• “This book will help you change your mindset and your behaviour!” Chris Tooley, CEO, LycaMobile
  
  
• "A must read for developing a resilient mindset when it comes to achieving your personal and work goals." Professor Sir Cary Cooper, CBE, ALLIANCE Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
  
  
• “Powerful thinking with a practical toolkit. An inspiring and encouraging read for business and life.” Pete Sayburn, Co-Founder, Market Gravity & Partner, Deloitte

What’s stopping you from reaching your peak?

We all aspire to succeed in work and life. According to Abraham Maslow, once our basic needs such as food and shelter are taken care of, we want to fulfil our potential, to be the best possible version of ourselves.

So what prevents us from achieving this? Some of us are beaten by the setbacks and challenges that life inevitably scatters across our path. For others, the fear of failure or lack of confidence can cause us to retreat into our comfort zone and avoid risk. In short, we simply give up and reconcile ourselves to disappointment. In work, this can lead to demotivation and disengagement.

Whatever inhibits us from fulfilling our potential, there is now a remarkable groundswell of scientific research from the disparate fields of sports psychology, positive psychology and neuroscience. Elite athletes such as tennis player Johanna Konta have increasingly been exposed to this science. This has helped them persist in pursuit of their goals with passion and determination and has helped them bounce back from the inevitable setbacks that they encounter. Ultimately, it helps them succeed. The great news is that this is applicable to you – the science can be applied to anybody. You don’t have to be in search of sporting glory – if you simply want to achieve in work and in life, then these tools will help you.

Using the tools offered in this book will help you, like an elite athlete, build your own mental toughness personal development programme and enable you to get ready and persist towards achieving your goals, whatever life throws at you.

Ian Price is a performance psychologist specialising in developing mental toughness skills in others. He has worked with leaders in companies including CA Technologies, BT, EMC, Worldpay, MoneyGram, Enterprise Inns and De Vere Venues.   Following a degree in English Literature from Magdalen College, Oxford and a twenty year career in industry – including a number of leadership roles - Ian completed an MSc in Organisational Behaviour from Birkbeck College in 2010. In 2011 Ian published The Activity Illusion described as “A book we all need to read” by the Chartered Management Institute.

• PART 1: Beliefs
• Chapter 1 Ten myths about achieving your goals
• Chapter 2 Managing your negative emotional chatter
• Chapter 3 Reframing your beliefs by building a growth mindset
• Chapter 4 Dealing with setbacks
• PART 2: Behaviours
• Chapter 5 Identifying your goals
• Chapter 6 Cultivating the ability to persist
• Chapter 7 Learning self-control
• PART 3: Best practice
• Chapter 8 Focus – removing time as an excuse
• Chapter 9 Think like an athlete
• Chapter 10 The virtuous habits of high performance
• Conclusion: Head-start-to-finish
• Appendix
• Notes
• Index