177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS 177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS The Thought Processes, Habits And Philosophies Of The Great Ones Steve Siebold 177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS 177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS The Thought Processes, Habits And Philosophies Of The Great Ones Steve Siebold Published by London House www.londonhousepress.com © 2005 by Steve Siebold All Rights Reserved. Printed in Hong Kong. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Ordering Information To order additional copies please visit www.mentaltoughnesssecrets.com or visit the Gove Siebold Group, Inc. at www.govesiebold.com. ISBN: 0-9755003-0-9 Credits Editor: Gina Carroll www.inkwithimpact.com Jacket and Book design by Sheila Laughlin 177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS DEDICATION This book is dedicated to the three most important people in my life, for their never-ending love, support and encouragement in the realization of my goals and dreams. Dawn Andrews Siebold, my beautiful, loving wife of almost 20 years. You are my soul mate and best friend. I feel best about me when I’m with you. We’ve come a long way since sub-man. I love you. Walter and Dolores Siebold, my parents, for being the most loving and supporting parents any kid could ask for. Thanks for everything you’ve done for me. I love you. iv 177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS 177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my late business partner and best friend, the great Bill Gove, for everything you taught me and all the fun we had together building Gove Siebold Group. We will meet again, Spider. I miss you. To Ada Gove, for loving and taking care of Bill for all those years, and for always support- ing our work at Gove Siebold Group. Bill lived a longer, healthier and richer life because of you. To Larry Wilson, for being a great friend and mentor, and for showing me how the system works. To Bob Proctor, for promoting Gove Siebold Group tirelessly over the years. For always pushing me to think big. To John R. Spannuth, for introducing me to Bill Gove, and for always encouraging me every step of the way. There would be no Gove Siebold Group without you. To Keith Harrell, for your friendship, guidance and endless referrals. To Lou Wood, for your friendship, and for your ongoing feedback during the mental toughness process. A speaker could never have a better client. A person could never have a better friend. To Sheila Laughlin, for your outstanding layout and design work on this book, and for everything you’ve done for Gove Siebold Group over the years. If only Bill could see you now. To Gina Carroll, for your tireless editing of this book, and for all of your help and sugges- tions. To all of the members of Gove Siebold Group’s National Board of Advisors: Dr. Tony Alessandra, Bill Brooks, Jim Cathcart, Dave Yoho, Dr. Jim Tunney, Mark Victor Hansen, Randy Gage, Patricia Fripp, Larry Wilson, Nido Qubein, Brian Tracy, Bob Proctor, Ray Pelletier. For all of your advice and guidance over the years. To Jay Travis and Christy Travis Hey, for being the example of what’s possible as adults when you begin the mental toughness process as children. To Magic Sammy Lankford, for being a great friend and mentor when I needed you most. To Brian Lee Allen, the original great one, for helping me nd my way home. vi 177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS 177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS FOREWORD It’s important to understand that the author of this book, Steve Siebold, is not an ordinary coach, but a world-class Mental Toughness Coach. As you ponder whether or not this book is for you, think about your life. How well are you performing in the areas of your life you deem to be most important? Are you thriving or just surviving? Are you at the top of your game or sitting on the bench, watching others play, wishing you could be the star performer? No matter how you’ve answered these questions, you’re going to want to read this book. Why? You already know that good performance coaching is like eating healthy food. What you eat inuences your energy and your body’s performance. So eating healthy food just makes good sense. But what controls how well you perform? What you think controls how you perform -- pure cause and effect. Your thinking is the cause. Your performance is the effect. So think- ing the right thoughts (and acting on them) makes great sense. In fact, it makes Perfor- mance Champions. And a steady diet of “high-performance thought food” is contained in 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class. It’s your recipe for a great life, the “thought food” of champions. Oh, did I mention that you, too, are a coach? You are the one who chooses your thought food. You’re the one who swallows your thought food. And, you’re the only one who is accountable for what you swallow (think). For better or worse, you are your own head coach, the coach of what thoughts are in your head. But don’t despair, Steve is here to save the day. Steve is my good friend and your primary assistant coach. He’s here to assist you in making the best choices possible -- the thoughts you feed your brain. He does this by studying the thought diets of the highest performers in a variety of elds. No surprise, the best of the best feed their brains similar thought foods. This book shares this food with you. Steve makes it easy and convenient for you to say, “I’ll have what the champion perform- ers are having.” If you want to Be like a champion, you’ve got to Think like a champion. Come on coach, start the Mental Toughness diet now! Start today Playing to Win the Great Game of Your Life. There’s a champion performer inside you just waiting to Get in the Game and lead a life really worthy of living. Larry Wilson Founder Wilson Learning Co-author of Play to Win, Choosing growth over fear in work and in life and author of the personal growth process, The Great Game of Life viii 177 MENTAL TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS 177 MENTALINTRODUCTION TOUGHNESS SECRETS OF THE WORLD CLASS I have had the privilege of competing against, coaching, being coached by and observing world-class performers since I was six years old. As a junior tennis player competing throughout the United States from ages 7-18, I became fascinated with what it takes to become a champion. My dream was to be ranked among the Top 10 players in the world, but I fell short. At my best, I hovered around the Top 500 in the world, and that’s as high as I could seem to reach. Deep down, I knew I had the talent to make my dream a reality, and I knew the missing link was mental. After I hung up my racquet for the last time, I became obsessed with uncovering the mental toughness secrets of champions. Starting in 1984, I spent every free moment conducting interviews with champions, reading their books and studying everything I could get my hands on about the psychology of peak performance. My friends said I was obsessed. They were right. This book is the result of my 20-year obsession. When I started to implement the ideas in this book, my whole life changed. It wasn’t over- night, but sometimes it seemed like it. There’s no magic here, just practical thought pro- cesses, habits and philosophies drawn from the greatest performers in the world. This book contains no theories. Every secret comes straight from the street of experience, either my own or that of our clients. This book is loaded with ideas you can implement immediately. Some will be familiar, and some new. All of them have the power to catapult your results, no matter how high you’re ying. As a matter of fact, the people who get the most value out of our mental toughness process are the world class. They are always trying to gain an edge and get better, which is one of the reasons I think so highly of them. I’ve held nothing back in this book, which means that at times you may nd yourself slightly offended. This book is constantly comparing ‘average people’ with ‘world-class people’. These terms are used to get your attention and make you ask, “Which one am I?” Of course there are no ‘average people’, just average performers getting average results. We are all equal as human beings. I simply use these terms in reference to performance and results. It’s been said that speakers and writers espouse wisdom on the very topic they need most. Now that you know my story, you know this is true for me. After 20 years of studying and teaching mental toughness to people throughout the United States, Canada, and 10 other countries, I can honestly tell you that many times I still think like a complete amateur, operating out of the same middle-class consciousness that I ridicule in this book.