Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. Conscious Competence read time 7 minutes Spotlights slice through the darkness, intersecting walls, investigating the ceiling, inspecting the floor of the ballroom that has a beginning but no ending. I scan through the curtain and begin counting...
16 days ago • 7 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. The Courage to Lose Loudly read time 6 minutes Everyone wants to win quietly. But sometimes the bravest thing you can do…is lose loudly. I never want this newsletter to be just me, me, me. My vision is for The Mental Arena to be about us. And some...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. How to Measure Growth read time 4 minutes The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence. And yet, I spent the first two days of July 2025 living the past—my past. It wasn’t my choice, and I didn’t make the best of the situation. Not...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. Focus on What You Can Do read time 4 minutes Coach Kelly Kruger walks toward me. When he’s within “assist” distance, he bounce-passes two basketballs. “VJ, are your arms broken? Are your hands broken? Are your eyes blurry?” “No, Coach.” “Then you...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read