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your second wind in life

How to Get Your Second Wind in Life!

your second wind in life

How to Get Your Second Wind In Life

Early in my running days, I was training for one of my marathons, I HAD to get my run in late one evening. 

It was dark, I was tired. I wanted to rest, but I went anyway. 

I’m so thankful I did!

I ran 5 miles and I actually experienced the runner’s high.  It’s like jumping out of an airplane, it’s tough to describe.

I moved so quickly, so effortlessly, and so fast. I was overcome with so many feel-good emotions that I almost cried. It was the best feeling in the world and one I can still remember today!

After 15 years of running, I’ve had great runs of course, but hitting the runner’s high is special, like an eclipse, it happens only ever so often.

I’ve experienced the greatest phenomenon twice. Just twice thrice in my life! It happened recently!

On the other shoe, almost every run I currently do, I rely on my 2nd wind. 

In the first 800 meters or mile, I am slow, heavy, and my breathing is labored! I actually start to wonder, what’s the matter?

Before you get your second wind in life, there’s a little bit of panic, anxiety, stress, and discomfort.

Soon though, our next burst kicks in.

In everyday life, we RARELY operate in the space where EVERYTHING just flows perfectly and doves fly around when we enter the room and the trumpets roar!

Nah, it’s a struggle.

We are training, preparing, and focusing on the details on our craft. We are advised to EMBRACE THE SUCK!

However, the suck is the farthest thing from a peak experience!

Here are 4 ways to get your second wind in life.

1. Know Your Why-

If we are running and we start to walk, then walking becomes easier later on. 

If quitting is an option, then we take it. Quitting then becomes easier later on. We must know our own why! If we know our why, then we can come up with any how. It begins each day with a check-in with ourselves.

What’s your goal? What’s your purpose? Who are you connecting with? 

2. Don’t Stop- 

My wife was going to break 2 hrs for a 1/2 marathon.

I was running with her, pacing. It was going to be close! On the very last slight up-hill, 300 yards from the finish, SHE STOPPED! I screamed at her to get going! She finished in 1:59:52.

No matter how bad something hurts in our life, there is an endpoint.

Remember, Every workout ENDS!

The pain period we are going through will stop! Hard times do not come to stay, they come to pass!

Even slow walkers arrive!

But, IF you STOP, then all bets are off. How often does someone start college, take a semester or year break, THEN come back? RARE!

You have to keep moving to get your second wind! When all else fails- PUKE & RALLY!

3. Find Your Rhythm-

Everything has a rhythm!

Life has momentum!

In the courtroom, the best defense is to “object.” It gets the other lawyer off their rhythm! Tennis players go back to their towel, Baseball hitters step in & out of the box. All intended to get you off of your rhythm.

Find your rhythm, breath, get back to your routine. Breath, get back to your routine. Breath, reset, re-focus, get back to your routine. Oh yes, and breathe.

4. Patience- 

We want our second wind in life NOW. And sometimes we get it….

But, we just don’t know when it will come. We can’t know. All that is certain is that if we go through the motions, if we check-out, if we start looking for the exit, then, our next wind won’t happen!

I had an athlete once tell me, “I can’t wait to be patient.”

I get it.

Patience a higher-order skill and one in which we do not practice today. I can guarantee you that your second chance in life is coming if you just hang on long enough.

4 ways to find your second wind in life 
1. Know Your Why
2. Don’t Stop
3. Find Your Rhythm 
4. Patience. 

 

dr rob bell speakerDr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. DRB & associates coach executives and professional athletes. Some clients have included three different winners on the PGA Tour, Indy Eleven, University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens. 

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Mental Toughness is a Voicemail Away

Mental Toughness is a Voicemail Away

One speaking event at my alma mater, Shepherd University, I made sure to invite my professor, Dr. Joe Merz. He made such an impact in my life. If not for him, then Sport Psychology and the passion I live out everyday would not have happened.

I received a voicemail from him after the event.

The voicemail was about a minute long and went in-depth about and what an amazing job I did and how proud and impressed he was. 

It felt good. I saved it. It built up my Mental Toughness. It’s still on my phone today.

That same week though, I probably left a dozen voicemail and text messages to various people. But, I could not begin to tell you what I said or wrote.

We can listen to all of our voicemail messages right now on our phone. But, we have no idea that messages we left during that same time.

Life is the same way.

We remember the most impactful people in our lives. But, we often have no idea the impact we made on someone else. We can’t know.

On a much simpler level, perhaps we remember the person who waved to us today or held the door. But, we don’t know the effect of our own kind gesture today.

We are literally and figuratively leaving voicemails all the time for people and it makes a difference, good or bad.

If we want to KEEP our mental toughness, we HAVE to give it away.

Every transaction we have with someone has the potential to be transformative. We can’t know who or what will be the hinge. People will remember how we made them feel even for an instant and it has the potential to connect them to someone else.

So are we intentional about our messages?

We give away what we possess ourselves. All of us has fired off an angry email or perhaps left a not-so-friendly voicemail. If we are filled with resentment, contempt, hatred, or lack of confidence, then that is the message of our transactions. It usually effects those closest to us as well. 

However, if we can be deliberate about leaving messages that are encouraging, positive, filled with confidence and hope, then a miracle occurs. We actually start to leave ourselves a message. If we act and behave in ways that are focused on others and building their own mental game, then we act our way into right thinking and our own mood and outlook changes.

That’s how Mental Toughness works. We have to give it away to keep it. 

Dr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. His company DRB & associates is based in Indianapolis.  Some clients have included: Indy Eleven, University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens. Check out all the books on Mental Toughness 

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(Video) What We Can Learn From Every Super Bowl Champion

What We Can Learn From Every Super Bowl Champion

Here is my Keynote address of speaking to coaches at the NFL combine. 

Success leaves clues. It’s the reason I wrote 50 Ways to Win: Pro Football’s Hinge Moments

It was amazing to discover proof why the process really is more important than the product and that there was only one common theme amongst every Super Bowl Champion. What an insightful discovery about what we can learn from every super bowl champion.

learn from every super bowl champion

Dr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. His company DRB & associates is based in Indianapolis.  Some clients have included: University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens. Check out all the books on Mental Toughness- 

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(VIDEO) What Blocks Us From Mental Toughness

What Blocks us from Mental Toughness

One of the most difficult things in life is to let go of old ideas and ways of thinking. The sexy term nowadays is having a growth mindset compared to a fixed mindset. Here’s how it plays out.

Hope you enjoy this brief Mental Toughness video. 

“The secret it to move with the punch” – Jake LaMotta

Dr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. His company DRB & associates is based in Indianapolis.  Some clients have included: University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens. Check out all the books on Mental Toughness- 

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(Video) Mental Toughness is built off of the field?

Mental Toughness is built off of the field?

Not only does our best change as we get better, but Mental Toughness also becomes more about what takes place off the field than on the field. We are who we are when we are alone.

What happens when the door comes off the Hinges? If you hear a creaky door, it’s not the door at all, it’s The Hinge.  Here is a story about the athlete that you know because he/she is simply the best athlete in town.

 

 

Dr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. His company DRB & associates is based in Indianapolis.  Some clients have included: University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens. Check out the most recent book on Mental Toughness- 50 Ways to Win: pro Football’s Hinge Moments 

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Examples of mental Toughness

17 Famous Examples of Mental Toughness. . .

Here are 17 Famous Examples of Mental Toughness 

Mental Toughness depends on our ability to re-focus, let go of mistakes, and use setbacks as comebacks! It’s not about the setback, it’s about the comeback!

Here are 17 Examples of Mental Toughness

• In game 5 of the 1956 World Series, Don Larson pitched the only perfect game in history. However, in-game 2 of the same series, he pitched only 1.2 innings and lost the game 13-8.

• Hall of Famer, Raymond Berry, who retired as the NFL’s all-time reception leader, only caught 13 passes his entire rookie year in the league for the Colts.

• Roger Federer, the greatest tennis player in history, has won seven Wimbledon titles. Yet, he lost in the first round of Wimbledon his first three years of playing.

• Taylor Swift was passed over by RCA for a record contract at age 15.

• Andre Agassi lost his first three Grand Slam Finals.

• Jeff Immelt was hired on Thursday, September 7, 2001 as CEO of General Electric (GE), the multi-national conglomerate, following Jack Welsh, the famous icon. The following Tuesday, Septemer 11, 2001, the rookie CEO watched on NBC, which GE owned, as two GE-financed planes crashed into the Twin Towers that GE insured.

• Jim Marshall of the Minnesota Vikings recovered a fumble and ran it the wrong way to the end zone, and threw it out-of-bounds for a safety. The next drive, he sacked the quarterback and forced a fumble which his teammate picked up and ran for a game-winning TD.

Now, this is the greatest of examples of mental toughness, because if you google his name, you’ll witness the setback. 

• Matt Biondi was a favorite to win 7 Gold medals at the 1988 Olympic games. He lost his first two finals, going 0-2. He ended up winning 5 Gold medals at the Games. There’s the proof it’s all about the comeback! 

• Mike Krzyzewski, during his first three seasons at Duke University, had an equivocal record of 38-37, with an ACC in-conference record of just 13-29. 

• William Jennings Bryan was nominated by his party to run for U.S. President three times and lost every time. In 1925, at age 65, his brilliant defense decided the Scopes Monkey Trial.

• Country singer Trace Adkins was shot by his ex-wife and survived. The bullet even went through his heart and both lungs. These are painful examples of mental toughness. 

• Danielle Ballengee slipped and fell down a 60-foot cliff while on a training run and spent two days stranded outdoors in Utah suffering with a shattered pelvis and internal bleeding. Just 150 days after her accident, 90 of which were in a wheelchair, she finished fifth in a 60-mile adventure race that included mountain biking, running, orienteering, kayaking, and a ropes course. Wow, such extreme examples of mental toughness!

• Jim Abbott, who had only one hand and pitched for 10 years in the Majors, culminated with throwing a no-hitter in 1993. He threw his no-hitter against the Indians, whom he faced the outing before lasting only 4 innings and giving up 7 runs.

• Lady GaGa was originally signed to Def Jam Recordings at age 19, but the company let her go after just three months.

• George Washington lost his first battle. He had plenty of examples of mental toughness in his life. 

• Johnny Unitas’ first pass was intercepted for a touchdown. He wound up playing for 18 seasons and  throwing a touchdown in 47 consecutive games. 

• Napoleon Hill, author of a best-seller, could not think of a name for his book. Unless he came up with one, the publisher would use the title, Use Your Noodle to Get the Boodle. Hill awoke at 2 a.m. on the deadline date, when the title came to him, Think and Grow Rich. Why is this mental toughness? Because we have to trust ourselves…

• Roger Bannister finished fourth in the 1952 Olympics. It was this hinge moment and disappointing finish that drove him to break the four-minute mile. Wow! 

All of these examples of mental toughness have one common theme and that is there was a setback, failure, and futility before the comeback.

It’s not about the setback, it’s always about the comeback. 

 

dr rob bell speakerDr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. DRB & associates coach executives and professional athletes. Some clients have included three different winners on the PGA Tour, Indy Eleven, University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens. 

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Why I apologized to the guy who ran over my foot!

Al Bundy stuffhappens.us

I was in Tennessee with a golfer at the PGA tour event. On wednesday afternoon, We were all standing around the chipping green while I was talking with my players’ caddy.

From literally nowhere, this guy, drove a gator tractor over my foot with the front tire and then just stopped with the back tires now on my foot!!

I yelled at the guy to “KEEP GOING” because he just had a blank stare on his face. He looked like he couldn’t believe he just did that. I couldn’t believe it was happening.

Time does stand still for the precious seconds that a gator tractor is on top of your foot while you try to lift it up.

The entire process took less than 10 seconds, although it felt like minutes.

He pulled forward and I didn’t have shooting pain down my foot, so I knew it wasn’t broken.

Even though I didn’t do anything wrong, I was still a bit embarrassed. 

I said “Man, I hope you don’t drive like this is real life.”

After the commotion was over and people asking if I was okay and such, The guy walked back over to me and apologized.

I apologized as well!

I know he didn’t do it on purpose!

I said “I hope I didn’t say anything derogatory to you, I was just upset.”  I also said, “If this is the worst thing we ever have, we will be okay.” He laughed.

He made a mistake and was embarrassed as well. I could have blown him off or yelled at him some more, but what would that have accomplished? It would have made the issue way worse!

I wanted to use this situation as a quick lesson on how I want to conduct myself and stay calm. If I lost my cool, maybe I would have been viewed as an idiot.

How can we make our mess, our message?  Mental Toughness is doing the next right thing and apologizing is a big part.

 

Dr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. His company DRB & associates is based in Indianapolis.  Some clients have included: University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens. Check out the most recent book on Mental Toughness- Don’t Should on Your Kids: Build Their Mental Toughness   

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{Infographic} 11 tested ways to get out of your comfort zone

Everything we want in life is on the other side of our comfort zone. Building mental toughness means being comfortable getting uncomfortable.

Dr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. His company DRB & associates is based in Indianapolis.  Some clients have included: University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens. Check out the most recent book on Mental Toughness- Don’t Should on Your Kids: Build Their Mental Toughness   

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{Infographic} The Cycle of Champions

Virgil Herring, TN PGA Instructor of the year provides the 3 c’s for becoming a champion.

Champions before Championships.

Competence- Confidence- Compete. We are not only working on our game, we are working on ourselves.

This is Just ONE way to Build Mental Toughness. If you are interested in learning more Mental Toughness Techniques. Check out RING THE BELL FOR Mental Toughness. 

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{Infographic} 10 Everyday Ways to Build Mental Toughness |

10 Everyday Ways to Build Mental Toughness 

Define it first— Mental Toughness = How we deal, cope, and handle adversity. Thus, adversity must be present! Now this is about testing AND training your mental toughness, know the difference. 

1. Look everyone in the eye.

The eyes tell it all. Your eyes give you away!

The reason we won’t is that we aren’t confident in ourselves. Maybe it is because we are troubled or uninterested in the other person. Don’t just gaze and look away either but right up to the point of it being uncomfortable.

 2. Ask a question.

Ask for clarification or elaborate on every conversation you’re in. Not only will it show your paying attention, but also you’ll learn more. Few people ask questions for fear of looking stupid, so it’s even better to ask a question in the presence of several people, such as a meeting.

3. Write out your goal for the day.

This is the easiest test, but don’t make it a to-do list.  Most of us just think about the goal instead of writing it down. If you write down what you want to accomplish, you’ll achieve it.

 4. Get your workout on.

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Whether you’re a corporate athlete or someone on scholarship, everyone is an athlete. All athletes get physical. These everyday ways to build mental toughness must include physical activity. It does not mean flipping big tires either! It’s not the be all-end-all but it has to be a part of it. 

5. Wake up 30 minutes early.

This is a huge indicator of success and this everyday mental toughness test is a cornerstone for our 30-day challenge.

The first hour of the day sets the rudder for the rest.

Can you fight the innate urge to hit the snooze and just get up? What will you do with the extra 30 minutes?

6. Work through lunch.

In the movie, Wall Street, Gordon Gekko said it best “ Lunch is for wimps.” Pack your lunch; take a break and be present while you eat and recharge, then grind ahead. Everyday Mental Toughness tests take sacrifice and getting uncomfortable. 

7. Turn off your phone.

This is the toughest one for everybody because how long do we go without our phone anyway, 5 minutes? Plan when you get home to shut your phone off during a certain amount of time. Be present! These everyday ways to build mental toughness are simple, but NOT easy! 

 8. Take 30 seconds of a cold shower.

Pay attention to where your thoughts go. 

9. Listen to someone.

Too often, when someone speaks, we merely start talking about ourselves. Instead, just listen and put yourself in their situation. Ask a question and look them in the eye.

10. Forgive someone.

You can check this one off by forgiving someone who cut you off in traffic, or you can seriously work on this step and choose someone who really hurt you. 

Remember, resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Sometimes the most difficult person to forgive is ourselves.

Everyday ways to build mental toughness

These everyday ways to build mental toughness means how we cope, deal, and handle the adversity of these challenges.

Some of these action steps will come easier to you than others, but our mental toughness will grow every day the more often we utilize these challenges. 

Check out our page on mental toughness coaching. 

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dr rob bell speakerDr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. DRB & associates coach executives and professional athletes. Some clients have included three different winners on the PGA Tour, Indy Eleven, University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens. 

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