On the latest episode of Leaders Questions with Stuart Lancaster, best-selling author Jon Gordon talked us to about the importance of controlling external factors in high-level sport.
Lancaster commented during today's show that "staying in the moment is absolutely key to high performance", something which Gordon concurred with.
By focusing on the controllables, you don't allow external factors to impact on your game and Gordon gave an example of this while he was working with a professional team in the US.
"I was working with an NBA team and I was walking across the court," he said. "There was a head coach there and a superstar player.
"They said: 'Hey John, what's a bigger impact on a team: home field advantage in baseball or home court advantage in basketball?'
"I asked them what they thought and they both had different reasons.
"I said: 'Neither.' When you know the outside is just noise and it has no power over you - you show them the power is inside of you.
"You show them the outside has no power. The superstar said: 'That's what I think.'
"98% of the guys in the league believe in home court advantage. So it affects them. I know it isn't true.
"The superstar told me 'I just go do what I do and play.'
"But imagine that - 98% believe that something on the outside affects them, so they let it affect them."
You can catch the full interview above.
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