Changing Your Story: How To Take Control Of Your Life, Create Change And Achieve Your Goals

by Bill Beswick

We all love stories. They make us feel, help us connect, relate to one another, and make sense of our lives.

Bill Beswick is a storyteller who has 20 powerful life lessons to share from his work with his clients at the top of their fields to help us all overcome our fears, boost our performance and achieve success.

Leading sports and performance psychologist Bill Beswick sees sport as a story of human connection. When faced with physical challenges, pressure and fatigue, the mind is the athlete and the body is simply the means. Changing Your Story explores how the way we think and feel is vital for releasing positive energy and improving our performance. Beswick's 20 lessons will bestow resilience and guide you through the process of harnessing the full power of your physical abilities. This is a book about change. Bill Beswick's advice is guaranteed to equip you with new, more efficient ways to think. Through his powerful storytelling, he will help you let go of a negative mind-set and embrace a much stronger, positive and determined one.

Anything is possible when you realize it's never too late to switch direction and change your story.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

Published December 15, 2021

Reviews

[Orlando · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get this book in your brain!

After watching a number of Bill Beswick interviews, I became curious and wanted to learn more about his philosophies. This book was even better than the podcasts.

[Connor Vivian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful insight into the world of sports psychology. Highly recommend for any athletes, or people wanting to get into sport psychology. Also very recommended for people who need guidance or want to a read a book packed with advice.

[Eline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though these lessons are extracted from experiences with athletes, they are still very valuable outside of the context of sports.

[Charlotte Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight on re-wiring your brain to not play the victim. Very motivational!

[sgp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple practical lessons directly applicable, used while dealing with performance anxiety in competitive combat sports.

1. Take responsibility, it's not going to be easy... Who told you it was going to be easy?
2. You need a 'why', even if it's manufactured and temporary
3. Change your story - you are your own author
4. How you see yourself creates your reality
5. Performance follows attitude
6. Manage the physical, technical, tactical, cognitive, emotional aspects
7. Confidence is what we say about ourselves when we think of ourselves. Careful to not be over-confident, but do more to use positive words like 'can' and 'will'
8. Aim for mastery, not perfection - focus more on raising your bottom line, and less on the top line. Close the gap, then raise the bar.
9. Power of compounding from consistent action
10. Failure is sometimes the price of growth - switch from threat to challenge
11. Focus on the journey, trust the process
12. It's supposed to be hard... If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.
13. Control the controllables, don't sweat the rest
14. We all suffer from setbacks and failures, just don't accept them as permanent and personal
15. It's not what you achieve, it's who you become.

These are some of key takeaways which immediately applied helped to turn a long losing streak into wins, and a sounder mind.

[Karen Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read for teenagers!

[Mark O · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly good and practical

[Steven Redpath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this on Audible, but will also by a copy to read. Absolutely fantastic from start to finish, an incredible book, with outstanding advice. 10/10 A*

[Gašper Premrl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book 4 times. Every time it helps me more 🙏

[Lydia Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

an incredible book! both inspired and moving. One i reach for and will continue to reach for time and time again!

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Stories emotionalize information, validate behaviour and forge social connections, and that makes them memorable as a basis for changing our lives.'

I truly learned from this book. There is some really insightful mindsets explained. I will need to revisit the lessons though to recall them all but there are definitely some I have already tried to implement (maybe even subconsciously). At times a little too pushy and success-focused but I'll allow it for the sake of making a point. Extra love because I share DNA with the writer. ;)

[Aleksey Polukeyev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked the book up after listening to a lecture by the author. This was a straightforward and enjoyable read. The ideas are simple and useful which makes them all the more practical - they were interesting to me as both a reflection on some experiences and thoughts from my involvement in amateur sport and as mentor to people in my profession (designers).