The Corporate Athlete

Key Concepts

“The Corporate Athlete is any individual who wants to achieve maximum performance. Whether it's negotiating a sale or developing a customer service program, Corporate Athletes constantly need to be at their best. You must handle pressures at work, perform on demand regardless of the circumstances, access your talent and skills when you need them most, manage your time efficiently, and set realistic goals and expectations for yourself. Basically, you have to be on, you must access empowering emotions because—and this is a cold, cruel fact of life—nobody cares what's going on in your life that is preventing you from being on and performing at your highest level.” (p. 9)

Corporate Athlete Principles 

1. “If you want to improve your business performance, go into training.” (p. 9)

2. “Take ownership and responsibility for who you are.” (p. 16)

3. “Quit trying to reduce your stress. Instead, increase your capacity for stress! To do this, you must increase the frequency of recovery.” (p. 22)

4. “If you’re going to be more productive, if you’re going to be a better performer, you need more energy.” (p. 34)

5. “Nutrition may well be the single most important limiting factor preventing Corporate Athletes from achieving their maximum potential.” (p. 41)

6. “Drink the right fluids-plenty of them—to maximize your recovery. (p. 57)

7. “Weight doesn’t matter. It’s the amount of body fat you’re carrying that should be your concern.” (p. 61)

8. “Take the time to figure out a menu for your life.” (p. 70)

9. “There’s no reason to eat poorly—even when you’re running like mad.” (p. 86)

10. “It’s far better to get your vitamins and minerals from food rather than from pills. But take a supplement as an insurance policy.” (p. 98)

11. “There’s one type of stress that should always be a scheduled part of your day: exercise.” (p. 117)

12. “Everybody has a spiritual side, whether you are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, or agnostic—even if you are atheist.” (p. 143)

13. “Don’t begin any physical, mental, or emotional conditioning program without determining your starting baseline.” (p. 159)

14. “What separates a great Corporate Athlete from a good Corporate Athlete? Often it is patience, persistence, and perfect practice—the four P’s.” (p. 174)

15. “Don’t exercise to get healthier. Exercise to perform at higher levels at work and with your family.” (p. 185)

16. “Containing the cost of employee absenteeism, burnout, turnover, and health care through fitness, nutrition, and wellness programs is necessary for increasing performance in Corporate America.” (p. 267)

Quotables

“You are the only person who puts yourself on the line, takes it on the chin, and sacrifices yourself to perform for the company. That means that in our business lives we must stop doing things that are not bottom-line-oriented. Then why can't we do the same for ourselves? Why don't we stop doing things that are not bottom-line-oriented for ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually?” (p. 17)

“‘Mental toughness’ refers to a dynamic state of being in which the person meets stress with a flexible and responsive attitude characterized by strength and resiliency. Being Mentally Tough means that if you are in a performance mode you can access the Ideal Performance State even under the most difficult circumstances.” (p. 22)

“What was found from the laboratory of world-class Sports what's what we at LGE call the performance triad. It is a triangle that has at its pinnacle performance/productivity, with the baseline (or the foundation) being health and happiness. Our premise is: Once you are the best, the only way to keep improving your performance day after day is to improve your health and happiness.” (p. 25) 

“No one cares whether you slept last night or had a fight with your spouse this morning; you still have to perform, and perform well.” (p. 35)

“Regardless of the competitive arena—business, sports, or life—the megaperformers learn how to access the Ideal Performance State whenever and wherever they need it. Today we know that possessing talent and skill are not enough; you must also learn how to bring the full force of all your talents and skills to life when you need them.” (pp. 35-6)

“You should eat a small meal one to two hours before performing, whether it's a major negotiation, making a major sales presentation, or going into an important team meeting with your department. You should eat what you like to eat. [...] In a psychological vein, it truly is important to feel good about what you consume before you put yourself on the line.” (p. 55)

“Lower levels of stress and depression, as well as increased ability to cope with stress have been observed among people with high spiritual commitment. Basically, it comes down to this: if you are to be spiritually grounded, you must live your life consciously and not mechanically. By that I mean you must be present and mindful in all you do. Often we find ourselves mindlessly staring at a computer screen or daydreaming about being somewhere else other than where we are, and we actually become machines instead of conscious beings.” (p. 145)

“One belief that I think it's extremely important but is the most difficult to learn in business, in sports, or in life is this: I love to compete more than I love to win. But this is difficult because we are surrounded from day one with the fact that we should be winners. In our society, we are afraid to make mistakes. Yet, there isn't a successful person I've met who has never made a mistake. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that most of us got where we are today or we grew into the person we are today by the mistakes we made along the way. It was the tough times that molded and shaped us, not the easy times.” (p. 147)

“Say this to yourself: when things get tough, I will stay in control of humor. Show me someone who gets an emotional hit in the face or is presented with an incredible stressor, yet someone who can laugh or smile and access the feeling that this “problem” is going to be fun to solve, and I will  show you a champion in his or her field or a champion in the making. But what usually happens is that we reprimand people who have fun or smile when things are supposed to be serious. We've heard it since our teenage years. “Wipe that smile off your face!” “What's so funny?” “Children should be seen and not heard.” But humor is essential to being successful or achieving success.” (pp. 147-8)