My performance obituary

I ran a provocative session with some athletes and their coaches this weekend. One of the exercises involved a performance obituary. It comes from an excellent book on Mindfulness for performance enhancement by Gardner & Moore.

The instruction is simple:
"What and how would you like your performance career and you as an athlete, teammate, etc to be remembered?"

It works because it reminds us that we only have one shot at our lives, and that it will be too late when we are in our bath chairs and zimmer frames to develop a 100 mph serve.

Every day counts. Every session counts.

Whatever you write as your performance obituary can become a powerful standard by which you assess your achievements each day. Its a very personal exercise. This is mine:

As a tennis player:
Brave and prepared to go for my shots
Stylish
Fit and physically committed
Surprisingly powerful
Great touch and variation
Tactically astute

As an exec coach and performance psych
Thoughtful and perceptive
Engaging
Thought provoking
Helps people to do things they thought they couldn't do.
Helps people to manage themselves and accept themselves.