MESSAGE #1430
They x-rayed my head and found nothing.
-Dizzy Dean
MESSAGE #1429 EYE OF THE TIGER
Your focus is your future.
-Oprah Winfrey
There’s something called selective focus. It happens when you buy a new car and then all of a sudden, you start seeing the same car on the road constantly. They have always been there.
How about when you meet someone new who is also at your place of work or school? Don’t you start seeing them all the time? They have always been there.
Simply put, selective focus means you get what you focus on. Success is where you look for it—it’s all around you.
Recently, I was listening to the radio while stringing a racquet and Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger from Rocky came on. I started getting motivated. Then, I started paying attention to the words.
Guess what? I found peak performance in it. Below are some of the powerful lyrics…
*Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive
So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive
Chorus:
It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the cream of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watchin’ us all in the eye of the tiger
Face to face, out in the heat
Hangin’ tough, stayin’ hungry
Risin’ up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I’m not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive*
Ready to REALLY get motivated? Here’s the song. I dare you to NOT kick butt today after listening to it.
MESSAGE #1428 A MESSAGE FROM VINCE LOMBARDI
Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
-Vince Lombardi
MESSAGE #1427 MENTAL TOUGHNESS IN GOLF
The greatest golfers in the world have a pre-shot routine.
The worst golfers in the world don’t.
A pre-shot routine may include taking a deep breath, visualizing, and just doing it (trusting your shot).
A routine also helps you focus less on what’s going on around you, and more on what’s going on inside you. Think of yourself as being a hurricane—on the outside, things are out of control, but on the inside (the eye of the hurricane), things are calm and in control.
Pre-shot routines also create consistency. And consistency in routines equate to consistency in your game.
This principle applies to school and the business world too. A consistent routine gets you consistent results.
And no routine is still a routine.
What is YOUR routine?
MESSAGE #1426 A QUOTE FROM JOHNNY MAC
We all choke. WInners know how to handle choking better than losers.
-JOHN McENROE
MESSAGE #1425 HAPPY FATHER’S DAY
Today’s message is especially dedicated to my father, the great Vincent Tseng.
My father is not the most vocal, but he leads by example. Ever since I was young, he has provided unconditional love and support. He is a role model, and an upstanding citizen. He is intelligent, caring, and has a great sense of humor. He has helped me in any way that he could to make me the best son I could be. My father taught me much of what I know through his actions.
Here is John Wooden’s favorite poem:
No written word or spoken plea,
could teach our children how to be.
Nor all the books on all the shelves,
it’s what the teachers are themselves.
This poem applies to coaching, managing and being a great dad.
Thank you, dad, for all that you have given me, visible and invisible.
I love you.
Happy Father’s Day.
MESSAGE #1424 BOUNCE BACK ABILITY
Someone once said that success is how high you bounce after you hit bottom.
We all have failed at something, whether it be in sports, sales or school. It’s not the failure that stops us, it’s what we do with that failure that stops us. We can be irritated, or we can be intrigued.
We learn most from failure. The most successful people fail the most.
Henry Ford once said that failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”—Michael Jordan
Be like Mike today.
MESSAGE #1422 SUCCESS DOES NOT COME IN BOTTLES
Affirmations are powerful.
Limiting beliefs are weak.
This morning, while I was working out, I dropped down for some pushups. The average person can do 20 pushups. When I was in serious training years ago, I would perform pushups with a 15-pound plate on my back, so that when I would do regular pushups, I could do 60 almost effortlessly.
It’s been a while since I have done pushups, and an even longer time since I have done them with a 15-pound plate on my back, but I was warmed up and optimistic.
I dropped down, and was able to do 20 pretty easily and at 30, I began to feel it and thought that I couldn’t do anymore. I wanted to stop.
But I didn’t.
I pushed through the feeling of “I can’t do anymore” and then reached 40. And then 50. I had to really reach down and push to get to 60, and I did.
How many times have you been at the gym, at work or at school and thought, “I can’t do this” or “I can’t do that” and then you stop? It’s happened to all of us.
The secret is that you can act differently than how you feel.
Push through it.
Say “No, thank you” to your limiting belief.
Muhammad Ali said, “Suffer now and spend the rest of your life as a champion.”
Now, doing 60 pushups probably does not qualify me as a champion, but that’s not the point.
It’s the principle. I am training myself to act differently than how I feel.
That’s what champions do.
Why would you condition yourself to give up?
Why would you tell yourself you can’t do something?
What if you asked yourself a more powerful question, like, “HOW can I do it?”
If you remember nothing else from this blog entry, remember this…
Success doesn’t come in bottles, it comes in “CANS.”
You can do it.
Leave your comments below.
Ed Tseng
Director of Mental Conditioning
Monroe Sports Center
609.558.1077
MESSAGE #1421 I DIDN’T KNOW!
Today’s message is especially dedicated to the great Debra Wachspress.
This morning I ran into Debra Wachspress, Director of Community Engagement at the Boys and Girls Club of Trenton at the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting. I had never met her in person, but we had exchanged emails as I prepared to speak at the Boys and Girls Club last month. At the end of the Princeton Chamber meeting, Debra came up to me and said, “I have to tell you something. Prior to your speaking at The Boys and Girls Club, I was on your website and watched some of your videos. Now, because of you, I exercise every night!”
Wow, that motivated ME! I didn’t even know she has been on my website!
Now, because Debra has been working out consistently for the past three weeks, it is actually harder for her NOT to exercise than it is for TO exercise.
It is now a habit.
Here’s another way to look at it…
It’s better to do a little, A LOT than it is to do A LOT, a little.
If you know the goal you want to attain, make it important enough and you will stick with it.
Thank you for the motivation, Debra!