Training Mental Capacity

“The difference between Michael Jordan and the twelfth man on the bench of the Denver Nuggets is their mental capacity”. – Bruce Gottlieb

The training and the gear are only two sides of the triangle,

and will crumble to dust without a strong mental game to match – Frank Overton

So how does someone train mental capacity? There are many effective models for training the body’s ability to adapt and sustain more and more work loads (ie. stress). Interestingly, the body is intimately one with the mind already, is it not?

One of the most fascinating questions for me, is how one can systematically and effectively increase the mental capacity to greater and more complex levels. My hunch is that stress is the key…effective, directed, and focused stress. And that just like training physically, like cycling for example, when the right intensity of stress is applied in the right area, matched with an appropriate recovery; positive adaptation, development, excellence, happiness, etc… are all much more probable, integrated responses.

In other words, I think that our current construct of stress is ineffective because everyone is trying to avoid it.  My theory is that the “stress” that they experience is actually only a problem because it is stress out of alignment with their higher goals, values, etc.  which explains why some loath certain areas of stress while others thrive on it.  When one learns to apply a compounding amount of appropriate stress in alignment with higher drives, they then experience that magical state known as “FLOW”; where they can just barely handle the demands of what they are engaged in and are involved in the intimate dance of performing at the peak of their ability, sometimes even higher than they thought was possible.