Way of the Champion. Jerry Lynch, Ph.D.

raise the bar on who and where you are, and to get a sense of purpose and vision (individual or team), follow the lessons of champions that remind you to focus away from results and more on the process. Focusing on results creates anxiety, stress, and a good deal of tension. Focusing on the process allows you to relax and feel confident in what you can do. To help you to better focus on the process, follow these steps:

      1. What are three specific things you could do that you aren’t doing now, which if done, would definitely contribute to personal (or team) improvement immediately? For example, in basketball, sprint your lanes, dive on the 50/ 50 ball, and crash the boards. In life, maybe it’s meditate each day, exercise for thirty minutes four times per week, and drink eight glasses of water daily. You decide.

      2. Write out a contract with yourself: “I commit to (fill in blank) in order to raise the bar as a performer in sport and life.” Sign it, and be sure to read it every day or prior to entering the arena of performance.

      3. Take a few minutes, after you have read your contract, to relax by taking three or four deep breaths, then visualize yourself performing these tasks. Feel the feeling you get when you do good things like this.

      Think about how you want to raise the bar in other arenas of life, and follow the same format. It works; it’s simple, yet it requires attention to detail.

      ZERO REGRETS

      WHEN I WORK with champions, they remind me that having regrets is not an option. While it is impossible to eliminate all regrets from your life, the champions teach that regrets can be monitored and greatly reduced or controlled. Over the years, I have developed a method that I have used with hundreds of athletes to help them gain greater control over these demons. The exercise is called “Zero Regrets” and can be used for any path, be it athletic, professional, or personal. This exercise, once again, asks that your focus be more on the process or the journey than the destination.

      1. Imagine that it is now six months (or any other significant time frame) down the road, and you are looking back on your season, your work, your fitness program. Using your past experience as a guide, what five regrets could you have at that time? Some say: not giving it my all, not seeing the signs of failure, not being consistent, not lifting weights, not running, not eating healthily, disregarding mental training, and so on.

      2. Once your list is created, answer this: What five or more actions or behaviors could I perform that, if successful, would eliminate the chances of having those regrets? These are specific, tangible tasks to be performed, such as: lift weights three times a week for two hours a session, to prevent the regret of being weak in the upper body.

      3. Having stated these tasks, take those you are certain to commit to, and begin to create a daily and/or weekly schedule of activity that will guide you to consistent effort.

      I have used this exercise with teams when they go to a big tournament or final four. I ask them to imagine it’s over, it’s Monday morning, and to list the regrets that they could have at that time. Then I ask them to commit to certain activities, tasks, or behaviors that will help eliminate the regrets. This is a powerful refocusing tool usable in many of life’s circumstances. Next time you are about to go on vacation, go through the steps and discover how much more fun you will have if you avoid regrets in advance. This will give you a deeper sense of purpose and vision.

      OBSESSION WITH WINNING

      CHAMPIONS TEACH US that when your sole purpose and vision in sport is about winning, you generally come up short. I alluded to the meaning of winning in the introduction to this book, yet feel a need to elaborate upon it here in lessons on purpose and vision.

      I remember clearly the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, when Michelle Kwan seemed obsessed about winning gold in ice skating. Having failed to accomplish the feat four years before, she must have felt enormous pressure to win, and she was the overwhelming favorite. However, young Sarah Hughes, who simply showed up to skate her best, having little or no chance to win, skated brilliantly to a gold medal. Her purpose and vision was to skate well, have fun, and enjoy the experience... perhaps even have a top-three finish. When one’s only purpose is to win, the tightness, tension, and anxiety seem to build up, hampering one’s best efforts. An old Zen saying teaches us: “When the archer shoots for the love of shooting, he has all the skill; when he shoots for gold, he goes blind.”

      In his classic work, The Zen of Running, Fred Rohé eloquently states, “There are no victories except the joy you are living while dancing your run, you are not running for some future reward—the real reward is now!” The modern Olympic games motto, The goal is not to win, but to take part, tells us that the essence of participating is not conquering but competing well. By so doing, you embrace victory as a path without a destination, and, as stated by Cervantes’ Don Quixote, the journey is better than the inn.

      Can you remember a time when you were a winner, even if the results didn’t acknowledge it? I finished 143 rd out of 310 runners at the Stanford Invitational cross-country race. By most participants’ standards, this was not considered a winning performance. For me, however, it was a major victory because I ran my fastest time for the distance and did it against some of the best collegiate athletes in the United States—all of whom were twenty or more years younger than I. It was an inner, personal triumph, one most could not see. When the process itself is fulfilling and you win in the moment, victory is always the experience; external results are ephemeral, while internal victories last a lifetime.

      We are a society obsessed with winning. This obsession has led us to forget about the important inner values and virtues of partaking in the activity. Although winning is important for many reasons, it should not be an end in itself. If you believe “you don’t win silver, you lose gold,” you will create layers of tension, anxiety, and stress that will contribute unfavorably to the outcome. When stressed about the outcomes, your body is unable to move with the fluidity or flow that’s so necessary for a winning performance. But as you probably know, even confirmed champions can perform like non-champions. It’s easy to get distracted from the important reasons for competing and get off track, but the true champion finds the way back. Olympian and world champion Regina Jacobs is able to find her way back by using an affirmation prior to her 1500 -meter races. To relax and focus on the process, Regina reminds herself: “I may or may not win, but I am a world champion and choose to run like one.” She takes a few minutes before the race to motivate herself, visualize her performance, and feel relaxed, smooth, and strong as she chooses to compete like a champion.