The Way of the Champion: How to Win Each Day | Sport Psychologist, Dr. Jerry Lynch

In this insightful conversation, Dr. Jerry Lynch and Michael Gervais delve into the essence of achieving excellence and the importance of relationships in personal and professional development. Lynch emphasizes that true mastery and success stem from a daily commitment to intentional actions and being the best version of oneself. They discuss the significance of vulnerability, selflessness, and giving in creating meaningful connections and sustaining a championship culture. Lynch also highlights the role of meditation, resilience, and a balanced approach to life’s challenges as crucial elements in winning the day and fostering long-term growth.

• Building genuine relationships is crucial for personal and professional success.
• Authenticity, inspiration, vulnerability, and empowerment are key components of meaningful relationships.
• Both personal and professional relationships require continuous effort and commitment.

"The acronym is GIVE: Genuine, Inspiring, Vulnerable, and Empowering."

• This quote emphasizes the four key attributes necessary for building strong relationships.

"Leadership without vulnerability is non-existent. Right marriages, relationships without vulnerability is non-existent."

• Vulnerability is essential for authentic leadership and meaningful relationships.

• Conducting thorough research about others can lead to more meaningful and effective conversations.
• Understanding the background and values of the person you're interacting with can enhance the quality of the dialogue.

"Usually, as a host, you're really doing a lot of research on the guest that's coming in because you want to sound like you know what you're talking about."

• Emphasizes the importance of preparation and understanding in hosting conversations.

"My wife and I watched the Valentine's Day wonderful gift that you and your wife Lisa gave to us."

• Demonstrates the effort to understand the personal life and values of the conversation partner.

• The book translates the essence of "The Art of War" into accessible language for athletes, coaches, and parents.
• Emphasizes the importance of understanding and applying ancient wisdom in modern contexts.
• Implementation of concepts is crucial for real impact.

"My co-author, Al Wong, translated from Chinese to English from the old book 'The Art of War' and ensured it was accessible to coaches, athletes, moms, dads, and young kids."

• Highlights the collaborative effort to make ancient wisdom accessible to a broader audience.

"Without implementation, it's just words. They're nice words, but how do you bring that belief to the field?"

• Stresses the importance of applying theoretical concepts in practical settings.

• Focuses on daily actions and habits to achieve long-term success.
• Emphasizes the importance of sustaining positive habits and behaviors over time.
• Winning each day involves completing essential tasks and maintaining consistency.

"You don't go to win a championship. You have to be a champion first and then you'll become a champion."

• Highlights the idea that daily actions and habits build the foundation for long-term success.

"Winning the day is different than winning a championship. It's about doing all the little things, the necessary essential absolutes."

• Emphasizes the importance of focusing on daily tasks and habits to achieve larger goals.

• Sustaining success requires continuous effort and adaptation.
• Implementation of positive habits and behaviors needs to be maintained consistently.
• Flexibility and adaptability are important for long-term success.

"What I'm about is you want to implement it and then you want to sustain the implementation."

• Stresses the importance of not just starting positive habits but maintaining them over time.

"They came up with a list of 10 and they stuck with it every single day, making alterations and changes to suit the culture."

• Illustrates how consistent effort and adaptability can lead to sustained success.

• The number 10 is often used as a comprehensive and encompassing list.
• Top 10 lists cover various aspects and provide a broad perspective.
• Personal and professional goals can be structured around a top 10 list.

"The top 10 seems to be more encompassing. It covers many spokes on the wheel, and you're the hub."

• Explains why the number 10 is used to create comprehensive and encompassing lists.

"The top 10 list all over the place. We had the Ten Commandments. Why 10? I don't know. Maybe we just need one thing to do."

• Reflects on the cultural and historical significance of the number 10 in creating lists.

• Having a personal philosophy can guide thoughts, words, and actions.
• Non-negotiables are essential principles that one commits to without compromise.
• Personal philosophies and non-negotiables help in creating a fulfilling and meaningful life.

"Every day is the opportunity to create a living masterpiece."

• Emphasizes the idea of making the most of each day to create a meaningful and fulfilling life.

"This is not negotiable. It's like, sorry, I'm not going to change that. It's that important."

• Highlights the importance of having non-negotiable principles that guide one's actions and decisions.

• The concept of the "Wheel of Life" encompasses various aspects of life including personal, professional, relationships, spirituality, nutrition, and physical activity.
• Focusing on these major items can create a balanced and fulfilling life.
• Elevated emotions such as optimism, feeling valued, and helping others are essential for creating a positive environment.

"What I'm doing is I'm looking at the wheel of life and on that wheel there's the personal stuff, the professional game, the relationship game, the social stuff, the spirituality, the spiritual life, the nutritional life, and the physical life."

• The Wheel of Life is a holistic approach to balance different aspects of life.

"When we focus on these major items, we can do things under that umbrella which allows us to feel good."

• Focusing on key areas of life can lead to overall well-being.

• Elevated emotions include optimism, feeling valued, and helping others feel valued.
• Creating an environment conducive to connection, care, love, and empowerment is crucial.

"I have what I call elevated emotions: being optimistic, feeling valued, helping other people to feel valued."

• Elevated emotions are essential for a positive and fulfilling life.

"I want to create an environment which is amenable to connection, caring, love, empowering others."

• A supportive environment fosters elevated emotions.

• Daily meditation practice is a crucial part of spiritual life.
• The meditation practice includes Vasa breathing and feeling elevated emotions.
• Visualization is referred to as "feelingization" to encompass all senses, not just visual.

"Every day I have a meditation practice...sometimes it takes place in the morning, sometimes at the end of the day."

• Consistent meditation practice is essential for spiritual well-being.

"I call it feelingization. I don't use the word visualization because it's one-dimensional; I just call it imagery."

• Feelingization involves engaging all senses to create a vivid mental image.

"I spend part of the meditation practice in feeling elevated emotions and taking them into my body."

• Meditation includes feeling elevated emotions and integrating them into one's being.

• Reading is an important part of personal growth and mental stimulation.
• Even short periods of reading can be beneficial.

"Reading is an important part of it...maybe I read for 15 minutes, but I've always got at least two or three books going."

• Continuous learning through reading keeps the mind stimulated.

• Nutrition is vital for feeling energetic and vibrant.
• Physical activity is essential for overall health and well-being.

"My diet is so important to be aware of nutrition so that you can feel energy and feel alive and vibrant each day."

• Proper nutrition contributes to overall vitality.

• Emotions such as jealousy, anger, embarrassment, shame, and hurt are welcomed as opportunities for growth.
• These challenging emotions help build resilience, grit, fortitude, and perseverance.

"I welcome them into my life...these are wonderful opportunities."

• Welcoming challenging emotions can lead to personal growth.

"My mission in life is to make a difference and be a better version of myself...I've got to be challenged."

• Challenges are necessary for becoming the best version of oneself.

• Waking up at 2:00 AM is seen as an opportunity for introspection and resolving issues.
• This time is referred to as "night school," where one can address unresolved matters.

"Waking up at 2:00 in the morning is night school...there's something going on that's not right in my life, and I need to attend to it."

• Night school is a time for deep introspection and problem-solving.

"The body's natural way of giving you that opportunity is waking up when everything else around you is quiet."

• Quiet moments at night provide the perfect environment for introspection.

• Spiritual bypass involves avoiding difficult emotions through easy fixes like medication or alcohol.
• Facing challenging emotions head-on is crucial for genuine spiritual growth.

"I want to stare these prickly beasts right in the eye...I'm not going to run away from them because they're real."

• Confronting difficult emotions directly is essential for personal growth.

"The spiritual bypass is taking the pill...that's the bypass or even coming home from work having your Martini."

• Easy fixes like medication or alcohol are considered spiritual bypass and should be avoided.

• Medication should be a last resort; a holistic approach including mind, body, and emotion work is preferable.
• Combining medication with psychotherapy is more effective than medication alone.

"Medication alone without psychotherapy is not considered a best practice."

• A combination of medication and psychotherapy is recommended for mental health treatment.

"Give yourself a chance to do some of this work...maybe you can even do it before you're in a full-blown crisis."

• Proactive mental health practices can prevent crises.

• Completing essential daily activities can lead to better sleep, reduced anxiety, and overall well-being.
• Acronym PADS: Pressure, Anxiety, Depression, Stress can be mitigated by following daily practices.

"Maybe if you're doing those top 10 items or top seven or five...maybe you do sleep well, maybe you're not anxious."

• Following daily practices can improve overall well-being.

"I don't feel I rarely feel depressed if ever...the last thing is stress."

• Adhering to daily practices can significantly reduce stress and depression.

• Mastery is a continuous, ongoing process that involves daily vigilance and awareness of essential ingredients to live a full life.
• Winning the day involves intentional actions and mindset, even when the day seems to take over.
• The concept of mastery is not about achieving a final state but being a master every day through consistent efforts.

"To become a master is not possible, but you can be a master every day."

• Emphasizes the continuous nature of mastery.

"What do you do when you don't win the day but the day wins? You got to go to bed, start again, get up in the morning, and do it all over again."

• Highlights the importance of resilience and starting fresh each day.

"Winning the day is an intentional, on-purpose, vision-driven exercise."

• Stresses the need for intentional actions and a clear vision to win the day.

• Focus on what is 100% under your control to effectively manage life.
• Use a structured approach, like the Wheel of Life, to categorize and manage different aspects of life.

"Are those controllables? Are those things that are 100% under your control? 100%."

• Emphasizes the importance of focusing on controllable factors.

• Iido involves using the energy presented by others to regain leverage or maintain power.
• Karate focuses on stopping incoming energy or strikes with direct actions.

"Iido is using the energy that's presented, using the opportunity that the other person in the fight is presenting."

• Explains the philosophy of Iido.

"Karate is more about right angles, stopping the blows, stopping like putting your fist, arms, legs in a position to stop the energy that's coming in."

• Describes the philosophy of Karate.

• The best version of oneself is already within and needs to be uncovered by shedding blockages and masks.
• Authenticity and vulnerability are crucial for personal growth and connection with others.

"The essence is inside; the best version of myself is here. I need to shed, I need to get past the blockages."

• Emphasizes the idea that the best version of oneself is already present and needs to be uncovered.

"I want to connect my human heart with your human heart, and the only way to do that is to forget about all these books, forget about all that stuff."

• Highlights the importance of genuine human connection.

• Psychological development is crucial for achieving excellence and being at home with oneself.
• Excellence involves being comfortable with oneself in any situation.

"Excellence is the ability to be at home with yourself wherever you are."

• Defines excellence as being at peace with oneself.

• Winning the day involves intentional actions and routines, starting with simple tasks like making the bed.
• A morning mindset routine can set the tone for the day, involving clear intentions and visualization.

"My intention getting out of bed is very simple: make the bed. What's the next intention? Go down and feed the cats."

• Describes the importance of starting the day with intentional actions.

"One of those four steps is to be very clear about your intention for the day and then drill into at least one moment that you can see yourself being in alignment with that intention."

• Explains the morning mindset routine for setting the day's intention.

• The book "The Champion Teammate" focuses on the importance of being a great teammate rather than just building great teams.
• A great teammate is selfless and focused on giving rather than getting.

"A great teammate is a real shift. The wrong question is, 'What can I get here?' The right question is, 'What can I give to make this a better program?'"

• Emphasizes the shift from a self-centered to a team-centered mindset.

"Being a good teammate, if there's one umbrella, it's about being selfless."

• Highlights selflessness as a key trait of a great teammate.

• The concept of selflessness is a central theme in teamwork, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing the team's success over individual achievements.
• Jen Adams is highlighted as a prime example of selflessness in sports, particularly in women's lacrosse.
• Selflessness involves not seeking personal glory but contributing to the team's overall success through hard work and support.

"She gave till she bled, I mean really... she was constantly looking for ways to give to a team, give, give, give, love, love, love, selfless as can be, and the hardest worker you'd ever see on the field in practice."

• Jen Adams exemplified selflessness by always striving to support her team, whether through hard work in practice or celebrating her teammates' successes.

"When a kid would score a goal, she was the first one to that person to congratulate her or to celebrate. At the end of practice, she was out there picking up cones."

• Adams' actions off the field, such as picking up equipment and cleaning the locker room, further demonstrated her commitment to the team's well-being.

• The introduction of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) has significantly altered the landscape of collegiate sports.
• NIL has shifted the focus for some athletes and their families towards financial gains and personal benefits rather than team contribution.
• This shift has introduced challenges for coaches and programs in maintaining a team-first mentality.

"The psychology of athletes and parents and families saying, 'How much you going to pay me? How much playing time will I get? What do I get out of this?'"

• NIL has created a more transactional approach to college recruiting, where athletes and their families prioritize financial offers and playing time.

"Legendary coach Nick Saban has retired... one of the reasons is that he didn't like the way that the tide had shifted."

• The changing dynamics due to NIL may have contributed to the retirement of seasoned coaches like Nick Saban, who valued a different approach to team building.

• Emphasizing what one can contribute to a team or organization is crucial for standing out and being successful.
• Coaches and employers value individuals who demonstrate a willingness to give and improve the program or organization.

"If you walk into a room and say, 'How can I contribute? I want to give to this program my heart and soul,' OMG, you're recruited."

• Demonstrating a genuine desire to contribute and improve the team can significantly enhance an athlete's or employee's prospects.

• Building strong relationships is fundamental to success in sports, business, and personal endeavors.
• Effective relationships are based on respect, caring, and mutual empowerment.

"The most important game that we won that year was the relationship game."

• Steve Kerr emphasized that the key to winning championships was building strong relationships within the team.

"It's all about the relationship between you and I, Mike... If we don't have that kind and respected relationship, this is going nowhere."

• The foundation of any successful collaboration or team effort is a strong, respectful relationship between the individuals involved.

• Engaging with others from the heart, rather than just sharing information, is vital for meaningful connections and effective communication.
• Presenting and interacting with genuine emotion and sincerity can have a profound impact.

"Give them your heart, Mike."

• Sharing heartfelt emotions and sincerity can transform interactions and presentations, making them more impactful and memorable.

"I spend the first two maybe close to three hours building relationships... It's a relationship game."

• Prioritizing relationship-building over immediate information sharing helps create a strong foundation for future interactions and success.

• Mastery is a continuous journey, characterized by passion, love, and joy in the process.
• It involves consistent, incremental progress in a safe environment, often described by the Japanese concept of Kaizen.

"Mastery is the mysterious process which is at first difficult but yet it becomes easier with time."

• Mastery is a gradual process that becomes more manageable as one continues to progress and improve.

"Mastery is like the river... it widens and slows down, it Narrows and goes fast... sometimes you feel like you're going backwards."

• The journey to mastery can have its ups and downs, resembling the flow of a river, but persistence and continuous effort are key.

"Kaizen is that wonderful slow gradual incremental progression in a safe environment."

• The concept of Kaizen emphasizes the importance of steady, incremental improvements within a supportive and safe environment.

• The conversation highlights the importance of selflessness, contribution, relationship-building, heartfelt engagement, and continuous improvement in achieving success.
• For more information and to connect with Dr. Jerry Lynch, visit his website or contact him via email.

"My website is wayofchampions.com or my email is wayofchampions@gmail.com."

• Dr. Jerry Lynch provides resources and support through his website and is available for direct communication via email.