To Be the Best, Have More Fun

The benefits of optimism and positive thinking in achieving extreme success

I stumbled across a video this weekend from Dr. Jarrod Spencer, a sports psychologist and author of Mind of The Athlete. The video’s only 90 seconds, but to quickly summarize, a tennis academy in Florida studied the difference between the top 5 performers and the top 25. The common thread among the top 5?

Positive thinking.

I’ll admit I wasn’t able to find the source paper to verify the validity of the claims and methods, but the idea makes intuitive sense to me. Positivity drove a lower heartbeat in competition, conserving energy. All else equal (skill, training, preparation, etc.), more energy leads to a greater potential to beat those of roughly equivalent ability.

We talk a lot about having fun, and playing to win. They go hand in hand. Have fun, play hard, and don’t take yourself too seriously. In the long run, that’s the highest probability path to extreme success.