<ul><li>The same quality of attention frees us, in the moment of truth, from any thought of self-concept, criticism, or fear.</li><li>Freedom from mental distraction equals power—it takes an incredibly strong mind to train like an Olympian, and an even stronger mind to shut out all fear and doubt.</li></ul>

The Moment of Truth Is Now

<ul><li>When we can see the dynamics of growth and excellence, we don't need to suffer the slumps.</li><li>And, if you feel like you're going nowhere or even slipping backward, remember that you may just be backing up to get a running start.</li></ul>

Backing Up to Get a Running Start

“Whether you are a world-class competitor, weekend athlete, or fitness enthusiast, this book will help you overcome self-created hurdles and reawaken the natural athlete—the body mind master—inside you. Body Mind Mastery provides a clear map to a less stressful, more meaningful approach to practicing sport and life. It’s not about dedicating your life to your training, but dedicating your training to your life.”

<ul><li>Remember that vigor and vitality is a matter of activity, not necessarily formal exercise.</li><li>Park the car at the farthest point from the store.</li><li>Use the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator.</li><li>Carry your groceries, garden, and do other activities that keep you moving.</li></ul>

Vigor, Vitality & Activity

“Life demands much of us, on and off the playing field. Emotional talent is the capacity to stimulate and draw upon our natural fountain of energy—to learn to blow into our own sails. We develop emotional talent not by relying on motivation all the time, but by applying our will no matter how we feel.”

<ul><li>Babies are free of self-criticism. They just keep practicing.</li><li>As we move into the domain of the unknown and pick up a new skill, let's be kinder with ourselves and have FUN, celebrating the tiny improvements and laughing when we fall on our diapers.</li></ul>

Baby-style

<ul><li>“Masters of one art have mastered all because they have mastered themselves. With dominion over both mind and muscle, they demonstrate power, serenity, and spirit. They not only have talent for their sport, they have an expanded capacity for life. The experts shine in the competitive arena; the masters shine everywhere.” — Dan Millman</li><li>One can have no greater or smaller mastery than mastery of oneself, and how you do anything is how you do everything.</li></ul>

Masters Shine Everywhere

<ul><li>Fear of failure generates a vicious circle that creates what is most feared. To break this cycle, you need to make peace with failure and use it.</li><li>Michael Jordan, one of the greatest athletes ever, has said: “I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the winning shot and missed. And that is why I succeed.”</li></ul>

The Fear of Failure

<ul><li>You have much more control over your behavior than you do over your thoughts or emotions, so paradoxically the best way to master your emotions is to let them be, stay relaxed, and focus on constructive action.</li><li>Accept your emotions as natural to you at the moment, without trying to fix them. Know your purpose or goal-not someone else's.</li><li>Wherever you are, whatever you feel, remember your goal and ask yourself this question: “Now what needs to be done?”</li></ul>

Relax & Stay Focused on Constructive Action

<ul><li>Take your keys, a piece of fruit, or any handy object, and go outside. Throw the object up into the air. Staying relaxed and easy, catch it.</li><li>At that moment, you were not thinking about what you would have for dinner or what you did yesterday. You were pure attention, reaching out, waiting for the object's descent.</li><li>In that same moment your emotions were open, and your body was alert and vitalized—a moment of satori. As Dan describes it: “Satori is a word from the Japanese Zen tradition that points to a ‘sudden awakening’ or ‘insight into our fundamental nature.’”</li></ul>

Instant Satori

<ul><li>Seneca says: “You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good.”</li><li>So, you got a put in the time and demonstrate some strong will power so that your WILL to do the right thing becomes a DISPOSITION to do the right thing.</li><li>He also says: “How much better to pursue a straight course and eventually reach that destination where the things that are pleasant and the things that are honorable finally become, for you, the same.”</li><li>So, are you building some new habits? Keep your goal REALLY clear and your will REALLY strong to shape a new disposition.</li></ul>

Building New Habits

<ul><li>The Training Effect: Your body will accommodate itself to the load you put on it.</li><li>Consistency over intensity: It's MUCH better to show up at the gym regularly for a basic workout than go off for a couple of hours every other week.</li><li>Do something for a little bit every day rather than a lot once in a while.</li><li>Practice patience and perseverance: Our bodies and minds are malleable. Over time, if we're diligent, patient, and persistent, they'll shape toward our ideals and accommodate to meet the demands placed on them.</li></ul>

The Law of Accommodation

Dan Milllman's a former world champion gymnast and coach of the Stanford and Berkeley gymnastic teams whose got some Big Ideas on how to achieve Body, Mind and Spirit mastery. Here we explore a bunch of them, including how to deal with the fear of failure, what we can learn from babies and how to build new habits as we become masters of our lives who shine everywhere!

Drawing on his extensive experience as a coach and world champion athlete, bestselling author Dan Millman reveals a path to success not only in sports but in any life endeavor that requires training and the integration of the body and mind — from golf and tennis to playing the piano. Body Mind Mastery is a revised and updated edition of Millman’s classic The Inner Athlete and includes a brand new Peaceful Warrior warmup, with photos and instructions on creating a daily exercise routine from Millman’s principles, as well as a new section on the aging athlete. Through personal experience, as well as anecdotes from teaching and coaching at such schools as Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, and Oberlin College, Millman directs the reader through the detailed process of attaining the optimum performance of body and mind, where “our minds are free of concern or anxiety, focused on the present moment; our bodies relaxed, sensitive, elastic, and aligned with gravity; our emotions free-flowing expression, uninhibited, spontaneous.” Body Mind Mastery includes overview chapters on developing mental, emotional, physical talent; practical chapters on training, competition, and the evolution of athletics; and Millman’s exploration of natural laws that govern mental and physical training. It is a seminal book that examines the psychology behind the search for athletic excellence, and shows anyone how to improve skills, accelerate learning, and unleash athletic potential. The skills it teaches are applicable in sports and daily life — transforming training into a path of personal growth and discovery.

DAN MILLMAN

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