The first keynote speaker at the 2019 Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) Conference was Michael Gervais. Michael Gervais is the Seattle Seahawks’ Sports Psychologist, Co-Founder of Compete to Create and the man in charge of the Finding Mastery Podcast, which I highly recommend.
Since the audience was filled with sports psychology professors, researchers and practitioners, he took a specific angle directed at improving our craft of delivery mental skills training. He started with defining “A Foundation” for our craft as operators in the sports psychology domain. Then Michael transitioned the discussion by identifying “The Path Ahead” for all of us in mastering our craft.
A Foundation
First and foremost, Michael wanted to make sure we all understood that “We are Custodians.” It’s our job to use good science, specifically peer-reviewed academic research, to apply key concepts and principles to those at the peak of human potential. Research and science grounds our work. I have to say this has been preached to me since day one of my academic studies in Performance Psychology at National University. Even today, as I continue to build workshop curriculums, my advisor, Dr. Doug Barba haunts my imagination to ensure I only use resources that are relevant and peer-reviewed for credibility and relevance.
The second point Michael Gervais mentioned is to “Go Upstream.” He essentially challenged us to discover our philosophy. What is our individual purpose? This is an important step for us to ask of our clients, so why would we not ask it of ourselves? Self-discovery is the daunting, yet all important task for any individual to experience peak performance. Everyone in that room was no different.
Lastly, Michael reminded us that we can only train three things: our Craft, Body, and Mind. This was a great transition to the second half of his presentation discussing “The Path Ahead.”
The Path Ahead
Michael stresses the importance of discovering our own Internal Map and aligning it to our Mission.
Internal Map – As practitioners we need to explore our internal map. In order to do so you need a “work shed,” one that is grounded in science. It’s our job to create an ecosystem of people who want to do their best, then enhance it with mental skills training. The key point in this discussion is there are no shortcuts, no hacks, no tips, or tricks.
We must do the work and ask the hard questions in order to discover our own internal map. It is imperative to understand our vision for what we want to do, the values by which we do it, and most importantly, why we are doing it. I called this process as Defining Your Arena.
Without getting into great depth, Michael Gervais list three ways to guide us in the “How” to create your own map:
1) Mindfulness Work and Listening 
2) Writing
3) Wise People – Be Around Them!
The goal here is to “be you, under any circumstances, in any environment.” That in itself, takes a great deal of self-awareness. This all leads to “Clarity of Mission.”
Clarity of Mission – The goal here is to line up thoughts, words and actions.
Michael Gervais’ mission is “To help people live in present moment by helping them train their mind.”
To do this, he needed a laboratory. In his own words, “You need a work shed. We as practitioners need laboratories to do the work. We need to cut our teeth and try, over and again, to assist and do so ably. We need a breeding ground for our skills so that we can approach substantiated skill building in others. Show up, be grounded, hold the reservoir, so they can explore.”
In my mind, this is a profound statement for what we do as mental skills practitioners. We are the keepers of our domain. We provide a safe place where key concepts and principles can be discovered, focused upon, and implemented into one’s daily routine, no matter the circumstance. Our ability to present and counsel this knowledge, allows our clients to discover their path forward to peak performance.
Finding Mastery Podcast
Michael spent a little bit of time here discussing his podcast. It’s by far one of my favorite podcasts. I was happy to hear that there is a little bit of science behind his interviews. I believe Michael is an exceptional interviewer. So many times, interviewers cut people off only to express their own agenda or to prematurely jump into the next question. You hear them all over the podcast arena and throughout television. It’s really pleasant to listen to a conversation where both parties are present, discovering their own process to mastering themselves and their craft.
Sorry if I digress a bit, but Michael mentioned Dr. Benjamin Houltberg, Director of Research at USC’s Performance Science Institute. Dr. Houltberg is in the process of dissecting the interviews to identify common insights into elite performance. Michael shared some of their findings, such as the positive relationship between purpose and “absorption.” The best way I can define absorption is when someone is experiencing Flow, a state of complete immersion in an activity (aka, “Being In the Zone”). In other words, every athlete’s desired state of mind during their performance. The simple idea here is if you have Clarity of Mission, then you increase the odds of achieving Flow. Nevertheless, it was evident that there is more work to be done in identifying all roads that lead to optimal performance.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed Michael’s talk and greatly appreciated his time and insights in the profession. Hopefully this article has given you some insight into my profession as a sports psychology practitioner as well as clarity into my mission; to help people define their Arena and discover their path to peak performance by arming them with leadership and mental skills consultation and training.
