Nir Eyal on CNN "The Elite Secret: Adapting to Win Under Pressure"

While there are no timeouts in the World Cup, there is a timeout here on One World. Author Nir Eyal joins us for ours to take a look at what drives elite athletes to never give up despite all odds. Nir is the author of Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results. Nir joins us live now. So Nir, that game between Argentina and England was incredible to watch for so many reasons, but the fact The fact that Argentina has now done this at least twice, this idea of scoring at the 85th minute, at the 90th minute, during stoppage time, I mean, it's incredible because to do it once, you could argue, okay, maybe it's luck. But to do it twice suggests to me that that is down to something completely different because when you are losing and there's only 5 minutes left in the game or 10 minutes left in the game, It's so easy to be demoralized. It's so easy to sort of subconsciously give up and just think, oh, you know what, we tried our best. But the fact that Argentina, they have the sort of mental resilience, I don't know where it comes from, but the mental resilience not to do that, not to give up at all until the very end. Just take us through that and what can we all learn from this, do you think, Nir?

This is the power of belief demonstrated right before our eyes. I remember that night of that game, I was getting text messages celebrating from England fans saying, "That's it, it's coming home, it's over." And then lo and behold, that team, that Argentine team did not give up to the very last second. And it was incredible to watch. And it's just such a demonstration of the power of belief. If you believe it's all over, it's done with, why even try? If you're demoralized, if you start getting into your own head about why things are lost, you will not perform at that level. And so I think it's a great demonstration, not only around the athleticism of, of the people who, who were in that match, but really around the mental fortitude. And the lesson for us is around how beliefs change what we are able to see. I think someone who is not that well trained would see the situation as hopeless. And, and part of these athletes' training— the, the real champions here are the ones who can see things differently despite the evidence, despite the facts. Because one of, one of the mantras that I've learned over the past 16 years studying the psychology of beliefs is that beliefs are tools, not truths. Beliefs are tools, not truths. If you just objectively looked at where the team, the Argentine team was, you would say it's all lost. But of course, it wouldn't benefit you to believe that.

Yeah, it's interesting, 'cause I never saw Messi panic. I never saw him once panic. I never saw him waste any kind of emotional energy, you know, during those 5 minutes. And I mean, I can't even, Because when you think about what is on his shoulders, you know, you have an entire country, yes, rooting for you, but all of their hopes and dreams in Argentina basically pinned on you. You've got the fact that, you know, in Argentina, like in many other countries, it's common for people to sort of take days off work or reorganize their schedules just to watch you play. So you've got millions of people essentially organizing their day around you. And on top of that, everybody is telling you, day in and day out, you are a god. You are the greatest soccer player that has ever— so the amount of pressure, and you've got to think that in that situation a lot of people would shrink under that kind of pressure. Some people would just say, you know, towards the end of the game, I'm just going to avoid the ball because if I mess up, gosh, you know, they're going to destroy me in the papers tomorrow. But Messi consistently goes for the ball no matter what, despite the fact that you've got the whole world watching him. Explain that kind of psychology and the psychological load. What kind of a person can actually handle that?

Well, I don't know what's going on in Messi's head, but I'll tell you a practical tip that changed my life.

I wish we did though, right?

I can assume that it— I wish I could get into his head, but I'll tell you, you know, we see the same phenomenon in terms of reshaping our beliefs. So I'll tell you, you know, personally, when I started speaking in front of a large audience, I would have these terrible symptoms of stage fright. I would have the heart palpitations, I would have the sweaty armpits, the cotton mouth, all the anxiety that would go along with speaking in front of a large crowd. And I would tell myself a story that I wasn't ready and this isn't for me and I'm not good enough to do this. And it wasn't helping me. That belief was not serving me. It was a limiting belief. Well, today I've changed that belief. I get the same exact physiological symptoms right now. I'm getting the sweaty armpits and the heartbeat and the cotton mouth right this very second on CNN. Of course I am. You're doing great.

You're doing great here.

Thank you. But here's the important thing. The story has changed. That's the important thing because now the same exact physiological symptoms have a different belief. You see, now I believe that my heart is beating quickly so that I can send more oxygen to my brain so I can deliver my best possible presentation. Same physiological symptoms, same situation, same environmental factors, completely different interpretation. And that's the mentality of champions.

So you essentially— it's a story you tell yourself, and you're essentially reframing. You know, you're reframing what is happening to you. One of the things— and this is beyond Messi. I won't make this a Messi show. But beyond Messi, one of the things that elite athletes obviously have in common is incredible discipline and incredible self-control, which are related, but they're not exactly the same thing. When you think about elite athletes, whether it is through diet, exercise, training, the level of discipline required to be able to stick to those routines day in and day out is beyond what I can imagine. And we all know those types of people. We all have people in our lives, those kinds of people who say, you know what, January 1st, I am going to be vegan, or I'm going to cut out sugar. And then from that day onwards, they're able to stick to it day in and day out for years, if not forever. And then you have other people— maybe I'm in this category— people who will say, yeah, I'm not going to eat sugar. I'm going to really stick to this new diet. 3 weeks later, I'm back to eating sugar. Just tell us about the difference between those 2 sort of categories of people. And if you're in the second category, how do you get into the first category? How do you need to sort of reframe your mindset and your approach to this kind of thing?

I'll tell you the secret. The secret is to identify the limiting belief. And probably the most common limiting belief that I hear in my 16 years of research on this topic is some form of this hurts, right? That this is too hard. Whoever said that feeling bad is bad? Who said that? That's just a belief. In fact, it's a limiting belief. There are many times when feeling bad is good, that pain with purpose doesn't have to be suffering. So, when you think about an athlete who's faced with all this pressure, when you think about what you all do, you face pressure every day. If you can look at that pain differently, if you can see it as something that you relish, as something that you lean into, as something that good good. You want the pressure. That makes this exciting. That makes this fulfilling. It makes it purposeful. If you can change that narrative, if you can see it differently, that's where you excel. That's where you unlock your real potential. So, you know, for example, for me, I used to be clinically obese, not just overweight, but clinically obese. And for years and years, I would tell myself, this is hard. I can't do this. My— I have a fast metabolism, right? Whatever. I would make up every single excuse. It wasn't until I changed my limiting belief from this is hard, I can't do it, to this liberating belief, which is this is what it feels like to get better. It's not painful. It's not suffering. This is what it feels like to get better. It's supposed to feel like this. And using that liberating belief, that's how I finally accomplished my weight loss goals.

I mean, that is incredible. I mean, just to end it there, I mean, that is an incredible story of just overcoming. I mean, for you to go from being— I never saw pictures of you, I mean, I have no idea, but for what you're saying, to go from being clinically obese to where you are, I mean, you have to really overcome yourself. You're overcoming yourself every single day, and that is hugely— I mean, I wish I'd even— if I'd known that, I would have made the segment about that alone. Nir, we have to leave it there.

I'm happy to show you some pictures, embarrassingly enough.

I am— we are out of time, but thank you so much for sharing. I mean, you really are the perfect person to talk to about this because obviously you have overcome a lot, and that is inspiring. We'll see what happens on Sunday, though. Back to my messy obsession. Nir Eyal, always good to have you on. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.