'1000 Hours For 30 Seconds' with Dr. Rolf Wagschal

Welcome to This Feels Right, TFR Season 3.

Wow!

We are now being listened to in 21 countries. So, thank you very much, everybody. We continue to be the show that's about influencing others, shifting behaviors, ideas, and actions without being manipulative. And what that means is that we are effective in our communication skills and mindset on how we are able to Speak to the logic and most importantly, connect to the emotion so that both sides can say, yeah, this feels right. I'm your host, Joel Silverstone, founder of This Feels Right Effective Communication Skills Training and Coaching. And for over 20 years, I've been helping people in business and sometimes in life to be more aware of those turning point moments, to be listening for those clues and cues that they're able to now deepen those relationships. And about this podcast, if this feels right, then please leave a rating, a review, or even better, subscribe. Now let's listen to the podcast.

Skill that I use even with people that I work with that aren't necessarily athletes, you know, get in touch with your values, speak to those chase after that because, and this is borne out by research, because, you know, long-term job satisfaction is born from doing things that you find meaningful. People always talk about, you know, chase your passion, do those things that you're passionate about. The problem with that is passion is an outcome, not a precursor.

Right.

Passion is born from doing something and immersing yourself and building up a sense of mastery. You know, I talked to my athletes and say, you know, were you as passionate about Soccer when you were 6 years old as you are today?

No.

But that's where you started.

Yeah.

That's Dr. Ralph Wagshell, mental performance consultant. He's worked with every type of athlete at the college and professional level and recently has been working with the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes and committees. In this episode, it's pretty personal for me because, well, as a kid growing up, I always thought I was going to become an Olympian. And then, when I had kids, I thought, well, they're going to become Olympians. Okay, it hasn't happened yet. But in this episode, we get to understand the mindset of that 1,000 hours of practice for those 30 seconds. And also, what does it take to get out of our own way? Stop thinking about that final goal, that podium, so to speak, and really focus on the steps that we need to feel successful and confident. Stay tuned for the end with our final turning point moment, that feel right moment with Dr. Ralph Wagshell. Enjoy the show.

Here we go. We're sitting outside. We've got our tea. Welcome to This Feels Right TFR. It's a beautiful crisp fall day and we've got with us Ralph Wagshell, who is a mental performance consultant. Correct.

Is that correct?

All right, great. As you heard in the intro, we're going to jump right in. So, Ralph, thank you so much for being with us today.

Happy to be here.

And what I always like to ask at the beginning is what is feeling right for you these days?

Feeling right for me these days is really reconnecting with my network, especially in light of COVID and everything that's going on. Getting out there, talking to people, and as much as possible, being in service to them. It connects to a lot of my values, a lot of my coaching style. And that's really been feeling right for me lately.

Great! Well, this ties in so much with our theme for today, which is about 1,000 hours for those 30 seconds.

Yeah, absolutely.

I love that because that is so much where we're at, which is to be so prepared. And I think we're going to talk a lot about this around repetition and consistency and routine, how important this is in Yeah. To be ready for those 30 seconds in everything that we do. So, this is where you're at. You're at right now. This is the end. You've worked with Olympic athletes. You've worked with college athletes. You're a mental performance consultant. Let's go back. Let's rewind.

Okay.

To where you were as a Canadian National Sailing Champion.

Once upon a time, yeah. We spent a little bit of time on the national team. We were on the Olympic track but ultimately decided I decided to go the academic route.

Okay, very good. All right. So, Canadian National Sailing Team.

Yes.

All right. Now, that was a lot of dedication. So now, looking back on that, I think we'd all love to know what was your biggest takeaway from that? What did you learn about yourself from being on that experience?

I think there were really 2 things. One was the value of having a routine. And the comfort that that provides from a physical standpoint, from a psychological standpoint. I think one of the other things was building a reflective process for myself, having a logbook where I could write down notes about what I was doing, what was working, what still needs improvement, to then take that forward into the future and use those then as building blocks for how I got better. I think I think that's really— those are really 2 of the biggest things that I've taken forward from that. And ironically, that I found through research are really powerful tools that I then use in my work today with athletes.

Yeah. So this logbook, and you talk about discipline, and nowadays we talk about journaling and that kind of stuff.

Yeah, absolutely.

Is that the same idea?

Yeah. So it's not about doing any one thing once. It's about having, like I said, with routines, it's about doing the same thing over and over and over again so that it, in a certain way, it can become automatic. You know, I work with athletes. One of the things I talk about with them a lot is what is your routine for, let's say, getting to the gym between leaving your house and stepping on the gym floor?

Right.

Build that out to be exactly the same every single time so that you don't have to spend the mental energy on that. You know, where are my clothes? How am I stretching? You know, what is the route that I'm taking to the gym? So that way, when you're in the gym or on the field of play or in the office, all of that's taken care of and you can kind of— you've saved that energy for what it is that you really want to be working on.

Yeah, this is brilliant because we do so many of these things unconsciously. We had to go to school and we had to be at school at 8:45. We didn't think twice about it. That was the routine. We have to be at the office at 8 AM or 9 AM, you don't think twice about it. You have to do that. But yet, for certain things that require us to be self-motivated, we can procrastinate or get into our own heads.

Absolutely. But I think even more than that, it's— there are the routines that we simply fall into. They just kind of organically take shape. But because they're so powerful, if we start to take control of those routines and build them out for ourselves intentionally, There can be a lot in that for us in terms of maintaining a reserve of mental energy, staying focused, staying relaxed, staying engaged in what it is that we're doing. So, that's one of the other things. It's not about tearing things down wholesale. It's about saying, what are those parts of the routine that are working for me? How do I keep doing that? What are the parts of that routine that are getting in my way? And how do I avoid that?

This is really good because we get so stressed out about it. But in a lot of ways, this is taking Taking the stress out of it by really being very conscious about what's working, what's not working, and make it part of that routine. Love it. Okay. So, let's go now a little bit fast forward.

Yeah.

Now, you are working with the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic team as a mental performance consultant. And you created something called Game Plan or you're part of that.

I was part of it, yeah. So, I recently left Game Plan. But Yeah. Game Plan is a program that is designed to help Olympic, Paralympic national team athletes create more holistic lives for themselves. So the ultimate philosophy is that athletes who have well-rounded lives, who have things going on in their lives outside of sport, are typically happier, are typically healthier, typically perform better, and will stay in sport longer. And there is a ton that goes into supporting that philosophy and that mission, but it was really an honor and a privilege to be a part of that.

Which sounds really cool because now, of course, organizations do then go, oh, we need to do something about the culture we have here so that people don't just feel like they're coming into the office. We need to do something to the culture to make sure that our people are more well-rounded. Is that so? That's kind of— that was kind of the idea?

Yeah, it really evolved from a desire on athletes' part. You know, when they were leaving sport, they were feeling basically put out. You know, an athlete would commit 5, 10, 15 years of their lives to amateur sport Canada. And then when they retired from that, they were basically shown the door and that was it. And Game Plan came out of a recognition that as a sports system, there is more we need to do and more that we can do to support them.

Uh, you know, I wish this existed for me. I, I spent 4 years to try to get into theater school. Okay, I get into theater school. I spent 4 years in theater school, and when it's over Yeah. Well, what am I supposed to do now?

Absolutely. We're left to our own devices. And I mean, you see this, you see this everywhere, you know, career transitions. There is an element of trauma to them regardless of whether you are an accountant, an athlete, an actor.

Yeah.

Um, and this is the sport system's way of trying to provide a little bit of support to that, but also try to provide a little bit more to society as well. If we can provide a little bit of leadership in that regard, then I think that's a job well done.

So, if I'm an athlete and I've been dedicated towards my sport, what were some of the ways that you helped them, I guess, negotiate how they're going to take this next step? Because it would seem quite daunting, as you say.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. This is a world that's all they've known. You know, I've, I've been talking to a lot of athletes, and COVID itself has been incredibly disruptive to everyone. But talking to a lot of athletes, in some cases this is the longest— or certainly in April, in the spring, that was the longest they'd ever been away from their sports since they started. So really it's about figuring out, you know, who are you if not for sport, and how do we build those parts out that you are perhaps wanting to build out? How do you build out a social or professional network for yourself outside of sport? How do you build some more self-awareness for yourself in terms of what are those things that you find meaningful and valuable in your sport participation, or that you would like to find in your future work?

Right.

What are the tangible skills that you have acquired through sport, which are very marketable and desirable in the workplace? workforce. How do you take an inventory about that? How do you appreciate that in a way that you feel comfortable communicating that with people?

Yeah, I, you know, I, I, I'm digesting that because I'm just thinking that athlete would be thinking, this is all I've ever done. But what you said there, I think about visiting their values or visit— yeah, visiting maybe and maybe Where maybe they, I guess, put it on the shelf for so long?

I don't know that they necessarily put it on the shelf, but I think this is something that everyone does. You know, our values are things that we kind of take for granted. So one of the things that I try and do with athletes, especially when they first come to me and especially as they're towards the end of their careers, is again, work through a couple exercises that help them build some self-awareness. Writing a resume is one. simply as a way of taking inventory of everything that they've done. And not only that, but all the skills that they can then bring forward into whatever that they choose to do next. Values is another one. Again, we take it for granted, but it's rare that we actually sit down and explicitly go through exercises that help us really get in touch with those things that we find meaningful. So, those are 2 really, really powerful experiences that it's not about kind of that groundbreaking realization. A lot of times, I'm met with, yeah, I kind of knew that stuff before, which is good. But it's about making that explicit. And it's about then using that information in terms of how you talk about yourself, how you conceptualize who you are into the next chapter.

It's a parallel to the discipline they've had as an athlete training for a certain event. And now, you need to be disciplined about how Things that maybe you took for granted such as your skills, your resume. Think about maybe all the different jobs you've had and actually think about all the skills that were in place. And then, what did you do to prepare as an athlete that might be translatable? And then, your values.

100%, yeah.

So much we don't realize that what's important to us can really give us direction in what we're looking for as we are going through. A lot of us are going through a I don't know, re—

Just a reinvention. I think system-wide, society-wide, everyone is having to adjust. And, and I think this is really where it, it's a, it's a skill that I use even with people that I work with that aren't necessarily athletes. You know, get in touch with your values, speak to those, chase after that. Because, and this is borne out by research, because, you know, long-term job satisfaction is born from doing things that you find meaningful. People always talk about, you know, chase your passion, do those things that you're passionate about. Problem with that is passion is an outcome, not a precursor.

Right.

Passion is born from doing something and immersing yourself and building up a sense of mastery. You know, I talked to my athletes and say, you know, were you as passionate about soccer when you were 6 years old as you are today?

No.

But that's where you started.

Yeah.

That passion developed over time. And the same applies to one's work. The work that you do with communication on the podcast. It's something that is developed through engagement, through mastery. And I think the same applies to everyone.

And I like this example because the 6-year-old, my kids will say, oh, I want to be a baseball player. I want to be a hockey player.

Sure.

Sure, because it's fun now.

Yeah.

And you're enjoying it. But you have to realize that a professional athlete, it becomes a job. So, the same thing. And then, they lose sense of that, right? Sometimes, you could lose sense. Oh, this is a job and you lose your sense of purpose. And I've worked with so many organizations where, why did you get into this job in the first place? Well, I want to be of service to people.

Yeah.

Where did you lose your way?

Exactly, exactly. It's that kind of Simon Sinek Start with Why kind of idea, right?

Yes.

It's connect with Because that's what your why is. It's your values. And so, staying connected to that and starting with that as you look at the next chapter can be so important.

This is gold, Ralph. This is gold. This is good for the redirection. I'm going to take off my jacket here to celebrate our Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Because was this the beginning when Canada started to do really well in the Olympics?

I mean, Canada has always been a player certainly in the Winter Games. I know in Summer Games, we are starting to come on. Vancouver was really a turning point in terms of how we support our athletes. That's where Game Plan was born out of.

Okay.

And it has developed since then to be a really world-leading program, which was one of the things why I loved working in the program so much. And I, to this day, love working with Olympians and Paralympians and national team athletes because of everything they give. But yeah, Vancouver was, was a bit of a turning point in terms of how we support our athletes. Yay!

And it sounds like it's so important because I guess that in a weird way now we're all in bubbles. Athletes were in a bubble until then, I guess.

Yeah. And I think, you know, it's funny having worked within the walls of the Olympic movement. It's kind of like anything else. You're seeing something from the inside. You get a much different perspective. And I think that's kind of where the theme of today comes from. you know, 1,000 hours for 30 seconds. The average person watching the Olympics, they see, let's say, the 100-meter final in swimming. You know, I think the average time for that is maybe 30, 40 seconds. I'd have to look, but it's, you know, a blink of an eye, right? And it's 100 meters. The number of kilometers that one has to swim simply to make the final— forget about winning a medal—

Yeah.

Is literally in the thousands. You know, so thousands of kilometers, thousands of hours for an event that takes less than 1 minute.

Yeah.

Even their warm-up, you know, to warm up for that event, athletes are probably in the pool for a half hour.

Yeah.

For an event that takes less than a minute. And so the amount of dedication, the amount of discipline, the amount of repetition that is required that goes into those performances is pretty amazing.

Yeah, no, I— and it's something we take for granted. And so many times, if you're doing a sales call or you're going to coach someone, you're not taking the time to really put in the time before to prepare. And you think, I'm just gonna wing it.

Yeah. Well, and that's one of the things lately I've been getting so interested in public speaking. What is it that makes people good communicators? That's one of the ways that we were able to connect. Yeah. And the same holds true if you want to be a good communicator. It takes repetition, it takes discipline, it takes practice, consistency. You don't show up one day and give a keynote without having put in the work.

Absolutely.

And that applies to anything. You don't show up one day to be an excellent accountant without putting in the work. And I think that's one of the biggest lessons that I try and bring forward from sport. There's no real magic to it. It is about that discipline. It's about, are you willing to put in the work, which can be frustrating, I get. Yeah.

But we want, we want that magic bullet.

We all want that magic bullet.

It's discipline, consistency, repetition.

Absolutely.

Yeah. Which is not always what we want to hear. But it pays off.

Yeah. And not only that, it makes it accessible.

Yeah.

You know, and I think the key is finding that thing that you're willing to put in the work for. And that again connects back to the values because when you find something meaningful, it makes it that much easier to put in the hard work.

Right. Yeah. If you don't believe it, then you're acting.

Yeah, exactly.

All right. Let's— so this is good. This is a good segue for us now to talk about, you know, you've worked with so many athletes in so many different sports at so many different levels. But maybe what's a theme of, you know, sometimes you watch, Watch like baseball. Like, I'll watch a baseball game and you see all of a sudden the pitcher can't throw it over home plate or can't throw it to first base. All of a sudden, like, it's a meltdown.

Yeah.

So, what gets in the way of an athlete? What's the self-talk or what's that mindset that gets in the way?

The biggest thing that I see getting in athletes' way and I think is a parallel to a lot of us as regular people, for lack of a better term, is focusing too much on one's outcomes, as opposed to the process, process that it's going to take to get there. You know, one of the things I often talk about with athletes is if you're thinking about the podium on the start line, you've already lost. So if you're, you know, if you're thinking about trying to get a standing ovation at the beginning of a talk, it's not really going to go that well.

Right.

And so it's about breaking things down into, you know, what are the smaller chunks? How do I break this down for myself? And what are the specific techniques What are those elements that I need to do really, really well? So, it's not about paddling a 1,000-meter race all at once. It's about what am I doing for the first 10 meters at the start? What is the middle of that race going to look like? How do I want to find that balance between my overall race strategy and what my competitors do?

Yeah, it's one step at a time. And by the way, when I'm thinking of a keynote, I'm not thinking of a standing ovation. I'm thinking about people arms crossed going, that's 30 minutes I'll never get back.

Well, I mean, you try and visualize positive outcomes, right? Obviously, you need to contingency plan.

But it's still the outcome. It's still an outcome.

It is.

And even worse, it's a negative outcome. And if that's all I'm thinking, that's even worse. Exactly. That's like thinking about all— you know, think about when I throw to first base, I'm going to— it's going to hit the ground, right? You're already that negative self-talk, right?

So, you know, with the pitcher example, it's not about throwing a strike. It's what are the elements that help them deliver a good pitch? You know, as soon as that ball leaves their hand, Out of their control, right? A pitcher— I've worked with baseball players, and the thing I talk with them is you could have your best stuff, but if someone runs into something and they just crush one, okay, you did. As long as you can look at your performance and say, I did what I needed to do to set myself up to be as effective as possible, then that's a job well done. You know, did you have a good pre-performance routine? Did you have good communication with your catcher? Did you execute good mechanics in delivering that pitch? The answer to all of those is yes. What do you have to feel bad about?

Right.

And that again, you can draw those forward into, did I do a good job preparing my slides? Did I do a good job practicing my remarks and making sure I really dialed in what are the key bullet points that I want to hit? Did I really focus on having good connection with the audience in terms of my tone of voice and my pacing and my eye contact. Those are all the technical elements that go into really good communication. And then whether people are standing up or arms crossed, you know, it's out of our control. Maybe they missed their coffee that morning. It's out of your control.

But I like that because you could look back and go, you know, of your routine that you think you should have been doing to prepare, what did I let go? And sometimes that's so true. Sometimes before I'll go, I didn't give myself the time. And a lot of people I see do this. They don't give themselves that beat before they're gonna go pick up the phone, call a client, go coach someone, go present. They didn't give themselves that beat, that preparation, that routine. They didn't allow themselves to be successful.

For sure.

So, let's, you know, thinking back of all the athletes that you worked with, you know, what are some examples of where an athlete might have been really focus on that outcome. And so they kind of blew it.

Yeah. I wouldn't say that they blew it. So one athlete comes to mind was a cross-country skier I was working with a number of years ago, and they had just moved up from the development team to the national team. They're moving on to— they're skiing with the big dogs now on the World Cup circuit. And one of the pieces of feedback I got from their coach was they go out and just kind of burn themselves out in the first half of the race, and then the second half is just kind of junk. Their technique falls apart, they fall behind, they lose any gains they might have gotten. And sat down and talked to this athlete, and basically what it was was they were trying to keep up with the pack. They were racing other people's races instead of racing their own, right? And so what we started to do was we started to really come up with, in some cases, hyper-focused race plans. You know, an average cross-country race, let's say it's a 50K race, it's 5 laps of a 10K loop. There's going to be hills, there's going to be flats, there's going to be downhill. And we would break it down in terms of, okay, hill 1, lap 1, what's your strategy? What kind of split time are you looking for? Hill 1, lap 2, what are you looking for? Bring that focus within themselves. What is it that they're trying to do?

Right.

So that when they get to that hill and there is a pack perhaps of people going faster than them, they're able to say, you know what, this is my race plan, and I know that on hill 3, on the downhill, that's where I'm going to try and catch them. Or I know that my strength is in the flat, so that's really where I'm going to push myself. The hill is my spot to conserve energy, to simply stay in touch, and then I'm going to look further down. So, it's that balance between, okay, what are the individual battles that make up the war? And so, those are— I mean, I see that pattern repeated a lot with a lot of different athletes I work with.

Yeah, this is like classic storytelling, which is I'm going to hit these notes. These notes, I'm going to maybe speak in a softer voice. This is to set it up. This is the point I really want to bring home, right? So, it's the same idea, I guess, in that mindset. which is don't try to tell someone else's story. Don't try to copy them. As you said, like race your own race, right? So this racer was racing the other people's races and totally, I guess the adrenaline just took over.

Yeah, they got caught up in the moment. Like I said, it was their first time on the World Cup circuit, but it was very much about, yeah, like you said, race your own race. And I think—

You said it.

Yeah, or I said it. Yeah, so we both said it.

Yeah.

But again, that, that's one of the parallels that I really try and encourage people, you know, it connects back to the title of this, This Feels Right. So what feels right for that skier in that moment was picking their battles, you know, really focusing on the straightaways, conserving energy on the hills. Other athletes that I've worked with, 180 degrees different, which is okay because, you know, they are individuals, as the name would suggest.

Right.

So I think that's really one of the biggest things. But it's about that intentionality. It's about sitting down ahead of time and saying, what is it that I want to do? And more importantly, how am I going to do that? Having a plan for achievement is super, super important and is something that I see a lot of people miss with goal setting.

Yeah, it's breaking it down so that you don't get overwhelmed. Yeah. And those intentions. What do I want to do? Like just one step at a time.

Absolutely.

One step at a time. All right. Before we let you go, final question here, which is our question, which is the feel-right moment. So, thinking back now, where has been that moment where maybe someone gave you feedback or suggestion and it didn't quite feel right? It felt a bit uncomfortable. But once you actually put it into play, it felt right. It was a game changer for you.

Mm-hmm. I think that would go back to my days sailing, and it goes back to one of— probably one of the best compliments I ever got. We had just completed a bit of a training camp before our national championships, and we were sitting down with our coach, and it hadn't really been the best week.

Mm-hmm.

For us. Um, things just weren't quite clicking. And I, I had been talking about that with my coach. I had some reservations, a little bit worried. And what he told me in that moment is something I'll never forget and is something that I bring forward to a lot of my work. And he said, yeah, this week wasn't great, but I've never been worried about you guys, my, my teammate and I, because whenever the competition starts, you guys find that 6th gear. And you're able to show up when it counts. And that is something that I had never really appreciated in that moment. But looking back, and certainly it's something that I've taken forward, is something that I really try and keep in mind, you know, regardless of how I might be feeling, regardless of how things might have gone. That ability to show up, just kind of turn that switch and say, now is go time. is something that I really found meaningful and is something that I try and remind myself of as much as possible. So, and I think we all have that. It's just about finding that particular moment and again, finding those things that we're connected to.

Well, it's being aware that it's go time. Yeah. And that you actually have to, if you want to bring your best, you actually do have, there's, you have to, there's a dial, there's a switch. You got to switch it on.

Yeah.

You maybe have to give 10% more at this moment.

Yeah.

I love the 6th gear. And it goes back to again, you can only do it because you put in that 1,000 hours.

Exactly.

For that 30 seconds.

Exactly. And scene.

Ralph, thank you so much.

My pleasure.

So before we let you go, where can people connect with you or find out more about you?

Yeah, so people can connect with me on LinkedIn. That's probably the primary place that I'm engaging these days. I have a very modest Twitter feed. There's not much going on there, but I believe that's @DocRolf. And on LinkedIn, it's linkedin.com/docrolf.

Okay, perfect. All right. Thank you so much.

This has been a pleasure.

We really came full circle with the— we started with the sailing. We ended with the sailing. We talked about 1,000 hours for 30 seconds. We end with 1,000 hours for 30 seconds. This has been great. Thanks so much, Rolf.

My pleasure.

And we will see you next week.

And scene!

Thank you for listening to today's podcast.

What questions, comments, or thoughts you may have, then connect with me, Joel Silverstone, on LinkedIn or come on over to thisfeelsright.ca. And again, if this show felt right, then please leave a rating, review, or subscribe. We'll see you next week.