D.C. Gonzalez > Quotes

“Whatever is going on inside your head has everything to do with how well you end up performing.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training: A Guide to Performance Excellence

“A champion always prepares to win.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training: A Guide to Performance Excellence

“You must choose to control anger through a decision.  For if you lose control to anger—then the anger will surely control you.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“Mental Warriors make it a point to be ready.  They've learned to manage pressure; they never fail to keep moving forward.  They refuse to lose, they’ll never quit, and they will patiently work to find a solution and to find a way to win.  Mental Warriors cannot accept not trying.”   Leo-tai”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“A positive attitude never works against you.  But a negative attitude will always find a way to work against you.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“It’s because a good attitude, a positive attitude, creates optimism, positive energy. And positive energy is much better at setting good things into motion than negative energy is. Warriors with negative attitudes become victims of their own negative outlook; they lose because their own negativity drains them. Winning has a lot to do with having a good attitude. Not only in competition, Daniel-san, but also in life generally. You must always remember that.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“Remember:  One must consistently practice mental skills and pre-game routines in order to tap one’s full potential”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“Un campeón aprende la habilidad de cambiar las cosas dentro de su mente,” continué explicando.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, El Arte del Entrenamiento Mental: Una Guía Para el Rendimiento Excelente

“Remember:  The Warrior/Champion understands that a bad attitude can cost him everything.  It affects not only how you feel, but also how you perform.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“He had taught me to do just as he was doing, to draw the air in deeply and slowly to the bottom of my lungs through my nose, while expanding the diaphragm.  Then, after holding it momentarily, he slowly pushed the air out of the lungs by drawing the diaphragm in.  He explained that it’s important to let the air out through a relaxed and slightly opened mouth while keeping the tip of the tongue pressed lightly against the ridge behind the front teeth, with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“Stay task-focused. Interrupt negative self-talk and images the moment they arise, shut them down on the spot. Replace them with positive self-talk and positive images. Concentrate on showing your brain exactly what it is that you want to achieve, never dwell on what you do not want to happen.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“As the mental-edge trainer for university athletics, it was easy for me to spot which athletes wanted the mental training and which athletes didn’t care.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“The Mental Warrior learns from his setbacks and he doesn’t allow them to distract him from reaching his true potential.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“Slightly out-of-reach goals are best: inspiring hard work, yet still attainable with dedicated effort.  Goals need to be set neither too high, nor too easy and low—which would defeat their very purpose.  Goals should be written down and reviewed frequently. ”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“Aprende cómo ver un obstáculo negativo como algo temporal y más aún, como una oportunidad para cambios positivos.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, El Arte del Entrenamiento Mental: Una Guía Para el Rendimiento Excelente

“Ask yourself: What would the self-talk of a champion be like as he prepared for competition?   How would that champion be moving his body around as he prepared?   And how would that champion be breathing as he prepared to enter the competition and face his opponent?   Then do it.  Bring it all together for several minutes prior to your time, and allow yourself to enter into this totally prepared and empowered state before you compete.  Get out of your own way.  Let your training take over.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“Remember:  Stay task-focused.  Interrupt negative self-talk and images the moment they arise, shut them down on the spot.  Replace them with positive self-talk and positive images.  Concentrate on showing your brain exactly what it is that you want to achieve, never dwell on what you do not want to happen.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“Remember:  One must consistently practice mental skills and pre-game routines in order to tap one’s full potential.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“Champions keep it in perspective.  They are able to accept responsibility and recognize the situation as a temporary setback nothing more, nothing less.  Yes it hurts, so they look at it, learn from it, and then let it go.  I’ve lost myself, of course. In fact, that was how I met Leo-tai in the first place. I was a young martial artist competing in tournaments and I’d just lost a major international competition—worse still, one that I’d been really expecting to win. I was having a tough time with the loss. People kept telling me, “You still did great!” But runner-up wasn’t what I’d wanted to be.  As time went by, in response to my annoyance with myself, my training tailed off, my determination flagged, and everything seemed either too boring or too difficult to fuss about.  I was slacking off. I remember an older kid asking me once if I had ever heard of Coach Leo. “I don’t think so,” I said. “What does he teach?” “Mostly Shaolin—Chinese Kickboxing, but he teaches other things too.  He really helped me once with my training.” “So, how’d he help then?” I asked, interested. “Call him, here’s his number.  He only teaches small classes.  Tell him you know me.” I carried that sheet of paper around with me for about two weeks.  Finally I thought, “Well, what have I got to lose?”  I called him and told him about myself.  Coach Leo listened quietly on the phone, so much so that I began to wonder if he’d wandered off or hung up. “Come tomorrow,” he told me, and that ended our conversation. When the next day came, I almost didn’t go.  I kept asking myself, “Why did I call this coach?”  I was looking for a reason to miss our appointment.  But before I knew it, and despite my best efforts to talk myself out of it, I wound up knocking on his door and then there he was.  A medium-sized, elderly, rather stoic figure, his face calm and genuine.”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

“one should never look where one does not wish to go . . .”
― D.C. Gonzalez, The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence