Acclaimed sports psychologist Bob Rotella has advised everyone from professional golfers to NBA superstars to business executives on how to flourish under pressure and overcome challenges. "Rotella's philosophy is astonishingly simple...his success rate...is phenomenal" (The New York Times). Now, for the first time, he's distilled his decades of in-depth research and practical experience into a potential-unlocking guide for everyone, from businesspeople to athletes to parents.Most psychology is focused on trying to make abnormal people normal. Bob Rotella's work is to make normal people exceptional. How Champions Think takes readers inside the minds of winners in many fields. It explores how to keep the mind from holding you back, whatever your physical gifts or other talents. It's about how to make a commitment, how to persevere, how to deal with failure. It's about how to train your mind to create a self-image that promotes confidence and accomplishment.Any successful life starts with how you see yourself. And with these pearls of wisdom from the nation's preeminent sports psychologist, you can learn to achieve the success of your dreams. "Straightforward and simple...Do the math. Read Rotella" (The Wall Street Journal).

8220;Straightforward and simple...Do the math. Read Rotella.” —The Wall Street Journal**

Autorentext
Dr. Bob Rotella is the bestselling author of a dozen books, including Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect, The Unstoppable Golfer, and How Champions Think. He was the director of sport psychology for twenty years at the University of Virginia, where his reputation grew as the expert champions talked to him about the mental aspects of their game. Rotella was a consultant multiple times to the United States Ryder Cup Team. His golf client list includes Hall of Famers Pat Bradley, Tom Kite, Davis Love III, and Nick Price, as well as many of today's stars, such as Justin Thomas, Darren Clarke, Jim Furyk, Padraig Harrington, Brad Faxon, and Rory McIlroy. A long-time consultant to Golf Digest, he lives in Virginia with his wife, Darlene. Bob Cullen is the coauthor, with Dr. Bob Rotella, of Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect and other bestselling works on the mental game. A former contributing editor at Travel & Leisure Golf, he has reported on courses from datelines as diverse as Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Iran.

Klappentext
This New York Times bestselling, groundbreaking guide to success from America’s preeminent sports psychologist is “so good that this reviewer has recommended it to all, golfers and non-golfers alike” (Library Journal, starred review).

Acclaimed sports psychologist Bob Rotella has advised everyone from professional golfers to NBA superstars to business executives on how to flourish under pressure and overcome challenges. “Rotella’s philosophy is astonishingly simple…his success rate…is phenomenal” (The New York Times). Now, for the first time, he’s distilled his decades of in-depth research and practical experience into a potential-unlocking guide for everyone, from businesspeople to athletes to parents.

Most psychology is focused on trying to make abnormal people normal. Bob Rotella’s work is to make normal people exceptional. “Intriguing and persuasive” (Publishers Weekly), How Champions Think takes readers inside the minds of winners in many fields. It explores how to keep the mind from holding you back, whatever your physical gifts or other talents. It’s about how to make a commitment, how to persevere, how to deal with failure. It’s about how to train your mind to create a self-image that promotes confidence and accomplishment.

Any successful life starts with how you see yourself. And with these pearls of wisdom from the nation’s preeminent sports psychologist, you can learn to achieve the success of your dreams. “Straightforward and simple...Do the math. Read Rotella” (The Wall Street Journal).

Zusammenfassung
Any successful life starts with how you see yourself. And with these pearls of wisdom from the nation's preeminent sports psychologist, you can learn to achieve the success of your dreams.

Leseprobe
How Champions Think

1. What LeBron James Has in Common with Pat Bradley

   I HAVE BEEN privileged to spend my life helping people who want to be exceptional. A desire to be exceptional may not in itself strike you as unusual. Everyone, as a kid, has daydreams in which he catches the touchdown pass as time expires to win the Super Bowl, or she pole-vaults sixteen feet to win an Olympic gold medal. But I’m not talking about daydreams or about the unrealized fantasies of many adults. I’m talking about a desire so fierce that it changes a person’s life. Exceptional people begin with just such ambitions. From them, I’ve learned how a champion’s thoughts are different from the thoughts of most people. That difference is what this book is about.

   I’ve worked with the winners of eighty-four major golf championships on the men’s, women’s, and senior tours. I’ve worked with Olympic gold medalists in the equestrian sports. I’ve worked with NCAA champions in track and field, soccer, lacrosse, and basketball. I’ve worked with winners of major tennis tournaments. Three of the five players in the history of the PGA Tour to shoot a competitive 59—Chip Beck, David Duval, and Jim Furyk—were working with me when they did it. I’ve worked with exceptionally successful people in the entertainment and business worlds. Each of them has taught me something about the minds of exceptional people.

   They have confirmed my belief that the ideas people choose to have about themselves largely determine the quality of the lives they lead. We can choose to believe in ourselves, and thus to strive, to risk, to persevere, and to achieve. Or we can choose to cling to security and mediocrity. We can choose to set no limits on ourselves, to set high goals and dream big dreams. We can use those dreams to fuel our spirits with passion. Or we can become philosophers of the worst kind, inventing ways to rationalize our failures, inventing excuses for mediocrity. We can fall in love with our own abilities and our own potential, then choose to maximize those abilities. Or we can decide that we have no special talents or abilities and try to be happy being safe and comfortable.

   As I’ve worked, I’ve been troubled at times by the realization that the champions I know are becoming more atypical—too exceptional, if you will. Our grandparents and great-grandparents migrated and struggled for many years to give us the freedom we now have, a precious birthright. We’re free to choose what we’re going to think about ourselves. No one can stop us from chasing our dreams. Yet many people today choose to squander this birthright. They choose to believe that because of where they were born or who their parents are, they don’t have a fair chance in life. They’re choosing to believe that the competition—from America and around the world—is just too tough. They’re choosing to believe in someone else’s talent more than their own. They’re choosing to be mediocre.

   I’m always telling people that I don’t care what their families or their schools or their communities said or thought about them. I tell them, “You’re an adult now, and you get to decide.” So what’s the decision going to be? You get to write your life story. Will you be heroic or just someone trying to get by? Will you be the star or someone sitting on the end of the bench?

   I have no trouble with someone who strives to be the best and finishes in the middle of the pack. There&…