The Performance Mindset

The Performance Mindset

by Anthony J. Klarica
Released May 2022
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780730394686

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Book description

Learn the lessons of elite athletes to reach your full potential

From acclaimed psychologist Anthony Klarica, The Performance Mindset: 7 steps to success in sport and life reveals the lessons of high-performing athletes and shows how you can build strategies to apply for greater success in sport, business or in your personal life.

High performers are made, not born. High performance occurs through putting a careful and deliberate focus on growing mindset, and science proves that high-performers intentionally build these mindset skills and habits to maximise their opportunities. Talent and hard work are simply not enough.

Through candid, in-depth interviews and stories from a wide variety of Australian athletes, you’ll learn how to:

  • harness and maintain your motivation
  • become resilient
  • stay focussed and present
  • lead yourself and others
  • protect your mental health and wellbeing.

Natural talent doesn’t necessarily equal high performance. With The Performance Mindset: 7 steps to success in sport and life, you’ll discover how to unleash your inner-champion and realise your full and unbridled potential, whether in sport, in business, or in life.

Table of contents

  1. COVER
  2. TITLE PAGE
  3. COPYRIGHT
  4. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  6. PREFACE
  7. INTRODUCTION: MADE NOT BORN
    1. Laying a mindset foundation
    2. Early success does not guarantee future success
    3. The mindset to keep going
    4. Attitude nurtures talent
    5. You grow in the direction of your focus
    6. Is talent overrated?
    7. Assessing mindset variables
    8. Enjoyment matters
    9. How much practice?
    10. Many different paths
    11. Patience and persistence
    12. Early bolters and late bloomers
    13. Reasons for leaving
    14. Tough transition
    15. McDonald's to Olympics
    16. Maintaining discipline
    17. Environments that help performance
    18. Talent doesn't coach you
    19. Summary
  8. STEP 1: HARNESS YOUR MOTIVATION
    1. The seven summits
    2. Action ignites motivation
    3. Intrinsic and extrinsic drivers
    4. Multiple motivators
    5. Competence, autonomy and relatedness
    6. Engagement
    7. Choices and sacrifices
    8. No one is superhuman
    9. Goal setting
    10. Benchmarking
    11. Expectation and motivation
    12. Rewards and positive feedback
    13. Self‐positivity and celebration
    14. Motivational dynamics
    15. Environment and culture
    16. Task and ego
    17. Managing motivational challenges
    18. Passion, meaning and purpose
    19. Summary
  9. STEP 2: BOOST YOUR RESILIENCE
    1. Mat's mantra: Always keep riding
    2. Aim to be resilient
    3. Break it down into smaller parts
    4. Ride the roller‐coaster with multiple resilience strategies
    5. Resilience grows with an open mind
    6. A learning approach to building resilience
    7. Keep going: injuries, disappointments and setbacks
    8. Learning to lose
    9. Life challenges
    10. Explanatory style
    11. Optimism helps resilience
    12. Reflecting, reviewing, debriefing and feedback
    13. Team resilience
    14. Navigating transition and other vulnerable times
    15. Adaptive perfectionism and flexibility
    16. Summary
  10. STEP 3: SHARPEN YOUR FOCUS
    1. Self‐talk: you are what you think
    2. ‘The little voice’
    3. Technical, tactical and emotional self‐talk
    4. Positive, negative or neutral and curious self‐talk
    5. Mantras
    6. Internal or external focus
    7. Narrow or broad: switching focus
    8. Getting in the zone or flow
    9. Self‐regulation
    10. Secondary errors
    11. Being in the present
    12. Attention to detail
    13. Focus on what you can control
    14. Visual and physical cues
    15. Body language
    16. Use of time
    17. Chunking and race plans
    18. Routines and clarity
    19. Summary
  11. STEP 4: CHAMPION YOUR LEADERSHIP
    1. Diamonds: leadership by example
    2. Influence
    3. The what and the how of leadership
    4. Leading self
    5. Leading culture
    6. Leading others
    7. Leading situations
    8. Leading structure and systems
    9. Leadership growth
    10. Formal and informal leadership
    11. Leadership density
    12. Leadership groups
    13. Captain class
    14. Leadership qualities
    15. Summary
  12. STEP 5: FOSTER YOUR CULTURE
    1. Culture in practice
    2. Thinking, decisions and behaviour
    3. High‐performance environments
    4. Individual athlete and coach influence on culture
    5. Cultural consistency
    6. Psychological safety
    7. Learn and grow
    8. Emotional intelligence
    9. Relationships and communication
    10. Mastery climate
    11. The New Zealand All Blacks
    12. Building culture
    13. Challenges to culture
    14. Building a good culture is hard; keeping a good culture is harder
    15. Summary
  13. STEP 6: PROTECT YOUR WELLBEING
    1. No one is immune
    2. Find the positive
    3. Person first, athlete second
    4. Athlete‐centred environments
    5. Look beyond the behaviour
    6. Wellbeing and mental health
    7. Destigmatising wellbeing and mental health
    8. Incidence of wellbeing and mental health concerns in sport
    9. Prevention is better than cure
    10. Self‐appreciation, self‐permission, self‐acceptance and self‐compassion
    11. Gratitude and kindness
    12. Journaling
    13. Sport relationship and identity
    14. Taking action
    15. Help‐seeking
    16. The journey and narrative
    17. Recovery, rest and sleep
    18. Cognitive behaviour therapy and thinking traps
    19. Environment, thinking and doing
    20. Mindfulness and ACT
    21. Diaphragmatic breathing
    22. Supports and mentors
    23. Wellbeing programs and data
    24. Wellbeing checklist
    25. Summary
  14. STEP 7: EXECUTE YOUR PERFORMANCE
    1. Behind the scenes in Rome
    2. Psychological characteristics and personality
    3. Mental skills of high performers
    4. Individual mindset plans
    5. Lifestyle
    6. Performance platform
    7. Confidence and competence
    8. Imagery and visualisation
    9. Mental skills programs
    10. Mental skills for juniors
    11. Learn competitiveness
    12. Maximising effort: intrinsic and extrinsic strategies
    13. Clutch and flow
    14. Set up for sub‐two‐hour marathon speed
    15. Create and execute a simple plan
    16. Great performances
    17. Embracing new situations and challenges
    18. Meaning contributes to performance
    19. Strengths win battles
    20. Managing performance anxiety and nerves
    21. Managing nerves through reframing
    22. Taking control of nerves
    23. Optimism and positivity
    24. Many paths to high performance
    25. Summary
  15. CONCLUSION
  16. REFERENCES
    1. Introduction: Made not born
    2. Step 1: Harness your motivation
    3. Step 2: Boost your resilience
    4. Step 3: Sharpen your focus
    5. Step 4: Champion your leadership
    6. Step 5: Foster your culture
    7. Step 6: Protect your wellbeing
    8. Step 7: Execute your performance
  17. INDEX
  18. END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Product information

  • Title: The Performance Mindset
  • Author(s): Anthony J. Klarica
  • Release date: May 2022
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780730394686