Brian Johnson and Emerson break down mental toughness in chess across three moments: how you respond after a loss, how you perform when falling behind, and how you sustain effort in training before it matters. The real work happens in that third phase.
Chapters
Hi, this is Bryan. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last one we talked about some of Emerson's favorite chess heroes, including Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley Sill. We focused on his all time favorite player, Magnus Carlsen, and his mental toughness. Today we're going to spend some more time discussing that chat in another chat we had last night about the power of mental toughness and the role it plays in peak performance. So I asked Emerson how he thinks mental toughness plays a role in his chest performance. He tells me that it helps him respond to losing well, to which I said it absolutely does. Win or learn, right? Then I asked him how else mental toughness helps him perform. And he tells me that it also helps him perform well during a match with when he might fall a little behind. To which I said it absolutely does. Time to sit up a little taller, breathe deeply and dominate, eh? Then I told him that there's another point in our performance when mental toughness is absolutely critical. He was stumped. So I told him the other time. Mental toughness is super important is during your training. If you don't have a strong mind, you won't see how important it is to show up and practice and you won't be able to get yourself excited to actually do the work, even when you may not feel like it. And that's today's plus one. We'll connect this wisdom to some wisdom I got in a recent heroic chat with Lanny Basham soon. But for now, quick inventory. How is your mental toughness before, during and after your performances? And to be clear, we are all performing all day, every day. So let's optimize that performance before, during and after today.
