“Money gives you the opportunity to win.
But it doesn’t mean you’re going to win the World Series.
You have to have that mindset in order to win.”
-Derek Jeter
One of the best parts of having a great relationship with my clients is that they keep me on the cutting edge of what is happening in my field. (Not the field behind my house…my area of expertise.)
Today, Jeff Bukowski gave me a heads up about an article on ESPN.com that was talking about mindset…of all things!
Senior writer, Jason Stark, wrote a great piece about the elusive, misunderstood ingredient that separates good professional players from elite professionals. The rare “it”.
Focusing on three players in particular, Derek Jeter, Chase Utley, and Johnny Damon, the article called out all of the usual catch phrases used to quantify this “it” “...intensity … hustle … energy … passion.” Stark admits though that “…none of those words quite define what this is about.”
“Anybody can crank it up for a day,” says Stark. “But baseball is a game you play every day. So to play with energy every day, to maintain concentration every inning, to hustle on every play requires a level of excellence, commitment and competitive inferno that most human beings can’t even comprehend, let alone reach.“
If you’ve been around this blog for any length of time,
you’ll know that I call that quality, MINDSET.
It did my heart good to see that Jeter calls it the same thing. “It’s a mindset,” Jeter says. “You know what I mean? I’m not one who believes you can turn on and off a mindset. Either you have that mindset or you don’t have that mindset. That’s a difficult thing with this long season. If you lose focus, you’re in trouble.“
Preach it Derek!
Mindset is working 100% of the time. You don’t turn it on and off. It’s like he’s been reading and watching my stuff. Except for one thing…”Either you have it or you don’t“…that is the only place that I disagree with the Yankee’s captain.
Everyone has a mindset. It’s the type of mindset that you have that makes the difference and you can consciously change your mindset to suit whatever you need. If you don’t have it…you can get it.
High-level athletes, like successful business owners, like in-demand executives, like amazing stay-at-home moms, all have mindset as their primary advantage.
What I’ve noticed is that there are three levels to mindset:
- totally unaware
- aware but not sure how to use it
- totally aware and actively using.
I have met 1,000′s of people that understand the impact of mindset, some of them had a conscious means of putting it to work for them, and none of them really knew what their mindset was made of. That’s where I realized that I had something valuable to share.
People like Jeter understand that they must put themselves in a certain frame of mind to perform at their peak. Most often, they arrive at this understanding through trial and error, as well as modeling others they admire. Overall though, they don’t have a deep-level framework for putting it in place. (Man would I love to work with Jeter on fully understanding mindset!)
Conscious or not, the mindset of those successful individuals does the same thing for them. It takes all of the input and filters it down to the elements they have asked for. Jeter is a leader and a winner because he has given his subconscious, his mindset, a set of instructions.
“Give me info on:
- How I can best represent the Yankees as their captain.
- How I can best represent the city of New York as an ambassador.
- How I can elevate the mindsets and performance of my teammates.
- How I can best prepare, to give my team the best opportunity to win.
- How I can make the best in-game decisions to help my team win.
Keep the things that work against those goals, out.”
Though they represent it in different ways, Stark talks about Utley and Damon in the same light. “All three of those men love the big game and live for the defining moments in every season. But what separates them from mere mortals is that they feed off every little moment in between…”
Stark qualifies the “it” by saying, “This is a real, tangible quality that places the truly special winners and leaders in a category all their own.”
I completely agree. I also offer that you can have “it” too. Anyone can. Your version of “it” may not help you hit a big-league curve ball or give you a cannon of an arm, but it will take you to places you never imagined possible.
When you read about a study those that are at the top of their respective games, look for the difference. It’s mindset. It can be your difference too.
Be your best,
PJ
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