The Mindset Secrets Of Elite Athletes - Lauren Johnson - #325

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, you beautiful humans. Welcome back to the show. My guest today is Lauren Johnson. She's the New York Yankees' ex-performance psychologist and a mental toughness expert. We're talking about the mindset secrets of elite athletes. We all have a lot to learn from people who are performing at the limits of their ability. As the person in charge of the New York Yankees mindset for four years, Lauren has seen firsthand just how important mindset and mental toughness are for enabling peak output. So, today, expect to learn how we can improve our self-talk, how athletes deal with pain and discomfort, Lauren's best advice for coping with criticism, what the difference is between a good and an elite performer, how to avoid being too outcome focused, and much more. This conversation is so good. You can tell that Lauren spent a lot of time around people who've needed their mental architecture reframing and just to be given some perspective on how their mindset works. It doesn't matter that all of us aren't elite athletes. The lessons that she gives today, I think, can be applied pretty much across all of life. And yeah, I was super, super impressed. If you enjoy this episode, which you are going to, please hit the subscribe button. It's the only way that you can ensure that you are never going to miss an episode every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday when they were uploaded. So just take your thumbs for a walk. Come on, open your podcast app and press subscribe. It would make me very happy indeed. I thank you. But now it is time for the wise and very wonderful Lauren Johnson.
Lauren Johnson, welcome to the show.

**Lauren Johnson** (1:51)
Thanks for having me, glad to be here.

**Chris Williamson** (1:53)
What's it like working with the New York Yankees?

**Lauren Johnson** (1:57)
Well, so I don't know, I don't know if you knew this. I actually broke off from the Yankees in February.

**Chris Williamson** (2:04)
I did not, what are you doing now?

**Lauren Johnson** (2:05)
Yeah, so I have my own consulting company now that I do, I work with all sorts of athletes and companies and executives and CEOs. But I would love to tell you about my time there because it was very formative. Those four years I was with the Yankees was extremely formative into the position that I am in now. Working with the Yankees is pretty incredible for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is the standards that they hold themselves to.
They hold themselves to an extremely high standard and not in the way that's unrealistic, but in the way that if you think you can do this, we think you can go further. Essentially, success to the Yankees is if you win a World Series. A couple of years ago when we got close, people were like, what a great season. If you would say that to anyone in our organization, they would have told you, no, it was a crap season. A good season is winning the World Series. I think that because you're surrounded by that level of expectation, and by such brilliant minds in baseball and in all these other areas and realms that in resources we pull from, that because you're in that environment, you have no other choice but to level up yourself.

**Chris Williamson** (3:27)
How common is that degree of excellence chasing in baseball at large?

**Lauren Johnson** (3:34)
I would say it's pretty common in terms of levels of excellence. And I can't speak for really many any other clubs because I've not worked with them. But I can say that the level of expectation feels different at the Yankees. And I'll tell you why.
Because of the name, there's a lot that comes with it. And so you have a lot of eyeballs on you. And like, come on, if you either love or you hate the Yankees, there's really no in between. And so because of that, including your own fans, some days they love you when you're performing well, and when you're not, they hate you. So it's learning not to ride the roller coaster of the outside noise and being able to define what excellence means, not only towards the mission, but also for your own kind of internal scoreboard.

**Chris Williamson** (4:33)
I imagine that produces some very unique challenges as a mindset and mental toughness expert.

**Lauren Johnson** (4:42)
Very, very, lots of challenges, especially deriving from constantly needing to perform. It's not easy, especially with as long of a season as baseball is.

**Chris Williamson** (4:56)
What about baseball as a sport? Obviously, I'm from the UK, but there'll be a lot of American people listening to whom they're going to cringe at my lack of knowledge about it. What would you say is some of the unique challenges that baseball as a game presents?