The MindStrong Project

Adaptability has been a bit of a buzzword in mental performance lately. Let’s break down what that actually means in terms of being practical and teachable. Relating to performance, it simply means being able to execute when our circumstances change. How might our circumstances change throughout the course of a game? A series? A season? A career? We all know that most players play at or close to their potential when things are going well. It’s easier to hit, and field, and pitch, and cheer for your teammates, and respond to adversity, and EVERYTHING when it’s 70 degrees than when it’s 40 degrees, raining, we’ve lost 2 or 3 in a row, are coming off an 0-4 or a bad outing, didn’t get good food between games, didn’t get to take BP before the game, blah, blah, blah. Right? As coaches we talk about responding to adversity – which is great. However, most of us can embody that much better than we can actually teach it, leaving us frustrated and thinking “Kids these days have no resilience…” T...

Take a moment to list 5 things, people, places, or memories you are thankful for. Now take a few seconds to appreciate each of those things. Don’t postpone joy. It is yours for the taking. For example, I am grateful for 1) My family and my girlfriend 2) My job with The MindStrong Project 3) the platform to write these articles 4) the people all over the world responsible for developing the technology and manufacturing for this computer 5) the game of baseball and everything it has taught me. We could LITERALLY go on and on. No mention of my apartment, my car, my roommates and friends, microwaves, dinner tables, my faith, hockey, Minnesota Mash, traffic lights, my education, heat, air conditioning, remote controls, Chipotle, meaningful Minnesota Gopher football in November, and thousands of other things. At times we are all guilty of taking these simple luxuries for granted. Hang tight with me as we weave in and out of how these simple things can make a world of difference. Gratitude No...

What is risk?  How do you weigh the pros and cons of risk-taking?  Is it smart or just plain stupid?  What are the advantages of risk-taking and is it a risk if it's your life's purpose? As you can see this post could entirely be a series of questions. That's because risk-taking is essentially a subjective group of human behavior. Just simply walking out the door each day and entering the world is a risk in itself. So what quantifies positive risk-taking? How long do we enter the world of high-risk high-reward?  Better yet, what happens if you don't risk it all? I think that's where it stops and starts back up to the beginning. Taking a risk is inevitable and choosing the one worth pursuing becomes the power of human expression. Your system  is set  up very uniquely through the laws of nature. In one instance you as an organism need extreme stress to become adaptable. You must constantly seek out and find hard things to do if you w...

Have you considered this simple yet profound line?  Think about what you allow to happen in life and you quickly come to find out you don't hate it. Whatever you don't hate, you will never change. Over the last decade spending time learning and also speaking in college classrooms across the country, noticing and dissecting the body language of the presenter or the quality of questions that came my way. I've experienced different teachers, coaches, and administrative philosophies. Along with the willingness of attention by those who filled the seats, mine included. The main desire or want that each one of those environments presented was most definitely expressed in the need to be happy. Every young face placing their focus on the message of the presentation or their personal daydreaming ultimately came down to the curiosity about what and how we could achieve happiness. My purpose to understand happiness and what drove it was directed in all the wrong ways. It wasn...

The constant searching and sustaining of control becomes the root of confidence. Every performer wants control. And when things are outside of that every performer fights to get it back. The lack of control becomes the instability of choice. Study anyone in the midst of chaos who lacks control. Problems are magnified and stress is added. Irrationally takes over and the temptation of immediate results become the main source of decisions and behavioral actions. Someone who needs attention acts out in rage until noticed. Someone in transitions of uncertainty grab ahold of any comfort available. The concept of struggle or adversity peels the weak out of the race. It again falls back on control. Perception of this self-awareness lives in the way in which we view the world. There is not good or bad other than how we personally see it. However, the breath tells a deeper story.  Breathing is linked to the experience we’ve had and the meaning in which we identified with those memories. I...

Collect data, track your experiences. Improve your reasoning. This becomes that internal locus of control we’re seeking.... Growth Mindset. But do it manually and with patience. In other words, make good art. At every checkpoint of growth in human evolution we leave behind deep rooted biological systems hardwired in our bodies from previous experiences. Technology, comfort, information. These are beautiful creations. All meant to solve an original problem. However, if we don’t keep developing and enhancing our own personal “nature” we lose strong internal connection. You become fixed.  It’s with every advancement we leave behind trust of “self”. Because we have externally filled a need for the time being. This can also be seen at mindless movement and lack of appreciation. You become trapped in a new comfort zone. This now puts us in a place of avoidance. The mental reframing and constant breaking of past experiences is an ongoing journey. The key here is recognizing we’re not ...

Learning...  How do we know if we’re good learners? What quantifies our awareness? Is it innate? Through much experience learning or trying to..Ive found that the masters of knowledge ask more questions than answer them. They can unlearn in a moments time, adapt and switch gears. Could it be that the ability to learn lives in the unlearning? Everyone reading this has been breathing their whole life...seems like something that doesn’t need to be learned  Performance: 1.) Self-Awareness 2.) Choice 3.) Energy Become aware of what you’re learning right now, the environments you’re in. The information you allow yourself to be exposed to. Ask yourself and others questions. Then do the deep work to really see if that’s true.... Make the choice. Understand your value system. Set the standard. Fail often and connect the dots, solve the problems. But be careful here. There are many problems to solve. So choose the one worth solving. Energy...The feedback loop. Comes throug...