PRAISE FOR PSYCHED UP
Psyched Up offers compelling, entertaining, and well-researched advice on how to prepare for stressful situations.
TONY HSIEH, CEO of Zappos.com and author of Delivering Happiness
Daniel McGinns Psyched Up offers that perfect combination of informative, applicable advice and page turning good entertainment.
KEITH FERRAZZI, author of Whos Got Your Back and Never Eat Alone
Performance anxiety can scuttle great opportunities to showcase your talent and work. Psyched Up is an essential users guide for ensuring youll be your best when you take center stagewhether the cameras are rolling or not!
KATIE COURIC
In Psyched Up, Daniel McGinn takes readers into locker rooms, backstage on Broadway, onto the sales floor at Yelp, and inside the DJ booth at Fenway Park to discover the secrets of how high performers use psychology, superstition, and a surprising mix of other tools to get ready for the make-or-break events in their lives. Its a fascinating read.
CHARLES DUHIGG, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
Psyched Up is filled with actionable, practical tips and tools to help reduce anxiety, lower stress, and build confidence. McGinns strategies can create a winning pregame routine for anyone.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
This book is a gift for entrepreneurs or anyone else who pitches their ideas for a living.
BRAD FELD, venture capitalist and cofounder of Techstars
Psyched Up provides a wonderful overview of the science and practicalities of how to perform well when it matters most. The book is full of useful takeaways for all of us, includingmy favoritehow powerful it can be to have lucky exam shoes.
GRETCHEN REYNOLDS, New York Times fitness columnist and author of The First 20 Minutes
A wonderful pleasure to read, Psyched Up is an expertly crafted investigation into the vibrating heart of peak performance.
PO BRONSON, bestselling author of Top Dog and NurtureShock
I cant think of another book thats as helpful, whether youre shooting a free throw, taking a big test, giving a toast, or on one knee proposing. Read Psyched Up before your next big moment.
MATT MULLENWEG, creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic
Portfolio/Penguin
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014
penguin.com
Copyright 2017 by Daniel McGinn
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
Most Portfolio books are available at a discount when purchased in quantity for sales promotions or corporate use. Special editions, which include personalized covers, excerpts, and corporate imprints, can be created when purchased in large quantities. For more information, please call (212) 572-2232 or e-mail specialmarkets@penguinrandomhouse.com. Your local bookstore can also assist with discounted bulk purchases using the Penguin Random House corporate Business-to-Business program. For assistance in locating a participating retailer, e-mail B2B@penguinrandomhouse.com.
ISBN 9781591848301 (hardcover)
ISBN 9780698409392 (e-book)
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
Version_1
For Abby, Jack, and Tommy
Contents
INTRODUCTION
J ust after 8 A.M. on a summer morning, Mark McLaughlin is sprawled on a ratty armchair that hes shoved into a dark corner of a hospital locker room in central New Jersey. In a few moments, McLaughlin, who is a neurosurgeon, will make a six-inch incision into the back of a seventy-three-year-old patient whose arthritis has caused the lower part of his spinal nerve to crimp, threatening his ability to walk. The operation will take more than three hours. McLaughlin will be drilling, chipping, and cutting amid vital nerves, just inches from the patients aorta. McLaughlin needs to be focused.
Clad in green surgical scrubs, McLaughlin lays his feet out on a low table and reclines. His eyes are closed. His iPhone sits on his chest, playing a Bach cantata at low volume. For a few minutes, he sits in silence. When the patient is anesthetized, the nurse calls his phone to signal him. Then McLaughlinwho is fifty-one, wears glasses, has graying hair, and retains the broad, muscled back of a former college wrestlergets up and walks briskly toward the operating room down the hall.
Most surgeons work very differently than McLaughlin does. In the moments before an operation, they chat and joke with nurses and colleagues. They check e-mail, do paperwork, and make phone calls. They are relaxed and nonchalant, treating surgery as just an ordinary part of their workday.
McLaughlin doesnt banter. As he scrubs his hands at the sink, a lead-lined apron now over his scrubs to protect him from the X-rays used during surgery, his eyes are again closed. If a colleague tries to talk to him, McLaughlin replies a bit rudely: Not now. Hes engaged in his presurgical routine, which evolved from a practice he first learned to use in the wrestling room of a New Jersey prep school, an hours drive from the hospital where he now operates.
McLaughlin began wrestling in sixth grade, and although he immediately showed a talent for the sport, his physical skills only took him so far. Over time he identified what was holding him back. Physically, I was completely prepared, he says. Mentally, I wasnt.
So McLaughlin began working with a sports psychologist, who helped him create a highly choreographed routine of mental preparation. Before matches McLaughlin would visualize a Greatest Hits reel of his best wrestling moments, reinforcing his confidence. The psychologist taught me to remember the sights and sounds of positive eventsthe feeling of the mat, what was around me, the colors, he recalls. We focused the preliminary routine to try to get me into that autopilot mode and let my body fall into that groove.
After he began using this prematch routine, McLaughlins experience on the mat changed. He no longer heard the crowd. His sense of time was altered. Though wrestling matches last six minutes, it felt as if they ended after thirty seconds. The worries, self-doubts, and negative thoughts decreased dramatically. And he began winning most of his matches.
McLaughlin went on to wrestle at William & Mary, where he was team captain (twice), won the Virginia state championship, and was inducted into the colleges athletic Hall of Fame. Then he attended medical school, eventually specializing in neurosurgery.