Here is a brief taste of what to expect in a superb verbal treatise on the attitude of an individual determined to achieve excellence. Dr. Rotella is the author of the bestselling How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life and Golf is Not a Game of Perfect.
Good is the enemy of great. The moment you decide ‘good enough’ is acceptable, you’ve given up the chance of being great. You become what you think about yourself, so pay attention to how you think about yourself. This is your life. You get to design it. You write the script of your own story and decide whether you want to be the star or a bit player.
We’re born, we live and we die. What are you gonna do while you’re alive on this planet?
My field is the psychology of exceptionality. I make ordinary people do extraordinary things. When you study people who achieve great things, you won’t find many mutual personality traits. What they all share in common is that they do things in their own way.
You must take pride in doing things most refuse to do. Things other people can and should do but choose not to because it’s too hard. If you want to be exceptional, you’ve got to separate yourself from everyone else who does what you do.
Look at possibilities instead of probabilities. Create your own reality.
Being realistic is boring and uninteresting. It’s a way to justify negative thinking. To be realistic is to state that through experience you’ve come to realise you’re not as talented as you once thought you were. To achieve, get past that mentality.
We all start the same. I haven’t worked with one person yet that wasn’t born to a mother. The paths diverge when you decide whether you’re going to go after your dreams or give up on them. To be great means to get up every day and give it all you’ve got. To attempt to do something fabulous.
The world won’t believe in you until you’re on top of it. The challenge is seeing ‘it’ in yourself long before anyone else does. Many people become pessimistic and convince themselves that successful people compensate for their achievement by having chaotic and unhappy lives. This isn’t the case.
To be successful, you must be an optimist. To rise every day and believe you’re destined to achieve greatness. This feeling that you’ve got something special in you and good things are coming.
Negative thinking is more potent than positive thinking. Why is it so easy to believe your doubts and doubt your beliefs? Can you get excited every day? Make your vision clearer and your dreams bigger? Can you get past all the people trying to fill your head with doubt?
You have to be an everyday player. Lots of people can be a once-in-a-while player. The question is whether you can be juiced and in a great state of mind while everyone else is dying. You know how to do it, the question is whether you can do it every day. To be able to catch it when you’re a half-an-inch away.
Being great is hard. Do what’s easy if you want, but it won’t get you anywhere.