1. Positive Images (chapter 8)
1.1. Performance Imagery: Alex Baumann
1.1.1. Get the right people behind you and learning from the best will allow for images of yourself in positive ways will fill your head.
1.1.1.1. "The best way I have learned to prepare mentally for competitions is to visualize the race in my mind." Orlick 114
1.1.1.1.1. Lesson: Putting an image of myself succeeding in my head allows me to picture success.
1.2. Imagining Success: Video Imagery
1.2.1. Many athletes look at film or research the correct way to do a certain movement or activity to prefect it.
1.2.1.1. "...athletes used video imagery mostly to improve their performance skills, correct technical errors or unwanted performance habits, or to be inspired by outstanding people they were watching." Orlick 116
1.2.1.1.1. Lesson: Looking at someone who has perfected a task can help me to perfect that in my own life.
1.3. Developing Performance Imagery Skills
1.3.1. Having the best imagery skills toward oneself can allow for the right level of competition needed.
1.3.1.1. "A good way to perfect feeling-oriented performance imagery is to integrate a piece of your sport or performance equipment and actually move your body while doing the imagery." Orlick 124
1.3.1.1.1. Lesson: Prepare the way for imagery in a way that helps more than harms myself.
1.4. Mental Perparation for Potential Obstacles
1.4.1. Preparing for what may happen in a performance situation allows for a seamless performance in any area.
1.4.1.1. "Mentally rehearsing or imagining a preferred response plan lets you prepare for and practice effective responses in your mind before you confront that real-life challenge, problem, or distraction." Orlick 125
1.4.1.1.1. Lesson: Imagining the worst can prepare me for the highs and lows in any situation.
2. Journey to Excellence (chapter 4)
2.1. The Quest
2.1.1. This taught me that personal goals are achievable and the journey will be long and hard. However, using the right skills will result in excelling in every part of life.
2.1.1.1. "The pursuit of mediocrity or doing as little as possible in whatever you are doing will never take you to where you are capable of going." Orlick 47
2.1.1.1.1. Lesson: The journey should hold joy and happiness.
2.2. Barriers to Excellence
2.2.1. Having the right mindset and "dociding" to keep going has an impact on the future of excellence within lifetimes.
2.2.1.1. "Most people have thought, at least momentarily, that they can't do something but then managed to do it because they were able to shift focus away from their doubts to connecting fully with doing what they wanted to d and were capable of doing." Orlick 49
2.2.1.1.1. Lesson: Turn focus away from road blocks and instead look to positive things along the way.
2.3. Keep the Joy in the Pursuit
2.3.1. Learning to have a joy in the pursuit of excellence has a big impact on the journey. Keeping a positive mindset allows for positivity throughout life.
2.3.1.1. "Each experience has the potential to lead you to some kind of personal growth, improved performance, self-discovery, and greater or clearer awareness of whatever you are seeking in your sport, relationships, or life." Orlick 51
2.3.1.1.1. Lesson: Joy in the pursuit of excellence will lighten the load on the "burden" of life.
2.4. Path to Personal Excellence: Kerrin Lee-Gartner's Journey
2.4.1. Lee-Gartner has a lot of advice on how she got to the World Cup and how each aspect of the wheel of excellence helped her to get where she wanted to be.
2.4.1.1. "The most important lesson always to learn something from everything that happens and apply it to the next event." Orlick 59
2.4.1.1.1. Lesson: Believe in myself and what I have chosen to do.
3. Wheel of Excellence (chapter 2)
3.1. Focus: the focal point of the wheel. I learned that without focus nothing can be achieved to full potential. Raising focus raises all levels of the wheel.
3.1.1. Commitment
3.1.1.1. The ability to commit fully to an activity or other activities allows for increased performance in all areas of my life.
3.1.1.1.1. "With focused commitment, you can achieve almost anything; without it, high-level goals within your grasp become virtually impossible to attain." Orlick 14
3.1.2. Mental readiness
3.1.2.1. Having the capacity for preparing the mind for the coming activity allows for positive performance.
3.1.2.1.1. "Mental readiness has everything to do with being positive, focused, persistent, and fully committed to acting on your positive intentions." Orlick 16
3.1.3. Positive images
3.1.3.1. Putting positive images of the coming events into my head can allow for an increased sense of calm and trust in personal ability.
3.1.3.1.1. "Performing at a high level in your mind [...] allows to create the conditions for success without having actually executed those performances in the real world." Orlick 20
3.1.4. Confidence
3.1.4.1. The confidence going into any situation that it will turn out great has the power to influence both attitude and outcome for the best.
3.1.4.1.1. "The best way to increase your confidence is to strengthen your focus on the right things." Orlick 21
3.1.5. Distraction control
3.1.5.1. Freeing from distractions can also positively influence any situation in my life by allowing for increased focus.
3.1.5.1.1. "...especially important when you feel stressed, crowded, pressured, uncertain, or unappreciated or when you are performing in demanding or highly stressful circumstances." Orlick 22
3.1.6. Ongoing learning
3.1.6.1. Thinking through what a person has been through and self-discovery is a key component to increasing ability within oneself.
3.1.6.1.1. "To live to your true potential, continue to reflect on the focus you carry into your most joyful experiences and best performances." Orlick 23
3.2. Wheel of Excellence allows to look at yourself and make positive change to these various aspects of life.
4. Balanced (chapter 18)
4.1. Preventing and Coping with Overload
4.1.1. Finding time with demands from other has positive impact on the concentration and demand on oneself.
4.1.1.1. "To prevent overload, first think about your priorities and what balance means to you." Orlick 254
4.1.1.1.1. Lesson: Saying no to some of the demands put on me can greatly improve my workload.
4.2. Assessing Demands and Managing Stress
4.2.1. Taking breaks after looking at what the demands on personal life and choosing what to invest time in will assist with what needs to get done.
4.2.1.1. "Balanced excellence is not a question of working any less diligently while you are training, working, preparing or performing; it is a question of ligtening your load and relaxing more fully outside of training, perfomring, or working hours." Orlick 255.
4.2.1.1.1. Lesson: My own stress is under my own control and everything can be cut back for a great health.
4.3. Scheduling Positive Time for You to Balance Your Life
4.3.1. Finding something that a person loves and doing it often will alleviate the stresses of every day life.
4.3.1.1. "Balanced excellence become possible when you reduce the stress in your life and add more joy to your life." Orlick 259
4.3.1.1.1. Lesson: Balancing time to do things that I love will improve my results in other areas of life.