Michael Cooper is fast becoming one of my favorite people.
If you don’t know the name, he’s the founder of Human Performance Mentors and The Missing Playbook. His passion is to develop leaders in all realms through the use of mental training and positive energy. He trains pro athletes, speaks with pro teams, and counsels high net-worth families.
He’s fantastic, and he came on the show recently to give me an on-air human performance mentorship session.
In essence, it was a psychological tune-up – something essential for people who want to go beyond their best and establish a new level of excellence.
In my career, I’ve discovered that the higher I progress, the more I become my own worst enemy. What I think becomes either my strength or my weakness.
In fact, this came up in a personal situation recently. It just so happened that Cooper called me up while I was en-route to dealing with a difficult circumstance, and he helped me to see that the other person wasn’t the enemy.
My reaction to the situation was the enemy.
“Most of us are taking action without thinking first. We take action, and then we regret the consequences,” Cooper said.
“In the space between stimulus and response, we have an opportunity to restrict the temptation to do the dark thing, do the negative thing, which everyone wants to lash out and do.
“We need to take a couple of deep breaths, relax, and tell ourselves, ‘My reaction is the enemy, and I just need to focus on what’s the right thing for me to do here.'”
For me, it turned out that the situation pressed all the right buttons – based on my personality and my accumulated experiences. Cooper calls it “automatic suggestion.” It’s habitual thinking – how we’ve been trained to think in certain situations.
“We are creating this life that we’re experiencing 100% based on what we’re thinking about,” he said.
Being intentional about creating a life, Cooper said, involves (among other things):
– Being crystal clear about your goals, and how your thoughts and actions are taking you toward those goals.
– Having a higher purpose beyond yourself.
– Having high standards for the people you allow into your life.
It becomes necessary, he said, to review our lives and assess our level of fulfullment in:
– Spirituality
– Relationships
– Health
– Professional development
– Finances
Then we must establish purpose, vision and goals for each. Specficially. On paper.
Easy to talk about. Not so easy to do. But with help from Cooper, I’m well on my way toward some significant progress.
I talked to Cooper for the entire show, and it’s impossible to compress everything we discussed into this short blog post. So click here to listen to the whole thing.
It’s well worth your time. And if you need some extra incentive, he included some awesome team-building tips.
Learn more about Michael Cooper and his work online at missingplaybook.com.
