Mental self-coaching for executives and entrepreneurs
If you’re like me, you will devour this book in no time flat. I have already tried many of the exercises myself. It is exciting to experience your own self. I am taking away a lot for my own professional life and can recommend this book without reservation to any independent business owner that may not have such a connection to running.
Thomas Biermann,
General Manager CSB & Chairman, Tax Consultant
Association Westfalen-Lippe
The book Mentaltraining für Läufer by Michele Ufer, internationally renowned expert on sport psychology and management psychology, came out in May 2016 (the book was originally published in German, and Mental Toughness for Runners is the translated version). The book introduces highly effective mental training and self-coaching strategies and has quickly become a standard work in running and marathon literature. It is geared primarily to runners, other endurance athletes, and trainers, but business executives and entrepreneurs among the readership continue to report that the presented strategies are also a valuable resource for everyday management. That is no surprise to the author.
Michele Ufer: I recently read somewhere that running is the new golf. It’s possible. In any case, running is definitely one thing: simple! It is a technically simple sport and doesn’t require much more than a few minutes of your time. That’s definitely practical because running can be integrated relatively easily into a full appointment calendar. And then there are the many positive effects of moderate endurance training on health and productivity. Moreover, having completed a marathon has become almost de rigeur among executives because it is associated with qualities like determination, willpower, and endurance that are also important in a job. But here is the crux—and it is also where my book comes in—although running is pretty easy and can have many positive effects, runners can absolutely stand in their own way or sabotage themselves. And they do so surprisingly often, regardless of whether their goals are health or performance oriented. Managers are not immune from doing so either.
Michele Ufer: While you run, you have a fair amount of time for dysfunctional thinking and behaviors that can unnecessarily complicate goal attainment instead of leading you to your goal effectively and in a relaxed manner. Of course, there are tons of running books and training manuals, but they usually focus on the sport’s physical aspects and generally don’t include any well-founded information about the psychological influencing factors. It is surprising, because athletes and managers basically agree that success is also a matter of the mind and the right attitude. That is precisely where my book begins and provides a key puzzle piece for increased motivation, performance, and the joy of living. These methods can then also be used in other areas of life outside of running.
Michele Ufer: Exactly! Sport as a metaphor for business is sometimes worn a little thin for my taste. But running makes immediate feedback possible about the attitude with which a person approaches challenges, how he monitors himself, and how his mindset and mental strategies affect his motivation, performance, and health. People usually don’t experience this immediacy in an everyday business setting. Here running can quickly become a look in the mirror of one’s own self-leadership and a playground for experimentation. It offers an excellent, safe space to try out and fine tune important mental strategies the way they have long been established in elite sports, like, for instance, effective control of emotions, thought management, focusing of attention, controlling arousal, working with mental images, and self-motivation techniques.
Michele Ufer: In a way, yes, but probably more as an informal measure. But the idea is appealing. On the one hand, running is harmless because it’s only our sport. On the other hand, it is merciless because it often shows—surprisingly plainly—how we tend to handle and approach challenges. In that sense, I agree with the saying that life is an ultra-marathon.
Michele Ufer: Of course they are. At least on the surface. There is a difference, whether we build a car, run a hospital, program new software, launch a company, hold an important meeting, build a shopping center, or run ultra-marathons through the desert. But in the end it’s about one thing: achieving challenging goals as effectively as possible by being able to reliably access existing abilities and potentials. It is about finding consistent answers to the following questions and implementing them in your everyday life: How can we manage to achieve ambitious goals slightly faster, more effectively, or maybe just in general, while also keeping an eye on our health and joy of living? That’s where the challenges and psychological mechanisms in sports and business aren’t all that different. Many readers of my book seem to agree.
Michele Ufer: One possible reason for the success of my book may be that I don’t peddle secrets to success, but rather rely on solid tools. I take no stock in snappy motivational slogans along the lines of “You can do anything if you just put your mind to it” and “No limits.” It might push some people for a little while, but is usually unrealistic and can even lead to burnout. All of us have different goals, qualifications, and underlying circumstances. The reader is therefore instructed to develop and implement his individually suitable mental training project plan based on a psychologically valid varianceanalysis of his own motivation and mental strengths. To do so, he is provided with many methods he can choose from and combine according to his situation.
Another possible reason for the book’s success may be that I intensively tested the presented strategies many times in my own coaching work with athletes and executives and on myself during extreme or ultra-marathon races around the world, and, by doing so, I was quite successful. I exemplified that with many practice examples. There is no shortage of humor and the book examines other areas such as, for example, soccer, swimming, or chess.
Michele Ufer: Mental training originated in sport psychology and refers to the intensive work with mental images and perceptions used in, for instance, movement optimization or preparation for and anticipation of impending challenges. I consider mental training in the larger sense to be the systematic development of mental abilities that are productive or important to the respective context. The positive effects on motivation, performance, and health can be considerable and have been scientifically proven. All good reasons to engage in the subject.
