Is your fear of other people’s opinions holding you back from fulfilling your potential? Dr. Michael Gervais is one of the world’s top high-performance psychologists and leading experts on the relationship between the mind and human performance. He has spent his career helping the best of the best when they need to achieve the extraordinary. His clients include world record holders, Olympians, internationally acclaimed artists and musicians, MVPs from every major sport and Fortune 100 CEOs. In his new book, The First Rule of Mastery, Dr. Gervais shares a guide for overcoming what may be the single greatest constrictor of human potential: our fear of people’s opinions. In our conversation today, we talk about the science of peak performance, how to stop worrying about what people think of you, and live life on your own terms.
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Show Notes
- How his own performance anxiety inspired him to study psychology (2:01)
- The psychology of excellence (6:10)
- His work with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks (8:09)
- The one thing all high performers do that’s fundamentally different (10:53)
- Pushing yourself to “the messy edge” (12:30)
- Why people play it safe and play it small (18:49)
- How high performers silence the external noise (19:36)
- Surround yourself with people who want to see you grow (21:27)
- Common examples of FOPO (28:27)
- Where FOPO originates (31:08)
- The cost of FOPO- the fear of other people’s opinions (35:09)
- Transforming workplace cultures through mindset training (38:11)
- The spotlight effect: We dramatically overestimate how much people think about us (40:58)
- The dangers of a performance-based identity (45:25)
- Purpose-based identity (47:59)
- Invest in knowing yourself so you can move from clarity to conviction (50:20)
Resources / People Mentioned
- The First Rule of Mastery by Michael Gervais
- Finding Mastery (podcast)
- Seattle Seahawks
- HBR: How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You
- Red Bull
- Satya Nadella, Microsoft
- Thomas Gilovich
- The spotlight effect
- Get Finding Mastery’s Morning Mindset Routine PDF
- Get the Morning Mindset Routine audio guide
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