Every entrepreneur faces challenges, but imagine facing them with the silent force of POSITIVE SELF-TALK!
In this episode, Imagine failing 70% of the time and still emerging as a champion! 🏆 This video unveils the remarkable parallel between the world’s greatest hitters and successful entrepreneurs: masterful self-talk.
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I am addicted to the sport of baseball. I coached little league for many years, I am a passionate Boston Red Sox fan, and my son currently plays college baseball. I simply love the inner game of baseball, the chess match that goes on between the lines, and the fact that the greatest hitters in the world fail 70% of the time but still need to somehow muster the mental toughness to perform at a very high level. Recently I was watching the College World Series. It was a win or go home semi-final game between Wake Forest and Louisiana State University. Winner goes on to the championship, so big game. In the seventh-inning, with the game tied, an LSU relief pitcher was called into the game to shut down Wake Forest. Now, when this dude ran on to the field from the bull pen, he was animated and full of energy, fired up. He was walking around the mound, bouncing up and down, and you could see him aggressively talking to himself as he was preparing to throw his first pitch. This guy was fired up. He was getting himself into game mode and I guarantee the conversation he was having with himself, in this do or die game, wasn't filled with doubts or fear or uncertainty like"I hope I do well.""I got hit pretty bad the last game so I better do better." Although I wasn't there and couldn't hear him, I'm sure as sh*t that his self-talk was closer to,"There's no way in hell you're getting a hit off of me.""I dare you to try and catch up to my fastball.""I'm unstoppable and you are going down." Now, this particular pitcher had incredible statistics and he was top in the nation at striking out his opponents. You may be saying,"Come on, Mike, was his success primarily the result of the way he motivated himself, his animated conversations and his pre-game ritual?" Perhaps not, I'm certain had great coaches over the years but guess what? I guarantee his pre-game self-talk helped to put him into a powerful mental state. So, let me ask,"What kind of conversations are you having with yourself as you start your day?" When you're brushing your teeth or shaving or putting on your makeup or doing your hair, how's your self-talk as you head to the office to greet your employees? What are you saying to yourself right before you walk into a big important customer meeting? It's during these moments when we need to talk to ourselves. We need some powerful self-talk. We need to ensure that we perform at our very best. Whenever I make a speech, no matter where I am in the world, I have my own little"pre-game" ritual. I find a quiet place, I pop in my AirPods, I crank up ACDC Thunderstruck and I say over and over,"I will change your life today." Now, will my pre-speech ritual or your self-talk or the baseball pitcher's pre-game approach guarantee success? No way in hell, but I bet it will help. I have said many times that entrepreneurship is an emotional and financial rollercoaster. The path is never smooth, and each day is usually filled with bumps and bruises and obstacles. I've been there several times building my companies, and I'm not going to profess that I always have good self-talk. There have been many times in my life that my self-talk sucked. It crippled me. It took me down hard. It's easy to be fired up when we win, right? The celebrations, festivities, the pats on the back from our employees, our partners, investors, or bankers, whatever it is. On the other hand, what happens when things go south? When we lose a big customer, a key employee quits, or millions of dollars are gone because of our stupid mistakes. Now, I've experienced all three of those and it is during these challenging times that we need to find anything that reignites our spark and gets us back on our feet. Let that self-assured, confident pitcher in my story be an example of how you can drown out the chaos and let your self-talk steer you toward victory. I'll tell you the single most important conversation you're going to have today, and quite frankly every day, is that heart to heart talk you have with yourself when you're staring into the mirror. As you continue this journey of building your company, armor yourself with the power of positive self-talk. Your future self will thank you. You'll feel the change resonate through your entire body, every aspect. Look in that mirror each and every morning and remind yourself that nothing will get in the way of you and your dreams! When you and I are alone and we're going through challenges when building our companies, it is essential to remind ourselves multiple times a day,"I got this.""I will not be denied.""Nothing and no one will stop me today."