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How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle QUOTES

How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle QUOTES

1 " Studies on the phenomenon indicate that a person with a high tolerance for pain is likely to also have above-average capacity to cope with the stress of a job layoff or a cancer diagnosis, and this same person is more likely as well to have experienced a moderate amount of psychological trauma in his or her past. It would appear that a certain amount of misfortune is needed to toughen the mind against suffering and hardship, but excessive trauma leaves scar tissue. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

2 " What is the logic of punishing yourself each day, of striving to become better, more efficient, tougher?” He went on to answer his own question. “The value in it is what you learn about yourself. In this sort of situation all kinds of qualities come out—things that you may not have seen in yourself before. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

3 " Interpreting running as an opportunity to discover and become his best self, and to give his best to others, through the relentless pursuit of toughness, or guts—a kind of courage. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

4 " The best source of knowledge concerning the most effective methods of coping with the challenges of endurance sports is the example set by elite endurance athletes. The methods that the greatest athletes rely on to overcome the toughest and most common mental barriers to better performance are practically by definition the most effective coping methods for all athletes. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

5 " Gratitude” is about letting go of desired outcomes and fully embracing the privilege and process of pursuing goals and dreams. “Believe” refers to the confidence that arises naturally through this process, a self-trust that is the antithesis of the doubt-fueled fixation on goals and dreams expressed in Siri’s nightly fantasy of having the perfect race at the 2000 Olympics. Siri "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

6 " One cannot improve as an endurance athlete except by changing one’s relationship with perception of effort. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

7 " More often, they insist that their advantage lies not in having more to give but rather in being able to give more of what they have. Past "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

8 " Six-time Ironman winner Mark Allen hit the nail on the head when he described endurance racing as “a test of you as a person on top of a test of you as an athlete.” But "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

9 " The journey toward becoming a mentally fit athlete is very much a journey of personal development. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

10 " So, when looking at white dominance of a particular sport, white people tend to look for a social or environmental explanation, such as a strong work ethic, but when looking at black dominance of a sport, they are more likely to look for an explanation in breeding. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

11 " It was a very hard race from the word go with a combination of great runners and a tough course,” he wrote. “I had my problems winning. I felt several times like giving into the pain and letting Gary [sic] win but I just couldn’t. I just kept driving myself harder and harder, longer and longer. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

12 " Exercising mental fitness was a daily battle for him, but a battle he chose. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

13 " Sian Beilock, a psychologist and leading expert on choking, defined the phenomenon in her book Choke as “poor performance that occurs in response to the perceived stress of a situation.” The "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

14 " The most successful endurance athletes over the age of 40 are so similar in personality it’s almost uncanny. What we see in all of these men and women is a limitless passion for sport and for the athletic lifestyle that stems from a positive, life-embracing personality (i.e., a non-neurotic, open, extraverted, conscientious style of coping with life). A "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

15 " If you want to get a sense of what a very high level of perceived effort feels like in isolation from fatigue, find a steep hill and run up it as fast as you can. (You should probably warm up first.) That feeling of trying as hard as you can that hits you immediately, before fatigue sets in, is the feeling of a very high level of perceived effort. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

16 " Neuroscientists have observed that several changes in brain function tend to accompany the flow state. The brain’s electrical activity always unfolds in wave patterns. Normal consciousness is associated with a high-frequency beta wave pattern. In the flow state, brain rhythms drop down to the borderline between low-frequency beta and theta waves. Flow is tied also to sharply reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that gives rise to a sense of self and that includes the aforementioned dorsolateral prefrontal cortex—the brain’s internal critic. And at the molecular level, several neurotransmitters, or brain messenger chemicals, are released during flow. Among these are norepinephrine, which enhances mental focus, and endorphins, which are the source of the famous “runner’s high.” It is not necessary to measure brain waves or neurotransmitter levels to figure out if an athlete is operating in the flow state. You can just ask. Athletes know when they are in flow because the feeling is unmistakable—it’s that sense of absolute unity with one’s effort that Siri Lindley "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

17 " More often, they insist that their advantage lies not in having more to give but rather in being able to give more of what they have. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

18 " Physical fitness determines where the wall that represents your physical limit is placed. Mental fitness determines how close you are able to get to that limit in competition. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

19 " mainly by increasing tolerance for perceived effort and by reducing the amount of effort that is perceived at any given intensity of exercise. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

20 " Well-trained athletes have an easier time achieving flow because they are less physically self-conscious. "

― Matt Fitzgerald , How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle