Mental Toughness

You can be fragile, robust or antifragile. Do you break when you get hit by life? Or are you kinda resilient? Or… Are you antifragile—do you actually get STRONGER the more life kicks you around?! Learn how to get comfortable being uncomfortable as you step into your infinite potential and use *everything* to fuel your heroic growth.

Confidence. The word comes from the Latin con + fidere and means “with intense trust.” To have intense trust in what? In YOURSELF. *That* is true confidence–having total trust in yourself knowing you can handle whatever life throws at you. Helping you create that kind of indestructible trust in yourself is what this class is all about.

I got this book while I was reading Alden Mills’s great book, Unstoppable Mindset. Alden referenced Dr. Zinsser and wisdom from this book a bunch of times so, midway through reading his book, I Amazoned this one. Thanks to the miracle that is our modern world, the book arrived the following evening. I started it the next morning and finished it that day. It’s FANTASTIC. I think it’s now at least tied for first as THE best mental toughness book I’ve ever read.

Dr. Bob Rotella is widely recognized as the world’s leading sports psychologist. He’s coached everyone from basketball stars like LeBron James to rock stars like Seal. The golfers he’s coached (including greats like Rory McIlroy) have won an astonishing 80+ major championships. Want to know how champions think in both sports AND life? Well, here you go. Big Ideas we explore include the importance of going for "exceptionalism" (by definition, to be great/a champion you need to be an "exception" to the norm so...), a message from God (key takeaway: focus on the process, results are all good), train it and trust it, enthusiasm (it's the catalyst of champions), how to create your own reality (hint: don't do what average people do), and how to win the ultimate game of life.

I'm convinced Mark Divine is a superhero. Seriously. And in Unbeatable Mind, the former Navy SEAL gives us the handbook on mental toughness. In the Note, we'll look at the keys to cultivating our confidence, the importance of cultivating our concentration, learning how to control our breathing and other goodness that will make you unbeatable.

Jim Afremow is one of the world’s leading sports psychologists and this great book is packed with Big Ideas. We explore: the vision of a champion (and how to fuel it), what mental toughness *really* is, how/why to be ugly but effective, how to evaluate yourself (3 q’s: good + better + best), and creating sustained obsession as you take the champion’s honor pledge.

Admiral William H. McRaven is a Retired U.S. Navy SEAL who served for thirty-seven years and commanded at every level. As a Four-Star Admiral, his final assignment was as Commander of all U.S. Special Operations Forces. (During this time, he oversaw the covert mission that killed Osama bin Laden.) In 2014, he gave the commencement address to the graduates of the University of Texas at Austin. Millions of people wound up watching his speech on ten lessons he learned from his Navy SEAL training. This book takes a deeper look at those ten lessons. It’s a super-quick read—packed with simple, yet profound wisdom along with moving stories of moral exemplars. It's FANTASTIC.

I consider Phil Stutz my spiritual father and feel blessed to have had nearly 450 1-on-1 coaching sessions with him over the last seven years.

My collection of notes from those discussions is, by far, my most prized and valuable possession.

As I was reading this book, I was struck by the fact that this might be as close as anyone who hasn’t worked with Phil directly will get to working 1-on-1 with him.

As you’d expect, this book is packed with Big Ideas on how to embrace, as per the sub-title of the book, “What Only Adversity Can Teach You.”

If you’re a fan of Phil, I think you will absolutely LOVE the book.

Let’s jump in!

Brian Cain is one of the world’s greatest mental toughness coaches whose client list includes four Major League Baseball Cy Young Award winners, eight UFC world champion mixed martial artists, World Series and Super Bowl Champions and MVPs, Olympic medalists, and countless other elite athletes and coaches. In this book, we'll walk through Brian Cain's 10 Pillars of Mental Performance Mastery so that we can use them to DOMINATE THE DAY and give the world all we've got.

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin were two of the most senior (and decorated) SEALS on the ground in the most intense battles of Iraq. In this book they share their leadership lessons on how U.S. Navy SEALs lead and win. It’s an intense, impactful read. Big Ideas we explore include a definition of Extreme Ownership, the fact that there are no bad teams, only bad leaders, how to prioritize and execute and remembering that discipline = freedom.

David Goggins is a former Navy SEAL (and Army Ranger) who used to hold a Guinness World Record for completing 4,030 pull-ups in 17 hours. These days he’s setting records as an ultra-endurance athlete. But he wasn’t always Mr. Superhero. In this great autobiographical self-help book, David walks us through his transformation from being a 297-pound exterminator to a “Who IS this guy?!” superhero. If you’re into SUPER (!!!) intense demonstrations of how to conquer ourselves to do the seemingly impossible (and don’t mind a stream of f-bombs—lol) then I think you’ll love this book as much as I did. Big Ideas we explore include: The Accountability Mirror, bringing your best (when you feel the worst), hero callouses (let failures toughen you up!), the process (how to go from running 1/4 of a mile to 200+ nonstop), and bursting from the inside out (learn to endure!).