Learned Excellence

Picture yourself moments before a crucial presentation, your heart racing as you prepare to address a room full of skeptical executives. Or imagine standing at the starting line of your first marathon, surrounded by thousands of runners while doubt creeps into your mind. Perhaps you're a student staring at a blank page, knowing this essay could determine your college acceptance. In these pivotal moments, what separates those who thrive from those who merely survive isn't talent, preparation, or luck—it's the mental skills they've developed to perform under pressure.

Every day, millions of people face performance moments that matter. Yet most of us receive extensive training for the physical and technical aspects of our roles while the mental component—arguably the most crucial element—remains largely ignored. We train our bodies, sharpen our skills, and accumulate knowledge, but we leave our minds to fend for themselves when the stakes are highest. This gap between our potential and our performance isn't inevitable. The world's top performers have learned to master their mental game, and these same skills are available to anyone willing to learn them.

Excellence begins with a fundamental question that most people struggle to answer clearly: Who are you, really? Beyond your job title, social media persona, or the roles you play for others, what defines your core identity? The highest performers understand that sustainable success flows from acting in alignment with their deepest values, not from chasing external validation or trying to meet others' expectations.

David Colturi learned this lesson the hard way. As a professional cliff diver, he spent years obsessing over his reputation, constantly worrying about what judges, sponsors, and spectators thought of his performances. Despite his obvious talent and dedication, this external focus created a mental prison that limited his potential. Everything changed after a near-fatal accident during a stunt dive in Switzerland. While recovering from emergency surgery, David was forced to confront who he truly was beneath the athlete persona. He began developing what became his personal credo, a set of ten words that captured his deepest values: selfless, discipline, grit, mindful, stoic, clarity, character, courage, ikigai, evolving. These weren't aspirational buzzwords but honest reflections of what mattered most to him. For the first time in his career, David felt free to perform without the crushing weight of reputation anxiety.

Creating your own values foundation requires honest self-examination and time. Begin by noticing moments throughout your week when you feel most energized and authentic. What values are you expressing in those moments? Ask close friends and family members to describe what they see as your core characteristics, then compare their observations with your own self-perception. Gradually narrow your list to no more than ten words that truly capture your essence. These become your identity markers, the foundation upon which all other performance skills are built.

Once you've established your values foundation, channel that clarity into specific, ambitious goals across all areas of your life. The most successful performers don't just set career objectives—they create comprehensive visions that include relationships, health, spiritual growth, hobbies, and the legacy they want to leave. Write these goals down, share them with trusted friends or mentors, and create accountability systems to track your progress. Remember that your values serve as your North Star, ensuring that even your most ambitious goals remain authentic expressions of who you truly are.

Your mindset isn't something that happens to you—it's a conscious choice you make about how to approach every situation in your life. The difference between those who achieve sustained excellence and those who plateau lies not in their circumstances but in their mental frameworks for interpreting and responding to those circumstances.

Navy helicopter pilot Katy Stanfill discovered this truth during her first real mission at sea. Despite extensive training and natural ability, she found herself unable to complete a routine cargo delivery when the flight controls felt unresponsive during her approach to a naval vessel. The mechanical systems checked out fine afterward—the problem existed entirely between her ears. In that moment of crisis, Katy's mindset had shifted from confidence to threat assessment, from focusing on execution to obsessing over potential failure. Her subsequent recovery required a fundamental change in how she approached challenging situations. Instead of asking "What if I mess up?" she learned to ask "What can I learn from this?" This simple shift in perspective transformed not just her flying career but her entire approach to adversity.

The most powerful mindsets share certain characteristics: they prioritize growth over perfection, process over outcomes, and learning over looking good. To activate your chosen mindset, focus exclusively on what lies within your control. Elite performers organize their mental energy around three controllables: attitude (how you think about situations), effort (how much energy you invest), and behavior (what actions you take). Everything else—other people's opinions, external conditions, past failures, future uncertainties—exists outside your circle of influence and deserves no mental real estate.

Practice your mindset daily by monitoring your self-talk and replacing negative, fixed beliefs with positive, growth-oriented thoughts. When you catch yourself saying "I'm terrible at this," counter with evidence-based reality: "I'm still learning this skill." Create pre-performance routines that trigger your optimal mindset, whether that's listening to specific music, repeating a personal mantra, or visualizing successful execution. Most importantly, seek out challenges that push you beyond your comfort zone. Each time you take a risk and learn from the outcome—whether successful or not—you strengthen your growth mindset and build confidence in your ability to handle whatever comes next.

The highest performers understand a paradox that confuses most people: the best way to achieve outstanding results is to stop obsessing over results and instead focus relentlessly on perfecting your process. When you trust your process completely, outcomes become byproducts rather than anxious fixations.

Professional baseball pitcher Rich Hill learned this lesson through painful experience. During a crucial 2007 playoff game for the Chicago Cubs, Hill was so focused on the potential outcome—winning or losing, how he'd be perceived, what it would mean for his career—that he lost connection with the mechanical and mental process that had gotten him to that moment. His performance suffered, contributing to his team's elimination. Years later, Hill completely restructured his approach around process-focused thinking. Before each pitch, he concentrated solely on his preparation, mechanics, and execution. The ball's trajectory after leaving his hand remained important, but it no longer dominated his mental space during performance. This shift in focus led to some of the best years of his career, including helping the Los Angeles Dodgers reach multiple World Series.

Your process begins with how you manage the 24 hours you're given each day. Elite performers treat time as their most valuable currency, never leaving large blocks unaccounted for. Develop a weekly planning ritual where you intentionally schedule every hour, color-coding commitments based on their flexibility and importance. Green slots can be moved if something urgent arises, yellow requires careful consideration before changing, and red remains sacred except in true emergencies. This system eliminates the decision fatigue that drains mental energy throughout the day.

Build feedback loops with vetted sources who possess both the knowledge to evaluate your performance accurately and the loyalty to tell you the truth even when it's uncomfortable. Make changes to your process incrementally, adjusting one variable at a time rather than overhauling everything when results disappoint. Remember that even perfect processes sometimes yield imperfect outcomes—that's the nature of performance in an uncertain world. Trust the process means committing to your system through both victories and setbacks, knowing that consistency over time produces the results you seek.

Mental toughness isn't the absence of stress or fear—it's the ability to perform optimally despite their presence. When pressure mounts and stakes feel overwhelming, your body's ancient survival mechanisms activate, flooding your system with stress hormones that can either enhance or derail your performance depending on how well you've learned to manage them.

The grizzly bear exercise at a Red Bull training camp perfectly illustrated this principle. Nine elite athletes, accustomed to death-defying feats in their respective sports, found themselves completely overwhelmed when a 1,300-pound bear named Bart charged toward them during what they thought was a routine journal-writing session. Some screamed, others pushed teammates toward the bear, several fled in opposite directions. These world-class performers, who routinely conquered fear in their chosen domains, discovered they weren't immune to the fight-flight-freeze response when encountering unexpected stressors. The lesson wasn't that they lacked courage, but that mental toughness requires specific skills that must be practiced and refined just like any other aspect of performance.

Your stress response toolkit begins with breathing. Practice 4444 breathing daily: four seconds inhaling, four to six seconds exhaling, for four minutes, four times per day. This activates your parasympathetic nervous system, creating a physiological pathway to calmness that becomes automatic over time. Develop detailed contingency plans for everything that could go wrong during important performances, visualizing not just success but also how you'll respond to setbacks. Create pre-performance routines that signal to your nervous system that it's time to access your trained responses rather than rely on primitive reactions.

Master the art of compartmentalization by practicing the "black box" technique. When mistakes or unexpected events occur during performance, mentally place them in a sealed container to be examined later, allowing you to maintain focus on the task at hand. After performances, unpack that box systematically, reviewing what happened without emotional reactivity so you can learn and improve. Remember that some stress is beneficial—it signals that something meaningful is at stake and can heighten your focus and energy when properly channeled.

Excellence isn't sustainable when built on a foundation of imbalance. The highest performers understand that their identity extends far beyond their primary area of achievement, and they actively invest in multiple pillars of a complete life: work, relationships, health, spirituality, hobbies, and legacy.

Steve Idoux thought he could outwork everyone around him, fueling himself with endless Diet Cokes and responding to emails at all hours. His identity became so merged with his professional success that he lost sight of everything else that mattered. The wake-up call came during what should have been a routine conversation with a team member about a client issue. Instead of his usual composed leadership, Steve found himself screaming with such intensity that he barely recognized himself. In that moment, he realized he'd become the very type of leader he'd always criticized—someone whose lack of balance made them unpredictable and ultimately less effective. The realization forced him to examine how his singular focus on work was actually undermining his performance in all areas of life.

True balance doesn't mean equal time allocation across all life areas—that's neither realistic nor necessary. Instead, it means conscious awareness of where you're investing your energy and intentional planning to address neglected areas before they become critical problems. Some seasons of life require intense focus on one or two pillars, but high performers remain aware of what they're temporarily sacrificing and create plans to rebalance when circumstances allow.

Recovery is equally crucial and must be as intentional as training. Build genuine downtime into your schedule, whether that means technology-free walks in nature, regular sleep routines that prioritize the eight hours your brain needs to consolidate learning, or activities that engage you without triggering performance pressure. The goal isn't to fill every moment with productivity but to create space for restoration that allows you to show up fully when performance matters most. Remember that recovery isn't weakness—it's the strategic investment that makes sustained excellence possible.

The journey to learned excellence begins with a simple but profound recognition: the mental skills that separate great performers from good ones aren't mysterious gifts reserved for a chosen few. They're learnable, practical tools available to anyone willing to invest the time and effort to develop them. Whether you're stepping into a boardroom presentation, preparing for a crucial exam, or simply trying to be your best self in daily interactions, these principles provide a roadmap for unlocking your potential.

As the research clearly shows and countless performers have proven, "Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." The difference between where you are now and where you want to be lies not in dramatic transformations but in consistent daily choices to align your actions with your values, focus on process over outcomes, develop mental resilience, and maintain the balance that makes sustained high performance possible. Every moment offers a new opportunity to practice these skills, and every practice session builds the foundation for future excellence.

Start today with one simple step: identify your core values and write them down. Let these become the foundation for everything that follows. Your future self—the one performing confidently under pressure, achieving meaningful goals, and inspiring others through your example—is waiting for you to begin building the mental skills that will make that vision reality.