Life as Sport

1. Life is a sport: Embrace challenges with playfulness and objective optimism

"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."

Playful mindset. Approaching life's challenges with a playful, sport-like attitude can transform your experience and improve performance. This mindset involves embracing challenges as opportunities for growth, maintaining a present and future orientation, and cultivating objective optimism.

Objective optimism. Rather than blindly positive thinking, objective optimism involves looking for evidence-based reasons to be confident and hopeful. This approach allows you to maintain a realistic perspective while focusing on factors within your control. By reframing challenges as opportunities and practicing enjoyment in everyday situations, you can enhance your resilience and overall life satisfaction.

Key components of the Life as Sport philosophy:

• Enjoyment
• Present and future orientation
• Objective optimism
• Process focus

2. Set process-oriented goals to build your Mastery Map

"Goals based on outcomes like 'pitching better' or 'striking more people out' or 'getting better at sales calls' or 'making clients more satisfied' or 'being a better parent/partner' is far less effective than building a set of goals based on processes."

Process over outcomes. Focusing on process-oriented goals rather than outcome-based goals leads to more sustainable progress and satisfaction. Process goals emphasize actions and behaviors within your control, allowing you to measure success based on your efforts rather than external results.

Mastery Map. Create a Mastery Map to visualize your goals and the steps needed to achieve them. This map should include your ultimate goal, motivation, process goals, potential roadblocks, support systems, and ways to measure progress. Regularly review and adjust your Mastery Map to stay on track and maintain focus on your personal growth journey.

Elements of an effective Mastery Map:

• Ultimate goal
• Motivation (Power Value)
• Process goals
• Potential roadblocks
• Support systems
• Measurement strategies

3. Harness intrinsic motivation through Power Values

"The more aware you are of your intrinsic motivations and the more you view your motivation as something you can develop, the easier it will be to put your Mastery Map into practice."

Power Values. Identify your core Power Values – the intrinsic motivations that drive your desire for success. These values provide a deeper, more sustainable source of motivation than external factors like money or recognition. By connecting your goals to your Power Values, you can maintain enthusiasm and perseverance even in the face of challenges.

Motivation exercise. Use the Value Card Sort exercise to uncover your Power Values. Select the three most important values related to your life goals and explore how they connect to your objectives. Create a Power Value statement and display it prominently as a daily reminder of your intrinsic motivation.

Steps to harness intrinsic motivation:

1. Complete the Value Card Sort exercise
2. Identify your top three Power Values
3. Connect Power Values to your goals
4. Create and display a Power Value statement
5. Regularly reflect on your motivation

4. Manage anxiety by reframing physiological responses

"Elite performers in sports and business haven't come up with a secret way to eliminate anxiety surrounding these situations; they just know how to recognize the level of anxiety they're feeling in the moment and then manage the physical effects of it."

Reframe anxiety. Understand that anxiety is a natural physiological response to perceived threats. By reframing these sensations as your body preparing for action rather than a sign of weakness, you can harness the energy of anxiety to enhance performance.

Breathing techniques. Practice controlled breathing exercises to manage physiological arousal and reduce anxiety. Aim for six full breaths per minute, using a 4-second inhale, 4-second exhale, and 1-2 second pause pattern. Incorporate positive self-talk or mantras between breaths to further enhance relaxation and focus.

Anxiety management strategies:

• Recognize anxiety as a natural response
• Reframe physiological sensations positively
• Practice controlled breathing exercises
• Incorporate positive self-talk or mantras
• Develop a "resetting routine" for micro-failures

5. Visualize success to enhance performance and reduce stress

"By visualizing every step of the process, a professional golfer knows exactly what will happen from the moment he decides what shot to hit to when he's done swinging the club and beginning to walk to the next shot."

Mental rehearsal. Visualization, or mental rehearsal, is a powerful tool for improving performance and reducing anxiety. By vividly imagining successful outcomes and the steps needed to achieve them, you can create neural pathways that enhance your actual performance.

Visualization exercise. Practice visualization by finding a quiet place, relaxing through controlled breathing, and imagining yourself in the performance setting. Use all your senses to create a detailed, immersive experience. Visualize your routine, positive self-talk, and successful execution of your actions. Include varied results and positive reactions to both success and setbacks.

Key elements of effective visualization:

1. Find a quiet, relaxing environment
2. Use controlled breathing to enter a relaxed state
3. Imagine the performance setting in detail
4. Incorporate all senses
5. Visualize your routine and positive self-talk
6. See yourself executing actions successfully
7. Include varied results and positive reactions

6. Develop positive self-talk to boost confidence and resilience

"Your confidence—and your ability to perform at the peak of your abilities—is directly connected to the quality, frequency, and makeup of that self-talk."

Inner dialogue. Recognize the power of your inner dialogue in shaping your confidence and performance. Identify and challenge negative self-talk patterns, such as jumping to conclusions or blowing things out of proportion. Replace these with more adaptive, objectively optimistic thoughts.

Personal mantra. Create a personal mantra – a short, powerful self-statement based on objective evidence of your abilities. Use this mantra to reinforce positive self-talk and boost confidence in challenging situations. Regularly review and update your mantra to ensure it remains relevant and impactful.

Steps to develop positive self-talk:

1. Identify negative thought patterns
2. Challenge and reframe negative thoughts
3. Create an evidence-based personal mantra
4. Practice using your mantra in various situations
5. Regularly review and update your self-talk strategies

7. Establish effective routines to optimize performance

"By definition a routine is a series of mental and physical behaviors that allow you to bring your best self to a given situation."

Performance routines. Develop pre-performance, during-performance, and post-performance routines to optimize your mental and physical state. These routines help you focus, manage anxiety, and maintain consistency in your approach to challenges.

Customized approach. Create routines that work best for you by experimenting with different combinations of mental and physical activities. Incorporate elements from visualization, breathing exercises, positive self-talk, and physical warm-ups. Regularly review and adjust your routines to ensure they remain effective and aligned with your goals.

Components of effective routines:

• Pre-performance: Visualization, breathing exercises, positive self-talk
• During-performance: Focusing techniques, resetting strategies
• Post-performance: Reflection, learning, and adjustment

8. Practice purposefully to integrate Life as Sport philosophy

"Fully committing yourself to your improvement routine requires much more energy and application of will than many people are used to expending."

Deliberate practice. Commit to purposeful practice to integrate the Life as Sport philosophy into your daily life. This involves consciously applying the techniques and mindsets learned throughout the book, rather than simply going through the motions.

Action plan. Create a specific action plan for implementing Life as Sport strategies. Use the DOT model (Doing, Outcome, Thinking) to identify concrete actions and thought patterns that will help you achieve your desired outcomes. Regularly review and adjust your plan to ensure continued growth and improvement.

Elements of purposeful practice:

1. Set clear, process-oriented goals
2. Create a specific action plan using the DOT model
3. Incorporate motivation and enjoyment (ME) into your practice
4. Regularly review and adjust your approach
5. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth
6. Celebrate small wins and progress along the way

Last updated: April 21, 2025