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MESSAGE #1525 ARE YOU A PEAK PERFORMER?

Yesterday, at 4pm, I told my PDS girls tennis team something very important just before their match. And then at 10:30 last night, I told the Lawrence Township Police Department the same thing just before their shift. And now I’m going to tell you.

The biggest decision you have to make is are you going to go all-out, or are you going to hold back?

As a peak performance coach, I don’t care about results. Okay, I’m lying. I DO care about results, but they are not the most important thing.

The most important thing is our effort.

Are you going to go all-out or are you going to hold back…in sports, in school, in your job, in your relationships?

At the end of the day, only YOU will know if you gave your full effort.

When you put your head on the pillow tonight, you are going to say one of two things to yourself about your day…

1. I’m glad I went all-out.

2. I wish I had.

Which one can you live with?

Ed Tseng
Director of Mental Conditioning
Monroe Sports Center
609.558.1077

MESSAGE #1500 DON’T TRY

Tony Robbins says that we live in a “try” culture.

We “try” to lose weight.

We “try” to practice more.

We “try” to improve our relationships.

Here’s how I look at it…

Don’t “try” your best. DO WHATEVER IT TAKES.

Ed Tseng
Director of Mental Conditioning
Monroe Sports Center
609.558.1077

MESSAGE #1458 THE CAPTAIN

“It’s not that difficult to run; to give it 100 percent, it’s effort. You don’t have to have talent to give effort.”—Derek Jeter

MESSAGE #1398 CAN VS WILL

Recently, I was teaching a young boy and at the end of the session, I asked him, “Did you give a full effort today?”

He responded, “Not exactly.”

“Could you have?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” he said.

Then I asked him the million dollar question…

“What if, at the beginning of the lesson, I said, ‘I’ll give you a million dollars if you give it your full effort today.’ Would you have been able to give a full effort then?”

My student enthusiastically responded, “Oh YES!”

We both laughed.

I told him that effort is a choice. It’s not a question of CAN you, it’s a question of WILL you?

Lesson learned.

Ed Tseng
Director of Mental Conditioning
Monroe Sports Center
609.558.1077

MESSAGE #1370 ARTHUR ASHE’S HERO YELLED AT ME!

My good friend, Bob Ryland (above) was the first black professional tennis player, and Arthur Ashe’s hero. When Arthur Ashe was 14, he said, “I only want to be good enough to be able to beat Bob Ryland.”

Whenever I speak to Bob, he compliments me on all the good work I’m doing, and I say, “I’m just trying to improve every day and make a difference in the world.”

Then he yells at me.

“Stop ‘TRYING,’ just do it! You ARE doing it! Eliminate that word from your vocabulary.”

He’s right.

There’s no such thing as “trying” to do something.

You either do or you don’t.

Thank you, Bob Ryland.

MESSAGE #1342 NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP

You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.

-BABE RUTH

Do you go all out?

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I always say, it’s better to go all out and lose than it is to hold back and win. Because when you hold back and win, you are training yourself to hold back.

Most people just do the minimum. So think about it, if you gave your full effort, all the time, whether you felt like it or not, wouldn’t you win more? Wouldn’t you get better results?

Of course you would.

Do the winners always feel like going all out in practice and competition?

No, but they do anyway.

Your actions create your destiny.

What actions are you going to take today?

MESSAGE #1295

Gandhi said:

“Full effort is full victory.”

What does this mean?

Here’s how I see it:

1. Go all-out.
2. Focus more on your effort.
3. Focus less on your results.
4. Most people don’t give it their all.
5. When you focus on the “process,” (effort) you get the “product” (winning) that you want.

MESSAGE #1288 HOW ARE YOU PLAYING THE GAME?

At the end of an athlete’s career, he/she never says, “I wish I would have held back.”

If successful, an athlete most likely will say, “I’m glad I went all-out.”

Taking risks is a key element to success in sports and life. You need to get out of your comfort zone.

Do you want to be comfortable, or do you want to be great?

Today, I took a risk.

I emailed Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology. The guy is a rock star.

Part of me felt that I shouldn’t do it. Why would he want to talk to me?

But I did it anyway.

Not only did he respond, he shared some valuable resources with me.

Have you ever NOT reached out to someone who you thought wouldn’t give you the time of day?

Have you ever NOT hit a shot that you thought you might miss?

It happens all the time. But when that occurs, people are just training themselves to hold back.

Is that how you want to play the game?

MESSAGE #1274 J-E-T-S

If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?
-JOE NAMATH

For the past few days, I’ve been seeing a lot of green and white due to the big upset the Jets pulled on the New England Patriots. The Jets clearly played to win (versus playing to not lose).

Why would you compete if you are only going to give it half an effort? You might as well not even compete.

But if you are going to play the game, play full-out, on the field, in the classroom and in the boardroom.

When you have this mindset, you’re playing a game you can’t lose.