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The Psychology of Performance: How to Be Your Best in Life cover art

The Psychology of Performance: How to Be Your Best in Life

Written by: Dr. Eddie O'Connor,The Great Courses
Narrated by: Dr. Eddie O'Connor
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Publisher's Summary

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice. Practice. Practice." Today, the relatively new science of performance psychology tells us that old answer is incomplete at best. In The Psychology of Performance: How to Be Your Best in Life, clinical sport psychologist Eddie O'Connor, PhD, shares the best ways for you to reach your personal Carnegie Hall based on the latest scientific research - whether your performance environment is music, dance, business, or sport. These often surprising research results will make you rethink your own performance strategies, offering approaches you might never have considered and busting myths you might have taken as truth.

As Dr. O'Connor explains, the work of a sport psychologist is not defined by sport, but by the science of performance psychology, the mental aspects of superior performance in settings where excellence is central - usually sports, the performing arts, business, and high-risk professions such as the military. In Dr. O'Connor's work and in this course, sport is a lens through which to view the issues of practice, anxiety, injury, confidence, and more - issues that apply to any performer.

We've always known that physical training can reshape our bodies. This exciting research reveals that mental training also can modify the structure and function of our brains, resulting in increased neurological ability to perform a particular skill. Purposeful practice gets you there. Learn why it's the only thing that can.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2017 The Great Courses

What listeners say about The Psychology of Performance: How to Be Your Best in Life

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Perfect for anyone who competes... or trains...

I climb, saw the cover and saw mountains, thought I would start with this as my first Audible journey and I was not disappointed! I have learned more about myself and the way I approach my sport from this than I thought was possible! Broken down into easily digestible chunks of information! It has poured into my day to day approach to getting things done!

#Audible1 #RecommendThisBook #Climber

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4 people found this helpful

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Recovering Entrepreneurs...

#Audible1 Few books have impacted me in such a timely way. He explained burnout in a way which I could both understand and accept. This book has definitely aided me in my journey
Good narration!

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3 people found this helpful

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Does what it says

More focussed on a child's sports career, but valuable lessons nevertheless for every aspect of life

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3 people found this helpful

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Totally useful!

I wasn't sure if this was going to motivational non-sense or not. It totally wasn't! I found it useful for my everyday use even though I haven't been an athlete for decades. I have already started to re-listen to my favorite tips for successfully completing my goals. I would recommend this to anyone who justs wants achieve something

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1 person found this helpful

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learned so much

found this to be very informative and easy to digest. The chapters were well organized and I picked up a lot of really great tips.

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Helps with family dynamics

This was a good course to help you rethink how you approach issues. I’m going to use some of these ideas with my kids as they get overwhelmed at times.

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A thorough survey of concepts

...and lots of anecdotes and practical examples. i enjoyed Prof O'Connor's voice, its not monotonous like some.
Having this as an audiobook is great, because i have struggled to find good podcasts that get this detailed about sport psych theories and findings.

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Excellent!

So good, so so sooooo good. This is useful in many manner areas of your life.. well worth it

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Excellent overview of sport psychology

The content is mostly tailored to sport psychology, though has application outside of sport. In that context, this course provides a good balance of research findings, brief narrative examples, and practical recommendations for athletes or those who support them. Would recommend.

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Pleasant informative but on the light side

entertaining an enjoyable read some great precepts for dealing with high level and amateur athletes

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  • Eagle Driver
  • 2017-12-07

Good Performance, Got Lost in Content,

Would you try another book from The Great Courses and/or Dr. Eddie O'Connor?

Big fan of the Great Courses, would not purchase another book from this author.

Would you recommend The Psychology of Performance: How to Be Your Best in Life to your friends? Why or why not?

Marginal recommendation. Some chapters relevant. Would start with Chapter 3. Early part of book is history of sports psychology or interpreting psychological methods used in the past. I was looking for applications recommendations which are found in Chapter 3. Mid part of book was into meditation and positive thinking ... which started to lose me.

I felt like this was a 3 chapter book which was crammed into 12. Would only recommend if you ok skipping irrelevant content.

What about Dr. Eddie O'Connor’s performance did you like?

Pace and presentation are excellent. Dr. O'Connor is clearly an experienced and knowledgeable presenter.

Did The Psychology of Performance: How to Be Your Best in Life inspire you to do anything?

Helped me with some specific types of goal setting to achieve objectives.

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35 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2019-02-12

should be titled how to mentally prepare for sport

thought the title of the book was super misleading. it has nothing to do with how to be your best in life, he doesn't talk about different aspects of life everything he refers to is the conditioning of sports. if I would of known that from the beginning probably wouldn't have bought the book

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32 people found this helpful

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  • Sarah Janosik
  • 2018-08-13

This course helped me personally and professionall

Dr O'Connor's course was a great help to me. As an older dressage rider learning how develop my skill, this course helped me think through the steps I need to take to have my best outcome and quite frankly- fun- doing the sport I love. I learned how important clarifying my values and developing a mindfulness practice will help me act and react in ways that reflects those values. Even though as a psychotherapist, I know this in my daily life, I had not understood how it can change how I practice and how that will make me a better rider.
I have also used the information in this course to help my clients change their behaviors or at least understand why doing therapy along, without a daily practice of some kind, inhibits the progress they want.
Thank you Dr O'Connor and please do more.

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  • Jean
  • 2019-06-29

Unable to recommend

I studied psychology and even was a teaching assistant and studied cognitive therapy. I can not follow his structure. He uses multiple abstract terms or acronyms strung together to define a "construct'. This has a couple of pearls early on but starting at lecture 8 it deteriorates to unintelligible terms to actually define a "new language" so to speak making it difficult to even discuss the work with anyone who has not studied his terminology and worked to understand it. I tried but with 5:22 remaining it was an exercise in frustration and futility. I am returning this book. Very cumbersome to follow his multiple lists of abstracts to define another abstract term. ie cumbersome mnemonics.

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26 people found this helpful

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  • tecsined
  • 2017-12-06

Excelente conferences and outstanding content.

I am an amateur musician and I got this audiobook to see if it can give some tips to improve, to my surprise I found that this has a lot of good information and pragmatic knowledge that I can use a parent as well. I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot

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  • Alice in Dallas
  • 2018-07-12

Applicable outside of sports

Though this course is sport-focused, and this may resonate best with those who have played sports, essentially every lecture is more broadly applicable to other pursuits (work, relationships), and to life in general

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  • kb
  • 2021-02-09

Perfect for athletes or parents of athletes

While this is a great course on performance, this would be more beneficial for those who are actual performers (athletes, stage life, etc.) or coaches or if you are a parent to a performer or you want to improve a sport you’re currently involved in.
The psychology he covers is still good information for performance improvement in other areas of life too, but a lot of his examples were of the athletes he was consulting and working with, which I felt like I didn’t relate with as much since I am an not a performer (unless we’re talking about the singing I do in the shower errrydayy)

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  • Monica Trevino
  • 2020-05-15

Excelent material

I enjoyed it very much. rich content and eell strructured. Aplicable outside sports as well.

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  • De'Von Walker
  • 2018-08-31

Good read, sport psychology focus.

pretty good book. heavy focus on sports psychology wish it had general information as well.

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  • Daniel González
  • 2017-12-27

insightful and interesting

it was a self knowing experience. I love the way the author express possible course of action to several common problems

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