How Champions Think

Bob Rotella

📚 GENRE: Personal Development

📃 PAGES: 304

✅ COMPLETED: August 24, 2018

🧐 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Short Summary

Sports psychologist Bob Rotella discusses what he’s learned after decades of working with star professional athletes like LeBron James and Rory McIlroy. Rotella shares how to make a commitment, how to persevere, and how to deal with failure. Rotella also explains why it’s important to create a self-image that promotes confidence and self-belief.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Learn to Enjoy ‘The Grind’ — Tedious, annoying, small daily habits performed well day in and day out are what bring success and help you reach your goals. It can be really hard to stick to these daily disciplines, especially when you’re tired, but committing to them is so important.

2️⃣ Believe In Yourself — One of the qualities successful people have in common is an unwavering belief in their talent, skill, and abilities. No matter what you’re faced with, you have to believe you can get the job done. If you’re disciplined and work hard, there’s really no reason you SHOULDN’T believe in yourself.

3️⃣ Optimism is Learned — Optimism is learned and developed over time. You build optimism by consciously choosing to think positively about yourself, others, and the future. Regardless of what happens to you, try to take something positive from the situation.

Favorite Quote

"Nothing exceptional was ever done without enthusiasm."

Book Notes 📑

*Did not take chapter-by-chapter notes on this one. Running list below.

  • Highly successful people are ALWAYS optimistic. They always take something positive from anything that’s happening to them.
  • Optimism and confidence are not something you were born with. Both are skills that are learned and developed.
    • Confidence is essential.
  • Negativity and pessimism have a direct link to failure. Optimism doesn’t guarantee a good result, but it has a strong connection.
    • Optimism is the belief that things will go well with the aid of hard work.
      • You have to consciously think positive thoughts about yourself and your abilities. 
  • In golf, bad shots have never happened because of overconfidence, but they have happened because of fears/ negative thoughts.
  • Visualization is key. You have to picture good things/goals.
    • Sam Snead used to fall asleep replaying shots from his round in his head.
      • On a bad shot, he visualized it with a new outcome.
  • Confidence is the belief in yourself.
    • Must believe in your talent!
  • Nobody gets to the top alone. You have to have a support system in place.
  • Some of the best athletes are single minded. They are ultra-committed to their goals and sacrifice almost everything else but family.
    • Hall of Fame Tennis player Pete Sampras completely committed in his early 20s and had great success.
      • As he got older he didn’t have the same desire and wanted to do different things. His tennis suffered.
  • Think of a big goal in terms of moving up the ‘ladder’ of goals.
    • Focus on accomplishing smaller goals on the way to the big goal. 
  • Extraordinary athletes/people do the things that others will not every day and they enjoy it.
    • They enjoy the grind.
  • Cognitive Psychology — Human beings can control the condition of their mind by using their conscious brain to monitor/change the way they think.
    • In other words, people become what they think of themselves. 
    • There’s another pillar of psychology that says you are a result of your upbringing/conditions.
      • This is called ‘learned helplessness.’
  • What you think of yourself radiates to others.
    • People don’t notice your insecurities, they notice your bad attitude or awkwardness.
  • Exceptional and successful people always believe in themselves, no matter the situation.
    • They find a way to keep trying. They react and perceive what happens to them in an optimistic way.
      • Ex. A 2-9 Baseball Team — Certain players on the team find positives and believe good things are coming, while everybody else on the team settles for losing.
        • The positive thinkers play well. 
  • Learned Effectiveness — Optimism, confidence, respect for your own talent, persistence, and commitment.
    • It’s a cycle. When you have confidence and optimism, you react to setbacks with persistence. 
    • When you persist, you get better. 
    • When you get better, it reinforces your confidence, belief, and commitment.
    • Ex. Golfer — The golfer who hits it poorly on the range will think, “This is where I show off my short game and putting.”
      • The poor thinker will think, “I need to fix my swing ASAP.”
    • Ex. Golfer — When a golfer misses the green, the effective thinker will think about chipping in rather than worrying about not getting it up and down. 
  • Nerves — There is no cure.
    • Successful people learn to succeed despite nerves.
    • Symptoms of nerves are caused by chemical changes in the brain during high stress moments.
      • These symptoms are out of conscious control, so it’s a waste of energy to try to avoid them.
    • Ex. Bill Russell used to vomit before NBA Finals games. 
  • Preparation Process — What University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari calls “the grind.”
    • Essential to success.
    • Ex. LeBron making 200 3-point shots per day. 
  • Performance Process — Think about a golfer’s pre-shot routine.
    • Mental and physical. Designed to quiet the mind.
  • The subconscious controls performance.
    • Nerves interrupt the subconscious from doing what it knows how to do.
    • You must learn to see nerves as a friend that will HELP performance.
    • Ex. Rotella had a golfer client who dominated in pro-ams but struggled when he played in real tournaments.
      • The conscious mind was hurting him in real tournaments. 
  • Jim Furyk began doing his pre-putt routine on every practice putt to nail down his performance process so he would stop over thinking his stroke and let the subconscious control it.
    • Let it happen, not make it happen. 
  • During tournaments, Chris Hickman allowed his mind to wander as he walked between shots.
    • When he got to the ball, he went into his performance process routine and hit the shot.
      • This worked well.
  • Surgeons sometimes like to listen to music while they operate.
    • It takes conscious mind out of it.
  • Winners believe they are self-made.
    • Unsuccessful people believe their circumstances are the reason for their success or failure.
  • You could try your best and do everything right and still not accomplish your dream.
    • But the pursuit of the dream is far better than letting your one life pass you by without trying.
      • Learn to enjoy the grind. 
  • Quote: “Nothing exceptional was ever done without enthusiasm.”
    • Be excited every day! Be excited about making progress daily. 
  • Faith in God allows you to keep believing in the dream. It is in His hands.
  • Champions have a philosophy. They are determined to chase their dream and not settle for mediocrity.
    • Champions hold themselves to a high standard and try to match it.
  • Ignore the naysayers. Champions have a way of doing this.
    • They ignore the odds and focus on what it will take to accomplish their task.
  • Never limit your goals. Go big. 
  • You must surround yourself with a solid group of people who believe in you — family, friends, spouse, coaches. 
  • Treat people well on your journey.
  • Give absolute commitment and effort.
    • Enjoy the journey more than the result.
  • Don’t focus so much on the outcome.  Focus on preparing well and going through your performance process.
    • When you focus on results, it’s easy to buckle under the pressure.
    • Focus on the process and executing the details. 
  • Don’t ever believe you are better than any other person. You’re not.
    • You should be confident, but don’t take an attitude that you’re above people. You’re not.