For those of you who don’t know, our afternoon is losing a dear friend and an amazing #oldcityzen. Liam McLaughlin is leaving us for the brighter pastures of Dallas, TX. Before taking off, I wanted to pick Liam’s brain a bit about his mental approach to athletics and try to figure out what drives him to such high performance standards day in and day out.
I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I did as a participant.
Here’s an outline for those of you who want to skip around a bit:
[0:00] – Liam McLaughlin intro and Background + a little LeBron talk [5:23] – The power of that “Winning Moment” + stories from Sean and Liam’s first winning moments. [13:31] – Turning negative events into a positive mindset. “A positive attitude defeats all obstacles.” + how powerful your mind [21:23] – Establishing a positive mental mindset for workouts + Liam and Sean give tips for getting your head into a positive framework for training day-in and day-out. [24:15] – Liam’s sports background + Dealing with disappointment in athletics and using the lessons of failure to fuel self-improvement. [36:35] – Using sports/athletic pursuits to learn about yourself through failure. [39:40] – Sean and Liam discuss their first devastating losses in sport + lessons learned through those losses. [48:50] – The best (and worst) prize for winning in professional sports: trophy vs. medals + the Green Jacket and the Triple Crown Trophy [52:42] – What motivates you today? Winning vs. Not Losing? Is the desire to win a positive virtue? [55:38] – How to embrace the “SUCK.” Sean and Liam talk about tips for convincing your mind to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. + Stories of how to apply these ideas. [1:03:24] – Flow – finding the flow through exercise and sport + tactics for getting into a focused mindset (flow) at the gym. [1:08:00] – Finding the motivation to get into the gym. + Sean’s concept of “Show up, Don’t Try” & Liam’s idea of setting micro-goals. [1:13:20] – Morning rituals – making the bed & the power of a cold shower. + the idea of *not* thinking, just do. [1:15:10] – Using CrossFit or anything hard to learn about (and improve!) yourself.
