“Well done is better than well said.”

Benjamin Franklin

Our guest today is Dr. Jeff Spencer, a man who has spent five decades creating champions.

At the age of 11, Jeff wrote a contract with himself to make the 1972 Olympic Games – a goal he accomplished, where he competed in two separate cycling events and, in the process, solidified his fascination with goal achievement.

As a human performance visionary and legendary cornerman coach, Dr. Spencer has helped athletes win over 40 gold medals and cycling teams to eight Tour De France victories. 

Dr. Spencer has also authored three books, been awarded International Sports Chiropractor of the Year, is creator of The Champion’s Blueprint methodology, and had his glass-blowing art displayed in some of the world’s finest galleries.

Today, Dr. Spencer is most renowned as mentor to thought-leaders and businesses who want to exponentially grow and catapult to iconic status. Some of his notable clients include Tiger Woods, Sir Richard Branson, the band U2, Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Maria Sharapova, Nike, Hitachi, and Bulletproof.

However, his proudest achievement is raising his adopted daughter, Kin, with his wife Kristina.

In a nutshell, if there’s something you want to achieve, there’s no one you want in your corner more than Dr. Spencer.

In this interview, we’re going to talk about:

• What it takes to perform, succeed, and stay at the highest level; 
• Why most people fail with their goals; 
• The most essential parts of your daily routine; and 
• How YOU can achieve the so-called “unachievable” goals in your personal life and business. 

Before we begin, the right bit of inspiration can completely change the trajectory of someone’s life, so if there’s a friend or loved one who needs to hear this episode or could use some help to Win the Day, share it with them right now.

Let’s WIN THE DAY with Dr. Jeff Spencer!

James Whittaker:
Jeff, great to see you! Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Jeff Spencer:
Well, thanks for the invite! Let's do it.

A lot of your work is about helping people connect with that calling to a higher game. What do you remember as your first calling to do something far greater than the circumstances that you were in?

Well, I think that's been a lifetime situation for me. It's interesting you say that, because somebody asked me yesterday, "Well, what are the dreams that you have chased and are chasing?" And I said, "Well, you know what? I don't chase dreams. I answer callings." 

So there's something about the gravity between opportunity and myself that I've always found that leads to predictable, exponential results, and that's the way that I've always done that, and the way that I've always had it, and it's worked really well for me.

A lot of people talk about the law of attraction, but too many people only talk about thinking. I feel like when you've got your entire life in order, and have a blueprint to guide you, that opportunities naturally attract your way. Is that how you feel about it?

Yeah, I think it's more being in a state of receivership, quite honestly. Rather than chasing things around, and trying to find things, and looking under every rock – that takes a lot of time and energy. It's also got a lot of frustration attached to it, and that's what most people do. 

But I feel that if you are able to stay in a receivership, where you sit there quietly and you do a petition to summon opportunity, and the promise is that, "I'll give everything a look. I will not discard anything," but you have an open invitation to present yourself, then some of the most magic stuff happens that you could never conceive of in advance.

And I've found that if you want to play the exponential game and play the long game, you have to have enough energy to get yourself to multiple finish lines over time, and that's what I've found to be most successful. 

Also, it's the most contrarian. People would say, "Well, rather than sit there and wait, well, why don't you go do something?" And I say, "Well, that's not exactly true. You put soft offense against the opportunity, then those that have the ability to reveal themselves then do that." And I always have found it to be just an incredible recipe for creating a life of exponential, where it doesn't put the wear and tear on the body and mind that most of the ambitions that we pursue do.

Your parents divorced when you were 12. Your dad was an artistic genius who died homeless on the streets of New York City.

How did significant life events like that shape the lens through which you viewed the world?

Well, it's hard to say. I mean, in that respect, it's like I never knew that parents were to teach you anything. I thought that they were to provide maybe some shelter or something along those lines. So I didn't have the berating parent that told me that I couldn't do something, or, "You better behave yourself." Blah, blah, blah.

But then again, I was a bit of a property of the streets, but I was really lucky that I had beautiful angels that came into my life at strategic times that served me really well in terms of the lessons that I was receptive to, that they were able to give to me.

You’re reading an excerpt of this interview. To access the full Win the Day episode with Dr. Jeff Spencer, including bonus content that doesn’t appear here, check out the YouTube or podcast version. 🚀

Drawing the link between there and then making it to the Olympic Games, what were some of the attributes that you were born with that the right mentors could then help encourage further along with you? What were some of those things that you had instinctively?

Well, no doubt that I have the self-start gene. I don't need any motivation whatsoever. I'm just a self-generating person that has a natural capacity for being able to engage and see things through from start to finish. 

Also, I'm not malicious. I'm very curious about things, but I don't get bored easily. I know how to commit. I also take good instructions and I solicit wisdom. So I think those are the magic things that attracted others to me that were willing to give me a helping hand.

Were you born with the attribute of being coachable?

Oh, no doubt. 

I think this is a really important distinction as well, is that I was only driven by the inquiry as to, "What's the possibility that sits in front of me?" It was never to try to show people that told me I couldn't, to show them that I could. I don't think that's a reason for doing anything. You're playing on their side of the playing field, if that's the way you look at it. 

I was only driven by the inquiry as to, "What's the possibility that sits in front of me?"

I just feel that we have an opportunity here to create an extraordinary life experience, if we stay in receivership, to be able to select those things that are presented, and we have the courage to be able to embrace them and see them through to whatever the finish line is. 

And when you know you're being called to a higher game, you may not know how you're going to get there, but it doesn't matter. It's almost as if you've already won before you even started.

Obviously you put in an unbelievable amount of work to make it to the Olympics. Who or what was the best thing to have in your corner on that journey of getting you to the Olympics?

Well, it was my cycling coach who chose me, and he came to me when I was 13, and he said, "I want you to come train with my training group." And his training group was all Olympians and national champions. And he said, "You're not going to do our training, but I'm going to tell you what to do for your training. But the reason why I want you to come is that I want you to be around this conversation, because this is the real conversation that you need to be exposed to. If you have this within you to be able to receive, it will awaken that in you. Because I can't put anything into you. If it's not naturally there, then there's nothing I can do."

And so I was there. It did awaken something within me. I did have the capacity to understand, and I had the willingness to do what I had to do from my side of the aisle to honor that privilege. Eventually over time, there were more people that came into my life that supported me in a similar way, and that allowed me to do some of the things that you shared with us in the introduction.

I was always self-motivated. I always felt like I had my own path. Everybody's got their own path. I never was intimidated by people. I never, again, thought that I had to prove anything to anybody. So it was a matter of, do I have the courage to, number one, contemplate an option that seems maybe perhaps impossible? 

But I never felt like that. I felt like if something is put in your way, and there's a natural attraction, and you know how your truth speaks to you, then it's pretty easy to engage, because you know what the outcome is before you start, but it doesn't exempt you from doing the time and the effort that it takes to be able to manifest that.

And those Olympic Games, 1972 in Munich, obviously some crazy things that happened there. How often do you replay those events in your head, of what happened?

Well, the Olympics is an interesting thing, because there's really three parts to it. There's everything that precedes it, so for me, it was a 10-year commitment that I was responsible for. And if I didn't make it, I was still responsible for that 10 years. So I never thought about that really, but in a sense, it's one thing to get there.

My odds of getting there were one in 360 million, so that wasn't really good odds, but I never thought about that. Never a consideration to me. It's like, "Well, it seems possible, and I'll show up for duty, and I'll do what I got to do to be of service to the calling that I did receive."

But then there's the Olympics itself, the competition. It's gnarly, because I could tell you this, is that the most important thing that the Olympics taught me is that the elusive 1% or 2%, look, if we're honest about it, we all have something that holds us back, that just won't let us go all in. It's just too scary to do that. If you're going to be an Olympian, you have to learn to confront that, and you have to learn to call that up on command when you need it, and you have to come from that place. That's not an easy place to get to.

The Olympians' world is, you're ready to step onto the field anytime, in any place, and be able to get the job done despite the circumstances.

And so the competition itself was its own unique experience, because it's like, the countdown clock is going to happen whether you're ready or not. You have to make the decision, "Am I going to step up and step into this with everything that I've got?" And our human nature always thinks, "We need another month. We need another day. I'm not really prepared yet." Well, forget that, because that doesn't exist in the Olympians' world. The Olympians' world is, you're ready to step onto the field anytime, in any place, and be able to get the job done despite the circumstances.

But then after the Olympics are over, then there's the decompression from it as you go through your event only 500 million times, you replay the event, "What could have been done better?" Blah, blah, blah. The usual autopsy list of things that you go through. And there's a lot of reconciliation that has to happen. 

And the other side of this is that when you play at the Olympic level, you'll never look at life the same again. I can understand why astronauts go to the moon and they come back different. They see the earth from the moon, it changes their perspective.

It's exactly the same thing with the Olympics. You can see what's possible, that transcends what most people think is even probable. And so the whole scaling is completely different. And so with that, I believe that there is a part of the Olympian that's always there. I mean, I still react right now as I was in the Olympics. I don't think that that Olympic competitiveness ever leaves you. 

And I was not a combat veteran trying to, again, prove to myself that I was better than others. To me, it was exploring what the limits of what my possibility really was.

So what I love about you is the fact that you get so much excitement and thrill out of helping other people achieve their Everest, their gold medal, their milestone.

Yeah, absolutely.

Was that almost a survival instinct for you, that once the Olympics were over, you were like, "Wow, I actually need to allocate my energy and my motivation towards something else," and you found that in these other people?

Well, I didn't think that at all. I really felt like there are natural chapters in our life that have a natural beginning and a natural conclusion. We're not meant to do one thing indefinitely. And I never took my identity from what I did, whether I showed my glass art in the best galleries in New York City, whether I was International Sports Chiropractor of the Year, I never looked at those things as identity pieces that I took with me that spoke on my behalf.

I always thought that it was part of me that answered the call at a certain time, that had a certain significance in terms of creating my own legacy and the lessons that I learned, but also the lessons that I passed on to others, because I want to make sure if I have anything to say about it, that everybody else on this planet has a chance to play at their highest potential.

I do know what it's like to play at full potential, and it is one of the most euphoric experiences in the human experience that I could ever hope to describe, and I hope that everyone can experience it once in their lifetime.

So you never went through the achievement hangover that they talk about for athletes after the Olympics?

No, because I only thought that this is a natural progression, and there's always going to be something on the other side of this. And as I said, I never felt that that was my identity. That was something that chose me to do, that I was honored to fulfill. 

It was a great collaboration, at a certain point. I don't get bored. I don't put things down because I'm bored and I need a dopamine hit. That's not me. There's a certain calling that you know where you need to be when, to be able to service your purpose on this planet. Wherever that goes, you follow the path and you see where it ends up. 

And so, my motivation is quite a bit different from what I hear other people describe it to be.

What can people do to calm their mind before an important event?

Oh, you just have to learn to come from your champion's mind, not from your human mindset. 

Your human mindset is fear-based. It's like, "Well, what do I stand to lose here?" So all you do is sit and you worry about all the things that can go wrong. Well, the Olympians don't do that. You look at the one or two things that have to go right, and you know when you step onto the field, you execute those one or two things, and that's how you win. 

So it requires a lot of mental discipline, but it's not a rigid mindset, like, "I'm going to go out and mow everybody down to show everybody how tough I am." It isn't like that. It's like, we know human nature. We know human nature is susceptible, and it's entirely predictable. And we know that if we do not control our human nature, we have to supersede it with our supernatural nature to do what has to go right to be able to prevail.

You look at the one or two things that have to go right, and you know when you step onto the field, you execute those one or two things, and that's how you win. 

And that's probably the most important take home, because if we're going to live a life of distinction and a life of quality, aspiration, value, and contribution, it's exactly the same lessons. We have to learn restraint, the most important word in the prolific achiever's vocabulary. We have to be and stand in receivership. We need to know how to commit. We need to know how to say no. We need to know how to abstain.

We need to know how to step up and deliver on the goods when it really counts.

So by restraint there, you're talking about delaying instant gratification and the enjoyment of a reward that will get a much greater reward down the track?

Well, I would say that it's more resisting our human nature tendency to talk ourselves into things that aren't real. 

So for example, human nature is, given an opportunity, it's, "Well, what do I stand to lose here?" Champions don't think like that. It's, "What do I stand to gain here?" Given an opportunity, the human mindset, because it's fear-based, it's survival based, it's not about excellence. It doesn't care about your Olympic gold medals. It only cares about survival. You can't get to excellence if you're reacting at a life based on survival. You just can't get there from that.

Restraint is the most important word in the prolific achiever's vocabulary.

So we need to recognize that there is a biology there that holds us back, and that's not us. We think it's us because it happens through us, but it's actually a survival biology. And if we don't get that, we don't know how to transcend it, then you can't get to the winner's circle. It's not possible.

So that story that we tell ourselves about the champion's mindset, do we have to consciously refer to ourselves as the champion? So many great athletes, they say that, "I was a champion before I even knew I was." People like Muhammad Ali. 

Is it important to recognize yourself as a champion before it is physically manifested?

Well, I think you have to have an inclination about what your truth is and where you belong, and can you commit to what's in front of you? I think that's the deal. I mean, you don't call yourself a champion and become it. I mean, it's a presence of being that just is. You never think about it, and you do what's naturally to come from that place where you feel most comfortable coming from. 

So in that respect, I think we all have our place in the champion's world. But the champion's mindset, notice I use two different words here. Human mindset is a rigid set of ideas and concepts that we think to be true that actually aren't. They're really part of our survival biology, some of the mythology that we tell ourselves, where the champion's mind is really different, because the champion's mind is not a rote set of actions that are applied hoping they will produce an outcome.

The champion's mind is a living, breathing organism that looks thoughtfully and consciously at opportunities. It sizes it up. It can route, store, edit, interpret, and transmit information, and it can select the best options based upon the context. So it's a completely different ballgame. 

So when we say mindset, it's rigid. When we're talking about a champion mind, we're talking about flexibility, the opportunity to recognize opportunity, and to be able to know what to do to be able to seize it rather than stumble over a preventable problem.

Are there examples that you can share of what someone can tell themselves to succeed in an everyday scenario? Perhaps in a professional sense, maybe someone's going to a job interview, or they're about to speak on stage for the first time, or give a TED Talk, as well as something perhaps in the family situation in the home?

Yeah. For sure.

There's always strategies that must come from your best self. Otherwise, your survival self is going to do the talking for you, and that never ends well. We all know that.

We've always, most of us have been surprised by something, and we say something faster than we can think. How'd that turn out?

Never good!

Never good. Right. "But no, that wasn't me." Well, wait a minute. It came from you, so it has to be you. But that's really the survival side of you. That's not the champion side.

So if we, the champion, know that, then we can prepare ourself to come with the champion response rather than the human mindset reaction that can't take us to where we want to get to. 

So there's always a strategy for everything.

And what about your role as a chiropractor? When did that first enter your radar? And did you reach a point where you just thought, “Now is the time for me to start to connect my career as an athlete, with my experience and research as a chiropractor, with all the other elements of human performance”?

When I graduated, I got my master's degree in sports science from the University of Southern California. So I knew the academics of peak performance. And a couple of things we need to acknowledge here is that if you're going to be a standout performer and create a life of value and contribution of significance, and leave a great legacy, you've got to be able to push. 

Because if you can't push, you can't do it. It has to go right when it has to go right to take you to the rarefied area of high achievement. But you also have to stay in the game over the long term. And many people blow themselves up prematurely because they push too hard too quick, and then that actually shortens their runway. So they actually can make less contributions throughout their life legacy than could have been had they managed their energy, and managed their time, and managed their health, et cetera.

What matters most is the person we’re becoming, not the person we once were.

And so when I graduated with my master's degree, I helped athletes win a bunch of gold medals. That came naturally to me because I was an Olympian. Yet you cannot help people become an Olympian unless you've been one. You can't study Olympians, and interview Olympians, and become an Olympian. There has to be something that's innately inside your DNA that allows you to see the nuances, to tease out that extra 1% or 2% that really makes a difference. So I was doing that with athletes.

Business people came to me, said, "Hey, Jeff, I want to become my own champion. You must know something about that. Can you help me?" So yeah, I helped them become their own champions, but the athletes came and said, "I need to extend my career. Injury management and injury prevention are the name of the game." And the business people came to me and said, "Look, I don't want to die from a stroke or a heart attack like my same age counterparts. Can you help me?"

So I realized, "Look, I can go back to school. I can get a primary licensure to be able to help the business people with their wellness programs. I can work with the athletes, help them with their injury prevention and management programs." So what I was able to provide my clients with, number one, I knew how to win. I was an expert in winning, because I was an Olympian. I also knew the academics of physical readiness to be able to do what has to go right to do the action steps in this third dimension that we live in to be able to get from where we are into the winner's circle. But I also knew how to manage their health.

So what people saw in me, "Oh, well, we can go to Jeff because he knows a little bit about everything, has a proficiency that can create our recipe, specific to ourself, and he can do what 10 experts can do for us, but he can integrate all the parts specific to us." So that's how I was able to work with Lance, U2, Bono, be on Richard Branson's island, things like that, was because of my universality and my ability to read all of the terrains necessary and to know what was necessary to put together for the individual or for the team. 

So that's how I got into the rarefied area of the people that I've had the blessing, good fortune to work with.

You've got a very unique set of skills that I imagine would be very applicable to basically every situation.

It really is. I mean, right now there's nothing that I haven't seen at the highest level, so nothing surprises me, and I can see the patterns happening, so I know how to do what to be able to capitalize on opportunities and avoid the preventable problems.

Do you enjoy watching sport these days, to really find out and try to predicr what's going on in someone's head in real time?

I already know, but it's interesting to watch it, to see how it plays itself out. Most predictably, perfect example is a prevent defense in football. When they're ahead, then they go into the prevent defense, they throw these small balls underneath, and then they score touchdowns. 

All of a sudden the team that was ahead loses because they went from playing a solid offense to playing a protective defense. Why would you do that? Well, human nature tells you that you have to survive and you have to protect yourself, but not at the risk of not playing your best game. So there's all sorts of reasons why I watch sports, because I'm really interested in the incredible predictability. 

When people are on the edge of a breakthrough, they blow it almost every time because they start changing the game. So again, there's lots of things that we can do to make sure at critical moments we don't fumble the ball.

How do you feel about Tom Brady who retired recently? How do you feel about him as someone who was regarded for clutch play and winning big comebacks? Is he just built different to everyone else?

Well, I think we all are hardwired preferentially to something. But it's not to say that what Tom has done is any more honorable than somebody that is not in the limelight.

I think we all play a best role in life, and we should never discount the value of what we do because the Tom Bradys need people that are unseen to do for him what he has to do if he's going to showcase himself.

So again, everybody in my opinion, plays a vital role. And as long as we stick with doing what's most suitable for us to be of service to humanity, then we're doing our job as a person. I do feel that, I mean, you could look at this in a variety of different ways. I mean, did Tom hang on too long? What do you think? I mean, he could have walked away with an unblemished record, correct. That's possible.

Lance [Armstong], similarly. You see this all the time, and prize fighters, they always want to come back and they usually don't weather well. And so I think stepping away is always a very difficult contemplative decision that carries levels of complexity that may not seem obvious to the average person, but I think in many instances, you have to make a decision as to where the value's going to be placed. How do you want to be seen and regarded over time and over history? Then you can decide at that point. 

So again, I think it's legitimate from the athlete's perspective, but sometimes I think there are other options that should have been exercised that weren't carefully thought through or they weren't conceived of as being appropriate, either of those.

Out of all the people you’ve worked with, what was the first moment when you stopped to think to yourself, “Wow, this is really cool that I get to work with this person.”

I've thought they're all unique in a sense that even the young athletes that I worked with initially that were obscure and nobody knew about them, they were a potential in the making, and so I never discounted the possibility of what they could become. 

So for me to see them develop a sense of confidence in themselves and be able to elevate their game was in a certain sense just equally as important as seeing a team win a Tour de France on eight occasions or somebody win a national or world championship, they all carry, they're similar gravity for me, because what makes me thrilled is when I see somebody develop that self-belief and confidence in themself and their ability to manifest what their potential is and create a legacy of value and contribution.

You worked with Lance for all seven Tour de France victories. Did Lance have to go through cancer to become Lance Armstrong and have that success? I know there were physical things that had happened as well.

Well, Lance is a very philosophical guy and he is a bit radioactive in terms of how he's received by people. And so with that, the one thing that I can say about him is that he never expected anybody to do anything. He would never expect people to do more than he would do 10 times over.

But I would also say that on the cancer side of it, when you face something so potentially lethal to you, it changes how you look at life. Because a couple of things that he said that I think are worth repeating, “Pain is temporary, but quitting is forever” or “If you ever get a second chance in life for something, you've got to go all the way.”

I get that from his context, but I felt that at his physical best that when you face something so bad, just imagine you got cancer in your brain, metastasis, cancers in your lungs, you've got it in your abdomen, you've got a testicle the size of a lemon. I mean, to give yourself odds of survival, that's pretty generous, quite honestly.

Lance looked at pain not as the adversary or the foe, but as a reminder that he was still alive.

And to say that on the other side of that, I never felt that Lance thought that maybe the pain that he was experiencing on a bicycle, I mean the bicycle racing is all about pain. How much pain can you endure? How long? I mean, that's really what it's about. But I feel like most of us as humans, we will barter with ourselves on how much effort we'll put for what the perceived return gain might be.

So there's always a bartering. I'll give 100% of myself if you give me 90% chance of X. But I don't think Lance ever looked at it like that because he looked at, in my opinion, he looked at pain not as the adversary or the foe, but as a reminder that he was still alive. And I feel like that was a privilege to be able to experience it because I don't know anybody that would experience it in that way. 

So in a certain sense, every breath after the recovery from a very difficult prognosis that was generous at best, it changes how you look at life in a very permanent way that you can understand unless you've lived that type of experience.

Would he have needed to have been involved in a domain like cycling and the Tour de France? Could he have even just a successful, say, in the corporate world if that was the domain that he chose?

Well, I think we all have a natural gravity towards those things that we're best at, whether it's locker room or boardroom. I don't think that it really matters.

What does matter is did we show up and be of service to our highest calling and where our assets would provide us with the highest quality of life, but also serve an example to other people of what's possible? 

So knowing Lance and his competitiveness, his physical assets, all the things that seemed like a very logical thing, and I think the results proved to be the case, and I don't think any of us should swim upstream and do something that we're not particularly adept at or we don't have a passion for.

When you’re at your absolute physical limit, what do you say to yourself to push through the wall to get to that next level so you can continue?

Well, in the Tour de France, I was boots on the ground for nine Tour de Frances, so I know it intimately, and it's the ultimate life clinic because you face in three weeks what you're going to face in a lifetime in terms of life experiences and opportunities in challenges.

I mean, seriously, it's that difficult because your brain and your body is at the absolute limit every day for almost a month, and you can't go home and sleep it off. You can't have bad days, if you're sick, get dressed and you go to work. I mean, it's just the way it is. You may ride six hours in freezing rain. I'm sorry. It's just the way it is. It has to be the toughest sport on the planet by virtue of that.

Most people prematurely give up because they have already decided in their own mind what’s possible.

But it's also a team dynamic where you can't have the luxury of doing whatever you want. You got to show up as a teammate and get the job done. So in that respect, I feel like the Tour again is the ultimate, because you can't go home and sleep it off. You have to find a way beyond whatever it is, and whatever that is, you find a way beyond it. 

I feel a lot of people prematurely give up because they already decide in their own mind what's possible. But you don't know what's possible until you have to figure it out and you have to show up and you have to prove your merit, and you have to deliver on the promise to your teammates. Whole different deal.

You might have answered it there. What sport do you think the mental edge helps the best with the physical edge?

I think that's hard to say. I mean, you look at motocross and cars, well, maybe it's a little bit more machine than driver, but then again, the driver drives the machine to its highest capacity. 

Cycling is different because the rolling resistance of the bike allows you to push a little bit harder than running. Running is a little bit more definitive because of the pounding or running. So I think they all have their unique challenges that fit a certain mentality and physical readiness.

Have you ever worked with a boxer or UFC fighter?

No, I have not. But I don't know if that matters because their biology doesn't lend us out to the Tour de France and vice versa. The combat readiness lends itself to certain things. 

So I think that, no matter how you slice the pie, I don't think that when Tiger concentrates on a putt, that's a putt that's any different than a UFC fighter having to find the grit and the mental to stay in the game and make good calculated choices in the heat of the battle. I think they're relatively the same because they're both mental games.

You mentioned Tiger Woods, who you've worked with. What are the superpowers that make Tiger Woods so great?

Oh, the first time I interfaced with him, we were talking, he said, "Is this serious?" And he looked at me with penetrating eyes, which means that people at the top are really interested in getting real time, real information. They don't want to hear a story that they'd like to hear, but they want to know the reality of it, and they want to know their optionality. 

And that's a characteristic that every one of these people at the top has, actually. They're conscientious, they're fastidious competitors. They're responsible to themselves. They seek out and seek counsel from people, but they make their own decisions. They don't want to be coddled. They're responsible to the outcomes. 

It's a very different type of mentality, and they just are people from the inside out that want to have an honest human interaction.

I’ve seen Tiger Woods in person at the Genesis Open on multiple occasions and there are thousands of people watching him, yet there are other golfers on the holes all around him that have barely anyone there. It must be an incredible level of mental fortitude to play well with that as the backdrop.

Anyone who's played golf before knows how difficult it can be to play well for 18 holes! There's something about it mentally that just breaks you, but he is someone who has been so dominant for so long that he clearly has a very strong mental edge.

Well, we constitutionally have a capacity for certain things, and we need to be where our capacities can manifest themselves most appropriately.

But then there's a training side of this too, and there's the ability to be able to know how to regulate that so it can be applied correctly when it needs to be applied. It requires a lot of discipline and a lot of this stuff is learned behavior. People think you're born with it or you have a special gift. 

There is a certain proclivity towards certain things, but it's really a discipline of learning and knowing how to apply and knowing how to restrain ourselves from certain things and this thing receivership. Surround yourself with good counsel, being able to adapt to things, read things correctly, not get too domesticated or believe in your own PR. 

I mean, there's all sorts of elements here that anybody could learn from.

Do we expect too much of these superstars who can’t get it together off the field? Is it unrealistic for the general public to expect their favorite sporting idol to be more of a role model?

Well, we all have inclinations towards certain things that are just part of the package. But if we look at human nature, we're conflicted just by virtue of the fact that we're human. 

Spencer's law is that if there's more than zero people in a room, it's trouble, because we have enough difficulty managing ourselves because of the nuances, the blind spots, the historical experiences that we have that shape the framework of how we respond and look at things. 

All of that needs to be considered. I think most people need to generously give consideration to people in their private lives and give them the opportunity to find their way forward because life is complex. Every one of us gets a raw deal in a certain sense, and we need to find our way forward.

How do people overcome a very public implosion so they can continue to do their best in their domain?

Well, a lot of that is personal forgiveness because we all do what makes sense to us at the time, but it may not make sense in retrospect. 

We should all be given a certain level of grace, of course, depending upon the severity of whatever it is to find our way back. Because what does matter is the person that we're becoming, not the person that we once were.

A lot of that is personal forgiveness because we all do what makes sense to us at the time, but it may not make sense in retrospect.

And to me, the most important thing is that you get back up on the horse if you fall. But you have to do it with great intention. You have to do it in a very specific way where it's not too much too fast. You don't have to go on a super apology tour if it's not necessary. You really have to regulate it in a very, very respectful, well-paced way. 

There's always a path back to redemption, generally speaking, but it has to be handled in a very, very delicate way.

And you have to own it?

Well, of course. I mean, you did it, so you have to own your part of whatever you did, but what does matter is the person that you're becoming. There's always ways of redemption, in my experience, for the most part.

People need to be given that level of consideration in a reasonable way, of course, and if you're going to be someone in the limelight, it's better to have a really good second half – than a really good first half and a bad second half – because you always remember what you saw in the evolution of a person.

I do believe that people are willing to forgive others of certain trespasses if we have evidence that the person has truly been able to transcend that.

Was there any anxiety or negative self-talk that you went through or that you saw with the world's top performers that actually enabled them to have a superior performance on the big day?

There's a difference between negative self-talk and biologic readiness. And if we're talking about biologic readiness with the classic signs of being in a stressful situation or being fearful of sweaty palms, dilated pupils, increased respiration, or being fearful, fear in that sense is probably our friend because it creates a state of biologic readiness.

It's necessary to put in a peak performance, whether it's intellectual or whether it's physical. But if we don't recognize that and we exclude ourself from it and then we let the self-talk control our actions, then we're in trouble.

So, it's the interpretation, because the fear can actually be our friend. It could be like, "Hey, don't do this yet. Further investigation and preparation is required." It's not just something to be blatantly overcome. We have to see whether or not there is a reason why we shouldn't proceed forward in that instance. 

And fear is our friend, but it could be performance anxiety if that's the case, and it actually is your friend because you cannot perform at your best unless there is a biologic state of readiness that's associated with the classical signs of fear.

Did you ever see anyone who just physically couldn't muster the courage to actually do the event on their big day, or does that just not really happen at the levels that you've been operating in?

Well, we have an experience with Simone Biles at the Olympics, correct? I think we had an example of that recently here. 

I've really not seen it in a certain sense directly in my presence because there's always a screening in advance of where a person's psychological and physical readiness really is. You should know that, and I feel that that's all part of the grooming and the developmental preparation aspects of that, that things like that. 

There's always visible signs of things in the making in their infancy that should be investigated early so they don't have a full-blown episode that would cause some embarrassment to them or dishonor some agreement that they've made to other people.

What should someone say to themself right before the starter gun goes off?

I don't think that they should say anything. It should be a full commitment to execute the first thing that has to go right. So whether it's a push off at the right pedal or whether it's your first word going on the stage, all that should have been worked out in your preparation.

It's executing the one thing that has to go right, that allows the dominoes to start falling in your favor based upon your preparation.

When Navy SEAL commander, Rich Diviney, came on the show, he mentioned the high altitude, high opening jumps that special forces often do. He said that at the time of the jump, they’re not thinking about their families or anything else. The only thing they’re thinking about is executing the next portion of what’s in front of them for that mission, otherwise they're not going to make it home to their families.

100%.

See, it's really not that difficult. People make it way too difficult. It's like our human nature, our fear-based survival instincts are always making contingencies for everything that could possibly go wrong. That's not what you look at. 

I helped a guy win a gold medal, Greg Rutherford. He was favored to win the gold medal in the long jump in the London Olympics, and he was starting to unravel two and a half weeks before the Olympic finals. So they brought me in to talk to Greg.

I said, "Hey, Greg, here's the deal, man. You’re just physically and mentally disconnected here. We just need to connect your brain back to your body. You're going to win the gold medal and you're chasing perfection. You think that you will win by putting in the perfect job. I'm telling you that you guys are making contingencies for everything that could go wrong, and now you're confused and you think that your brain is not going to see the one detail that you need to attend to win. Therefore, you've already lost."

I said, "You just do the one or two things that count, you win." Don't change your warmup. Do the steps for your run up, foot hits the board, presto, instant gold medal, and that's all he paid attention to for the next two weeks. 

Just make sure you do the one or two things that count. Step onto the field. Don't try to make this more complicated than it is.

Because his entire life has been about preparing for that moment.

Well, it should be, but we forget that in times of critical make it or break it or pivotal life experiences, people generally blow it because they make it too important. So they change all their preparation. Their body's not used to it, their timing's off. They think they need to control everything.

In times of critical make it or break it or pivotal life experiences, people generally blow it because they make it too important.

The way you control everything is being properly prepared and putting your trust in your preparation. You don't try to think your way through it because you can't think fast enough to integrate all the things that have to go right to put in the perfect jump. I

It's not possible, but yet somehow we think that it is, and it's not.

Have you found that it's beneficial for people to adopt a character when they step into that arena? So, it's someone else who is an absolute monster who can get the job done.

That's a technique that works well for some and it doesn't work well for others. I think we need to know our own methodology and what works best for us to be able to call up who we need to be at the time of application.

One of the things that you talk about that I really love is that idea of preparation precedes performance. 

Can you talk a little bit about your steps in terms of what it takes to prepare like a champion?

There's five steps that history has revealed. This isn't something I selected, but through observation.

The very first step in preparation, before you even step onto the field, you got to make sure that you have goal clarity. You got to make sure you have the right goal. There's all sorts of goals. Big hairy audacious goals, there's moonshots, there's SMART goals. But as far as I know, the only goal that you should really have is the right goal for you at the right time.

Once you have that, then it gives you ‘gocus’ or goal focus. It gives you the ability to hyperfocus on what needs to get done, but you also have a peripheral awareness of the blindsides that are starting to form and better opportunities that you could seize to create a better outcome. That's why it always starts with goal clarity.

The only goal that you should really have is the right goal for you at the right time.

Secondly, you’ve got to understand your motive. Why am I doing this? Because if you understand your why behind it, it will give you drive. If you don't have drive, then you can't perform at your best. 

The third step is impact. How's my achieved goal going to impact myself, others, the world around me and my legacy? The reason why that's important is that when we understand impact, then we have a greater purpose to show up and make sure that we do complete the task and fulfill the goal. 

Number four, is champion's mind. The reason why a champion's mind is important is that it gives you courage. The courage to do everything opposite of what everybody's telling you to do. That usually isn't right. The champion's path is very different than what most people think it is. They think that it's contrary and it's actually not. It's really how it's done. But you have to have the courage to be able to do that facing some opposition from public opinion.

Then the final step in preparation is resources. You need to make sure that you have time and energy. You got the skills, you have the plan, you've got the materials and supplies, you got the toilet paper and you got the Q-tips and everything else. And once you have all that, then you can trust your preparation. And why that's important is that you've already vetted yourself as being properly prepared.

And at that point, there's only one thing left to do: push the green go button.

So it’s a linear blueprint to follow, regardless of the hand you were dealt?

For someone to become a champion in their own domain, they've just got to recognize that roadmap and then put one foot in front of the other consistently?

Well, history is actually informed as to what it is, but sometimes it's hard for our human nature to recognize it. The champion's golden rule: do the homework and the test is easy. First you prepare, then you perform. 

But most people don't prepare adequately. They think that I would rather be doing something rather than preparing, or I'll have to trust the universe to give me what I need when I need it. No prolific achiever champion ever does that. They are very committed to their preparation because they know that when they have to step onto the field, the less thinking you do, the more you trust your preparation, the better your play's going to be.

So again, it's completely contrarian.

Thinking about it, I had a pretty debilitating anxiety disorder when I was in high school and as a young adult, and the moments when it manifested the most were at times when I hadn't prepared myself for that moment.

Yeah, that’s a classic case.

It's almost like a cyclist should go out and crash because then he gives up hope and he comes back and now he's loose. So then he can perform as he does during the week, which is break world records. So there's something that happens when we make it way too important. 

I think it is interesting, and that's probably one of the most important things, but let me say also this is that you have your preparation side, you got your performance side, but there's something really missing there. And that's called the start, because the start is its own little unique space that fits between preparation and pursuit of performance. 

If you don't get your start right, it's like being able to win the Kentucky Derby, but you can't get out of the gate clean, so therefore you get last place. Well, there's that one little thing that you thought your preparation would take care of, but that has to be done very specifically so that you get out of the gate clean and the dominoes start to fall appropriately at the right time.

I think it might be good timing to talk a bit about the Champion's Blueprint methodology that you mentioned. Are there some really specific elements of that that we haven't touched on yet that you want to make sure that we go through now?

Well, the Champion's Blueprint is an overarching umbrella of things that 100% have to be there to be able to consistently perform at your highest level.

So with that being said, I'd like to begin with at least a segment of what that is, what I call the Champion’s Ladder. And the Champion’s Ladder mean we all have to climb a ladder to develop a core competency in very certain areas if we are going to have a capacity to perform at our best, consistently, repeatedly, and predictably over time. 

First thing is, you have to have a champion's mind. You have to be able to make sober decisions in the heat of the battle, and you have to have the experience in the trust to be able to do that, number one.

If you can't control your day, you can't control your life. 

Number two, you have to be able to control your day because if you can't control your day, you can't control your life. And if you can't control your life, you can't perform at your best.

Number three, like rung three on the Champion’s Ladder is it, you have to understand that winning is a learned skill. It's not something that comeS naturally to us. It's actually a learned skill that's practiced and that's applied. There's a methodology to it.

Number four, we have to be able to peek around the corner and see what's coming. We have to anticipate the future, meaning that in the future, what's the probability of some potential risks or problems that we don't need to have? Are we prepared to be able to observe and see them, intercept them and walk around them? And are we able to see opportunities that are there that can exponentially take us at the higher rung if we just recognize it and we seize it at the right time?

And then the fifth rung, you have to carry momentum. The most prized commodity in the world that we live in is momentum. You have to be able to know how to learn and maintain and carry momentum forward.

If you can be competent in those five areas, then you can play at your full potential.

What about people who feel like they're at a career crossroad? They're frustrated with where they’re at right now. They feel like they’re being called for something else, but are having a hard time zeroing in on what that is exactly.

Have you got any advice for those people?

Yeah, I do.

First off, that's natural. Most people think it's not natural because I'm told to stick with one thing forever. Well, I don't think that that's really necessarily true because every decade we're a different human being. There's a different lens that we look at life through that we cannot conceive of being possible preceding that. 

I was never going to be like my dad when I was a teenager, but of course I became my dad the older I got. So again, there are natural periods throughout our life that we should anticipate that we should be looking towards making a correction in our life trajectory that's necessary.

Most people aren't prepared for that. They don't know where to get go to get good counsel for that. But I'm telling you, it's absolutely a necessity.

Linking that mind, body, and soul to unclear the mind – is that the first step in doing that?

Well, I think it really depends on your age because you're not going to get a 30-year old to do that. There's no way, because a 30-year-old is only interested in achievement in conquest and career advancement and things like that.

But when you get to the tail end of the 30s and the early 40s, I call that the zone of doom. This is where there's a convergence of all the circumstances that cannot any longer be ignored. You've got kids that are older, you've got battle fatigue, you've deferred your relationship, you've deferred your health to later, you think everybody else's life is great, yours not.

You start to question whether you really want to do this moving forward. Maybe have some PTSD from pushing too hard too fast, too early. There's all sorts of things that happen. And so there's a natural point at that age in the late 30s or early 40s where you start to examine and ask a set of questions that you would never have asked in the early 30s just because you had aspirations, you had confirmation of your value.

The 30s and the early 40s, I call that the zone of doom. This is where there's a convergence of all the circumstances that cannot any longer be ignored. 

You felt that there was nothing in your way. There was a certain amount of freedom. But then we find out that in our late 30s, early 40s, "Wait a minute, hold on. I'm not so sure that this is where I need to be. I'm not sure that I like this. Maybe I'll quit and I'll canoe around the world for two years or whatever." Or, "I have PTSD from pushing too hard on my first business, even though it did well. I don't know if I want to ever do that again."

So there's all sorts of things that I anticipate that I will be addressing in my clients based upon their age mostly in part of that being their history.

I'm laughing because I'm in that zone of doom!

There you go, man!

It's so true. Because some of the questions that I've been asking myself recently is should I be structuring my entire life about me performing the best I can so it sets the best example for my children? Or should I be changing my entire life to make sure it's about nurturing my children's potential? 

I'm sure the truth is somewhere in the middle, but these are questions that I find, at least for me lately, have been instinctively popping into my head.

It's completely predictable at your age. It's 100% predictable. I've never seen this not happen in the zone of doom, 38 to 43, never seen it not happen.

And so the point is, is that where I push and how much do I need to be available to do my job as a father, as a partner? And that's all got to get worked out. And I could tell you that there's always a way of doing that that makes sense for the specifics of what the relationships are.

Sometimes not being available is the more important lesson to your children that you're not available when they necessarily want you. But they realize that there is a structure and there are certain things that have to go to create a harmonious home and to be able to hold the relationship in the organization of the home itself.

So a lot of this is very specific to the people that are involved in this and where they are in their development. But all of this, in my experience is predictable. It has to be addressed correctly. It can't be swept under the carpet indefinitely.

That's so interesting. Because my wife and I both travel a lot for work, and you feel bad if you miss out on those little moments with young kids who grow so fast. But what you said there can actually be a blessing for the kids to develop a little bit of self-sufficiency.

100%.

So all that's got to be worked out and that's why at least what I do, because I have competency in the human domain plus in the business domain, so I know how to merge those things together in a way that allows us to be able to check the box: “You know what? I'm doing enough of everything that I need to do to be of highest service to the obligation of my family, to my career and my contribution to humanity.” 

That's all going to get worked out for us to be confident and certain that we are living a life well lived.

It's been a crazy time for the world in the last three years. What is stopping most people from living a life of significance today?

I think uncertainty. They're afraid.

Economically, there are world implications that are out there. I think the world's changing so fast. There's a relevancy question. There's a question of competency and preparedness to be able to seize and adjust to things in a world that's changing rapidly.

Those are the things that I see quite frequently.

Are there some practices or rituals that people should incorporate so they can Win the Day every day?

Yeah, there are. 

Number one, you have to decide how you're going to show up every day. That's probably the most important decision that you can make. You have to make sure that you have a day of productivity in front of you that's well organized. You have to balance your efforts with your recovery because if you're not recovering day in and day out, you're going to blow yourself up, which is probably one of the greatest risks of all is to have a catastrophic relationship failure or a personal health event or a financial ruin.

Those are all possible and you want to make sure that you're steering clear of that.

You’re reading an excerpt of this interview. To access the full Win the Day episode with Dr. Jeff Spencer, including bonus content that doesn’t appear here, check out the YouTube or podcast version. 🚀

By recovery, you’re talking about mental recovery just as much as physical recovery?

Right. One and the same. Yeah. You can't extract the mind from the body. They're literally one and the same.

And what are the most essential parts of your daily routine these days?

Well, I think there's six to eight things that you can do in the morning before you engage with people. That is like an appetizer menu that we all favor certain things, but I would say by far the most important decision anybody could make is how they're going to show up every day for people.

And the reason why I say that is because of my daughter. We adopted our daughter at the age of 10 from Colombia, very unusual adoption, and she was severely abused as a child. It's almost beyond disgusting to even think about it, but had people shown up differently for her, she wouldn't have the trauma that she'd have to live with that has a bit of an uncertain future to it as well. She's a beautiful human being by the way. But that was an imposition that did not have to happen.

Had people shown up differently for her, she wouldn't have the trauma that she lives with today.

And we have to make the decision consciously, how are we going to show up today? Am I going to show up for my greatest strength as a human and be an example to other people of what's possible?

Am I going to give everything that I could give to other people, not as a human sacrifice, but as a demonstration of the value, what humanity's capable of? Am I going to be able to walk off the field tonight and believe that I earn my meal or my sleep because of the way that I interacted with people?

People really need to think about that. To me, that's the most important thing you could think of and decide consciously every day.

The parenting journey. It's such an interesting one. It teaches you so much about yourself and the world. What did your parenting journey teach you that you didn't already know before?

That you have to be able to leave it all on the field. And if you can't love, you can't leave it all on the field. And so it taught me the real meaning of a deeper love where it is a one-way street. That's okay. It's meant to be. You don't give to gut. You show up of service to other people and you do. It has to go right on their behalf to give them a chance.

Our ambition for our daughter was not just to save her life, but to manifest her potential. And when you face something that is so daunting and its magnitude and implications, you get sober really fast about making certain choices that aren't necessary to be able to fulfill the obligation and the objective that you set in front of yourself.

If life is too good, you're never going to change. You're just going to ride the wave of whatever you're experiencing. 

To me, and I think that's a really important point of distinction in a life, because there has to be a point in our life where we ask a different set of questions that we normally would not ask that draws forth our highest capacity.

And if life is too good, you're never going to change. You're just going to ride the wave of whatever you're experiencing. I'm not going to say exactly in the fun zone, but until you've been faced with a sustainable effort that is unrelenting over time where you're faced to ask a different set of questions, I don't think that we have it as humans to be able to draw forth that highest capacity that's within us. I just don't know if that's possible. It's our greatest gift. 

Raising my daughter was by far the hardest thing that I've ever done. The Olympics was easy compared to this, but the rewards that are reciprocal that go both ways, the best experience I've ever had in my entire life.

Are there some little tips or tactics that you have done with your daughter that you're open to sharing here in terms of perhaps how you set her up to Win the Day?

She didn't speak English when we adopted her. We didn't speak Spanish. We had no language. I mean zero, like no language. That was one of the challenges that we had. But I always said to her before she even understood English, I said, "Don't be average."

Every time she'd walk away and go to school I'd say, "Don't be average." Because I wanted the neural pathways to start getting etched that even though I've been exposed to the most heinous abuse possible, there's still something within me that can prevail. And it all starts with not believing that you're average. So I wanted her to hear that.

The other thing is that I would tell her, her name is Kin, K-I-N. Kin. I'd say, "Kin, dad needs to tell you something. I don't expect you to understand what I'm going to say, but I'm going to say it just to go on record so when this circumstance arises in the future, we can come back and talk about it."

And so what she did, she learned to trust me. I was not giving her another lecture, but I was giving her some useful information that she may not understand and I don't expect it to change her behavior, but I do want her to know that we're going to come back and talk about this at the right time in life to pick up where we left off. So she learned to really trust me. Kids that are severely abused, they have huge trust issues so those are some of the things, and to always love her and to always be there, to be gentle, to be kind, to not over-indulge her.

I wanted the neural pathways to start getting etched that even though I've been exposed to the most heinous abuse possible, there's still something within me that can prevail.

I told her actually three things. I said, "Kin, there's three things you got to know. Number one, you're always going to have enough to eat." She stole all of her food. She told me that she used to pick up, take gum off the bottom of toilet seats and put it in her mouth and chew it to stave off hunger pains. That's how poor they were. And I said, "You will always have enough to eat." A

I said, "Number two, I'm never going to let you down." Which means that me, Jeff, had to do everything that I said that I was going to do for her. Even the smallest thing, I could not do it because her trust in me was solely dependent on my ability to deliver on my promise to her. But I also said, you've had a tough life. I know that, but you still got to earn your place on the team. There are no free gifts. You got to do your chores and you got to do and follow the family rules.

And so those three things were the prefacing guidelines that we lived our life through. And eventually, she was an honor student in high school. She was on the dean's list, she graduated from four year college, summa cum laude. I knew that she was back and she was able to perform at the level of her same age counterpart. So it was literally our miracle.

I love that. Thank you so much for being open and sharing that.

You see a lot of parents who cheer on their kids way too aggressively. How harmful is that and what can people be doing if they're watching their kid participating in sporting events to make sure they're getting the best out of their development?

Well, I think number one, it needs to be within whatever the framework of their enthusiasm. That is the set limit. You don't want to prod and poke and push beyond that because then you start to invade a certain space that may be harmful later.

We certainly want to make sure that we analyze what went wrong and what went right. You want to do a debrief on everything, but you don't want to be too critical. You want to praise the things that they did well and mention and take a look at the things that stand room for improvement like that. You certainly don't want the relationship to be contingent upon how well they perform on the field. It needs to be completely independent of that. 

I've found that certainly a pep talk afterwards so that you leave the field clean. You've had a little bit of a debriefing. They know that everything's okay. They're not going to get yelled at or punished. It won't be a silent car ride home. 

Those are all the things that we look at because the great shakeout comes in the early teens, and that's where people are either encouraged to stay in the game because of what they've experienced prior to that, or it's just a little bit too much pressure and they opt out because they can't take the pressure.

How do you feel about that trend towards participation trophies for every single person who's out there, rather than moving away from recognizing the one or two or three people who had the best performance on the day?

Well, I think it's a self-validation issue. I think anybody that gets something for free can't look at it and say that I earned it. So I think that there's that side to it. 

My mentor, he was 76 and I was 18 when I met him. Just a beautiful human being. I owe him just about everything. He was one of my angels. And he said to me, "Look like you're having a bad day, Jeff" I said, "I am. I haven't had many good ones that come from a welfare family." He said, "What would you like? A helping hand?" And I thought to myself, oh my God, this guy's read my mind. He wants to offer me a helping hand. How did he know that? And so I tried to find the words to tell him that yes I wanted a helping hand.

I said, “Thank you so much. If there's every day where I needed a helping hand, it’s today.” And he looked at me, "You sure you want a helping hand now?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "You got one at the end of each arm." He turned around and walked out of the room! That's what he did. 

And I knew and he knew, he said the right thing to me because he cared enough about me to not intervene with me. It was my moment of truth to figure it out. If he took it away from me, it would've disabled me. And I knew the same thing. 

I stood up just a little bit taller after he walked away because I knew that he was right and I knew the ball was back in my court. That was a life pivotal moment for me.

How old were you at that stage?

I was 18.

Amazing, and obviously such a vivid memory for you today.

Yeah, it is. As I said, I have four or five angels that came into my life that played pivotal roles that were indispensable for me and crafting me for who I became, so on and so forth.

What about the average person who doesn’t  have any motivation to follow through with things, whether it's a weight loss goal, a gym membership, to stop smoking, give up drinking, whatever it might be.

What can those people do to start actually stepping into that change and making it sustainable?

Well, it goes back to goal achievement as a learned behavior. Success is a learned behavior. They never learned the skill of winning. And so the program that I've created called the Champions Success Roadmap, goes through exactly what it takes from inception of idea to choosing the right goal, to being properly prepared, to then start to pursue it and achieve it.

You always start with, let's look at how this is done. It's not just will and talent like we talked about earlier in our conversation. There's plenty of will and talent that goes nowhere. It's about do you understand the skill of winning? There's a recipe to this that when fall is predictable, so you start with small things, so you learn the model. Then as your aspirations start to go, then you can apply the same model because it's exactly the same thing.

They haven't had access to that. So then they don't believe in themselves or they've taken a program that tells them, if you follow this, you're going to connect yourself with your bigger future. Your greatest dreams will manifest.

I mean, a lot of these things can't deliver on their promise, quite honestly, and they think, well, look at the experts right then I must be wrong because I can't get to the place of the expert, tell me that I can. Therefore, there's something wrong with me and I can't do it. And I think that is rarely the case. It's that they have not learned the skill properly.

What is the bravest thing that you have seen in the sporting arena or the best example of the champion mind?

Yeah, a couple of things that come to mind.

Number one, I thought of a more vivid example that is not related to the sports world, but I think it's a little bit too graphic to be able to share. So I'll reserve and abstain from that.

But I've seen people that when a competitor is injured, they stop and take themselves out of competition to sit with the injured opponent until safety comes and they're properly administered too. 

I see that a lot because that's when you strip away the sport and now you've got the humanity side of it, and it's extremely provocative and emotional when you see that, because you see that sport does transcend the competitive side of it.

And there is a huge humanity side to this as well, that if we dissect sport and we look at it at a much deeper level, we'll see that there's a richness of the human experience there that we can learn a lot from.

On your best day, what's an affirmation that you would write on a flashcard that you could show yourself on your worst day?

Well, there's always room at the top of the best. I say that frequently, and I do believe that, but I would also say that there's only one of you in all the creation. There's no other us. There's 117 billion people that have been on this planet since the first footprint, and there's only one of us that has a uniqueness to contribute, and we should never forget what that is.

We just need to find it, cultivate it, come from it, manifest it and share it. But there's always room at the top for the best.

Final question, what's one thing you do to Win the Day?

The most important thing I always think about is how am I going to show up today on behalf of others?

Jeff, thanks so much for coming on the show.

Thanks again. Deep appreciation.

Final steps to Win the Day...

💕 Share the love:

I hope you enjoyed that interview!

As you heard, our guests love to hear positive feedback, no matter where they’re at in their careers. Share a comment on the YouTube version of this episode with your favorite takeaway so our guest knows they made a difference in your life today.

Also, the right bit of inspiration can completely change the trajectory of someone’s life, so if there’s a friend or loved one out there who needs to hear this episode – or could use some help to Win the Day – share it with them right now.

🤗 Subscribe to the Win the Day podcast:

If you’re new to the Win the Day show, hit the subscribe / follow button so you can get access to episodes like this one as soon as they are released.

The Win the Day podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google, Audible, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

🙋‍♀️ Join the Win the Day movement:

We’ve created a safe space for the Win the Day tribe to connect with each other, share ideas, and upgrade their mindset. You’ll also receive access to content that you won’t find anywhere else.Join the Win the Day Facebook group.

That’s all for this episode! Get out there and win the day.

Until next time…

Onward and upward always,

James Whittaker

PS - If you have a question and want it featured on the Win the Day podcast, email your question (in writing or as an audio message) to: info@jameswhitt.com

Resources / links mentioned:

⚡ Jeff Spencer website

🗝️ Jeff Spencer LinkedIn

📷 Jeff Spencer Instagram

🎬 Subscribe to Win the Day YouTube channel

💚 Give the Win the Day podcast a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts

🙏 Give the Win the Day podcast a 5-star rating on Spotify

💕 Win the Day Facebook group

📝 Win the Day newsletter [weekly LinkedIn exclusive]