“It’s better to do a little a lot than a lot a little.”
-ROB GILBERT, Ph.D., and author of “Good to Great Golf” and “How to Have Fun Without Failing Out.”
What’s better…
Practicing 6 hours 1 day or 1 hour for 6 days?
Studying 6 hours on Sunday night or 1 hour every night?
Making sales calls 6 hours on 1 day or 1 hour for 5 days?
Inch by inch it’s a cinch…yard by yard it might be hard.
Homework: Do a little bit today.
“At the end of the day, take the pillow test – when you put your head on the pillow, are you going to say, ‘I’m glad I did,’ or are you going to say, ‘I wish I had’?”
-ROB GILBERT, Ph.D., Ed Tseng’s mentor
My only question for you today is…
Are you going to go all out, or are you going to hold back?
My good friend and mentor, Dr. Rob Gilbert, is a college professor and one of the top sports psychologists and motivational speakers on the planet.
After his students graduate, many times they come back and visit.
They never say, “I wish I would have partied more.”
They always say, “If I worked just a little bit harder, I could have been national champion.”
How are YOU doing?
WHAT are you doing?
Here is my challenge to you…
Go all out today, and at the end of the day, take the Pillow Test…and see if you say, “I’m glad I did.”
Today’s message is especially dedicated to Devin Burke at Florida Atlantic University and Tom Hay in Memphis. Happy Birthday to two peak performers.
Many people ask me what motivates me.
Last night I got motivated.
I spoke to two classes at Montclair State University.
Motivating others motivates me.
What does that mean to you?
The best way to motivate yourself is to motivate someone else.
The best way to make yourself happy is to make someone else happy.
I spoke to Professor Melissa Sapio’s Developmental Psychology class and talked about my book and experiences. “Game. Set. Life.” was required reading for the course and all of the students wrote a paper on it. I got motivated while trying to motivate them. Afterwards, I signed some books and even some business cards, which was a first.
After that, I walked upstairs to my mentor, Dr. Rob Gilbert’s class and spoke to his students. Again, I was motivated. But it soon escalated as Christina spoke about reaching her dream of running in the New York City Marathon and Zeus, spoke on how he lost 65 pounds recently. And to top it all off, one of my she-roes shows up, the great Jennie Murphy, a great athlete…who is legally blind.
So how do you get motivated?
Motivate others.
Hang around motivating people.
And remember that motivation is not a feeling…it’s an action.
Thanks for reading.
Tomorrow: A FREE tele-seminar on MOTIVATION with the great Renita Kalhorn, Julliard-trained concert pianist, martial arts black belt and MBA recipient. http://motivation.eventbrite.com/
“All of the ability is already inside you.”
-Rob Gilbert, Ph.D., Professor of Sport Psychology, Montclair State University
Look inside.
Look all around you.
It’s never been easier to succeed. No longer is it about talent. It’s all about having the right strategy and putting in the work.
Look at all of the resources around you – books, DVDs, podcasts, workshops, the internet and more.
You can have your own private pitching coach. Your own private nutritionist. Your own private strength and conditioning coach.
But here’s the kicker…
You have to put in the work.
If you work hard, you will surpass those with talent that do not work hard.
I know what you’re thinking, that it’s not cool to try. But do you want to be cool or do you want to be great?
As you’re working hard, some people may call you a nerd or loser…
But later on, those same people are going to call you…
BOSS.
Thanks for reading.
Don’t forget…tomorrow, Sunday, October 4th at Yogaphoria in New Hope, PA, I will be giving a free workshop with the great Naime Jezzeny on Peak Performance for Athletes. 10am.
“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.”
-ANTHONY ROBBINS
Today’s message is especially dedicated to the great Kari Adams in Princeton, NJ.
When we play sports, we need to focus. We need to keep our eyes on the ball.
But focus is not enough.
We need to focus on the right things.
1. Focus on your strengths, but focus on your weaknesses too.
2. Focus on where you want to go, not where you don’t.
3. Focus on the things you can control and forget about the things you can’t.
Goal setting is a major component. Write down your goals. Make them specific. Set a time frame in which to reach them. “You can’t hit a target you cannot see.”
My friend, Jeff Greenwald, author of “The Best Tennis of Your Life,” has an interesting perspective on focus. He says that when you’re playing a point, you need to have laser focus. Pretend that your eyes are a camera lens and you are zoomed in. But after the point, have the lens go to wide-angle and relax. Take in nature, have gratitude.
I really like this technique because most people think you have to focus all the time. This isn’t true…or possible. Focus and then relax. I have parents tell me that their child has no focus and that they’re looking at the other courts during a tournament. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that if they can re-gain their focus for the next point.
You can use this at work or school too. My friend and mentor, the great Dr. Rob Gilbert, Professor of Sports Psychology at Montclair State University and author of “How to Have Fun without Failing Out” talks about the 15-minute rule. If you’re doing work (business or school), go all-out for fifteen minutes and then take a quick break. Then get back to work. Keep alternating between your work and breaks. This will keep you fresh and focused.
Thanks for reading.
For all you athletes out there, don’t miss my workshop with internationally known yoga master, Naime Jezzeny at Yogaphoria in New Hope, PA on October 4th from 10am-11am. The free session will focus on the mental side of sports and the power of yoga to improve focus, gain strength and prevent injuries.
Today’s message is especially dedicated to Lisa Steenstra, Kerry Gallagher and Danielle Weiss.
The great Rob Gilbert, Ph.D., is one of the world’s top sports psychologists and motivational speakers. He is also a good friend and mentor.
If you walk in to Dr. Gilbert’s house, you wouldn’t know if you were in his house or the library. He may have the biggest motivational library on the planet.
Well, last year, Dr. Gilbert left me a voicemail saying, “Ed, I have $10,000 worth of books and I’m getting rid of them – you have the first crack at them.”
So we met at his storage facility (yes, he has a separate storage facility for just books). I actually went three times, for an average of three hours each visit. I was only able to go through about 75% of them. He had books from the world of sports, music, business, academics – you name it. He had first editions signed by the authors. He had duplicate and triplicate of books. I walked away with probably 200 books.
This morning I was looking through my library and found something called, “Your Lifetime Memo Book” from April 1959. It is a small, thin book that was probably a free give-away from Waghorne-Brown Co., a warehouse at the time, in Merrimack, New Hampshire. This promotional book had a motivational quote for every day of the month.
Here’s one from Sunday, April 26, 1959…
“The muscles of an athlete atrophy when not used; the fingers of a violinist stiffen when not exercised, and the mind softens when it looks only at pictures.”
-BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
What a great quote, and so true.
You need to use what you have, or you will lose what you have.
Great quotes and great books from history are still around, like Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
Why?
Because the principles still apply today.
You don’t need to figure everything out on your own.
Learn from the greats and do what they did.
Use it or lose it.
Do you have a favorite quote or book?
Leave your comments.
Thanks for reading.