With Winning in Mind
Lanny Bassham Mental Management ISBN: 1-885221-47-9 166 pages $12.95 http://www.mentalmanagement.com/ 1-972-899-9640
As a child, Lanny Bassham was an aspiring but rotten athlete in every sport he tried. One day a friend suggested he try rifle shooting, an Olympic sport that didn’t require you to be tall or strong or fast: All you had to do was stand still. By the time he was finished, he was an Olympic Gold Medal winner, and two time world champion.
On his way to the top he noticed that 95% of the winning was done by 5% of the competitors. These were not necessarily the competitors with the most natural talent or the greatest physical skills. Rather, they were those with the best mental management skills.
Bassham spent years refining his mental management skills, and turned them into (aside from his gold medal) a training program that is appropriate for anyone that is trying to accomplish some goal. Any goal, and not just athletic goals. This system is distilled in his book, With Winning in Mind, and will be the best $12.95 you will ever spend if you have a goal you wish to achieve. Or if you have a child whose goals you want to help them be able to be able to achieve. Or friends who have goals you would like them to achieve.
We have bought copies for ourselves (they tend to be borrowed, with the borrowers unable to let them go), and on the occasion by the dozen to give as gifts. We have given them to people as wide-ranging as athletes, businessmen, cops, models, dancers, and actresses. In every case the book has been extremely helpful. We most recently gave a copy to competitive fencer (foil) Meredith Baskies, who read the book on the plane to a competition in Germany. One anecdote happened to address a problem she faced in being too excited to sleep well the night before a match. Based on the book – which she felt was written specifically with her in mind – she got a good night’s sleep, and awoke refreshed and prepared for the day’s matches.
We consider With Winning in Mind to be on our very short must-read list, and that it should be on yours, too.
