I love to start a book review with a great phrase from the book that sums up the book. With Steve Magness’ new book: Win the Inside Game I can’t because there are just too many. Almost every page in my copy has a line underlined or a star drawn to indicate a key piece of information that I want to remember.
I love Magness’ writing style; lots of interesting facts and some fascinating stories which tell us how to get the best from ourselves and those (if we are in coaching or psych positions) we work with. But it isn’t written as a coaching book, it is very much a how to work on your mindset so you can achieve whatever it is you are setting out to achieve.
It begins with an explanation of the brain’s survival system and how this can negatively impact performance. The best phrase to describe this is: “Under pressure we don’t update; we protect….We feel threatened, so we avoid, escape or shut down.”
The rest of the book then takes us through how to move away from surviving to thriving by developing clarity on who you are, clarity in your pursuits and clarity of where and how you fit in. This is Magness’ framework and it is one we as Sport Psychologists use within an ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) approach so that we can help high performers acknowledge the fear they feel, but chase their goals anyway, in the service of the values they hold dear.
If you are looking for an easy to read book full of stories and common sense on how to perform well under pressure then Win the Inside Game is a great book.
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