Mentally Tough: The Principles of Winning at Sports Applied to Winning in Business

Hector Lindsay was a freelance writer.

The authors have spent more than a decade perfecting techniques that allow athletes and ordinary people alike to control their moods in order to achieve peak performance. This book is the result of their research and a description of their proven strategies.

The main idea of their approach to achieving consistent results is the reverse of the popular notion that if you do good work you will feel great. Their discovery, and they provide ample evidence to support it, is that to do good work or to perform well, you first of all need to feel great.

The authors expand on this concept by describing each of the elements that contribute to changing emotions and mood and provide techniques for mood control, so that you learn how to feel good for as long as it takes to do a good job. The topics covered range from attitude, motivation, visualization, exercise, diet, and breath control to humour, ritual, problem-solving, and stress.

The result is an understanding that the goal of peak performance is certainly attainable in business as well as sports. The necessary state of mind focuses your attention and makes normally difficult achievements seem natural and almost effortless at times.

This is an excellent book on how to do your best by first achieving a positive emotional state.