I was in Alta Badia, Italy, in December speaking at a ski-racing conference during the men’s World Cup GSs and had the opportunity to speak at length with Lucas Braathen (how’s that for name dropping?) after his first-run DNF in the second race. He is a bright, down-to-earth, and open guy (and he had smiley [...]
As I mentioned in a previous post, I was in the UK a few weeks ago doing some work with Global Cycling Network and Global Triathlon Network. Part of my time there was spent shooting segments on the mental side of triathlon for the GTN Show with one of its excellent presenters, Mark Threlfall. I [...]
The Covid-19 crisis has certainly presented me with new challenges in my work with ski racers, whether U14s or World Cuppers. It’s as if the pandemic has taken all of the normal challenges that racers face and turned their volume up several notches. Whether motivation, confidence, fear of failure, expectations, or anxiety, whatever athletes are [...]
A number of occurrences compelled me to write this article. First, a growing number of professional athletes are coming forward with their own mental-health challenges in the hopes of destigmatizing mental illness and encouraging others who are struggling to seek help. Second, the Covid-19 crisis has seen an increase in mental-health issues, particularly among young [...]
Episode #26: Pessimism to Optimism-Part II of my Crisis to Opportunity podcast is the second of four in which I explore the importance of mindset in how you respond to a crisis. An optimistic mindset views the world through a lens that is at the opposite end of the continuum from pessimism. Optimism is “a [...]
Episode #24: Outcome to Process of my Crisis to Opportunity podcast is the last of four episodes in which I explore the importance of attitude in how you respond to a crisis. This episode examines how an outcome attitude and a process attitude have a vastly different impact on how you respond to a crisis. [...]
Great article in the New York Times about what endurance athletes, such as marathoners, triathletes, and cyclists, can teach us about overcoming the challenges that the COVID-19 crisis has presented to us. Not surprisingly, the suggestions are entirely psychological, related to your attitude and perspective toward the crisis.
In my last post, I challenged the notion that the COVID-19 crisis (or any crisis, for that matter) is all bad. In fact, I argue that this crisis can actually be an opportunity to better yourself as a person and learn how to respond more positively and constructively to crises you will inevitably encounter in [...]
Frustration may be your most significant obstacle to achieving your goals. Every ski racer, from juniors to Olympians, has experienced the feeling of frustration when you’re not able to do something as you pursue your goals; you feel stuck, get uptight, lose focus, and get discouraged. The best way I can describe the feeling is: [...]
The Saturday Evening Post published my latest column, De-Clutter Your Life. This article explores how we have too much stuff in our lives and our worlds and it is making us exhausted, sick, unhappy, and crazy. Stuff can include the cultural, technological, spatial, temporal, psychological, physical, social, and material varieties. Just as importantly, this article examines [...]
