Jason Selk - Organize Tomorrow Today: 8 Ways to Retrain Your Mind to Optimize Performance at Work and in Life

ALSO BY DR. JASON SELK

10-Minute Toughness: The Mental-Training

Program for Winning Before the Game Begins

Executive Toughness: The Mental-Training

Program to Increase Your Leadership Performance

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Copyright 2015 by Jason Selk and Thomas Bartow

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Da Capo Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02210

Designed by Trish Wilkinson

Set in 11-point Adobe Caslon Pro by the Perseus Books Group

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Selk, Jason, author.

Organize tomorrow today: 8 ways to retrain your mind to optimize performance at work and in life / Dr. Jason Selk and Tom Bartow, with Matthew Rudy.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7382-1870-0 (e-book) 1. Time management. 2. Habit. 3. Performance. I. Bartow, Tom, author. II. Rudy, Matthew, author. III. Title.

BF637.T5S45 2015

158dc23

2015025600

First Da Capo Press edition 2015

Published by Da Capo Press

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

www.dacapopress.com

Note: The names and identifying details of people associated with events described in this book have been changed. Any similarity to actual persons is coincidental.

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to everyone out there trying to improve. No matter what the outcome, you never embarrass yourself by emphasizing improvement.

It is the effort to improve that is valuable. By repeating it over and over you will master it.

SHUNRYU SUZUKI

Table of Contents

Contents

, by Jim Wooden

, by Matthew Rudy

W hen I speak to people about my dad, Coach John Wooden, one of the first things they usually want to know is what he was like in the real world, outside of what you saw at a basketball game.

Dad was a simple, consistent person, who developed and lived by a core set of principles his entire life. He wasnt a brimstone preachereither inside the locker room or at our house. He was a motivator in a different wayby being a true teacher, and not just a coach.

Over the years, his players and the other people he met through basketball came to understand very well that Dads philosophies and approach werent some sort of program that he followed some of the time, or put on to look better in the media or in recruiting.

He talked about what he believed. He followed it. And he never stopped thinking about ways to make small improvements. He was always teaching, but he was also always learning.

Basketball was very important to my dad, but the core beliefs and philosophies he hadmany of which Jason and Tom talk about in this bookarent about basketball.

Theyre about life.

It always amazed Dad that he became more famous in retirement than he ever was as an active coach. But I think that fame came for exactly those reasons. People began to understand that those principles applied to far more than basketballespecially in the business world.

In the last two and a half years of Dads life, I was fortunate to be able to spend two days of every week with him. It was the best time in my life. So many of the friends he made in and outside of basketball would come by, and he stayed connected to the game.

The talks he was able to give in corporate America through people like Tom really brought him a lot of joy. It wasnt about the money he could make. It was about getting his core message through to people young in lifethe pyramid of success, the two sets of three, making friendship a fine art.

I heard him say those same things for fifty years, but they werent just catchphrases. Theyre the basic building blocks of a life well lived. I used the same principles with my own kids, and now theyre using them with their own children.

When were shooting hoops, my grandsonJohn Woodens great-great grandsonwill use the backboard on a shot and say, Thats what Paw-Paw wanted me to do.

Dad would have been thrilled to know he influenced Tom and Jason to go out and help so many people in the business and sports worlds.

Jim Wooden

June 15, 2015

YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES...

Jason Selk was standing in the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse at their spring training facility in Jupiter, Florida, in March 2006, getting ready for what he had originally thought was going to be a two-hour introductory presentation in his new role as the Cardinals director of mental training.

Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty had extended the invitation to Jason before the season, but when he brought him into manager Tony La Russas office in the clubhouse, it was clear that what Jason had was an auditionnot a job.

After Jason gave a brief synopsis of the two hours of material he had prepared, La Russa looked up from the paperwork on his desk.

You have ten minutes.

Moments later, looking out at that clubhouse full of All-Stars and future Hall-of-Famersguys like La Russa, Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, and Scott RolenJason decided to introduce his Mental Workout concept. The full version of the workout is designed for elite athletes, and it involves visualization, positive self-talk, and controlled breathing.

After Jason worked through the first step of the Mental Workout, pitching coach Dave Duncan asked to go through the second step. Jason was up against the time limit, so he looked over to Tony to see if it was okay to continue. He nodded, and Jason shared the second step.

When he finished, All-Star third baseman Scott Rolen chimed in and asked if he could share the third step. Again, Jason got the okay from Tony to continue.

After Jason shared the third step, reigning Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter stopped him and got up. Everybody better pay attention, he said. This is what we need to take it to the next level.

From that moment, Jason was accepted as part of the staff, and he built some incredible relationships with the players over the next six seasons. At the top of any professional sport, the physical differences between the teams are minuscule. The smallest mental edge can mean the difference between losing in the National League Division Series and holding up the World Series trophy. Those Cardinals teams won three division titles and two World Series championships, and at least a small part of that success came from the peak mental performance training the team got from Jason.