This was a great post, Eric. I'm saving my favorite part here but the whole article is excellent.

1) Talk Positively To Yourself

Your brain is always going. It’s estimated you say 300 to 1000 words to yourself per minute. Olympic athletes and SEALs agree: those words need to be positive.

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Got a big presentation at work coming up? Encountering obstacles? You need to remember the 3 P’s.

Permanence, pervasiveness and whether it’s personal.

Pessimists tell themselves that bad events:

1. Will last a long time, or forever. (“I’ll never get this done.”)
2. Are universal. (“You can’t trust any of those people.”)
3. Are their own fault. (“I’m terrible at this.”)

Optimists look at setbacks in the exact opposite way:

1. Bad things are temporary. (“That happens occasionally but it’s no big deal.”)
2. Bad things have a specific cause and aren’t universal. (“When the weather is better that won’t be a problem.”)
3. It’s not their fault. (“I’m good at this but today wasn’t my lucky day.”)

When talking to yourself, be an optimist, not a pessimist.

For more on how to think positively, click here.

Here’s what Olympic athletes and Navy SEALs both do to be the best and achieve mental toughness:

• Talk Positively To Yourself: Remember the 3 P’s: tell yourself bad things aren’t permanent, pervasive or personal — but good things are.
• Setting Goals: Know what you want to achieve. Write it down. Focus on progress.
• Practice Visualization: Don’t fantasize about getting what you want but see yourself overcoming specific obstacles.
• Use Simulations: Always make your practice as close to the real thing as possible.

Olympians and Navy SEALs, by definition, are the best at what they do. But the methods they use to get there are things we can all use.

And those techniques aren’t based on muscles or natural talent. They’re all about good preparation and hard work. Apply those and you can get there too.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said:

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

These are also secrets to success of top Salespeople.

I wonder what else top salespeople have in common with Olympians and Navy SEALs.