The Fearless Mind by Dr. Craig Manning

This blog is a summary of key points from The Fearless Mind by Dr. Craig Manning. This book helped me in my daily personal and professional life, and I hope that sharing the following concepts helps you as well.

The Fearless Mind

The Fearless Mind is a state of being where one is mentally positive, confident, and focused on the task at hand.

Components of a Fearless Mind

First, being confident is key. A confident person believes in their skills and does not let others affect their efforts. Confidence is increased by learning and developing core skills which improves performance on tasks.

A task is an activity required in competition, for example a backswing in tennis.

Focus on the present improves performance by not thinking about past or future outcomes and instead focusing on tasks. This requires concentration.

Focus and concentration require decision making. There are two ways to improve decision making. One is through block practice, the practice of core skills in isolation. The other is random-practice, which is practice that simulates competition.

It is necessary to take calculated risk because it improves focus, and can make the difference when other elements in competition are equal.

Positive thinking and self-talk is a key element because competition has highs and lows, so it is important to remain positive and not let swings affect performance.

General context of the book

Dr. Manning replicated other top school’s physical training programs for his tennis team, but hit a plateau. He wanted to further improve his team’s performance, which led to him focus on the mental aspect of competiion. What he learned became The Fearless Mind.

How did I find out about The Fearless Mind book

I found out about this book through watching the YouTube film 8600FT by Canyon Bicycles. Dr. Manning is in the movie, and Braydon Bringhurst, the star of the film, who is attempting to climb 8600FT of the Whole Enchilada trail in Moab, was one of Dr. Manning’s students. Bringhurst uses the above strategies openly in the film, especially the positive self-talk strategy.