Success Is 95% Mental
When I was home for Christmas, I noticed a book on the bookshelf in my family’s living room.
Mental Toughness Training For Sports: Achieving Athletic Excellence by James E. Loehr, Ed.D.
The man on the cover was wearing a track suit from the 80s, which showed the book’s age. My father had probably made this purchase four decades ago, right around the age I am now. Seeing what he had been reading back then gives me a window into both who he was and who he wanted to be.
My father’s love for basketball and athletic excellence was a prominent part of my childhood.
His favorite player was Jerry West, and he spoke often (at the dinner table, in the car on the way to hockey practice) about how he was “the smartest player on the court.”
It didn’t take me very long to realize “smart” didn’t only mean intelligence. Smart also meant mental toughness.
As I picked the book off the shelf, took it over to a nearby chair and started reading, I recognized the man I had always thought of as my father, but never considered as a competitor in and of himself. The book stated the importance of daily discipline, and I remembered, day after day, watching my father repeat his same morning routine: coffee, workout, oatmeal in the car on the way to work. The book emphasized control over mental focus and attention, and I recalled all the school nights my father would come home at 8:00 p.m., eat his late plate of dinner, and say, “Had to do two, six-hour laminectomies today. Brutal.” The book made the case for why positive energy is exponentially more conducive to high performance than negative energy, and I couldn’t help but acknowledge my father’s ability to leave work issues at work, walk in the door, and give the last two or three hours of his day to his wife and kids.
“Success is 95% mental.”
That’s the central idea within the book. Furthermore, “MENTAL TOUGHNESS IS LEARNED, NOT INHERITED,” the book yells in all caps.
I did not inherit my father’s mental toughness.
But it’s clear to me now who I learned it from.
This is an Atomic Essay from the Ship 30 for 30 daily writing challenge.
