The Genius of Athletes

Along the path to any goal—completing a marathon or a thesis paper, winning a medal or a contract—familiar mental hurdles arise: we may fixate on the odds of failure or find our interest flags two thirds of the way through. That’s when elite endurance athletes—top performers in running, cycling, and swimming—turn to their rich arsenal of cognitive strategies to overcome self-doubt and unlock peak performance. The Genius of Athletes combines cutting-edge science with illustrative interviews to show how we, too, can find success in any realm with proven methods from sports psychology: - setting process goals - breaking tasks into smaller objectives - if–then planning - and more. Taking pointers from athletes like Olympian Meb Keflezighi? That’s sure to be a winning strategy!