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Send us Fan Mail Nolan Ryan called it tunnel vision. Jack Nicklaus putted to a spot just in front of the ball instead of the hole. In this episode, Austin connects the two to the Spurs' collapse from a 29-point lead in the NBA Finals and Jean Van de Velde's final hole at the 1999 British Open, where the lead itself became the distraction. His rule for athletes: the bigger the moment, the smaller the focus. Narrow your attention to the smallest unit you can, or the version of you that you want in the clutch never shows up.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail After closing out the Rockets in Game 6, LeBron James was happy about the extra day off because it meant he could get out and play golf, and plenty of people read that as a lack of focus. Austin argues it is a skill LeBron built over 23 seasons: an identity that lives in more than basketball. He sets it against Joe Gardner in Pixar's Soul, who finally lands the gig he chased his whole life and feels empty, and against Paul's picture of running like an athlete toward a prize that lasts. Matthew McConaughey chasing the version of himself ten years away is the same idea: work obsessively, detach easily, because what you are chasing is bigger than any one result.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Kobe Bryant looked unshakably confident on TV, but he talked openly about insecurity, self-doubt, and nights where his knees and back told him he just didn't have it. Austin uses Dumbo's magic feather to explain how Kobe answered that doubt: the feather never did anything, it only covered up the evidence that Dumbo had already flown. For athletes, the feather is often a routine or superstition that quietly turns into a condition. Kobe's answer was evidence, never asking himself to do anything in a game he hadn't done a thousand times, so the doubt could show up without getting to deliver the verdict.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail There is a mental habit that holds back even the most elite athletes: treating being hard on yourself as a badge of honor. Austin looks at what happens when an athlete's whole worth rides on the result of the game, and why LeBron James, who works hard at basketball but doesn't make it his god, breaks the mold everyone associates with greatness. He shares the ice cream procedure he gives his athletes for the moments right after a failure, and why being kind to yourself makes you freer from the failure, not softer. He closes with one question: what is the kindest gift you can give yourself after you fail?Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Joe Montana's 49ers got the ball on their own 8-yard line, needing 92 yards to win Super Bowl XXIII. In the huddle, Montana noticed his tackle, Harris Barton, shaking with nerves. So he looked up into the stands and asked if that was John Candy eating popcorn. Barton had been spotting celebrities all week, the huddle laughed, and the team loosened up enough to do what it had done all season. The lesson: in the biggest moments of your career, nobody is making you be tense. You choose where your mind goes and what you say to yourself.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Moving on from mistakes takes more than telling yourself to forget them. In episode 604, Austin uses Roger Federer’s perspective on losing points to explore how choosing an attention target can help you return to the next play. He also asks you to write down a past failure, identify its lesson, and examine whether you’re actually applying what you learned.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail There's a threat in competition that works like carbon monoxide, invisible, and made worse by both winning and losing. This episode argues we forget the real reason we play: not just to win, but to face a worthy opponent who creates real uncertainty. If the outcome were guaranteed, there'd be no reason to play, the same reason nobody rewatches a movie they already know beat for beat. When the focus narrows to winning at all costs, athletes lose sight of what they actually love about competing: the challenge itself, whether the opponent is external or their own mind. Reframed that way, a worthy competitor becomes something to be grateful for, not resented.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Fernando Tatis went from struggling to hit a home run in April and May to arguably the best player in baseball from June through now. It looks like a stance change did it, but the real principle is that elite athletes need only a 1% adjustment in a slump, not a major overhaul. Tatis chased visible fixes for two months before the real shift came from small, invisible cues instead. Freddie Freeman is the model for this: his swing hasn't changed since he was seven, and the only thing he adjusts when he's off is one cue, keeping his shoulder closed a beat longer. At the elite level, struggle usually calls for the smallest correction, not the biggest one.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail In episode 600, Austin breaks down the mental principle behind one of the most famous plays in NFL history: Eli Manning's escape and throw to David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII. While getting sacked by the undefeated Patriots' pass rush, Manning kept his eyes locked on his target downfield instead of reacting to the pressure closing in around him. Austin explains why that narrow, external focus, not luck, is what made the play possible, and why the same skill applies anytime pressure is trying to pull your attention somewhere it doesn't need to go.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Justin Verlander gave up a three-run home run to Nick Castellanos on an 0-1 curveball with two outs, then said after the game that he went away from his instincts: he thought Castellanos wasn't on the fastball and should have gone back to it. The pitch selection wasn't the real problem. The half conviction behind the pitch was. Mariano Rivera threw his cutter about 90 percent of the time, which meant almost every pitch came with full conviction because there was barely a choice to make. Even the greatest athletes can lose that for a single pitch, and it's the conviction behind a choice, not the choice itself, that decides most moments in competition.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Malcolm Butler's interception in Super Bowl XLIX is one of the most replayed plays in NFL history, but the part that made it possible happened months earlier. Bill Belichick identified red zone defense as one of the Patriots' biggest weaknesses for the coming season and drilled it harder than anything else. The same pattern shows up in Sidney Crosby turning a below average faceoff percentage into an all-time faceoff record, and in Clayton Kershaw adding a slider that became one of the best pitches in baseball. Serial winners find their own deficiencies before an opponent does, instead of buying the preseason positivity that every team is going to be great. The practical version: say out loud how your team will lose, then do everything you can to make that weakness serviceable.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Usain Bolt was nervous in the tunnel before his first Olympic final in Beijing in 2008, and a conversation with his coach is what let all of his preparation show up when it counted: the work is already done, so the moment is only execution. Austin uses that story to name what separates athletes who are dominant in practice from athletes who can carry it into competition, and it comes down to one word, eyes. He brings in Harrison Ford passing along Marlon Brando's advice to a young actor, care a lot and then stop caring, and argues it was never about caring at all. In preparation, attention is internal and self-critical. In competition, it has to move outward to the small relevant stimuli, and that shift is the whole distinction.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Frank Ocean wanted out of Def Jam. He wanted his own music on his own timeline, and he had an album planned, Boys Don't Cry, that as far as I know never got made. What actually changed things was an album called Endless. Its only purpose was to break the label contract: one more album owed, one more album delivered, not his best work. The next day he released Blonde on his own terms. The principle: intention is a prerequisite, not an accomplishment. It is supposed to be the stepping stool to a strategy and an action, not the end goal that makes you feel good about yourself. Intentions never mean more than the actions that follow them.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Johnny Depp played Jack Sparrow so many times that by the later Pirates movies he was imitating a character instead of being him, and people on set noticed. What got him back was not an acting exercise. He spent five hours in a children's hospital as Jack Sparrow, seeing more than 70 kids, and never broke character once. The principle underneath: you do not repeat your best performance by chasing and imitating it. You find the reason you did it in the first place. Agassi went back to minor league tennis for it. Seinfeld threw out all his jokes at 44 for it. When you are locked in to the reason, the best version of you is not forced out, it overflows.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com

Send us Fan Mail Rory McIlroy was put in the same situation twice, fourteen years apart: a lead at the Masters with a few holes left. In 2011 something subtle happened on the closing stretch. He started turning his head to see what the golfers around him were doing, stopped keeping his eyes on his own paper, and lost a green jacket he only needed average golf to win. In 2025, given the same lead, he stayed on his process one shot at a time and won. The lesson: you cannot run your race looking at the man running next to you. The finish line and the leaderboard are the wrong place for your attention when you already have it made.Support the show Check out my newsletter! https://theweeklydrive.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: performancebyaustin (760) 685-4445 [email protected] genesismpc.com