Inner Excellence

Inner Excellence Plot Summary

Introduction

The wind howled against the hull of the ship as Lewis Gordon Pugh stared into the freezing waters of the Arctic Circle. In a few moments, he would attempt something experts deemed impossible: swimming one kilometer in freezing waters that would kill most humans in minutes. Fear gripped him. "At best, I will lose a few fingers; at worst, I will die," he thought. Yet somehow, when the moment came to dive in, his fear transformed into focused aggression. What changed in those crucial moments between paralyzing fear and extraordinary courage? This transformation represents the central journey we all face in pursuit of excellence. Whether you're an Olympic athlete preparing for a gold medal performance, an executive making high-stakes decisions, or someone seeking to live with greater purpose and fulfillment, the battle for extraordinary performance happens first in your mind. Through compelling stories of world-class athletes, innovative leaders, and everyday heroes, we'll explore how self-mastery begins by understanding that our greatest opponent isn't external circumstances but our own self-centered thinking. You'll discover practical tools to develop unshakable belief, laser-like focus, and childlike freedom – the three pillars that form the foundation for both peak performance and a life of deep contentment.

Chapter 1: The Path to Self-Mastery: A Personal Journey

In the early hours of June 27, 2011, Ryan Dodd woke up in an alley outside a bar in a rough part of Flint, Michigan. He had a fractured skull. Just hours before, he had stood triumphantly on a podium after one of the biggest victories of his career, holding the "King of Darkness" gold medal high in the air. As a professional water ski jumper who routinely hit ramps at 70 miles per hour and soared over 200 feet, Ryan was accustomed to danger – but never like this. At the hospital, doctors diagnosed him with a fractured skull and bleeding in three areas of his brain. He was rushed to the trauma center for emergency surgery to alleviate pressure on his skull. Twelve hours later, they managed to stop the bleeding. His recovery seemed miraculous. When Ryan returned to skiing the following year, he not only competed again but excelled, winning his first event back on the water. Several weeks later, he won the Masters – the biggest event of the year and one he'd never won before. He went on to have the best year of his career. Ryan's success continued to climb. In 2017, he broke the world record, became world champion, and rose to number one in the world rankings. Over the next four years, he won an astonishing 87% of the tournaments he entered. In August 2019, on a Sunday afternoon near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he secured his third consecutive world championship. What changed between Ryan's near-death experience and his subsequent rise to dominance? His physical training and workouts remained largely the same. The difference lay in his mindset – in how he approached his performance and his entire life. Ryan discovered what the greatest performers across all fields eventually learn: that extraordinary success begins not with external techniques but with internal mastery. Ryan had found a different way of living in the world – one that transformed not just how he thought about his performance, but what he thought about. He developed a mindset that enabled him to perceive challenges as opportunities for growth rather than threats to his identity. This shift allowed him to compete with freedom instead of fear, focusing on raising his level of excellence rather than being defined by results. This transformation represents the essence of Inner Excellence – a completely different way of seeing the world that revamps your heart from seeking temporary, surface-level rewards to pursuing powerful, permanent values. It completely reverses how we traditionally approach peak performance, teaching us that whether we're athletes or not, we're all performers, and our greatest battle is always within.

Chapter 2: The Mind's Battleground: Fear and Self-Centeredness

For Steve Sax, second baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the nightmare began with a simple relay throw from the outfield that bounced off the catcher's shin guard. It was a routine play, the kind he'd executed thousands of times. But something changed in that moment. "I started thinking about this error way too much. It really got in my head," Sax recalled. Soon he was making throwing errors regularly – simple, routine throws to first base that suddenly became impossible. "The more I worked at my throwing problem, the worse it got," Sax explained. The team tried everything – even blindfolding him during practice, where he would make the throw perfectly. Yet in games, the mental block remained. "My low point was when I made a humongous error against the San Diego Padres. We were winning, then they hit one to me and I threw the ball away late in the game and we lost." The problem became so notorious that fans behind first base would wear batting helmets as protection from his wild throws. It seemed his career might be over. What happened to Sax represents the central battle we all face: fear. But as we examine fear more deeply, we discover something surprising – its root cause is actually self-centeredness. This isn't about selfishness in the moral sense, but rather a preoccupation with ourselves that limits our options and stunts our growth. When Sax became hyperaware of his throwing, his natural movement was replaced by conscious control and anxiety about what others thought of him. This self-consciousness creates what author David Foster Wallace described as our default setting: "Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence." This self-centeredness isn't a character flaw – it's our natural state. But it creates a lens that distorts our perception, amplifies our failures, and makes us vulnerable to three powerful adversaries: the Critic (that judgmental voice that delivers negative verdicts), the Monkey Mind (the endless chatter that creates anxiety), and the Trickster (the deceptive voice that convinces us we're imposters). The path toward extraordinary performance requires recognizing how self-centeredness fuels our fears and limits our vision. When we can step outside our self-preoccupation, we begin to see possibilities that were previously hidden. Sax eventually overcame his throwing problem after a conversation with his father, who revealed he had faced the same issue in high school. This shifted Sax's perspective – if it could happen to someone as "formidable" as his father, perhaps he wasn't so broken after all. He went on to become a five-time All-Star, winning two World Series championships. Our greatest freedom comes when we can transcend our default self-centered setting and connect with something beyond ourselves. This broader vision opens up new possibilities for performance and fulfillment that simply aren't available when we're trapped in the narrow confines of self-concern.

Chapter 3: Love, Wisdom, and Courage: Three Pillars of Excellence

When Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger made the announcement "Brace for impact" to the passengers and crew of US Airways Flight 1549, he had just three and a half minutes to accomplish what few commercial airline pilots had ever pulled off – safely landing an airliner in water after losing all engine power. He later described experiencing "the worst sickening, pit-of-your-stomach, falling-through-the-floor feeling" he had ever had. Despite the immense pressure of having 155 lives in his hands in a situation with a high probability of death, Sully maintained extraordinary focus. "I thought of nothing else," he recalled afterward. "I was sure I could do it. The physiological reaction I had to this was strong, and I had to force myself to use my training and force calm on the situation." When asked about his remarkable performance, he said simply, "It wasn't a hard thing to do, it just took some concentration." Sully's performance exemplifies the three pillars that form the foundation for extraordinary performance: love, wisdom, and courage. Love is the power to lead with your heart – to be connected to something greater than yourself. For Sully, this was his deep commitment to his passengers and crew. Wisdom is the ability to expand your vision beyond your own experiences and see more possibilities. Sully drew on his years as a fighter pilot and his understanding of aircraft physics to make decisions no computer could have made. Courage is the capacity to be fully present in adversity, focusing completely on the task at hand without being distracted by fear of the outcome. These three pillars manifest in performance as three crucial characteristics: belief, focus, and freedom (BFF). Belief separates the best from the rest – it's your conviction about who you are and what's possible. Focus is your ability to have heightened awareness in the present moment. Freedom is your ability to perform boldly without self-consciousness, like a child at play. When mixed martial arts champion Georges St. Pierre was asked about handling pre-fight nerves, he explained: "When I was young, I thought nervousness and fear would disappear over time. But I realized not only does it not disappear, it gets even worse. The only thing that changed is now I accept it. I know it's going to be there." This acceptance – this willingness to embrace fear rather than resist it – represents the courage pillar of excellence. What makes these pillars so powerful is that they transcend circumstances. They're available regardless of your situation. They're not dependent on having perfect conditions or feeling confident. In fact, they're most valuable precisely when conditions are challenging and confidence is scarce. By developing love, wisdom, and courage, you create a foundation for performance that doesn't depend on external validation or fleeting emotions. Instead, it flows from an internal wellspring of purpose, clarity, and presence that enables you to perform extraordinarily even in the most difficult situations.

Chapter 4: Transforming Beliefs: How to Reshape Your Reality

Tyrone ran for the fence but didn't quite make it. The store owner, thinking Tyrone had broken his window, unloaded his shotgun at the fleeing children. Little Ty was hit multiple times. He was just five years old. Growing up in the Lafayette Court Housing Project of East Baltimore, Tyrone's childhood was defined by survival. His father, a drug dealer, spent most of Ty's childhood in prison. Violence was commonplace – Tyrone witnessed a child being stabbed multiple times, another beaten to death with a baseball bat, and a third shot in the back on the basketball court. Yet when asked about his upbringing, he said simply, "It wasn't an easy life, but it was the best for me." What makes this story remarkable is that Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues went on to play 14 years in the NBA, with pellets still embedded in his body from that day in East Baltimore. At just 5'3", he became the shortest player in NBA history – an accomplishment many experts deemed impossible. While Bogues certainly had physical gifts, including a 44-inch vertical jump, his mind was what truly set him apart. The five-year-old boy who got shot was overshadowed by the child with a dream, one he kept alive throughout his childhood despite overwhelming adversity. Bogues' story illustrates one of the most crucial aspects of extraordinary performance: beliefs shape our reality. Our beliefs act as the control panel of our lives, a subconscious thermostat keeping our lives in line with our comfort levels. If Muggsy had accepted the widely held belief that someone his size couldn't compete in professional basketball, he would never have pursued his dream. Instead, he created a different story – one where his height became an advantage in certain aspects of the game. We all have a story we tell ourselves about who we are and what's possible. These stories become our beliefs, and our beliefs create the boundaries of our achievement. When University of Arizona softball player Callista Balko faced pitcher Cat Osterman in the Women's College World Series, she had struck out all nine previous times they'd faced each other that season. Yet in the biggest moment of her career, with the game on the line, she got the game-winning hit. What changed? For months before the tournament, Balko had visualized herself getting the game-winning hit off Osterman with the World Series on the line. She repeatedly affirmed to herself: "I am the team MVP," "I am a dominating, powerful hitter," and "I love pressure—the more intense, the better I play." The difference between average and extraordinary performers isn't just skill or talent – it's the ability to reshape their beliefs about what's possible. The subconscious mind doesn't distinguish between vividly imagined experiences and real ones. By consistently creating powerful mental images, affirming empowering statements, and speaking the truth about the past (in past tense) while creating new possibilities for the future, we can literally rewire our brains to support rather than sabotage our performance. This transformative power of belief extends beyond sports into every area of life. The Delancey Street Foundation, which runs award-winning multimillion-dollar businesses staffed entirely by former drug addicts and convicted criminals, demonstrates this principle beautifully. By creating an environment where these individuals "act as if" they believe they could become caring, productive citizens, they gradually transform their self-image and, consequently, their behavior and results.

Chapter 5: Being Fully Present: The Key to Resonance

In a bustling market in Tibet, author John Kehoe witnessed something extraordinary. Maroon-robed monks worked diligently for over a week, creating an intricate, beautiful sandpainting made of different colored sands. Each detail was completed with the utmost attention and care. After they finished, an elaborate ceremony followed. Then, to Kehoe's astonishment, they destroyed the painting in a single moment. All those hundreds of hours of meticulous work – gone in seconds. "I was stunned," Kehoe recalled. "This action defies our Western sensibilities. Our Western notion of labor is that we work in order to achieve a result. It is what we produce from our effort that is important. But to the Buddhist, it is the process that matters, not the final achievement. It is the attentiveness to each moment." This story captures the essence of being fully present – the ability to engage completely in the task at hand without attachment to the outcome. It's a state where time seems to change, movements become effortless, awareness is heightened, and we may even feel like spectators watching our own lives unfold. Andrew Robb, a Canadian national champion golfer and professional opera singer, described one particularly transcendent performance: "I almost blacked out. Not from fear or nervousness, but from being so removed from my body as to have temporarily forgotten I was even onstage." Being fully present is fundamental to extraordinary performance, yet in our culture of constant distraction and information overload, it's increasingly difficult to achieve. Our minds are easily cluttered with unproductive thoughts, leading to what Dr. Cal Botterill, a sports psychologist, identifies as the biggest obstacle to peak performance: overanalysis – "the tendency, for the right reasons, to start overanalyzing things, which interferes with having a total focus when performing." Five powerful practices can help us develop greater presence. First, get out of your head and into your heart and soul by simplifying your life down to what truly matters. Philosopher Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Your heart has room for only one all-embracing devotion." Second, focus on your routines and only what you can control. Colorado Rockies performance coach Ronn Svetich teaches his pitchers to create a "simple mind" by focusing solely on getting the sign from the catcher, seeing the pitch in their mind, and throwing it – letting go of concerns about the umpire, score, or base runners. Third, practice gratitude. You cannot be anxious and grateful simultaneously. Gratitude connects you with beauty and expands your vision. Fourth, use mantras to maintain focus under pressure. When Ryan Dodd approaches the dock before a water ski jump, he repeats "I expect nothing... I can handle anything" to clear his mind of clutter. Finally, ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. As author John Ortberg notes, "The most serious sign of hurry sickness is a diminished capacity to love. Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible." When these practices come together, they create what musicians call resonance – a state where strings vibrate and produce sounds without direct excitement from the player. This effortless excitement is the source of extraordinary performance under pressure. In this state, we're not thinking about winning or losing, success or failure – we're completely immersed in the experience itself, allowing our natural abilities to flow unimpeded.

Chapter 6: Overcoming Mental Blocks and Fears

In 1982, Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Steve Sax earned the National League Rookie of the Year award. Early the following season, something strange happened. After making a routine relay throw that bounced off the catcher's shin guard, Sax began fixating on the error. "I started thinking about this error way too much. It really got in my head," he recalled. Soon he was regularly making throwing errors on routine plays to first base – a fundamental skill he'd mastered long ago. "The more I worked at my throwing problem, the worse it got," Sax explained. "Conventional wisdom says that if we work at something hard enough, we get over it, but that wasn't the case for me." The team tried everything – even blindfolding him during practice, where he would make the throw perfectly. Yet in games, the mental block remained. His reputation grew so notorious that fans behind first base would wear batting helmets for protection. What happened to Sax – often called "the yips" in sports – isn't limited to professional athletes. Similar mental blocks affect performers in every field, from musicians who suddenly can't play a piece they've mastered to executives who freeze during presentations. These blocks aren't signs of weakness or lack of skill – they're actually evidence that our subconscious minds are working perfectly, albeit with incorrect information. The subconscious has three primary jobs: to protect us from physical and emotional danger, to run our lives in the background so we don't have to think about every little thing we do, and to align our circumstances and results with our beliefs. When we have a traumatic or embarrassing experience, our subconscious locks in the memory to warn us in future similar situations. It doesn't differentiate between physical threats (like touching a hot stove) and emotional ones (like the embarrassment of making an error in front of thousands). The good news is that mental blocks, fears, and even phobias can be overcome – often in a single session – by understanding how the subconscious works and updating it with new information. The process involves four steps: taking the emotion out of the painful memory (by viewing it from a distance), finding the smallest change that would have made a difference, inserting a positive feeling into the context, and anchoring that positive feeling to create a new empowering association. One PGA Tour golfer (ranked in the world's top 10) hit a ball into water on a par 3 during a tournament. When asked about his confidence for playing the hole the next day, he admitted, "Very low—I see it going into the water." After just 15 minutes of subconscious reprogramming work, he played that hole effortlessly for the rest of the tournament, making birdies and pars. Another tour player preparing for the Masters identified holes where he lacked confidence. After 20 minutes of mental work on those specific holes, he birdied or parred them throughout the tournament and finished in the top 10. What we're learning about neuroplasticity – the brain's ability to physically rewire itself in response to new information – confirms that we can literally change our brains by giving them new inputs. The neural pathways that create mental blocks can be replaced with new ones that support excellence. With these techniques, Steve Sax eventually overcame his throwing problem and went on to become a five-time All-Star with the highest fielding percentage among second basemen in the majors. These principles apply equally to everyday fears that hold us back from living fully. By understanding how our subconscious creates and maintains our fears, we gain the power to transform them, allowing us to perform with freedom and confidence in situations that once paralyzed us.

Chapter 7: Performing Under Pressure: Poise and Freedom

In the early hours of January 15, 2009, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger made an announcement to the passengers and crew of US Airways Flight 1549: "Brace for impact." Just moments earlier, the aircraft had struck a flock of birds, causing complete engine failure. With no power and only minutes to act, Sully had to accomplish what few commercial airline pilots had ever done – safely land an airliner in water. Despite feeling what he described as "the worst sickening, pit-of-your-stomach, falling-through-the-floor feeling" he had ever experienced, Sully maintained extraordinary focus. "I thought of nothing else," he recalled afterward. "I was sure I could do it." His remarkable composure under extreme pressure resulted in what became known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" – all 155 people on board survived. Sully's performance exemplifies poise under pressure – the ability to perform extraordinarily when the stakes are highest. This capacity isn't limited to heroes or extraordinary individuals; it can be developed by anyone willing to train their mind properly. The foundation for this poise rests on four key principles. First, share your heart, not your ego. When performers focus on what they can get from their performance (trophies, promotions, validation), pressure becomes overwhelming because so much is out of their control. However, when they focus on sharing something they love with others, pressure transforms into energy. Simon Sinek explains: "If your goal is to play the piece perfectly, I don't believe you can have mental toughness. If your goal is to give the audience something beautiful to listen to, that's when I think you have mental toughness." Second, pursue mastery, not the score. Gichin Funakoshi, founder of Shotokan karate, taught: "The ultimate goal of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the perfection of the character of its participants." When you're attached to winning, pressure becomes a burden. When your highest goal is personal growth and excellence, pressure becomes an opportunity. Jim Steen, who won 31 consecutive national championships as Kenyon College's swim coach, advised his athletes to "find a place within yourself where success and failure don't matter, a place where you can engage in battle without compromise." Third, love your opponent. Georges St. Pierre, mixed martial arts world champion, would pray for his opponent before every match, thanking God for the person who made it possible for him to compete. Ryan Dodd, world champion water ski jumper, explains: "Understand that your opponent is a key element of the experience you're chasing. The more you love and understand your opponent as a person, the more you can experience and be fulfilled by the competition." Fourth, visualize presence, not perfection. World champion martial artist Georges St. Pierre spent about 80% of his visualization focused on what he wanted to do and how he would do it, and about 20% focused on seeing himself facing and overcoming adversity. When we visualize, we want a picture of presence – a readiness for anything, with no attachments or demands – rather than flawless execution. These principles create what musicians call resonance – a state where frequencies align in effortless excitement. In this state, you're not thinking about winning or losing, success or failure – you're completely immersed in the experience itself, allowing your natural abilities to flow unimpeded. As golfer Stewart Cink demonstrated when he won the 2009 British Open despite lacking confidence in his game, poise under pressure doesn't require feeling perfect – it requires being present, grateful, and fearless.

Summary

Throughout our journey into Inner Excellence, we've witnessed remarkable transformations – from Ryan Dodd's rise from a fractured skull to world champion, to Lewis Pugh's impossible swim at the North Pole, to Sully Sullenberger's miraculous landing on the Hudson. Their stories reveal a profound truth: extraordinary performance isn't primarily about technical skill or natural talent; it's about mastering the mind. The path to excellence begins with recognizing that our greatest opponent isn't external circumstances but our own self-centered thinking – the natural tendency to place ourselves at the center of our universe, which leads to self-consciousness, fear, and limitation. The journey toward mastery invites us to exchange our natural self-centeredness for a more expansive vision – one founded on love, wisdom, and courage. These three pillars create a foundation for performance that doesn't depend on external validation or fleeting emotions. When we lead with our heart, expand our vision beyond ourselves, and develop the courage to be fully present, we discover a powerful paradox: by letting go of our attachment to results, we actually perform better. By pursuing growth over achievement, connection over comparison, and presence over perfection, we access levels of performance that remain unavailable to those trapped in ego-driven concerns. The ultimate revelation of Inner Excellence is that the path to extraordinary performance and the path to a life of deep contentment, joy, and confidence are one and the same – both requiring us to transcend our limited self-focus and connect with something greater than ourselves.

About Author

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Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy is a Performance Coach (mental skills) to professional athletes and leaders around the world.Jim played professional baseball in the Chicago Cubs organization, coached with the Texas Rangers as well as in the Olympic Games. For his Masters Project in Coaching Science, he interviewed 39 MLB GM's, field managers and coaches on how to build a championship team. This became the book Dugout Wisdom: Ten Principles of Championship Teams.Jim has coached some of the world's best golfers including world champions, FedEx Cup champions and world #1's. The majority of Jim's clients in every sport, individuals or teams, have had the best year of their careers in their first year working with Jim (or best in the previous five years).In addition to coaching professional athletes and executives, Jim leads Inner Excellence offsite retreats at beautiful locations around the world. Jim is the president of the Inner Excellence Freedom Project whose mission is to build communities to alleviate spiritual and physical poverty around the world.Jim's latest book Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life (Revised Edition) was released April 30, 2020.Join his VIP email list at www.innerexcellence.com.

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