Develop the Winners Mentality: 5 Essential Mental Skills for Enduring Success

By Ahmad Rashad, Bob Reese MA ATC and Pete Caroll

Develop the Winner´s Mentality: 5 Essential Mental Skills for Enduring Success

Bob Reese, Ph.D.

In the genre of psychological self-help and success literature, Bob Reese has contributed a most valuable addition with his Develop the Winner´s Mentality. He has taken the essentials of cognitive-behavioral, motivational, and sport psychology and integrated them with an energy component that not only explains why they work, but accelerates their outcomes. The technique of Feelazation, which is the addition of powerful emotional energy to visualization, is also introduced. Reese says, "There´s nothing really new about goal setting, visualization, stress management, and how to think effectively. They are all important and effective for promoting success. What I bring to the party is adding the emotional and energetic components to the other skills so that with proper integration you can cause enduring success."

The 5 Essential Mental Skills are goal setting, visualization, energy management, effective thinking, and mental toughness. As stand-alones, each of the five mental skills can have a positive impact on performance, behavior, and success. According to Reese, when these skills are integrated, there is a synergistic effect created in which the result (enduring success) is much greater than the sum of the parts. He also posits that the integration of the first four essential mental skills can encourage mental toughness, a trait that many feel you have to be born with. In his Ph.D. dissertation Reese showed that a Div. I Volleyball team enhanced both individual performance and mental toughness when the program was implemented.

For 25 years Reese served as an athletic trainer in the NFL. Develop the Winner´s Mentality is replete with both humorous and poignant stories of how some of the athletes he worked with utilized these skills to ensure their success. The most moving example is that of Dennis Byrd, a New York Jets player who was quadriplegic from a broken neck and who had a grim prognosis - he would be confined to a wheelchair for life. Byrd´s use of emotive goal setting to walk out of the hospital only three months after his injury leads Reese to refer to him as the Ultimate Goal Setter.

Forewards for Develop the Winner’s Mentality are provided by two time NCAA National Champion University of Southern California Head Football Coach Pete Carroll, and former NFL All-Pro wide receiver and TV Celebrity Ahmad Rashad. Both high performers, Carroll and Rashad discuss their use of the mental skills and their personal relationship with Reese.

The book is sectioned into 15 chapters that are written in a manor that facilitates the novice in the learning and application of each of the 5 Essential Mental Skills. Winner´s is also interesting enough to keep the successful veterans of mental skills training engaged so that they can enhance the skills they already possess. Included in Develop the Winner´s Mentality are many exercises for the reader to apply, which makes it a workbook within a text.

Adjunct materials such as a voiceover PowerPoint and web support are in development so that Develop the Winner´s Mentality can be used as continuing education for executive, life and success coaches; athletic trainers, physical therapists and physical therapists assistants; strength and fitness coaches; and anyone else interested in enhancing performance with individuals or groups. Winner´s is well researched from both popular and scientific literature, and may be used as a primary or supplemental text for college courses such as introductory psychology, college success, and sport psychology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 26, 2005
• ISBN: 9781477176696

Ahmad Rashad

BOB REESE, MA, ATC, is an Educator, Success Coach and Leadership Development Specialist who practiced as an Athletic Trainer in the NFL for 25 years. Because of their interest and experience in the field of performance enhancement, Bob and his wife, Joan Carol Reese, co-founded Reese Resolution Services, an Education, Mediation, Coaching, & Peak Performance Consulting Firm in Roanoke, VA. www.ReeseResolution.com

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Copyright © 2005 by Bob Reese, MA, ATC.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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CONTENTS

PRAISE FOR BOB REESE AND THE WINNER’S MENTALITY SYSTEM

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

LEGEND

FOREWORD ~ AHMAD RASHAD

FOREWORD ~ PETE CARROLL

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1: THE WINNER’S MENTALITY

CHAPTER 2: GOAL SETTING

~ AN ESSENTIAL MENTAL SKILL

CHAPTER 3: THE REALLY BIG QUESTION

CHAPTER 4: VISUALIZATION

~ AN ESSENTIAL MENTAL SKILL

CHAPTER 5: USES OF VISUALIZATION

CHAPTER 6: THOUGHT, EMOTION & FEELAZATION©

CHAPTER 7: ENERGY MANAGEMENT

~ AN ESSENTIAL MENTAL SKILL

CHAPTER 8: ENERGY MANAGEMENT & STRESS

CHAPTER 9: RELAXATION & ENERGY

CHAPTER 10: EFFECTIVE THINKING

~ AN ESSENTIAL MENTAL SKILL

CHAPTER 11: TOOLS FOR SUCCESS

~ AFFIRMATIONS

CHAPTER 12: MENTAL TOUGHNESS

~ AN ESSENTIAL MENTAL SKILL

CHAPTER 13: MOTIVATION

CHAPTER 14: KNOWING & DOING

CHAPTER 15: ASSIMILATION & APPLICATION

BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES:

GLOSSARY

To Joan,

my loving wife and trusted business partner,

You complete me.

Thank you God. Thank you Joan. Thank you US.

PRAISE FOR BOB REESE AND THE

WINNER’S MENTALITY SYSTEM

Not only is Bob Reese my personal coach, I brought him in to work with my entire sales team. What a difference he made.

—John McDermott, Director of Sales, Major Telecommunication Corp., NY, NY

Bob, Just wanted you to know … i followed what i learned from my sessions with you at iCoN, and dramatically improved my sales with new innovations. Thanks.

—Shank Mazumder, Sales Professional

in ‘94, i had a pinched nerve in my neck and had no strength in my arm. I missed one game, and it looked like I was going to miss a second. After four days of very specific visualization work with Bob Reese, i had regained enough strength that the doctors said it was safe for me to play. Thanks Bob!

—Ronnie Lott, NFL Hall of Fame safety

i’ve been working with Bob for just under a year but feel like i’ve grown 10+ years psychologically. The most important thing i’ve learned from Bob is awareness. i’m much more aware of what i say and do and how my mind reacts to what i say and do. i’ve learned the unbelievable power of the mind and how positive thinking, saying and doing is one of the greatest tools I have. Bob has guided me toward putting the goals in my head on paper, and he has helped me develop the skills i already possess to help me begin achieving these goals. When Bob says If you can see it, you can be it listen, because it’s the truth.

—Manager, IT firm

Hey Bob, this #~!? (stuff) really works!

—Aaron Glenn, NFL All-Pro Cornerback

Just over a year ago, I was ready to throw in the towel. I had a dead-end job that I hated, an apartment that I did not want to come home to and I felt as though my life was taking a nosedive … . The first thing Bob and I worked on was creating a picture of my ideal job … . When I looked at the finished product, I had a list of goals, Real Life goals that were attainable. He helped me look at not only the big picture but also the small steps that I would to take each day to achieve my goals.

None of this is rocket science nor did it happen over night with a wave of Bob’s magic wand. It was a process of setting goals, changing the way I view situations, becoming aware of myself and my actions, learning to think positively, visualize and become accepting of new ideas and new ways. I’ve grown tremendously in the past year, … both my life and job are terrific.

—Merry Heidt, Manager, IT Corporation, Boston, MA

Bob not only teaches, he lives his Five Essential Mental Skills. He brings a depth of experience and knowledge to his work which has enabled me to easily integrate these skills into my life, in a way that works beautifully and easily. Bob has "the right stuff’ and I have used it to create a new career for myself.

—Elmdea Bean, Life Symmetry, L.C.

I could not have made the Pro-Bowl without Mental Skills Training from Bob Reese!

—Rob Moore, NFL All-Pro Wide Receiver

Bob coached me through two job transitions within a year, and I am eternally grateful. Along the way I have now created an entire new department within my division. More importantly, i now use his coaching techniques with my family and my relationship with my two teenage sons has improved dramatically!

—Patty LeDonne, District Director, Major Telecommunication Firm, Seattle, WA

Coach Reese is a master at teaching athletes how to play with confidence in pressure situations and how to stay focused and play in the zone. If you are ready for change and improvement, Bob Reese can provide you with the tools you need.

—Nancy Koran, Tennis Professional, NY, NY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Beyond my loving wife and business partner, Joan, to whom this book is dedicated, i want to acknowledge my children Rob, Rachel, and now Byron. You have provided me with inspiration, pride, and endless opportunities to practice what I preach. Also, I want to thank my parents, Bobby and Franny for their extremely positive model, constant encouragement, and a place of respite when i most needed it.

To Lou Tice, Joe Pace, and Waunda Thomas of The Pacific institute: Your mentoring, partnering, and most of all your friendship are greatly appreciated.

I want to also thank those most responsible for the wonderful direction my life has taken. They are (alphabetically): Dennis Byrd, Pete Carroll, Aaron Glenn, Olympian Adam Heidt, Ronnie Lott, John McDermott, Diana McNab, Freeman McNeil, Rob Moore, Ahmad Rashad, Ken Ravizza, Brad scott, Jim sweeney, Robbie Temes, Al Toon, Dennis Vaske, Bill Wilson, and Nate Zinsser.

If you go as far as you can see,

you will then see enough to go even farther.

John Wooden, Basketball Coach, Philosopher

LEGEND

The following symbols will be utilized throughout the book. These are their meanings.

Image528.JPG

Vocabulary and terms that are initially in italics can be found in the glossary.

FOREWORD ~ AHMAD RASHAD

Longer ago than I care to remember, Bob Reese and I became close friends as he helped me rehab my knee from ligament surgery that occurred my second season with the Buffalo Bills. Six or eight times a day as I would lay face down on a training table with my knees off the end, Bob would hang a weight from my ankle to get extension back in my knee. He would then lie across my butt to hold it down and proceed to try and distract me from the PTA (pain, torture, and agony) with conversation. We talked about many things ranging from religion to politics. One of the recurring topics was performing at a consistent level.

Well, knee rehab has come a long way since then, and so has Bob Reese’s interest and knowledge about achieving consistent peak performance. Personally, I have always set goals, both on and off the field. When I played, I used visualization to improve my skills by practicing in my mind. I also learned to meditate when I was playing, and I used that to help manage my stress. However, I could have been an even better player had I known how to integrate these skills, as Bob teaches in this book. Techniques like feelazation and paying attention to my self-talk certainly would have enhanced my game. Also, I always knew there was an energetic connection, but I never heard it explained so well.

These days I spend a lot of my time around the NBA. I know many of the young players could benefit immediately from the techniques in this book. I think many of the veterans know how to visualize and set goals, but I wonder if they know how to integrate all the skills. Everyone, including the coaches, could use the information regarding mental toughness. Me, I’m going to

start integrating the five essential mental skills to help me in my business and personal life. I will trust the force now in order to find the how.

Thanks, Bob, and, good luck. Ahmad Rashad

FOREWORD ~ PETE CARROLL

What’s wrong with this guy? Now that he’s made the team, he seems to be in a slump. He’s lost his aggressiveness, and he’s playing soft. Is he hurt?

From 1990 through 1994 in countless late night meetings at the New York Jets football complex, there were many such questions asked that led to both theoretical and practical conversations between Bob Reese and myself. Consistency is what a coach looks for most in his players. Bob calls this consistency enduring success. Regardless of what you call it, we both share an insatiable curiosity about why certain athletes perform well consistently and why others don’t ever seem to reach their potential even though they may have more talent.

Because of this shared interest, when I took over as Head Coach of the Jets in 1994, I sent Bob on a mission. He was charged with seeing what was going on in the world of performance enhancement that could improve the consistency of play for the Jets. He did a great job of sifting through the bold claims of motivational gurus that would have had us walking on hot coals or broken glass and pseudo-scientific inventors of elaborate light and sound machines to find information, techniques, and professionals that we could use to improve our players individual and team performance—and consistency.

While on his assignment, Bob found Diana McNab, a sport psychology consultant, whom we eventually hired. Bob gained entry for my staff to the West Point Center for Enhanced Performance, where they witnessed sophisticated and efficient methods of delivering mental skills training. He also introduced us to the curriculum of Lou Tice and The Pacific Institute, which gave me insight into why it is so difficult for many people to change. Bob has never abandoned his mission. His research has helped him define what he calls the 5 Essential Mental Skills to achieve success and maintain consistency. I use these skills daily for my own performance and to improve the performance of my players. What I find helpful is the way he has broken down and explained the skills so that anyone can learn them. I also appreciate how he encourages the integration of the skills for maximum results.

There are several areas that Reese explains that are very important to me. For example, I now know that mental toughness is a skill that can be taught and not an inherited trait. Particularly helpful is how Bob has explained emotion and energy and their role in enhanced performance. This is something I always knew, but until now I had trouble explaining it to others.

Finally, what impresses me most is the way Bob brings this to the real world. He teaches what sports coaches have known all along, that the mental skills necessary to be successful in sport are the same mental skills necessary to be successful in life. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to be better and stay better at what they do.

Pete Carroll, Head Football Coach, University of Southern California

PREFACE

In the 1950s, I grew up in Nashville, TN and had what could best be described as a Wonder Years childhood and adolescence. It was a charmed life. By high school, I loved the game of football, but had to quit playing because of recurrent dislocating kneecaps. While not being able to play football seemed heartbreaking at the time, it led me into my career in sports medicine; I became the student trainer/manager for football and basketball.

Upon graduating high school and thinking I wanted to be an engineer like my father, I enrolled at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Knowing that I would have to work at college, I sought out the athletic training room to avoid bussing tables in the dorm cafeteria. The late William E. Pinky Newell was the Head Athletic Trainer at Purdue. He told me I could work in the training room for a year, but, if I didn’t want to become an athletic trainer, I would have to make room for someone who did the following year.

It only took one semester for me to choose between engineering math and chemistry and Rose Bowl Championship football—I was hooked on sports medicine. It also turned out that Pinky was the most influential athletic trainer in the country and that I couldn’t have chosen a better place to learn athletic training. Because of Pinky, I worked two summers of professional football at the Buffalo Bills under another Purdue grad, Eddie Abramoski, in 1969 and 1970.

Graduating in 1970, I interviewed for and accepted the Head Athletic Trainer’s position at Boston College, becoming the youngest Head Trainer in the nation. After two years at BC, I went back to Buffalo as the Bills’ first full-time assistant athletic trainer. Following five memorable years in Buffalo, in 1977 I became the

Head Athletic Trainer for the New York Jets, where I spent the next 20 years.

Modeling Pinky’s example, I was an activist and served for years in different official positions for the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society working to increase scholarships for aspiring athletic trainers, to raise the profile of athletic trainers, and to educate the both the public and NFL administrators as to our value. Along the way, my assistants and I were the first recipients of the NFL Athletic Training Staff of the Year award in 1985. In 1994 I received the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer award. I was also the premier recipient of the NFL Physicians Society Cain-Fain Memorial Outstanding Athletic Trainer—1996.

In the late 1980s I was working for a micro-manager of a head coach, and stress began taking its toll. I went to a stress reduction workshop in 1988 and was introduced to the powerful visualization technique of hypnosis. Realizing the power of this modality, I formally studied hypnosis to aid the Jets players in pain management. That led to working with them for accelerated healing and rehabilitation, and eventually to enhancing their performance.

It was during this time that I had some major paradigm shifts in my belief systems. Prior to my introduction to hypnosis, I worked on the bodies of the players as Newtonian machines, fixing broken parts. By the early 1990s, I began incorporating the mental aspects of healing recognized now as mind-body medicine. A new head coach, Bruce Coslet, encouraged my passion of learning how the mind worked, and what motivated people to heal and perform well. Coslet brought in pioneering sport psychologist Ken Ravizza, who gave me guidance at a critical juncture in my educational development.

During this time, I also recognized that the world of professional football was becoming increasingly unstable and the professional options for an out of work, middle-aged athletic trainer were extremely limited. I decided to prepare for the future by formalizing this education, obtaining my Masters Degree in

Psychology through distance learning from Regis University in Denver.

This academic pursuit was coupled with another coaching change at the Jets (the third in six years). When Pete Carroll took over, he charged me with the task of seeing what was new in the world of performance enhancement. This enabled me to seek and meet some of my most influential mentors: Nate Zinsser, Brad Scott, and Lou Tice. Zinsser and Scott headed up the West Point Center for Enhanced Performance, and they helped me realize these mental skills were life skills and not just for sports performance enhancement. This greatly impacted my studies, and, for my Masters Project, I created a Certification Course for Mental Skills Training geared toward athletic trainers, physical therapists, personal trainers, sports coaches, and strength coaches. (This course will soon be available as a self-contained distance-learning package for continuing education.) For my Master’s project, I modeled the tenets of cognitive, behavioral, sport, and motivational psychology and added a dash of energy medicine. I discovered that many successful people share 5 Essential Mental Skills: Goal Setting, Visualization, Energy Management, Effective Thinking, and Mental Toughness.

The next year fate, in the form of yet another coaching change at the Jets, stepped in. After 20 meritorious years at the Jets, I was out of a job. Ever optimistic, I decided to pursue a new career in sports performance enhancement. After all, with the recent knowledge I had assimilated and my contacts in the NFL, I felt secure that success in this new venture would be mine in short order.

The learning curve, however, was not that simple. I had to learn to sell and market my skills and myself, but I had no background in sales and marketing. I also learned the hard way the true definition of humility. While my background with the Jets and the NFL might open a few doors it meant nothing once inside. Also, at this time, I was enduring the dissolution of a 30-year marriage and what seemed to be a never-ending divorce proceeding. I incurred a mountain of debt and even considered declaring bankruptcy. I began to doubt the power of the mind and wondered if it was just a nice theory, or at worst, a complete sham.

However, I knew in my head, my heart, and my gut that this technology was powerful. With a new fervor brought about by a sense of desperation, I re-examined these cognitive and emotive concepts, refining some and discarding others. I practiced what I preached. I developed resilience and persistence. I set my goals with newfound clarity as I began to create my new story. Not only did I visualize my goals, but also I began to feelazize© them, adding powerful emotions to the stories created in my mind. I discovered new ways to manage both my stress and energy, and I became mindful—taking control of my thoughts. I learned to, first, embrace change, and then to cause it. Learning that I alone hold the key to manifesting my dreams, I am no longer in need of a charm.

This book, The Winner’s Mentality ~ 5 Essential Mental Skills for Enduring Success, reflects my regeneration from disconsolation to enduring success and abundance. It can be your path to enduring success also.

Bob Reese is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Jefferson College of Health Sciences in Roanoke, Virginia and is pursuing his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech. He and his wife, Joan, are partners in Reese Resolution Services (RRS), an education consulting firm. RRS is dedicated to integrating peak performance principals with conflict transformation techniques to enhance personal and corporate performance, coaching, mediation, and the spiritual awareness necessary for effective leadership. In this role, Bob facilitates change and stress management and teaches people to think in ways that cause enduring success. He also serves as a success coach and leadership development specialist. To contact Bob, visit the Reese Resolution website: www.ReeseResolution.com

CHAPTER 1

THE WINNER’S MENTALITY

Image535.JPG

OVERVIEW

Sport is easy. Life is hard. No matter how difficult performing well is in any sport, it’s not as difficult as performing well at life. Disagree? Recall the numerous professional athletes who excel in their sports but whose personal shortcomings have landed them in the press, or worse. Pick up any newspaper on almost any day and you can read about athletes who are struggling not with their sport, but with other areas of their lives. Kobe Bryant, Mike Tyson, and John Daly come readily to mind.

Throughout this book, many sports analogies are used to describe examples of the 5 Essential Mental Skills, their implementation, and their integration into the Winner’s Mentality System for causing enduring success. I use sports analogies not only because they are interesting stories from over two decades as a head athletic trainer for the New York Jets but also because the sport model clearly and simply demonstrates the effectiveness of the 5 Essential Mental Skills. The benefits