My other job is working with young people around their mindset. Below is a thread which might be useful if you look after a young person who is taking A-Level or GCSE exams in the next few weeks. These are tricky times and getting it right is crucial. 🧵⤵️

If you see it, it can happen ⬇️✅

Was great to visit @camrufc last night and speak to their players. To get the following feedback from @RichieWills10 was lovely. If you have a team, whatever sport, and are looking to align and understand how you can gain more control and clarity in performance, get in touch.

COURAGE AND THE NEED TO BE AFRAID Courage is on my mind a lot at the moment. I regularly speak to people who must find the courage to deal with their situation. All sorts of environments demand it. Courage will need summoning in your personal life, in your profession, in front of others and in private. But where does it come from? How do we get it? And once we have it, can we always rely on it? I have spent a while talking to different sportspeople about courage. For them, courage would seem a common currency, one oft-discussed and admired. But in pondering the whys and wherefores associated with courage, I find myself returning to two well-known values that you need at your foundation: trust and truth. Without these, courage doesn't flower. READ MORE ⤵ samrobertsspeaking.com/2024/…

I really enjoy working with @Day9Alex. When we met, he was putting a lot of pressure on himself to perform, game days were pretty stressful, and, as a result, he wasn't performing well. We talked about his motivations and how he felt on a matchday. He took on board some fundamental changes to the way he thought about his thinking, and we enjoyed undoing some of his previously held beliefs. He is an outstanding analyser and painfully honest with himself; an approach which reaped dividends. This season has seen him at his most effective and he has proved himself an invaluable captain of an outstanding Bedford Blues side. He has embraced fatherhood and is, now, in his own words, "enjoying life, rugby and being a dad". I'm very fortunate to have played a very tiny role in this transition. I am delighted Alex has signed on for another season at Goldington Road, having recently passed the 200 Championship appearances mark.

I love taking what I've learnt from top sportspeople and applying it to people in other environments (like business): here's @rachelemilyd. Rachel does incredible things with companies and their impact (do speak to her if you are looking to evaluate how your business lands with clients), and from the outside, it looks like she is pretty much unstoppable. Especially as, alongside her work, she does formidable things in the gym with fitness racing! But on the inside, her self-talk wasn't great. Before any event, pretty much every thought and conversation she had with herself was negative and anxiety-inducing. If she did something wrong, the admonishments would last for days, if not weeks. She said this was something she had always suffered from and had just learnt to put up with. We had sessions around this and worked on a variety of tools to help foster a better relationship with herself. She was superb at identifying when it happened and worked on gradually bringing in better ways of using visualisation and language. She even took it into the gym and discovered some noticeable improvements. The change has been tangible and she continues to refer back to our sessions with the MP3 I left with her. She now spends moments each day 'thinking about the way she thinks'. She is an excellent example of how my work with top athletes applies to everyone.

I’ve been working with @finlay_cummings for a couple of years or so, but this season has been tough for him. Affected by injury, family bereavement and indifferent form, we have had many sessions around his mindset and performance. In particular, bouncing back from poorer performances. Recently, having worked so hard to make qualifying for Nationals, he opened with a less than-desirable first round. We talked and he led the thinking around what he wanted to do. He has shown such maturity when discussing his game and where his mind is at; he is such a delight to work with. His other team members had created an opportunity to qualify for Florida on that first day but on the second, another of the team buckled under the pressure. They turned to Fin. Showing real grit and determination he carded an awesome 71 and propelled his university to qualify for the US National finals. As I said to him, “Anyone can have a bad day, but it takes someone special to follow it up with a good day…” Very proud of all he is achieving and the man he is becoming. Well done Fin!

One of the reasons, I spend hours working on these podcasts is for young people to hear how tough being the best is. I want them to hear how successful people experience failure and difficulties. And how what differentiates them is never giving up.

More credit to @Monkeymindcoach - love this