High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 292: 5 Mental Skills the Elite Master with Josh Lifrak, Mental Skills Expert and Professional Speaker

Episode Date: November 28, 2019

Josh Lifrak served as the Director of the Mental Skills Program for the Chicago Cubs from 2014 to 2019. His greatest passion is to help people discover their full potential. He has been a part of six national championship with the most recent being the 2016 World Series with the Chicago Cubs. Josh holds a Master's degree in Exercise Science with a specialization in Sports Psychology from Ithaca College. He has been a leader in the mental training and mindfulness industry for the past fifteen years, and has helped many teams, individuals, and businesses reach peak performance. On his off-time Josh enjoys extreme sports, Yoga and meditation, and spending time with his family. In this podcast, Josh and Cindra talk about: How mindset played a key factor in the Chicago Clubs winning the World Series in 2015 Why all 3 types of thoughts have value – even the negative thoughts How to address thinking that doesn’t serve you Why reaching your goals is all about the process His recommendation related to how often we should meditate Why journaling is key to your success You can find a full description of the Podcast at cindrakamphoff.com/joshlifrak. You can find Lynn at https://www.joshualifrak.com/.

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. This is your host, Dr. Sindra Kampoff, Certified Mental Performance Coach and Keynote Speaker. And thank you so much for joining me here today on episode 293 with Josh Liffrack. Now, if you know that mindset is essential to your success, then you are in the right place because every week we explore all the topics related to mindset. And today, I'm excited to provide you with the interview I did with Josh Liffrack.

Now, Josh is one of only two people that I've had on the podcast a second time. I interviewed Josh for episode 12, so about three years ago, and it was great to catch up with Josh. Now, I know you're going to love his wisdom. He served as the director of mental skills program for the Chicago Cubs from 2014 to 2019, helping them win a 2006 World Series. So his greatest passion is to help people discover their full potential, and he's been a part of six national championships along with the most recent 2016 world series with the cubs josh holds a master's degree in exercise science with a specialization in sports ecology from ithaca college and he's been a leader in mental training and mindfulness in the industry for the past 15 years. It has helped many teams, individuals, and businesses reach peak performance.

So Josh also enjoys extreme sports, yoga, and meditation, and spending time with his family. And so in this podcast, Josh and I talk about several different things. We talk about these five mental skills that the most elite master. We talk about how mindset was really a key factor in the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series in 2016. We talk about three types of thoughts that have value and that even negative thoughts have value. So we talk about that. We also talk about how to address thinking that doesn't serve you. He shares with us why reaching your goals is all about the process, his recommendation

for how we should meditate, and why journaling is a key to our success. So we'd love to hear from you. You can head over to Twitter and Instagram and LinkedIn and find Josh Liferak and I there. And let's bring him on. Without further ado, let's bring on Josh. I'm excited today to welcome to the podcast for a second time, Josh Liferack. Josh, how are you doing, man? I'm doing awesome. Thank you for having me back on, Cydra. It's been a little bit of time, but just absolutely pumped to be here. You know, I've only had one person on

twice on the podcast, and it was Ken Revisa, and now you. So you're in good company. Oh, that's amazing. Kenny, yeah, yeah, that's incredible. That is a lead company. I had, you know, obviously the pleasure of working with him for the last four years of his life and just still impacting me today. Just an absolute saint of a human being, incredible practitioner, just a wonderful, wonderful person.

So I was thinking about him the other day, as a matter of fact, that was in my kitchen. And Kenny and I always used to talk about, you know, he'd always ask me, hey, what do you love? What do you love? And one of the things I love doing is just cooking dinner for my family. I don't know why. Like I have a kitchen and it looks right out onto the pool

and into the creek that's behind our house. And I just love being in the kitchen, you know, having a glass of wine or beer and cooking. And we always just talk about that during the year about different things we would cook. And, you know, what's my favorite meal to cook and stuff like that. So I was cooking the other day

and he just came to me, you know, and he'll do that from time to time. It's really weird not to get too stuff like that. So I was cooking the other day and he just came to me. And he'll do that from time to time. It's really weird not to get too metaphysical right out of the gate. But I still feel his presence around all the time. Just different little sayings, different little thought processes, different ways of seeing the world. And I just, you know, he was the absolute treasure of a human being and I was, I was lucky to know him. So I'm an elite company. Thank you.

Yeah. Elite company and talk about a legacy that lives on. Right. So for those people who haven't listened to Ken Reviz's podcast, he worked for a long time with the Cubs and has done great work in mental training and mental conditioning and major leagueball. So, but Josh, I'm really pumped today to talk to you about a lot of different things. First, since I've had you on the Cubs, the next year won the World Series. I want to talk to you a little bit about that. And then kind of the highs and lows of, you know, afterwards, after you win a World Series, what happens. And then I want to talk about your five skills that you've really learned from elite athletes and how we can apply them to ourselves as leaders to really help us be our best selves. So let's dive in. How does that sound? That sounds phenomenal.

Awesome. So maybe just give us a tad, a little bit of a background, you know, where you, how you got to where you are today. You spent five years as a director of mental conditioning for the Cubs and 10 years at IMG. So tell us a little bit about how you got to where you are now, full-time in private practice. Yeah. So, you know, for me, I was, like you mentioned, you know, I was 10 years at IMG Academy in Bridgerton, Florida, unbelievable training facility with, you know, just incredible people there. And you just learn a ton, right? You get incredible reps there. And you just, you just, you learn the craft, you really do, you learn the craft at the highest level there.

That place is like, it's funny, it's a high school, but I swear it's like 10 years ahead of everybody else in terms of just like not only mental skills, but just physical skills, the technology, training methodology, like everything. Those guys are always pushing the envelope. So I was 10 years there and then was lucky enough to be with the Chicago Cubs for five years. Not really lucky enough. Like, you know, know earned it fought for

it worked hard for it and then we had an awesome run you know for four years we were the winningest team in baseball we went to the playoffs four straight years the first time in team history we ever did that uh and then and obviously in 2016 broke 108 year uh curse to win the world series um so it was our third world series as an organization, but the first in 108 years. To put that in perspective, right? Like Mount Rushmore didn't exist, right? Because Teddy Roosevelt was our president, right? So that's, you know, like that's how long ago it was.

So that's, it was a historic event, so much so that, you know, 5 million people showed up to our parade. It was the seventh largest gathering in human history. It was the first largest non-religious gathering in human history. So it was a big event, and it was phenomenal. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into that. A lot of belief, a lot of courage, a lot of urgency.

We talked about those things. And that really, it was all about, you know, building a culture to do that task, to win that, to win that World Series. Not for ourselves, but for the people of Chicago. And, you know, it was one of these things where we knew afterwards that we were successful. Not because we were carrying around the trophy. Obviously, that helps. But the people of Chicago kept coming up to us, and they weren't saying congratulations.

They were saying thank you. And that meant a lot. That meant a lot to everybody because, you know, internally our whole goal was to change the world. And so you go a hundred years without accomplishing something. And what's the, what's the mindset, right? What the mindset is, this is never going to happen. This is never going to happen. We're cursed. There's something wrong with us. I don't know how to do this. Think about that. Think about that from a corporate

leadership standpoint or from just an everyday perspective when you're trying to do something over and over and over again and you keep failing. It feels like the myth of Sisyphus for a long time. But the reality is that with the right ingredients ingredients with a lot of belief with a, you know, a cumulative, cultivated culture that is all about each other, and it's all about doing something bigger than themselves, you know, anything is possible. And we showed 5 million people that. And so now there's 5 million people running around the city of Chicago who have a different mindset about, you know, how they go about their business and their lives. So it was interesting.

I was just listening to a podcast with Matt Damon. And he was talking about how when the Red Sox won the World Series, like his whole mindset changed. It impacted him because he was a lifelong Red Sox and they were 86 years. And it was, hey, wait, wait, no, things are different. I can see the world through different eyes. Bad things aren't going to always happen. There isn't going to be this negativity that follows us. There isn't something crazy that's going to occur

that's going to knock me off my stool and knock me off my path. No, things can conspire for me. The world can conspire for me. And so I think that's hopefully, you know, people realize that maybe even on a subconscious level in the city of Chicago, but maybe, you know, and all the Cubs fans across the world that, you know, maybe there's a subconscious level now that, hey, you know what, things can go right, things do go right with the right ingredients, things, my mindset can change how we go about our business. And so, you know,

hopefully, hopefully that's in there for them. Yeah, I love that, Josh. And I can hear that it's like a deep sense of purpose. It really wasn't about the team or the World Series. It was like doing it for the people and changing the world. That's a big idea, right? So tell us a little bit about like how you built that courage. And I know when we were, you're on the podcast before you talked about the CUB acronym, courage, urgency, and belief, but just give us a little insight on, you know, for people who are maybe listening, who want to change their culture and their business or their group or on their team, or maybe in their family, you know, give us a little insight maybe behind how you did that. The first thing is you got to recognize where you are.

If you type into your phone, like, hey, I want to go to Sarasota, Florida, and you live in Atlanta, Georgia. You can't just put Sarasota, Florida, because maybe you're not there. Maybe you're in Louisiana that day. Maybe you're not in Atlanta. And so you have to put in your starting point. So the first thing, first, about any culture is you have to put in your starting point. So the first thing first about any culture is you have to recognize where you are. So you have to kind of do a deep dive within your own culture to figure out exactly what is going on at the ground level. And that's what we

did. We went in and we interviewed everybody. We interviewed coaches, players, staff, athletic trainers, strength conditioning coaches, anybody and everybody that would get our hands on, we interviewed. What we found was there wasn't really a culture at that point. You know, there was a lot of ideas, but there wasn't a cumulative mindset. There wasn't a, you know, a collective consciousness as you were. And so what we quickly recognized then is like, oh, cool, we get to design one. And so we did that. We talked to all the, you know, we talked to scouts, we talked to different player development people, that we talked to all the you know we talked to scouts we talked to different uh player development people and we talked to you know different coaches and hey what is it what does it really take to be successful on on the baseball diamond and what do we want

to create here uh and so then once we did that we we pooled all the information together and we you know and then we decided on the courage urgency belief like this is how we're going to go about doing things um we're going to really dive into it and then we decided on the courage, urgency, belief, like this is how we're going to go about doing things. We're going to really dive into it. And we developed the phrase that's cub is a huge compliment to, you know, instead of that being because a lot of times in the past, that's cub meant something bad was going to happen. But now we just took that. We just said, hey, we're going to kidnap this phrase and we're going to make it our own. And now anytime something good happens, we're going to say that's Cub and we're going to

make sure that that's our franchise tag. And so we did that and the guys bought in really quickly to it because they could feel it, they could understand it. We were calling out actions versus anything else. And then once they kind of understood the action, then we would start calling out mindsets and how they were talking, really dove into language and how we were speaking to each other and the phrasing that we were using and making sure people were positive and not negative. And if they were negative, maybe, maybe just not even saying it, Hey, let's just keep those negative things to ourselves. Cause we know how powerful negative

thoughts are negative, you know, probably about, you know, they know, they could be a little bit more powerful than even positive thinking. So we got to make sure we stay away from that. And then, you know, we ran with it and it took off. Then Joe came aboard in 2015 and with Joe's, you know, inspirational ways and those philosophies completely in line with everybody else's, it just was like a wildfire. And, you know, the whole culture built and flew and bam we looked up in 2016 and here we were we were going to the world series for the first time since like 1945

and we're pumped up and all of a sudden we were down 3-1 yeah right we're down 3-1 to the Indians and everything that we had talked about in terms of a mindset everything we had talked about in terms of our culture it came to live right then and there, right? It was, hey, do we quit? Do we give up? No, we never quit. Hey, do we start complaining about what's going on? No, we don't complain. That's not what we do.

What we do is that we have courage to focus on the process. We have the urgency to do it right now. We're going to believe in each other. So Josh, what was it like in terms of winning the World Series? You know, I remember seeing pictures and cheering for you as I was watching the TV and watching the Cubs. So tell us what that experience was like for you. You know, it was funny. It was a little surreal because we already knew it was going to happen.

And I don't know how to explain this, but there was just this sense that it was destiny, that it was already, you know, put it in the books. Like we kind of, there was something about us that, and maybe it was, you know, put it in the books. Like we kind of, there was something about us that, and maybe it was, you know, all the visualization, maybe it was, you know, this cumulative belief, but we knew it was going to happen. So yeah, were there tense moments? Without a doubt.

Was there a lot of loud cheering and incredible hugs and, you know, like celebration? Absolutely. But there was also this sense like, yeah, like we knew that was going to happen. That was so cool. Right. And, you know, I've always been a big believer in whatever you put out there is what's going to come back to you. And so I think we just kind of knew we, you know, and so it was a sense of like, yes, this is exactly right. This is the way it was supposed to happen. And yeah, man, like great job. This is awesome. We rule. This is fantastic. How much fun is this?

And then it gets kind of blurry because it was like a week long of just celebration. Right. So, but, but, but in that moment it was like, yeah, there was some tension and there was like, oh wow. But there wasn't ever really a thought of like, this is going to go south on us. Like we just, we just were focused on what we were doing. We were going pitch by pitch and we just kind of knew that it was going to fall for us. So, you know, it did. Yeah. That's awesome. That kind of shows you the power of having the strong culture and having a high performance

mindset. Like you already visualized it was going to happen. And, you know, you just allowed it to happen after that point. So. You know what's so funny is actually we even practice, I remember this, we practiced in our instructional program with a couple of the guys that were actually on that team, doing a pig pile, like just jumping on the mound with each other. And like, you know, and like, this is what it feels like to celebrate a victory, right? Like we actually practiced that. It was pretty funny. Oh, that's awesome. Cool. So what was it like, you know, after the World Series, you know, just coming, you know, from

that high and then tell us a little bit about the next year. I remember reading the story about Aaron Rodgers and when the Packers won the Super Bowl, like he got on the bus and afterwards and he was like well now what you know and so I think there can be this lull for some people you know after they win that let's say an Olympic medal we've heard about that or read about stories about that happening so just tell us what that was like like coming after that and and keeping your mindset strong after winning yeah so in in uh in in, uh, in music, there's something called a denouement, which is the, is the low after the crescendo. Right. And I think that's

a very apropos thing. We were exhausted coming into spring training. Absolutely. Because everybody got pulled in 50,000 different directions during the off season. So it was definitely a different off season than anybody had ever had before I was tired and i didn't even play right and so you know that was real i think we didn't get our feet under us until really the all-star break and then you know we were down i believe like four or five games behind um and you know but there was a pride there was an absolute pride to us and a chip on our shoulder that like, no, our, our, you know, who we are is we're winners and we win the NL central. And we, you know, we, we beat other teams that we're not supposed to be.

We beat the, the nationals that year in the, in the division series to make it to the, to the NLCS. And then in all honesty, we just ran out of gas. Like we just didn't have anything left in the tank by the time we met we reached the championship series for the third time in three years which is a lot of baseball and so you know I think I think whilst there was a certain I don't want to use the word hangover but I think you know there was definitely a lull afterwards there was also a pride that kicked in too and I think we could all look at that and just kind of, yeah, that was the culture. That was how we thought about things.

That was how we went about our business. And so that was, you know, that was kind of, we didn't make it back to the world series and we didn't win that. That was kind of satisfying. And then in 18 and 19, it kind of the wheels have kind of come off to be completely honest with you. They, things went a little bit South for us and made some changes here in personnel and different, different things that really maybe didn't work out for us for the best. And, um, you know,

times change, times change, the games change, you know, changes is inevitable. Growth is optional. And, um, and so the Cubs are now going through, through a growth period. And for me, just looking at it, it was just, we had five awesome years. We did a lot of great stuff and it was just, you know, it was time to move on. And I think that was really exacerbated by, I was giving, I've told this story a couple times now, but I was giving a talk to a corporate client of mine and it was, you know, a group of corporate execs and and afterwards one of the executives comes up to me and and she's crying um and i just give her a big hug and

obviously i'm i'm a sap i cry at commercials so i started crying too and i was like what's going on what's happening and and and the talk was really about kind of, you know, how we went our business and how we went about our business as Cubs and, and, and also really the, the, the tools of the elites in terms of elite mindset, what types of mental skills tools they use. You know, after that talk, this woman comes up, she's crying and I asked her what's going on. And she just says to me, you know, my mom was a lifelong Cubs fan. She, she passed away a couple of weeks after you guys won. So we were really happy that she got to see it, but she never heard all of this stuff and she would have absolutely loved it. And it could have made such a big impact in her own life. And I'm just sad that she never got to hear about this stuff.

And so that for me was a real big wake up call of, hey, here's an opportunity to go not only impact great athletes. And we did. Right. We talked about it. We we absolutely influenced the world. But maybe now it's time to go a little bit deeper with with just other people, with corporate execs, with, you know, people in the working world that we can, you know, we can make a difference. I can make a difference more, you know, working with 200 to 50 to 300 baseball players. That's a very small population to go out and work. You know, typically my keynote speeches have been anywhere from, you know, 20 executives to 2000 people. And so now we're having an ability to have a greater impact broader. And I think that was, that's a big thing for me is that, you know, this, this stuff that we talk about in the world of sports psychology and world of executive coaching and things of that nature, this isn't just, this isn't just about your job. You know, it's about your life and nobody ever gives us a curriculum for life, right? We don't go through school like, oh, let's take life. I want to take that one to learn how to be great in my, in my world. And then no,

that doesn't, you know, so this is an opportunity to kind of give back, to connect, to share. And that's what I've always wanted to do is just lift others up. Yeah, I love it. And you know what I was thinking, Josh? Wow, every time you go on stage, I think every day, if you reminded yourself of what she told you afterwards,

it kind of just shows you the power of this work and really the power of making a big difference in people's lives. So what a great story. I was getting the goosebumps as you were telling us about that. Thanks. I was trying not to choke up again. So let's talk about these five skills of elite athletes that you've really seen, you know, play through. Obviously, the ability to win the World Series. But let's talk about these and how they apply to us in terms of helping us have the best life that we can. And really, like, I like what you said about there's no curriculum, but these could be the curriculum.

So the five skills that I'd like to talk to you about that you usually use in your keynote is like attitude, goal setting, visualization, self-awareness, and journaling. So let's start with the first one. Tell us a little bit about attitude and how you see the best of the best, really hone their attitude. Yeah. And I think they go from there, there's, there's a reality that we are by nature negative. Yes. So there's, and I think there's three levels of attitude. There's negative, there's middle ground, which, you know, my great friend Trevor Moag calls neutral. I don't want to steal his phrase. So just, I'm just going to quote him on that. And then there's the, then there's the

positive and all three have value. But here's the thing. We, a lot of times we don't get to choose which one comes up, but we do get to choose how we respond. So the response is the whole key. I might be, you know, something bad happens, I'm typically going to be pretty negative, right? That's not how we're going to react to it. But what, right? We're not like all pumped about it. Oh, good. I've been wanting to buy new tires. Awesome, right? But yeah, you can get there. But the reality is in that moment, you're going to be pretty negative. The key for that is not staying there long. That's going to happen. Those negative thoughts are going to pop into your mind, right? 60 to 80,000 words a day, 85 to 9% negative, right? These are stats that have been shown over and over and over again. But when that happens, right, what are you going to do about it?

And so it's not about if that happens. It's going to happen. You are going to have thoughts that are probably not beneficial for you, not helpful for you. But the real key is to make sure that you're taking those thoughts and you're doing something with them. And even if it's just getting to a place where it's just action oriented. OK, my tire is flat. Right. OK, let me get out. Let me change the lug nuts. Let me call, you know, AAA, whatever it might be.

Just let's just get into action. And then maybe some positive can come out of it. Hey, I got 15 extra minutes to make a call to somebody that I wouldn't have been able to call to while I was waiting for AAA, you know, whatever it might be. Right. So that's kind of a big key is that recognizing attitude is not always about, you know, yeah, we can have intention and we can decide how we're going to think prior to different things, but life happens when negative stuff's going to happen. It's not whether or not I'm negative or positive. It's whether or not I stay in those places. And what we know is that positive thinking is often way more powerful and way, it really helps us a lot more. That's just what we've seen. So that's a big key. Okay. How do I respond? Life is what's the phrase? Life is 10%. What happens in 90% hour? That's a big

factor. It's important that we just don't stay there. What are your thoughts on how long people should stay there? I'm thinking about pro athletes, they lose the World Series. How long do you let yourself stay there? Or even if it's a hassle, like, okay, you got a flat tire, that's not life-altering. How long do you think you should stay in that negative place? What are your thoughts on that? That's a great question. I think one you know, one of the big keys is there, it probably varies, but the big key is that you're in control of that.

So here I am and I recognize I'm having a negative thought. Okay. I know this isn't going to be helpful for me to be negative. This is not going to help me get the job done, but let me just stay in here for, I'm going to give myself 10 minutes of this. Let me set an alarm. Boom. Right. We do that a lot with our, with our athletes. I got a NBA player comes out of the game. He's all mad. He's frustrated. Okay, man, you got until the next, you know, next turnover to be frustrated. And then once that next turnover happens, you got to get yourself back into it. Or, you know, we got to the next time out to be frustrated and then you got to

get yourself back into it. Right. A little bit of that, like get to the next time out to be frustrated then you got to get yourself back into it all right a little bit of that like like the little time frames a little check marks can really really help out so i wouldn't say like you know there's not you know i don't know what the research says about how long to stay in it but what i do know is that if you the longer you stay in it the tougher it becomes right it's it's that analogy of uh you know holding up a cell phone it's not how much the cell phone weighs but it's how long you hold it out there. Right. If you're just sitting there holding the phone, if you said, Hey, you can hold this, how long can you hold a cell phone for?

You're like, ah, I can, whatever. You just hold it for like two minutes. No problem. If you hold that thing for 15 hours, your arm's going to be sweating, right? Your arm's going to hurt a ton. So that's, you know, it's, it's, it's not whether it happens is how long you hold on to it. Yeah. Super good. What are your thoughts on like the neutral thinking and when that might be beneficial? Yeah. I love the analogy of like being in reverse, another car analogy.

Like if you're in reverse and you're trying to go into, into drive and you just, you're going to reverse at 20 miles an hour, maybe that's your negative thinking. You just try and slam it into drive. What's going to happen to your drive training and transmission it's going to fall out right it's just going to explode the car so it's like you have to kind of you have to get back into that and that's where that action-oriented thought process is and for me i think a better maybe maybe a term that i want to i've been using lately is helpful thinking and neutral thing is a phenomenal thought process and an unbelievable phrase. And I think it also helps out to recognize, like, is this thought process I'm having right now helpful?

And if it is helpful, let me keep doing it. If it's not helpful, why am I there? So that's a kind of a phrase, too, that I like to use. Yeah, super good. So is this helpful or not? I like that as well, because then it's maybe not putting like labels on the thinking, negative, positive. It's just like, is this helping me right now? Because sometimes positive thinking might be distracting, you know, or not really helpful in the moment. So your attitude, which is the first one, I kind of hear what you're saying, that your thoughts really contribute to your attitude. Is there anything else related to attitude that might be helpful for people listening? Yeah. I mean, I always just say like thoughts create, you know, thoughts are

the drivers of your behavior interaction, which are ultimately your results, right? Your behavior interaction is what's going to cause your results, but the thoughts are what's going to drive those. So just kind of being aware of them and just noting, hey, I got to make sure that I'm clued into that and I got to make sure that I'm not just kind of going through the motions. That's where mindfulness comes in is being aware of your attitude and deciding what thoughts you're going to have regardless of the situation. Yeah. Awesome. Let's go to number two, goal setting.

Tell us a little bit about your perspective on kind of what the best of the best do Yeah. Awesome. Let's go to number two, goal setting. Tell us a bit about your perspective on kind of what the best of the best do related to goal setting. Process, process, process, process, process, process, process, based on an outcome. Love it. Okay. So that's what they do. They go, okay, what do I want to achieve? I want to get this. Okay. I want to, right. I talked to one corporate leader a couple of weeks ago. His, his, his sales number is a sales executive. And the number for his company was $4 billion.

Right. If he focuses on 4 billion, that's like, that is emotionally crippling. That is a number that is so massive. It would take us about, I think about 170 years to count from zero to four billion, right, in seconds. I don't know exactly what it is, but it feels like that, right? So if that's the case, then, you know, that's astronomical. That's a number that you can't even fathom. So how do you then, if you're focused on that, you're going to're going to be just like a cripple. You're just going to be,

you're going to be emotionally crippled. You're going to be physically crippled. You're not going to be able to do thought process crippled. Oh, it's too big. But if you then break that down into, okay, well, how can I do this? Or how, how much, how much can my, this sales team make, or how does this, and then, okay, well then how do we get to that? Well, these are the types of things we're going to need to do. We're going to have to be really great in terms of connecting and collaboration with our clients.

We're going to have to be really amazing at having incredible relationships. We're going to have to be really, we're going to have to have incredible product. We're going to have to be, understand our products so well that there's no doubt that this is the best thing on the market. Right. And so then it becomes, then that all becomes process. And then it's, you know, how many calls do you make a day and things of that nature. So, but that's, that's, that's what you see over and over and over again. The ones who are highly, highly successful, it's process, process, process, process, process based on an outcome. Yeah, that's super good. In my book, Josh, I talk about what I call the 95-5%

rule. And I don't have any research to support this, but it's more like what I see people doing. So I'm clarifying that up front, right? In the book, I even say that. What I see that the best do is like 95% of their attention is focused on the process, you know, and honestly, the best, I don't know, it might be 99%, you know, and then it's that 1% where they're thinking, okay, am I on track or not? You know, maybe they visualize the, the outcome to stay motivated once in a while, but they're not so outcome focused that that's like all of what they're, you know, they're, they're thinking about. So what do you think about that?

Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, I totally agree. That's yeah. I couldn't have said it better myself. It's really interesting because you take those first two, you take the attitude and then you take the goals, right? And so what happens, right? You have this attitude that you know is going to help drive you to success and then you put goals on it. And what does that do? It amplifies the attitude, right? It creates a little bit more intensity. It creates a little bit more passion. It creates a little bit more concentration. And so that's what I like. I like how they kind of line up. It's like, okay, here's my attitude and that's my base. Now, boom, I'm putting on these goals on it. And now that's making that base really shine. Yeah, that's good.

And I think about how attitude and process are both things that we can control, you know? Absolutely. For sure. Let's go to the third visualization. Tell us a bit about like how you see that the best visualize and do they visualize more of the process or the outcome? Like kind of tell us about what you see there. Yeah. The ones who do, like it's so funny, it's like visualization is absolutely something that's been studied over and over and over.

And I actually like to use the term mental rehearsal. I think that's a great way to look at it too, because it's almost like you're rehearsing your performance before you go out and do it. And so when you do that, if you're rehearsing your performance, what are you going to see? You're going to see all process stuff that ends in an outcome. Right. And so if you, if you do that, well, if you do visualization, well, you're going to have lots of feeling, you're going

to have like lots of sensation, you're going to see the right stuff, your focus is going to be clued in, but it's going to be clued in on the right stuff to be focused on. And so that's a big key as well, is to make sure that when you do visualize, you are seeing the process, you are seeing yourself taking the steps, and then you are seeing that outcome at the end of it. Awesome. And so when you think about like your work with execs and corporations, companies, tell us a little bit about how you might tell them to do visualization. Yeah. A lot of times it's really based on the corporate meeting or they're getting set to give their own keynotes or even just kind of having a conversation that might be a little bit difficult with one of the people that they're in charge of

and overseeing, you know, so that's where that can kind of come in is having them go through that process on their own. Might be, maybe they're having to present to their board, right, and so going through it with them on that is always a great way to do it to help them kind of use that process. Like, it's a little bit different of throwing a baseball, right, than giving a board meeting,

but you can still use the mental rehearsal to go through it again and again, and maybe even seeing some things that might go awry, so you're prepared for them. Yeah, right, and then you're kind of confident because you already have that contingency plan figured out. Yep. Yeah, super good. Okay, let's go to number four, self-awareness. Oh, man. Yeah. Sometimes when people ask me, like, what does mental conditioning come down to?

And I'm like, awareness. So I think this is such a big one, so important. So tell us a little bit about your perspective on self-awareness. Right. So what we have is we have those first three. You have your attitude, you have your goals, which are amplifying your attitude, and then you have your visualization, which is amplifying your confidence to continue to focus on your goals and to continue to have a good attitude, right? All three of those things lining up. Number four is this piece of self-awareness.

How do I know when I'm getting out of line? How do I know when I'm looking at the wrong stuff? How do I know when I'm not focused on my goals? And one of the things that we know from a ton of research is that the best way to train your ability to be self-aware is through the level of training, right? I want to just be clear about that. A lot of corporate clients don't get to meditation. Maybe they're not buying in. Maybe they can't create their own. Maybe they don't see the value of it for whatever reason. Maybe they're not convinced of it. But what we've seen is that the highest of the high, they participate in this activity on a consistent basis, usually about 10 minutes a day, five to seven days a week. And what we know from the great Dr. Amishi Jha at University of Miami is that 10 minutes a day, seven days, sorry, 10 minutes a day, five days a week will actually

increase your ability to focus under pressure. And so we know that a lot of corporate execs are under a ton of pressure, and here's a way that they can increase that ability to be focused and be self-aware more often than not. And that's the whole key. Like we talked about right off the top, it's not if you get negative, it's not if you forget your goals. It's like, how long do you stay there before you get back on track? Because you're going to get knocked off track. It's just going to happen. But how long do you stay there? That's the big key. Oh, that's so good.

And I love the research that you just, I know she did some work at the Cubs. So I think that's really easy for people to take away, right? 10 minutes a day, five days a week improves your ability to focus under pressure. What a, I think all of us can, you know, increase that ability. Josh, what are your thoughts on thoughts like you know uh how might people get started like do you think um an app is helpful do you think yeah typically typically apps are really really easy fun way to do it right because they're most of them are really lined up to kind of teach you the basics of it 10 happier and um headspace are two of the ones that that i've used personally that i've really enjoyed.

There's another one called Insight Timer, which I've really enjoyed as well. And they have actually a whole like, they have courses on Insight Timer that you can sign up for that, you know, will take you through the basics of meditation or, you know, mindfulness meditation type stuff. So. Yeah, that's good. I like one called Stop, Breathe, Think. I think it's as good as like Headspace. So all right, last tool in terms of what elite performers do and what we how we can use that ourselves as leaders and executives. So journaling, tell us a little bit about that from your perspective, Josh. Yeah, I learned about this through my work with some elite military forces and some elite first responders, namely the New York City Fire Department. And it is the after action report,

right? The AAR they call it. And what it is, is just going through and looking at the day. Okay, what did I accomplish today? What did I do well? What can I do better moving forward? And then finally, simply, is there anything that I learned? And I just want to talk about learning really quickly. Like, I love this phrase. I think I got it from a book. I'm trying to think of who it would have been. But the phrase is that lessons are learned when actions change, right? And I love that. Like, because, you know, you can write down stuff about maybe what you learned, but until you actually change your actions and your behavior, that lesson is going to keep repeating itself. So, but that, those are the big keys for me is, is, is really journaling in a positive mind frame of what went well, because no matter what

operation you go on, no matter what sales meeting you go on, there's going to be something that, that went well in it. And it's, it's to extrapolate those things. Then, Hey, what sales meeting you go on, there's going to be something that went well in it. And it's to extrapolate those things. Then, hey, what can I do better the next time I go out? Because that's what we're trying to do is we're constantly trying to improve. And then are there any lessons I learned? I think a lot of times we get so focused on journaling of like, what did I screw up? What did I do wrong? Critical, critical, critical that, you know, we, we can get mired in that, but the key is what are we trying to repeat? What we're trying to repeat is success. And so we want to, we want to, we want to dive into that and we want to look at that

over and over and over again. What made us successful on the real too, not like lucky success. Like sometimes we get lucky, right? Sometimes we just have a better product and our actual sales meeting was probably pretty bad, but the product was so good. Like sometimes we get lucky, right? Sometimes we just have a better product and our actual sales meeting was probably pretty bad, but the product was so good. We, we get to sell it, but really look at our process, really look at how we went about our business and what did we do well? And let's keep repeating those types of things. So what did I do? Well, what can I do better next time? What did I learn?

Did I get those three? Right? Yes, Sandra. So tell us a bit about like, do you suggest people to do this every night before they go to bed? Or when do you find is like really helpful for people to journal? You know what I've been doing lately is like at the end of the day, right? I'll have dinner with the family. My family, we have dinner every night together that I'm home. And we'll go around the table and we'll do gratitudes. We, each of us does three things that we're absolutely grateful for and appreciative in our life. And that's an awesome way to kind of, you know, set up our dinner and,

and some people use prayer. That's just what we use. But I think after dinner, um, is really good time to just kind of sit and be quiet for a second, right? You've had the commotion of dinner, you've had, you know, clean up and all that stuff. And then there's always that like kind of peaceful time, maybe before the kids go to bed, maybe before you dive into a TV show, just take a minute or two right there to, Hey, what did I accomplish today? You know, what did I, what that's what I've been doing lately is just kind of writing down my little accomplishments for the day. And, you know, it might be something as a we were able to figure out how to record this podcast, right? Yeah, so that might be an accomplishment, it might be,

hey, I was able to secure two speaking engagements for more importantly, like I was able to impact this executive coach that I had. And we were able to get into a space where he's really recognizing when he gets negative or, or we, you know know i went through another coaching call with this executive and she was able to really recognize when she was too hard on her the people that are under her watch you know and so it's it's you know it's kind of cool when you can write those things down because i think we always forget that like we forget to we just run through the day we just go through the day go through just go through the day, go through the day, go through the day, go through the day. I'm having a beer and cooking dinner. Wait, what happened? You know? Like, and so I think it's a great way to just kind of like wrap up the day and

say, okay, these are the things that I was able to accomplish. And I like the idea of those three prompts because at the end of the day, you might be thinking about what didn't go well, right. Or putting yourself up for something where it's like, okay, this is a step back where you really have to think about what did go great. What can I celebrate? And give you some confidence, right? Building your confidence at the same time as you're reflecting on these things.

Absolutely. Yeah. I think you need to write a book on these five, Josh. You know, what's so funny is like you, I just, I literally, last week I was working with, I was working with the New York City Fire Department and we were, I worked with a group called Leadership Under Fire, phenomenal organization. They have their own podcast. It's really good. But we were talking to,

so what it is is guys from New York City Fire Department and they go out and they talk to other fire departments and first responder groups from around the country because a lot of them have not gotten the mental training side of things and obviously New York City Fire Department is the best of the best of the best and so after we were done with our talk a guy from Virginia Beach came up to me he's like hey man when are you writing your book and it's like that happens to me all the time and I just you know it hasn't been a priority for me, but apparently it's becoming one. So yeah, we'll write one soon. Well, and that's what you should do, Josh. The advice I got when I was writing my book,

or right now I'm kind of trying to figure out what I'm going to write next. And people say, like, listen to what people ask you about, you know, like, what do people want from you? And I kind of take that as like evidence on where I should be going if it's aligned kind of with my vision but I think that the universe is speaking to you to write a book you got let me get there let me get through my kids apartments for this weekend and then we'll go from there okay that sounds perfect I'll check in with you next week oh awesome Josh uh well tell us a bit more about how we can find out about you for those people who want to hire you for a speaking opportunity. Tell us a bit about how we might go

about doing that. Yeah, yeah. Just go on my website, which is joshualifrak.com, L-I-F-R-A-K. On there, there's a little button in the upper right-hand corner that says contact me. My phone number's on there. My email's on there. Just click on that button. It'll pop up my email right off the bat and just shoot me an email and we'll go from there. I know people are going to want to have a conversation about this podcast today. I'd recommend following both Josh and I and connecting with us on social media. Tell us where we can find you there, Josh. Yeah, Twitter is at Lifrak Attack, L-I-F-R-A-K-A-T-T-A-C-K. That was a moniker given to me years ago, again, by my friend Trevor Moad, who you can find, Trevor, you can also find online too. He's phenomenal. But, you know, so that's my little moniker. And I don't do Facebook.

Facebook, I keep private for just family and friends. And then just on LinkedIn, you can find me, Joshua Lofrak. Awesome, Josh. Well, hey, I always love talking with you. Love your energy. I thought you provided a lot of wisdom and guidance for people today. And what I most liked about is like, you know, this process at the beginning of your day with mindfulness and meditation. And then at the end of the day with journaling, I think that's a great way to, you know, start and end your day with a positive attitude and a positive state of mind

and mindset. So I really liked that. And then I liked what you talked about, like how the best really focus on the process, process, process, process, process, right? And then that leads to the outcome. So grateful for you today, Josh, for connecting with us and sharing your wisdom with the high performance listeners. Cindra, it's an absolute pleasure. After I write my book and get my own podcast, I will absolutely get you on. Okay, that sounds awesome. Deal. Thank you, Josh. Thanks so much, Cindra. Have a great day, okay? You bet. You too. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you like today's podcast, make a comment, share it with a friend, and join the conversation on Twitter at

Mentally Underscore Strong. For more inspiration and to receive Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.