Tom Brady and Michael Phelps have more in common than being top professional athletes; both Brady and Phelps were trained by performance coach, Greg Harden, to mentally prepare for the major moments in their careers like Super Bowls and the Olympics.
Harden's impressive clientele includes 120 Olympic competitors, 80 NBA players and 50 NHL players. He believes that the key to preparing for challenges lies in training yourself mentally.
"To be a stellar performer, you have to become grounded," Harden tells CNBC Make It.
These are the tools he recommends for grounding yourself and becoming a top competitor in your field, from his new book, "Stay Sane in an Insane World."
5 tips for becoming a top competitor at work
1. Be hungry and be humble
To become a top competitor in your field, "you have to be hungry, and you have to be humble," says Harden. It's easy to activate "hunger," which is the desire you need to chase after your goals, he adds, but remaining humble as you're climbing the ladder in your field can be a bit more challenging.
"Teaching people how to make sure their ego shows up when it's supposed to, and knowing how to surrender the ego so that they're coachable, is a critical piece of the puzzle," he adds.
"You have to be able to know when your ego must lead, and when you need to follow."
2. Remember that you are more than what you do
The No. 1 lesson that Harden wanted Tom Brady to walk away with was an understanding that "he's more than just a football player and an athlete. That he is a human being who's been prepared, who's practiced, trained and rehearsed to give 100%, 100% of the time."
You won't always win, but as long as you've given it your all, Harden encourages you to be proud of yourself.
"If you've given [it] everything you've got, win, lose or draw, you're my guy, you're my girl, you're my person," Harden says. "Because I know you didn't quit."
3. Train yourself for fast recovery
Without a doubt, you'll face many challenges as you're working your way up in any field, says Harden. There will always be something that you have to recover from, and being able to quickly bounce back from challenging times is a necessary skill, he notes.
Here's a list of a few things that you'll likely experience and need to recover from, says Harden:
- Heartache
- Grief
- Disappointment
- Mistakes
Whether you're an "athlete, CEO or a top-tier physician," Harden says, "How fast you recover from life's challenges sets you up to be the best."
Training yourself to recover quickly from tough situations starts with knowing your strengths and weaknesses, he adds. "Become the world's greatest expert on one subject: you," says Harden, so that you can know what works and what doesn't work to help you process and move on from negative experiences.
4. View stress as predictable and manageable
"Stress is predictable. Fear and anxiety are predictable, especially if we're talking about peak performers," Harden says.
During some of the greatest moments of your life, you've likely experienced some of the highest levels of stress, anxiety and self-doubt, he notes. But remind yourself that there's a thin line between anxiety and excitement, says Harden.
"Stop being afraid of being afraid. It makes sense that you're anxious," he says. "Stress is predictable, therefore manageable."
Before doing anything that requires a lot of courage, breathing is super important to settle yourself, says Harden. "Courage is not the absence of fear; it's facing it," he says.
In situations like these, shift your mindset to cross that line from fear to excitement, he recommends. "I need you to get so excited," Harden adds, psych yourself up to "go have some fun."
5. Practice positive self-talk
One of the most important things that Harden has taught Michael Phelps is how to talk to himself, he says.
"The average person doesn't think about what it really means to train to be a swimmer," says Harden. "When you're in that pool, and you're training to be the best, you have to be so trained mentally."
When competing, swimmers spend most of their time in the water, alone with their own thoughts, he adds. With this in mind, self-talk is a vital part of what keeps them going.
"You can train the inner voice so well that in the times that negative thoughts and negative words come into your mind, you're catching yourself and identifying that 'Oh, I'm going in the wrong direction,'" says Harden.
"Be obnoxiously optimistic. What are you gonna focus on? What are you gonna think about? How are you going to train yourself to believe without question or pause that this practice is going to turn into something special?"
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