We all inhabit different identities throughout our day. Perhaps we’re entrepreneurs or employees, mothers or fathers, athletes or CEOs. But how can you harness the strengths of these different identities to get the best out of yourself? And can these different identities be used to get through tough times? Todd Herman calls on more than two decades of experience working with top performers on performance, strategy, mindset, and execution to discuss his thoughts on peak performance, the value of patience, the fear that prevents us from performing our best, imposter syndrome, and how he worked with Kobe Bryant to build the legendary alter-ego of The Black Mamba.
Available now: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Transcript
Herman has worked with elite athletes, peak performers, and entrepreneurial leaders for over 22 years. He helps them achieve their most ambitious goals by becoming more resilient, creative, confident, and courageous. He is also the author of the bestselling book The Alter Ego Effect.
Here are a few highlights from the episode:
I want to look at your identity because your identity—the person or the view of yourself that’s going out to perform on that field—is where all of your habits, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs sit; they’re on top of that identity of you as that performer.
Success has a lot more to do with not making stupid mistakes than it ever does [with] making phenomenally right choices.
If you want to win, you’ve got to know how to execute. And it’s in the execution that so many people break. They just don’t want to do the things. Everyone wants the noun without the verb.
Everybody gets knocked down. I just want to ensure I get knocked down pursuing the things that I want to go and pursue.
Pressure is not real. Pressure is only delivered by the human itself.
We throw around the word “focus” and say, “You just gotta focus more,” and what I would say to people is, “I think you need to add more meaning to the activity and what it’s doing for you and where it’s taking you.”
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
05:23 – How to get the best out of yourself
15:18 – What makes successful people so great?
24:21 – On the environment of successful people
48:45 – Is it hard to talk with average people?
59:05 – What’s the relationship between identity and performance
01:11:40 – What’s the role of luck and identity in success?
01:24:20 – Routines for focus and performing well
01:32:25 – How do you teach someone to visualize?
01:35:35 – Goal-setting to and goal-setting through
01:39:39 – Herman’s definition of success
