball coach and tenured professor at Skidmore College (NY) (1990-1997).

Co-Author of Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time.

Interviews with Hank Aaron, Rod Carew, Pete Rose, Tony Oliva, Carl Yastrzemski, Stan Musial, Kirby Puckett, Billy Williams and others for my research on the Mental Aspects of Hitting.

Interviews with pitching greats Nolan Ryan, Tommy John, Ferguson Jenkins, Bert Blyleven and many current major league players.

Corporate Coaching and Training for businesspeople and organizations ranging from Fortune 500 Companies to start-ups.

Education

Ph.D. in sport psychology from the University of Virginia (1991)

M.S. in sport psychology from the University of Illinois (1987)

Certified Personal and Professional Coach, The Newfield Network (2000)

Certified Yoga Teacher, Kripalu Yoga Center, (1996)
----------
COPY OF DR. HANSON'S E-MAIL:

Charles,

On Tuesday I'll launch a program determined to change lives.

The program is about success: how to be powerful (power =
the ability to produce desired results) and have "peace of
mind."

I'm involved in a youth sport group that is closely aligned
with John Wooden. You may know Wooden's definition of
success:

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of
self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become
the best you are capable of becoming.”

My quest for me is this peace of mind -- and the fun
results that will come with it -- and this is ultimately
what "Baseball Success Secrets" is all about:

Players, Coaches and Parents being successful.

On and off the field.

There's lots of new material in the program, along with
some familiar coaching if you've been with me long.

But the big difference is the format of the program... and
the energy it contains.

-----------------------------------------

Program Format

-----------------------------------------

The format is simple: Each week you get a new coaching
lesson from me via email.

Each lesson will have:

1) A "distinction" -- content giving you a new way of
looking at something; and

2) A "practice" -- something for you to DO during the week.

The program acknowledges that KNOWING SOMETHING DOES YOU NO
GOOD.

It has to be in your body for it to make a difference. So I
will give you training to do just like a physical trainer.

For 6 months.

------------------------------------------

Who Is the Program For?

------------------------------------------

The program is for players, coaches and parents. Anyone who
wants to succeed.

The applications for players is obvious. I will teach you
and train you to become unstoppably confident and able to
accomplish any goal (on or off the field) you want to
accomplish.

I'll give you the best tools in the world to become
successful.

For a PLAYER with a big dream, this program is the best way
to spend training time and dollars this fall and winter.

For COACHES, you get benefits on two levels:

1) a mental training system for your players. You'll know
what to teach them to be confident, consistent and mentally
tough under pressure.

And you'll have the tools to train them.

2) A success system for yourself. Look at the coaches you
REALLY admire and you'll notice they are all great people.

Success comes out of their pores.

For players to trust you and respect you they must FEEL you
-- they must FEEL your personal power.

They must feel that you walk your talk.

If they don't it doesn't matter how great your hitting
mechanics teaching is -- they won't buy in.

So the program will help take YOU to the next level.

(I can't leave this out: Your team will NOT outperform its
leadership. Chances are YOUR OWN INTERNAL LIMITATIONS are
your team's biggest constraint.)

The best way to take your team to the next level is to take
YOU to the next level.

-----------------------------------------

For Parents

-----------------------------------------

Same as with the coaches, really.

You can't tell your son to do something when your own
actions aren't aligned with what you are "teaching."

What is really being taught is your "being," your "energy."
Not your words.

So the best way to be a great parent is to be a great
example.

Be the person you want your son to be. If you want him to
be happy, your being happy is your first goal.

------------------------------------------

So There!

------------------------------------------

That's what "Baseball Success Secrets" is about.

Success!

On and off the field.

For players, coaches and parents.

And in addition to the format improvement (short weekly
lessons that guide you step-by-step), the whole program has
an energy way beyond anything I've ever created.

It launches Tuesday.

------------------------------------------

What Questions Do You Have?

------------------------------------------

Tomorrow (Monday) from noon to 4pm Eastern time I will be
conducting my first ever "Success-athon."

I've recently received over 380 questions from committed
parents, players, and coaches and I'll be answering as many
as possible during those 4 hours.

I'll be chatting at the same time so you can respond to
what I say and ask your own questions -- live (anonymously).

So please tune in.

Get the details here:

www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com

Thank you,

Dr. Tom
Tom Hanson, Ph.D.

p.s. I'll have some cool prizes for the first people who
join the program, so mark your calendar for noon Tuesday
when BSS becomes available.

www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com