The Mental Rules Blog

Full Throttle and Leaf Chronicle

mentalrules — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:09:56 +0000

Hi everyone,

Full Throttle and I received a great write up in today’s Leaf Chronicle:

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20101280346

Please check it out,

Dr. Gregg

www.drgreggsteinberg.com

Lincoln and Mental Toughness

mentalrules — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:23:35 +0000

Martin Luther King Jr spoke his famous “dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. The most appropriate place because Abraham Lincoln was the president who feed the slaves.

But Lincoln did much more than that. Abraham Lincoln, as it states in his memorial, is the one who saved the union. As he once stated ” a house divided cannot stand”.

Lincoln faced immense pressure during the Civil War and he had to make one key decision after another, letting go one General after another. He could not afford to make a mistake. We might say Lincoln was not only one of our greatest leaders, but also one of the most mentally tough. His was battered in the press when he let go his generals and then appointed Grant as the commander of Union Armies, but Lincoln would not be fazed-he was mentally tough.

How many great leaders in today’s era could make such critical and effective decisions under such intense pressure-it is hard to know, but luckily, we had one of the most mentally tough leaders when the United States needed it the most.

Dr. Gregg Steinberg is a sport psychologist to many professional athletes, motivational speaker, business keynote speaker and sales training speaker. To see more about mental toughness strategies and going Full throttle in your sales, business and life, go to www.drgreggsteinberg.com and see his new book, Full Throttle on amazon.com.

Be a facebook fan at http://tinyurl.com/ycckh8x

Martin Luther King Jr teaches us mental toughness for business

mentalrules — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:04:03 +0000

Martin Luther King Jr taught us to judge someone by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. That is very difficult. We are predisposed to judge people who are different-to be stereotypical in our thought. People of different race, color, and culture are seen as different and thus we apply traits to them that might not be accurate or true.

MLK teaches us to change our mindset. To treat everyone with a tabula rosa-a blank slate without prejudices. We need to judge them for who they are, not what they look like.

Those lessons are essential in sales as well. When we have preconceived notions about people before they walk into the door because of their culture or race, we will change our behaviors. When our behaviors change, our interactions are influenced and ultimately, our expectations are fulfilled.

As a business speaker, I illustrate the teachings of MLK. We need to treat people without any biases, to simply judge them for who they are and our sales will be fullfilled with more closings

Dr. Gregg Steinberg is a sport psychologist to many professional athletes, motivational speaker, business keynote speaker and sales training speaker. To see more about going Full throttle in your sales, business and life, go to www.drgreggsteinberg.com and see his new book, Full Throttle on amazon.com.

Be a facebook fan at http://tinyurl.com/ycckh8x

Conan O’ Brien, Jay Leno, Tonight Show, Integrity

mentalrules — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:52:00 +0000

Who’s got your back Conan? Defintitely not NBC! They promised you the promise land of the 11:35E prime time slot for late night. Now, they are renegging and giving it back to Jay Leno and giving you the boot to 12:05E.

While that is still a wonderful place to be, NBC has lost its credibility. What might they do next? I think you need to give NBC the boot and go somewhere else.

What is the principle of integrity worth to you? What if your business or boss promised you something wonderful, only to reneg at a later time….what would you do?

I know what I would do.

Be a facebook fan at http://tinyurl.com/ycckh8x

Conan O’ Brien, Jay Leno, Tonight Show, Integrity

mentalrules — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:51:52 +0000

While that is still a wonderful place to be, NBC has lost its credibility. What might they do next? I think you need to give NBC the boot and go somewhere else.

What is the principle of integrity worth to you? What if your business or boss promised you something wonderful, only to reneg at a later time….what would you do?

I know what I would do.

Be a facebook fan at http://tinyurl.com/ycckh8x

Pete Carroll and Leadership styles

mentalrules — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:47:20 +0000

Pete Carroll is a winner and he knows how to win. He has proven it time and time again at USC. He knows how to motivate players and get the best out of their talents.

Now the Seahawks want his skills…but is that wise?

Look what happened to Steve Spurrier. Steve was a proven winner at the University of Florida (my alma mater), yet when he went to the professional ranks (Washington), Spurrier fell flat.

Why? Perhaps it was because Steve’s motivation style worked for young college players but not for seasoned experienced professional athletes.

This is a great leadership lesson for Pete as well as anyone who holds a leadership position in business. If Pete does go to the pros, he will need to be flexible in his coaching and leadership style. What may have worked for him at USC may not work in his new position.

Leadership is an artform-being flexible to the situation is key-what works for one situation may not work for another, and the great leader reads and understands each situation and then creates a style that fits.

Alabama wins the national championship-It was a mental toughness factor

mentalrules — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:50:07 +0000

Both teams came into the championship game undefeated but as everyone knows by now, Joe Scarborough’s alma mater, The Crimson Tide, won their first national title since 1992 with 37-21 victory over the Longhorns.

It’s significant to me that with 10 minutes left in the game the score was 24-21 with the momentum on UTA’s side. Alabama scored two touchdowns with minutes left in the game and it’s their calm, cool, collected “it’s not over until we say it’s over” attitude that I want to discuss. But first the drama:

UTA’s Colt McCoy — the winningest quarterback in college football history — got knocked out of the game in the first quarter during their fifth offensive play of the game. A devastating blow to the team and a heart-breaking blow to McCoy playing the last game of his college career. In came freshman backup Garrett Gilbert who holds all sorts of impressive high school football records but who’d only thrown 26 passes as a college quarterback and had never QB’d against Alabama and certainly never in a championship game. (Of course as a mom my first thoughts went to Gilbert’s mom — proud and thrilled and wracked with nerves beyond description at the same time).

It was tough going at first and I wondered what was going through this kid’s head. He was a heavily recruited high school player and has trained for this for years but as Gregg routinely points out to me, how much time was spent working on his mental game?

Something clicked. And I was excited to watch how these two teams worked as teams. This is what Alabama’s head coach Nick Saban on ESPN.com:

“It was like we’d won the game at halftime,” Saban said. “But you can’t accept being average. You’re playing a team in the national championship game that knows how to win.”

“Fight to the Finish” is a cliche but it’s also an important axiom for kids and anyone faced with a chips-are-down situation. Many of us would mentally and emotionally throw in the towel when faced with our superstar (and Heisman runner-up) quarterback suddenly out of the game. How can we win? How can we play?? McCoy is the glue that holds us together and who’s this pipsqueak Gilbert anyway? But the UTA players didn’t get to Pasadena thinking like the rest of us. They adjusted and played with integrity. Gilbert and All-American Jordan Shipley had two gorgeous touchdowns in the 4th quarter plus an impressive two point conversion and the momentum was palpable. It looked like they could win this game.

But then of course Alabama played with integrity too. They struck me as inexhaustible. It was a game with so many emotional twists and turns it would have been easy to think “we’ve got it” after the first half. But they’ve got great leadership all around (see Saban’s quote above). It wasn’t Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy’s most impressive game according to the commentators but I was knocked out to learn the handsome athlete is also a scholar who’s going to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. Mark my words, he’ll be president some day.

Dr. Gregg Steinberg is a business speaker, motivational speaker and sport psychologist. To see more about mental toughness,please go to www.drgreggsteinberg.com

Let’s make this a great new year for your business!

mentalrules — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:20:29 +0000

Happy New Year and let’s make it happen this upcoming year! The secret was revealed in the bestselling book, the Secret as well as the video. The secret is the law of attraction, and put simply, this law is based on 3 main points:

1) Figure out what you want

2) Make a plan to get what you want

3) Take action (and you will attract what is needed)

The problem with most people is we know what we want, we may have a plan, but most people do not take action.

I hope you will take action toward your dreams and goals this year!

Urban Meyer’s story is a great business lesson!

mentalrules — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:31:09 +0000

Urban Meyer, the head coach of the Florida gators (where I went to grad school, burnt his body out. After the loss to Alabama at the SEC championship game, it was reported that he had a black out for 90 minutes.

A black out for 90 minutes is telling you something- and he listened-He has announced his retirement from the gators (or a haitus).

The problem is that Urban Meyer works excessively hard, as he puts it-goes full throttle. The solution is that Urban Meyer needs to learn how to rethrottle-take some slow time, regroup, allow his body to recoup. Yes it is hard to take time off-the college football game is a year long business-but this shows us that regardless of what you do, how good you are at what you do, everyone needs to rethrottle and recoup.

Urban Meyer’s story is a great lesson for all of us to understand the principle of going full throttle to be successful, but also allowing ourselves time to rethrottle so that we can go full throttle again.

Dr. Gregg Steinberg is a business speaker, motivational speaker and keynote speaker. To see how the principle of full throttle and rethrottle works in life and business, please see my book, Full throttle on amazon.com and visit my site, www.drgreggsteinberg.com

Charlie Sheen-You are your brand!

mentalrules — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:31:47 +0000

I love 2 1/2 Men. It has great acting and great characters, one being Charlie Sheen playing Charlie, a womanizer-of course that is just acting-or is it?

As I write this blog, Charlie Sheen sat in a jail over Christmas for a domestic voilence charge. While not proven as of this date, it shows how some celebrities do not worry about their brand-their image that they want to always portray-ala Tiger Woods saga.

Charlie Sheen-you are your brand-if it is found out that you were arrested for domestice violence, your brand will be forever tarnished, and everyone will look at you differently.

People in business, sales or someone in a leadership position must always be concerned about their brand- which is how they act and behave at all times-never let your brand be tarnished and you will be successful.

Dr. Gregg Steinberg is a motivational speaker, business keynote speaker and sales training speaker. To see more about going Full throttle in your sales, business and life, go to www.drgreggsteinberg.com and see his new book, Full Throttle on amazon.com