Organize Tomorrow Today: 8 Ways to Retrain Your Mind to Optimize Performance at Work and in Life

Setting goals too high and hoping to “get close” is one of the most damaging things you can do to your performance. It gets you in the habit of losing. Set your process goals to a point where you can hit them daily, and you build confidence and your ability to “win” mental commitments in the future. It’s not about what you will do on your best days

The key is to list important, ambitious, but realistic tasks that can reasonably be completed during the day. Small, day-to-day successes are the building blocks of achievement.

Greatness is predicated on consistently doing things others can’t or won’t do. Simply put, success is not about being brilliant. It is about being consistent.

One of Tom’s favorite stories about the time he spent with his friend and mentor John Wooden is about how Wooden would evaluate his players during a game. It had nothing to do with the eventual score of the game, or the individual statistics any single player put up. Coach Wooden would watch to see how each player made his cuts from position to pos

When you define success by your effort, anything is truly achievable. And when you consistently work toward your goals—and honestly evaluate that effort—you will begin to deserve the success that comes. When it does, you will feel a tremendous sense of validation that doesn’t just come when you make your numbers or achieve certain statistics. You w

Maltz’s theory about self-image is a simple one. He said that a person will not be able to consistently overperform or underperform the self-image he or she has. In other words, if you fundamentally believe you’re an average performer (or a terrific one, or a terrible one), you won’t consistently be able to do a lot better or a lot worse than that

good things don’t automatically flow to you. Life can happen in streaks and slumps, and it can be incredibly discouraging if you put in the work to change an important habit and it does not immediately produce the benefits you expect.

The biggest obstacle that will block you from improvement is committing to too much and getting overwhelmed.

“Busy” isn’t what gets rewarded long-term in the marketplace. “Productive” is.