Practices of Elite Athletes That Will Help Amateur Golfers with Dr. Jo Lukins

How fortunate am I? People often say me, why do you think gratitude is performance and hancster and I think one of the reasons is you cannot be grateful and complain at the same time, Like those two things do not go hand in hand, getting on what I call

the complaint train. My shots are terrible today and I can't believe that it's cloudy and it's a bit hotter than I thought, and people in front are too slow, and there's people going too quickly behind us, and all that sort of stuff that already sounds like the sort of person I don't really want to spend a couple of hours with. But it also doesn't put you in a mindset that sets you up to being open and created and curious, which we know of those things that

go help us in terms of performance. When we are grateful, it's almost like an internal little sigh where we relax. Complaining and winging is tense. Gratitude is an absolute winner for us in terms of performance enhancement.

always remember that success leaves clues. So when we have been successful in our performance, as successful in our practice, you know that hasn't come about by accident. So there's the little clues that sit in behind that. So understanding the clues so we can rinse and repeat them, and then, of course, when things don't quite great, a plan, which is also part of what it is in golf and

in other sports as well. It's understanding that there's always a lesson on offers, so if we're wise, we'll stop, plause, learn the lesson, and then hopefully we can we can improve from that. So I guess Elite was the first book that I wrote, and it really was design. I guess it was a bit of a reflection piece for

me in some ways. You know, it's what if I learned from working with the elite athletes and performers that I've worked in throughout my career, because I work in a brained domains and sports in my country, and so it's really been about what have I learned, and then what are those lessons that we can translate for anyone, whatever their discipline might be. And you know, even for

the non athletes out there. You know, I know that you don't need to be an elite athlete to think like one, So we can translate some of those lessons and that's certainly some of the things I get to do in the work that I do.

it's just very satisfying. And I guess that's what Keys is. Going back to play again.

world to be living. And so yes, Mum and I would go down to the police Academy would get information on how I was going to join the police force. When I finally finished high school and in my grade twelve year, my final year of high school. As I was walking across the campus a police officer was walking in the opposite direction and he just stopped me mid stride and he said to me, what are you doing here? And I said, I'm coming to join the police force. And he looked at me and he said, well, what

degree are you going to do? And in Australia you don't need a degree to join the police force, and you certainly didn't back in the nineteen eighties. I was looking to do it and I said, oh, I didn't know that I need to. What do I need to do? And he said, we'll just do something to do with people, and I said okay. And so, being a good child of the eighties, I went back to my school. I went back to the guidance officer and said, you know, I need to do a degree. It's got to be

something to do with people. He said, what about psychology. I said that sounds good, and so I went and did a psychology degree. And I think probably for the good people of Queensland where I live. I don't know what sort of police officer I would have been, but I studied psychology. By the end of my fourth year, I'd found my love of sports psychology particularly and Australia, you know, like it is in the US, is very much a sports loving country, so there's lots of opportunity.

There's national teams within the region that I live in. And now that I've spent sort of over three decades working in sports psychology, you know, I travel a lot around Australia. I have athletes from all different kinds of sports, teen sports, individual sports, and so forth. So that's where

that all came about. And then about twenty five, twenty seven years deep into my work, I thought, you know what, and someone once said to me, if there's advice you're continually giving out, then think about putting it into a book, because that's a way to reach more people. So that's how The Elite came about. And I did a little bit of research into how to write a book and how to get that out there. Turns out that's a whole other adventure, and so The Elite was written and

I'm continuing to refine that process. So I'm actually just about to release book number five.

area of interest was child psychology. And so whilst I didn't specifically want to go into child psychology per se, we were talking one day and she said, you know, you could always do it in an area that interests you, that involves children. So my very first research was with It was probably the bravest research I've done in my career because I worked with eight year olds and ten year olds. So every one who's ever spent time with eight year olds and ten year olds, I've raised two

of them. But you know, I love children of that age because they really don't have the filter that many of us learn as adults. So I looked at I compared children's levels of self esteem, and depending upon their self esteem, whether their self esteem was higher or lower, whether that had an influence then on how they would

explain their relative successes and disappointments in sport. And it's probably no surprise to the audience listening that those children who had higher levels of self esteem would tend to attribute their successes in a more complimentary way to themselves. They'd think it was because of their ability. They'd see it because of their effort, whereas children with lower self esteem would say, you know, well, I was just lucky that day and competition wasn't very hard, and those sorts

of things. So I was really curious about how children explain the world. I've always been interested in those levels of attributions, and that's always been an area of interest for me, and then that developed further from there and that.

And the Sliding Doors moment for me, apart from the police officer stopping me. You know, six or seven years earlier, was that a new football team came to our region and they didn't have a sports psychologist there. There wasn't

actually anyone working in sports psychology in our town. And with all the bravado and gusto that you might have at the age of I think I was about twenty five at the time, of course, I thought I could do it, so I I you know, fortune favors the Brave, I guess, and so I ended up speaking with the head coach there and was appointed and stayed with that team for twenty six years.

whilst you're practicing. So I think it's I think, as you say, it's broader than what we do within our sport. It's how we approach life and when we understand that when the disappointments come, it isn't so much what happens to us. It is about what we do with it.

And so when we see those disappointments, and it's okay, if you know, if it hurts for a little bit, if we kind of feel like we're a bit bruised from the experience, so give us seals permission to take a deep breath, you know, give ourselves permission to be a bit annoyed by it, if that's what we feel that we are. But what we need to do, then, is to put ourselves on a pathway with what I would call a performance mindset rather than fixed mindset. That

you know, failures, disappointments, all those sorts of things. Failures is a word I don't typically try to use that too often for myself, but I do recognize the challenges and the disappointments when things don't go my way, and then go, well, here's life giving me a chance to learn something here. I wonder what the lesson is.

his life, so we're a golfing family. I have two sons, you know, they play golf, and I play a little bit of golf as well, and I am very much know every expert was once a beginner, and I am very much consider myself in the beginner ranks. But that's okay, that's what it is with golf. But I think the thing with golf is because it's you know, it's a sport where you play it over an extended period of time.

So over the course of a couple of hours each time that you go out to play, you know, you have a lot of time to think, you have a lot of time to be inside your head, if we want to use that sort of expression. And so it's such a great opportunity to be mindful about the way we choose to speak to ourselves because there's no doubt that there's that relationship between what we say and how we feel, and how we feel is really what drives

what we do. You know, So if something doesn't go to plan on the course, you know you're driving and it's not you know you're driving. You know you've had a couple of instances, over a couple of holes where it hasn't quite been what you've wanted. If your self talk is, for example, oh my driving is no good today, Then it sounds like you've actually set the scene for what's going to happen in the future in addition to what's happened in the past. So it's that challenge, isn't it,

of going well? Okay? So it's true that for the last three holes that hasn't been the way that I've wanted it to. But I've still got six holes in front of me? So how can I think about this in a little more helpful way? And I think one of the phrases that I guess, the framework that I've found that's particularly useful for a lot of the athletes that I work with, but also for myself is to look at it through the lens of what's going to

be helpful right now. So you know, when I've worked with golfers, it's really been about, you know, in light of where I'm at right now, in light of what's been happening, about how I'm feeling, what's the most helpful approach for me moving forward? And if you can move your self closer to the helpful, then you know you're less likely to go down a path where you're maybe negative or self deprecating in a way that doesn't get you closer to the goals or the success that you're looking for.

you need to do, but focus on what's next. Stop you know, eating yourself up.

Because of course, one of the other things we know is that what we tell ourselves as humans, For many of us, we do think in visuals, so we are more likely to you know, if we talk to ourselves in a way that's less helpful in golf, And I don't even want to put the negative thoughts in anyone's mind as I'm talking through this, So I typically go

to a different sport for this example, if I may. So, if you are a track hurdler, you know, and you're lined up at the start of the race, it's not going to be helpful for you to think, don't hit the hurdles, don't hit the hurdles, because you actually get that visual that image of the hurdles going down. What you would be what's more helpful is to go, well, you know, as I approach the hurdles, like clear the hurdles, like clear the hurdles, like clear the hurdles. So the

same applies in golf. That as you said, it might be about your preshop routine. It might be about a visualization. There might be a cue word you say to yourself, well, maybe you just simply exhale and you don't think about any thing. You know, some performers that I work with, you know, they like the verbal cues for themselves. Others just say I don't actually want to think about anything. I just want to feel my way through it. So

we all have to find our own pathway. But I do think it's you tapped into the probably one of the most important elements in sport, but particularly in golf, it's that understanding as humans, we've got three dimensions of time that we operate in, Like you said, our history, what's happened, what's happened to everything right up to this moment, what's happening in this current moment right now, and then

what does it look like in our future? And physically we can only be in one of those spots, and that's in the present because unless we've got a time machine, which would be kind of cool, but we don't have one, you know, So we can't go back to this morning, we can't go ahead to the weekend, you know, whenever it might be sometime in the future. So physically we can only ever be in the present. But mentally time travelers. Mentally you can take yourself to wherever you want to be.

Like you said, you could be thinking back to what happened that on the first hole, or you could be thinking about what's going to happen when you get to the clubhouse or whatever it might be. But the challenge for athletes, the challenge for golfers is to have their head in the right place at the right time. And to your point, you know, I would envisage that at the moment of taking the shot, and please, this is now your expertise, because you haven't brought me on here

for my golf expertise more than my mental expertise. But my expectation would be around the time that you are taking the shot, you know, your focus does become far more narrowed. You may have gone into the past as you were selecting your club. You may look into the future as you survey the hole in front of you and you pick up on the distance and the hazards and the you know where you're hoping that the first

shot is going to go. But at the point where you're actually taking the shot, my expectation would be that your focus sort of narrows a little bit in terms of time, and it's about being in the moment and however you need to spend the time in that moment. So, as I said, it could be through instruction to yourself, it could be through an image, it could be through a breath, whatever it might be. We've all got our own strategies, but it's how we navigate past present and future.

That really helps to define then whether we've got our head in the right place at the right time.

doesn't hear it, you know. And if we go you know, my go to example, which probably resonates well for you at the moment, is I say, you know, don't think about the Eiffel Tower, you know, and when we don't think about the earful tower, boom, there it is, you know, right there in front of us that we do think in visuals and so you know, it's that extra little bit of work that we need to do to tell ourselves. So, okay, we know we don't want to hit it into the water,

So where do you want to hit it? You know? And if it's down the fairway, down the fairway is helpful. Three words not in the water is the unhelpful ones. So it's and that translates across life, doesn't it. You know, you have a three year old in your lund room with a glass of water and you tell them not to spill it, and then you wander way. You end up with water all over your floor, you know. So what you need to say is careful hands, you know.

So so, and that's when we're instructing others, but it's also when we're talking to ourselves because when we have a don't phrase in our mind, we've then got to do all that extra work and you know, transfer it back to what the actions are actually going.

your ten chapters in the middle. So the ten chapters in the middle, and that's where I've broken it down into some of those key elements that my experience has told me is that when athletes get some of these things right and work, and they're all the work in progress, you know, So it's not like you can work your way through the list and just tick them all off. Is that you know, for all of us, at whatever age we are, we're generally a work in progress. We're

working on some things. There's always something to work on. So those are certainly the ten key chapters there in the elite are the key messages that I really wanted to focus on in that first book that I wrote, because what I wanted to be able to do is translate some of the lessons of high performance so that anyone can read it and hopefully it's a very comfortable read for people to read. Or listen to the audio book,

however they might want to do it. But you know, we've got those lessons there and we can dip into those, spend a bit of time with them, and work on our skill sets.

But they've got a talent or they've you know, got a work ethic that puts them in a different place than most of us who have a work ethic for our work, right, so we shouldn't try to compare or look to those people as guides for our lives. But with that said, what are let's let's break down the ten things.

your mindset. So it's it's understanding some of those things we were talking about earlier that you can have a very fixed mindset around how how it is that you think, or you can be open and you can be curious and interestingly, in the next book that I'm writing, I'm talking a lot about curiosity, which which fits in really nicely with that notion of having a little bit of

a master plan around your mindset. It's understanding that the way that you think matters, if you know, which is such a simple concept in some ways, but it makes such an incredible difference. And having that curiosity being open to ideas is that you know, what I've what I find is that when I meet curious souls, and whether that be defense personnel, whether that be elite athletes, whether it be you know, really experienced coaches that I work

with and so forth. It's about having that openness, that curiosity, that flexibility in terms of thinking about being open to you know, so maybe maybe in my golf game, actually my putting is actually probably the best bit of it. But you know, so let's say my driving, My driving is where there is the most room for improvement. So how's that for a positive reframe? So let's just say that's what that is for me. So exactly what I've just done there, see how I've really tried to positively

reframe that. You know, it's not the strongest of my of my skill set when it comes to golf. And if I say to myself, well, I'm not good at driving, then that sounds quite fixed and it sounds quite permanent, and it doesn't sound particularly positive. But even just shifting that thinking slightly, I'm not good at driving, yet it recognizes that possibility for improvement. And so I think one of one of the key things for us to have

is that notion of that particular mindset piece. And I think that's what's that's what's really helpful for us to to start that with the approach around around our actual mindset, because we know that your attitude can be your greatest or your greatest acquisition, or can be one of your biggest barriers.

and it's the skill that you're choosing to build. So we want to find those ways to find the enjoyment in it rather than spending ninety percent of that time, you know, being frustrated and annoyed and like you said, beating ourselves up so that you can be really quite challenging.

that we have. If you think about brushing your teeth this morning, and let's assume we all brushed our teeth this morning, but your routine of brushing your teeth, what it was today is probably what it was yesterday, is

probably what it will be in a week's time. You know, how you know whether you stand at the base and whether you walk around the house looking for things, how you actually go through that particular behavior, how long you stand therefore, how effective a job you do, all those things. So we know that our habits are great because they save us from having to think. You know, I didn't have to think too much about whether or not the decision to brush my teeth this morning because I do

it on autopilot. It's a habit that I have. But by the same token, we've got to be careful because habits are awful because they save us from having to think, so particularly in golf, there is the opportunity to bring in so many habits into the game itself, and as you very wisely share with the listeners or you know, however many so many episodes that you've been doing this for now is it is about those habits that we create for ourselves because they're the bits we don't have

to think about. And as we get more expert at something, what we're typically doing is we're just creating more habits. Because the more habits you have, the more automated you can make some of those things, the less thinking you have to give them. You know, if anyone can remember back to when they first started playing golf and you think, I mean, it's a cognitive sport as it is, you know, like there's a lot of thinking involved in terms of there's a lot of intricacies and a lot of technique

involved in doing it well. So when you're first starting, you can feel like you're running one hundred instructions through your head, which we know isn't necessarily helpful. But you know, over time, some of those instructions are less necessary because through routine, through repetition, but also through habit they've been created. So habit acquisition is probably I think one of the

most important elements. It's not probably the most enticing of topics, or people don't go, oh, I'm really excited to hear about creating habits, but there's no doubt that in our lives that becomes incredibly important. And then of course it flows on to the other things that in some way have nothing to do with golf, but actually have everything to do with golf. Our sleep and nutrition, our hydration.

I live in a very warm climate, so our sun's safety when we're out there playing golf and so forth. So we know that all of our habits, you know, our habits work about how that you know we're in a stressful work environment, what habits have we created around that? Or our family environment is that stressful? And then ho

dos that then flow on an impact? So I think even though it's not the most meeting of topics or maybe the most exciting ones, I would say that investing some time in understanding habits and creating great habits from yourself really does set up that foundation for playing great golf.

other things that have the biggest factor, you know. So I spend a lot of time with defense personnel but also with athletes looking at the topic of sleep because whilst you know, excise physiologists and other specialists can give us lots of great information around sleep, we also know that sleep is a psychological experience, you know. So sleep sleep starts with a really big decision, And the really big decision is will I go to bed right now?

You know, it might be nine o'clock, it might be ten o'clock and so forth, and there we are sitting on the couch going I could go to bed right now, or hey, there's one more episode of the show that I'm streaming or that I'm watching, and so forth, And then that's the decision point. And you know it's easy, Like you know, it's easy at that point in time to go, you know, like we know people know the better choice. You know, we know that we're better off

to get more sleep. And I can say that, like, you know, we're in different time zone, so it's early in the morning for me, So I could tell you what a great idea it'll be for me to go to bed early tonight. But when I get to tonight, at the end of a long day, when I'm fatigued, humans struggle. Even the wisest people won't make good decisions

when they're tired and their glucose is low. So if we want the things that make I guess pack the biggest punch, if we want to put it that way, or the low hanging fruit as I sometimes like to describe it, is that the biggest performance enhances we have, or are those elements. It's what's our nutrition been? Am I rested, when did I last do some physical activity? You know, those elements become incredib important and once we've got those in place, then we can then we can

work on all the other stuff. But you know, it's so much harder when we're tired, Like try doing anything we're tired. It's it's such a struggle. And the other element. I work a lot with teenagers, you know, I sort of around that sixteen seventeen year old age group as well. And if there's one thing that I can share with the listeners, and I know not maybe some people are listening who are sixteen seventeen, but there's certainly there's plenty

of people listening who were sixteen or seventeen once. And you know, if this piece of information helps you in that decision making at the end of the day when you're deciding whether or not to go to bed. There was some research conducted a couple of years ago now looking at teenage athletes, and that what that research particularly looked at is that those athletes who averaged under seven hours sleeper night increase their risk of injury over the

next twenty one months by seventy percent. So, you know, as golfers One of the things we want to do is we want to avoid our risk of injury. If we want to lower our risk of injury, lots of things you can do. You would have had lots of experts over the years and lots of advice Fred that you give around injury prevention for people. But one of the biggest things you can do is go to bed, don't be tired. You know, when we're fatigued, we increase

our risk of injury. And I know that that's not the bright and shiny advice that sometimes people look for, but sometimes it is that. You know, it's that stuff that we know, and it's just such a great way

to set ourselves up. If you want to get closer to your goals, whatever they might be, if you want to get closer to higher performance, fulfilling those factors sleep, nutrition, and fiscal activity are They're really powerful things that we have at our disposal that we can do every single day that will help us.

I can watch that video. And I spend hours on YouTube when I should be going to sleep, and I know I should be going to sleep, and it's like, how did it become eleven thirty all of a sudden? Why am I still here?

my teeth. Climbing, you know, get into my pajamas, climb into bed. That's so much work. I don't even have to press next episode anymore on my remote because the streaming channel I used just flipped straight into the next episode, So no effort to get off the coat couch. But getting up and going to bed is work. So I've got one little handy hint that worked for has worked for a number of people that I work with over

the years, is and most people. The other trap is that most people have got their phone close by, so let's use our phone for good rather than for less good. And if I can, one suggestion that I found work for some people is to set your alarm clock to go to bed, so you know that life, all life would be improved if you went. And I'll make it up if you know that you'd be better off if you were heading to bed at ten pm, then set the alarm for ten pm. And when the alarm goes off,

and this is what I talk about. I talk about habit stacking and how to do that. In chapter three in the book, the tap was called success on Autopilot, but it's really about when the alarm goes off, then I go to bed. And I think the curiosity that we were talking about from chapter two that if you can do that and say, well, look, it's not that I have to go to bed early forever. But let's try it for a month and see how I go. Let's treat myself like a little science experiment, and I'm

going to try one or two little changes. Please don't try lots of changes, because it's way too much for our brains, and our heads explode when we do things like that. You know, I'm a very big fan that little by little, a little will become a lot. So you know, just making a small if you can. And I remember a soldier I worked with who brought his bedtime forward by about an hour and a half because he was staying up close to midnight, and I think

I think he changed his bedtime to about ten. He said his first week was not fun because his body just couldn't adjust and it took a little while. But then after that he was waking up without his alarm clock, he was feeling like exercise in the morning, he'd pack

his lunch and go to work. He was saving money, like all these flow on effects, all because as he went to bed a bit earlier, So it could be how so, I'd say, if you're not sure, if you're a bit doubtful, maybe give it a little try and see how you go.

of things that can make us happy. But when we look at the biggest predictors of happiness, the two biggest predictors of happiness, ay, they're great, they're free, and they're easily at our disposal. It's been grateful and it's helping other people. Those are the two biggest things that we can do that will just if you simply want to let's even put the golf to one side for a moment, but if you simply want to be happier in your life, be grateful for the things that you have and be

grateful to the people around you. So we know that for sure, and there's in Australia and I'm sure it's similar in other places in the world. You know, gratitude as an intervention, if you like, is actually taught in the schools. It's part of we run what's called positive education programs, the science what goes well, and so we're trying to teach children that being grateful is a great way to start your day, it's a great rape feel

good about yourself. And there's lots of evidence around how that helps in sort of many mental health conditions and so forth. We know it has an impact for people with multi moderate depression. So gratitude is just a winner anyway, just in terms of making us happier within our lies. But here's the extra little bit of bonus to those of us that are athletes or those of us work with athletes. Is what we're seeing now in the research is there is also evidence to support the idea that

grateful athletes, grateful coaches, grateful teams perform better. So we're actually seeing gratitude as a performance enhancer. So it was enough in the first place that it makes you happier, but what it does is it gets us closer to success.

So if you have two golfers who are similar in levels of ability, but one of them walks through life with a lens of gratitude and says, you know, how great that you know, isn't it wonderful that I get to play on this course, that I have the time to do it, that I have the resources to play, that, you know, because golf is not the cheapest of sports. You know that I'm financially in a way that I'm able to do this and spend this time. How fortunate

am I? And I'm in this? And usually I don't think I'll beat to too many golf courses where it's not a pretty place to look around and so forth as well. So how good is that? And if you can play that mindset to someone who by defaults and the way I people often say to me, why is that, Joe? Why do you think gratitude is performance enhancer? And I think there's probably a couple of reasons. But one of the reasons is that, you know, have you ever met

a grateful winder or a grateful complainer? You haven't, as it's very you cannot be great. There's not many things that can't do coexist and do, but you cannot be grateful and complain at the same time. Like those two things do not go hand in hand. Try it now, but I've never seen it. It's okay complaining and whinging,

getting on what I call the complain train. You know, well, my shots are terrible today, and I can't believe that it's cloudy and it's a bit hotter than I thought, and you know, the greens are too short or they're too long, and they're da da da da daha, and you know, and people in front are too slow, and there's people going quickly too quickly behind us and all that sort of stuff. Well, that already sounds like the sort of person I don't really want to spend a

couple of hours with. But it also doesn't put you in a mindset that sets you up to being open and creative and curious, which we know of those things and go help us in terms of performance. So I and I think physiologically it makes a difference too. When we are grateful, it's a happy place, you know. It's it's almost, like I say, it's almost like an internal little sigh where we relax. Whereas if I'm not grateful, if I am complaining and whinging, I'm going to exaggerate

it for those who are watching on the YouTube. But if you imagine for those who are listening, I'm scrunching up my shoulders, I'm furrowing my brow, I'm scrunching my hands. Like, complaining and winging is tense. So my understanding of golf is, you know, you're probably not going to say, well, Joe, your next shot, you go to a really good job. If you completely tense up through it, you're not going to tell me that. So while we're thinking to get

you closer to being tense rather than being relaxed. So gratitude is an absolute winner for us in terms of performance enhancement.

So that gratitude piece is really and yeah, I don't think there's any research in it, but I'm very sure that grateful people that are looking as well, so maybe as that effect.

There's a little dope mein kick that comes with it, and that fits in with one of the chapters in the book, which was going to be the second point that I was going to make. And that's why those two go so well hand in hand, is because we know that people matter. And you know, if we're looking at this in terms of our success in golf, whatever that might be, or our ability to perform well in it, it is based on those people who are around you.

Maybe part of your bolfing success is because there's other people in your life that helps carry the load at home. Say, say, if you've got home commitments and maybe are partners at home looking after people or animals or whatever it might be, or doing something in the home that enables you then go and play golf, maybe you then do that in return for them so that they can spend their time

doing the thing that brings them joy. You know, how you manage your relationships is really critical to your life. And we know that when we're engaging in sporting endeavor, we don't do it in a silo that when we could talk to others about it. And in golf, you know, we've always got friends who play as well and can talk for hours at a time. I guess about golf and the intricacies of it and how it all works, but I guess human connection is important for us just

as humans. But when we're playing golf, it is one of those pursuits that we can really, you know, get that extra benefit and in terms of what that means for us in terms of our mental health and our well being, that connection with others doing a shared, hopefully fun activity is something that's really beneficial for us. And we know that's another part of what will keep us coming back.

consume information in different ways. So I've got it there as paperback, as an ebook, and also as an audiobook, and it is actually me I did Actually it was the longest weekend of my life when I did it, but I recorded the audiobook that is also that was also a test of perseverance. So I've got the Elite. Then in twenty twenty, I wrote a book called In the Grandstand and that is a parent's survival guide for teen sports, so that there's lots involved in sports parenting.

So that was actually you can probably guess the age of my own children at the time that I wrote that book. I also wrote an interactive journal which is called The game Plan, and the game Plan goes through the five predictors of high performance, and we've actually talked about some of them on the episode today. And that journal is designed as I think that works best as

the paperbacks then you can actually write in it. But what I've also put in that is I've put I think there's about twenty five QR codes in there that link to videos explaining concepts, so it's an extra little bit of individual creating. I guess through that. Last year, I wrote a book specifically for athletes and performers called Belief, and that's about building unshakable confidence. So I wrote a book called Belief, and if I may show it hot

off the press is my new book, The Whistleblower. So it is a mental toughness rule book for officials, umpires, and referees. So motivated by the fact that I've worked with a lot of referees and officials over the years, because we do know that it's a mentally challenging and

tough area to be in. And also it's a little bit of a project of the heart because both of my sons are referees in their own sports, so that's what they've gone down, and well both of them have actually gone down in the elite pathway in refereeing and officiating. So and look, I think a few people have read it and said to me, this is actually for anyone, Joe, and I said, I know, but I've specifically written it

for referees. So if you're not a referee, I want to read it, you'll just have to translate it in your head. But all the principles apply. And I think that's the thing, isn't it, Fred That the mental side of what it is to play golf applies across our lives. So if we're working on our mental skills in our life, it will translate across to what's happening for us in golf as well, So it goes both ways.