A New Way for Athletes, Coaches, and Parents to Approach Sports & Life
The CEP Mindset Podcast
As part of a high-performing team you want to collaborate, support each other, and be a team player… but in the same breath, you also want to hit your numbers, earn your bonus, and chase down your next promotion. You try to be ‘positive’ but the projects, responsibilities, and requests keep piling up. And you try to be a team player but the gnawing feeling of your personal goals, results, and targets weigh on your shoulders. The default approach is to set goals, create priorities lists, and do your best to finesse your way through the company hierarchy. Unfortunately, this can foster a...
info_outline
2 Approaches to Sport and Life
The CEP Mindset Podcast
What if worry, frustration, or feeling down are not the problem? Instead, they are symptoms based on your approach to sport and even life. In our society, the way we talk about emotions is backward. We label ourselves and others as anxious, sad, or frustrated. That is not who we are—it is what we are feeling, and the distinction matters. When you identify with an emotion, you've got a self-perpetuating problem. More importantly, it's not true. Emotions are a feedback tool, specifically about your approach to sport and life. If this resonates with you check out my breakdown of the 2...
info_outline
The 3 Phases to Transform Your Mindset
The CEP Mindset Podcast
Do you feel stuck in your own head, or is your mindset holding you back? It's normal and okay to get stuck. We can't avoid challenges, pressures, and distractions in sports or life. But we can learn how to use these events as growing opportunities. Specifically, this post will show you the 3 phases to transform your mindset. I've been using this concept with many of my one-on-one clients because of the simplicity, clarity, and power it gives them. The 3 Phases First - in phase one, things are great. Then, phase two - things get tough. Adversity, pressure, and expectations...
info_outline
Winning vs Enjoyment - What Matters More?
The CEP Mindset Podcast
Winning versus enjoyment: what matters more? The tension between the two is one that many high performers struggle with. I got this question recently, and the person said, “it's not just about winning - but it's ultimately all about winning.” This conundrum can create a lot of inner conflict without the mental model to resolve it. You can be left oscillating between an unhealthy win-at-all-costs mentality that leaves you frustrated and consumed with the results. Or on the other end, you lose the competitive fire needed to perform at your best. I share the mental models to resolve this...
info_outline
Stop Obsessing Over Results
The CEP Mindset Podcast
For most athletes, traditional goal setting is holding them back. Yes you read that right. Goal setting itself is not the problem. The problem is being obsessed with results. You can want and care about results, but the best athletes in the world are more obsessed with the process than results. This can be easier said than done. I learned how big of a problem this is first hand. As a junior hockey player, I obsessed about points and my spot in the lineup. The more I obsessed about results, the harder it was to achieve my goals. It was infuriating to want something so bad and work so...
info_outline
Transform Your Mental Game With an Alter Ego
The CEP Mindset Podcast
If you want a sure fire way to quickly transform your mental game - you need to develop a personalized Alter Ego. This strategy is not about putting fixed labels on who you are as a person. Rather it is about creating a narrative about how you want to show up on the field of play. The Power of Simplicity and Creativity Credit to my coach and mentor Todd Herman for writing the book: and helping bring more simplicity and creativity to the mental game. Unfortunately most sport psychology strategies are: Dry Boring Overcomplicated As an athlete you don’t want to be out on...
info_outline
Developing a ‘Me vs Me’ Mentality - Featuring Professional Soccer Player Noah Cavanaugh
The CEP Mindset Podcast
Noah Cavanaugh is a professional soccer player from Seattle, WA, who currently plays for Flower City Union in New York. Over the past year, he's worked with Dr. Cassidy Preston to help give him a mental edge on and off the pitch as he continues to push up the ranks of pro soccer in the US. In this interview Noah discusses how he has personalized his mental game to work for him. He touches on the challenges he has had to overcome as a professional soccer player - some of the key takeaways include: The reciprocal nature of focusing on the process and staying centered Developing a 'me vs me'...
info_outline
Block Out the Noise With Your Reset Routine
The CEP Mindset Podcast
The ability to block out the ‘noise’ is key to having a clear mind and playing free. But this is easier said than done - many athletes have trouble blocking out the ‘noise’ and end up: Overthinking Doubting their abilities Worrying about things out of their control When you lack alignment within your thoughts, feelings, and actions, you end up losing the ability to play in the flow state. The best strategy to clear and block out the noise is a Reset Routine. The magic is not in the routine itself, but in what the routine represents. Here are the ABC’s to creating an effective...
info_outline
How to Play With Confidence
The CEP Mindset Podcast
Confidence is arguably the most important ingredient in succeeding as an athlete, but athletes often struggle to find and keep this elusive trait. The problem lies in that they have a skewed understanding of what confidence actually is and where it comes from. Here are the 4 main reasons why athletes struggle with self-confidence: Yo-Yo Confidence: Tying their self-image to external results or praise Imposter Syndrome: Believing they are not worthy and/or don’t belong Victim Mentality: Blaming others and not taking responsibility Negativity Bias: Constantly beating...
info_outline
A New Way for Athletes to Mentally Prepare
The CEP Mindset Podcast
The outline of my first book is complete - check out the caption below to see the outline! I’ve gained some great insights while starting the writing process - you can find those in the summary below. The working title is - Play with Confidence: A New Way for Athletes to Mentally Prepare The purpose of the book is to challenge the status quo on mental preparation and question the ‘accepted’ ways of thinking about confidence. It will debunk the fluffy clichés, cookie-cutter strategies, and ‘old-school’ beliefs entrenched in the sport culture. If you dare to be different and embrace...
info_outlineWinning versus enjoyment: what matters more?
The tension between the two is one that many high performers struggle with. I got this question recently, and the person said, “it's not just about winning - but it's ultimately all about winning.”
This conundrum can create a lot of inner conflict without the mental model to resolve it.
You can be left oscillating between an unhealthy win-at-all-costs mentality that leaves you frustrated and consumed with the results. Or on the other end, you lose the competitive fire needed to perform at your best.
I share the mental models to resolve this age-old conundrum in this recent vid. I’ll briefly walk you through three concepts below (make sure to watch the video for more details and diagrams):
1) Internal Experience vs External Results
Comparing enjoyment versus winning is comparing an internal experience (e.g., enjoyment) versus the external result (e.g., winning, stats, etc.). They are not dependent on each other; the goal is to have both. They are very different, and we want to treat them differently.
This is why that question of enjoyment versus winning can inherently just be misleading. Nonetheless, the goal is to help you process and decide your priorities.
2) Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
The mistake athletes and high performers make as they climb the ranks is to confuse their external goals and results for why they play. You can have intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, but the best athletes in the world stay connected to their intrinsic drivers.
3) Choose Your Priority
You have to choose what your priority is. What is the number one thing?
Most people make the mistake of prioritizing their achievements (e.g., what I want to have, what I want to achieve, the results of the winning) and only focus on who they will be in the experience (e.g., play with confidence) to get those results. The paradox is this makes their mindset worse and less likely to achieve the results.
But when you flip the priorities, when you focus first on who you want to be, how you want to show up - aka Mindset First — that’s when you get clarity, that's when the actions flow and the results, well, they're not guaranteed, but the probability is now going to go up.
And the best part is you're more likely to enjoy the whole experience and the journey.
Who Do You Choose To Be?
There's an important point to clarify here. When you focus on who you're being (your mindset) and the enjoyment in that, you're not sacrificing competitive fire or killer instinct.
You're often heightening it because you intentionally choose to be in attack mode. By playing with more patience and aggressiveness, you will have more poise
The Big Trap
Most people will focus on their mindset because that will lead to better results.
But this is the big trap - you are prioritizing the results again.
Instead, I want you to prioritize the process for the sake of itself. This is where enjoyment comes from because enjoyment is not just dependent on results.
It is about who you are, the process, the game itself, and the experience. That is what evokes enjoyment.
This is a lot easier said than done. The results are everywhere - stats, social media, standings, cultural norms. People are talking and obsessing about results.
But when you can prioritize the process over the results - that's what I call the realm of the super-elite.
Make sure to watch the full video for more details and diagrams.
Please share this with anyone you think would be interested.