George Mumford
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
so it was like not just performing but i'm talking about pure performance not elite performance is one thing but pure performance is when you're doing the thing for the activity in and of itself for no reason other than being in the moment and expressing yourself honestly and love and and being who you are because you're unique there's no one like you
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
My job is just to help people be who they are. So I just chip away and, you know, like Michelangelo, you know, when they asked him, how does he create these works of art? And he said, all I do is chip away to get to the masterpiece that's already there. So that's what I do. I ain't fixing anybody.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I'm just helping people unlock, helping people understand, hey, you know, what you need to succeed is inside, is an inside job. And if you go in there and you access it and you express it, and share it with the rest of us, that's the bomb. That now we're into something. And so that's what I do. And some people, they get it. And they're looking for that edge. They're not waiting for something.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
They're proactive. They're saying, okay, I'm doing this, but I got to get better. And so case in point, when Kobe, after Kobe won a championship, maybe it was, it might've been 2009. I don't know what year it was, 2009. But during the off season, he's down in, Houston working on his post game with the large one. Now he just won a championship, but that was a thing magic the same way. Okay.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I know bird is working hard. I got to work hard. Dr. J I ruined him, man. He's always working on his craft. And so you see what I'm saying, but it's not work. So you couldn't tell a difference between practice and the real game. Cause every time they get on the court, they were, their job was to get better. And this is what I tell my clients. I tell people,
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
you don't have to get a whole lot better. You can get a little bit better 1% each day, each day, each day. You want to be able to finish practice or the game and say, I got better today. I made progress today. And so these guys already knew that. All I was doing is just helping them say, okay, here's what you can do. And they just took what I got and just ran with it.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And I used to say to people all the time, I'm not disrespecting anybody, but I said, MJ was the kind of dude that You know, there's killer instinct and people talk about it. You know, you have Magic Bird and all I'm talking about, even with the dream team, dude just has this, you know, this energizing enthusiasm or energy. His energy is off the charts. His focus is off the chart.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
But that's because he was always challenging himself, always looking for something. And so I just say MJ was like, you know, he had the killer instinct. And I said, well, Kobe, the closest thing to him from my experience, you know, working with them. close and personal.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And then when Kobe got to the point where he hurt his hand, I talked about this in the book, his finger, and he didn't miss him a beat. He changed his shot, still shot a high percentage. And that's what it was. He just saw it as a challenge and just moved on and say, okay, I'm going to change.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
You know how much it takes to do something like that or working on a three point shot in the summertime, making 1300 made threes a day. So he's doing stuff, you know, that mama mentality, you know, that's, you know, uh, You know, it's a secret, but, you know, he could be talking about me. Right, right. You know, and that's the way, you know, that's it.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Because I got the same kind of, that's why I think we, but it's quiet. I got a quiet passion. I'm kind of, I'm like one of those silent assassins. You know, you don't even know, you know, until you say, oh, no, man, dude just got me. But he's just doing his thing. And I'm not saying it like it's me or whatever. What I'm really saying is we all have that.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
They don't have anything we don't have. They just have a will and an intention to just be who they are and be unlocked. And so if we all unlock, we'd get that kind of... we'd have that kind of satisfaction with our performance, you know, pure performance where we're just in the moment, you're just performing. You're not doing it. You're doing it for no reason. You're doing it for the love of it.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Now there's certain levels of that, but it's like when you, when you see somebody perform like that, it's contagious and it's amazing. Absolutely. And that's what we love about sports because we have this ability to go beyond what we think is possible. And every minute, every second, every, every action.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yeah. So, you know, let's, let's just talk about emotional intelligence because you know, I'm, well, you, you probably know this, but your readers don't know this. I mean, your listeners don't know this. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a recovering perfectionist. Okay. So when I learned something, whatever I do, I'm all in. Right. Right. And, um, So I'm coming up on 41 years of sobriety in July, July 30th.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And over that time, I've read over a book a week. Okay. So emotional intelligence, this is what we call EQ. This has to do with the heart, social, emotional, you know, in our relationships and whatnot. So there's four components to that. And, you know, traditionally we talk about it as self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness. awareness and relationship development.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
They say relationship management. I don't like the word management because you manage things, you lead people. So it's more according to Stephen Covey anyway, and he sold 50 million copies of it. So he know what he's talking about. So, so it's, it's, and so it's about this idea that we have this ability as human beings to step back and observe our experience.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
So we're talking about a certain kind of awareness, like mirror mind is awareness. That's inclusive. It just, allows us to see things and we can, through our self-awareness, we can self-regulate. That means we can, which is another part of emotional intelligence, we can regulate our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and even how we interpret things. We have autonomy and that's it. We make choices.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
We are responsible. When we accept responsibility, then we can choose and we can make choices. And so I don't care what situation we're in, there's always a little bit of space. But if we can create More space, if we can pause and reflect, if we can be still and know or be still until we know. I'm going in Bible over here, but you get what I'm saying. You create space.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And in that space, and this is what Victor Franco talked about, in that space is the freedom and power to choose. Now, how do you use that space? Well, if you have a principle-centered purpose or life, now in that space, you get to choose according to your values, according to your goal, according to who you say you are.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
and what you say you want to do and so for the most part we are an automatic pilot and we got these programs that are running without our permission and so a lot i'm talking about we have this ability to step back and observe things and then that observation we can start to see how things are how things arise and pass away we start to see how things are connected we start to see that when i'm uh just real basic stuff so you know with this uh you know reptilian brain that
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
the emotional, you know, that reptilian brain and those fight, flee, freeze, and fawn, which is like, you know, you, you know, become a doormat, whatever it is, however you want to look at it. But here's the thing.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
So when we get in and it's interesting because the fight is, is, is helpful because sometimes you got to fight, you got to use that fight to look, okay, I'm going to go here to look for food or I'm going to go here where, where I can figure stuff out or whatever. Uh, so the fight, flight, and freeze, uh, And so, but we have the middle brain, which is the emotional brain.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And then we have the prefrontal cortex where we can actually, you know, use, you know, we can, you know, the executive function. Right. So a lot of times when you get emotionally hijacked, uh, we get something happens. Like I'll talk about my boy Dennis Rodman when he was, when he was on the sideline and he tripped over the reporter and he ended up kicking him.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
It was like, that was a hijack because this dude could have ended his career. So instead of having a space and choose your response, there was no space, it was an automatic reaction. And so when you're in survival mode, that's what you do and what you see is danger. Nine out of 10 thoughts are danger. So you're in survival mode, then you're not in growth mode.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
You're not in a mode where you have space and you can think. So you're in fear, no space, you're in love or growth mode, you have space. And so we have to understand that it's like, And it's interesting because I didn't put my glasses on, but it's like being in survival mode or growth mode.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
If you're in survival mode, if I have on the fair glasses, I'm looking for danger and I'm probably going to fight you or run or freeze until I figure stuff out or play dead, whatever it is, and then fawn, whatever. Just tell you what you want to hear so I can stay safe. It's like they say attack dogs when they have an attack dog on you. If you show any kind of emotion, they attack you.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
do this, they come down. And so this is our nature, right? And so we are learning how to say when I'm in survival mode, I'm probably not seeing things clearly. And I'm probably, because here's the secret. And this guy, Bruce Lipton, he wrote a book called Biology of Belief. He said on a cellular level, the cell is either in survival mode or growth mode. You can't be in both.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
So what we're doing is we're creating a space so we can actually choose and see before we leap, right? And so now we're making wise choices and we're also learning how stuff works. Does that make sense? And so that self-regulation, so what I teach is self-awareness, self-regulation to get to self-mastery. So self-mastery is getting to the point where it doesn't matter what happens to you.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I don't mean like it doesn't matter, but whatever happens to you, you get to choose your attitude and how you're going to respond react to it. Are you going to withdraw and freeze? Or are you going to open up and use your resources to align yourself to make the choice, the best choice available for you in that time? And so we're some bad mofos.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
We got this ability, but you got to own it and you got to train it. You got to train yourself so that you can be in the moment and you can see clearly. But in that space, And as you do it more and more, instead of having this much space, you have this much space. Keep spacing. I call it the eye of a hurricane. It's one of the ways I think about it. And the Bible talks about this stuff.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
It says, be still and know. It also talks about a double-minded man that's unstable in all his ways. So if you're not a one-minded, if you're not in the moment, if you're not focused on the one thing, then you are shaky ground. I'm just saying. I'm not making this up. This is what the Bible says, and you can see it for yourself. You get what I'm saying? So
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
So the best thing we can do is understand, am I in survival mode? If I'm in survival mode, then how do I get out of it and get to growth mode? Or how do I create space? And sometimes we react to it, but can we reflect on that and say, okay, when it happens again, this is what I'm going to do. That's it. You're learning. So that's the competitive edge. Does that make sense?
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
To unlock the vice pocket in each and every human being.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yeah. Because-
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Okay, that's good.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
So I'll give you the whole spiel. It's a child I developed several years back, and I forget when I did it, but it's a lifelong thing to unlock the divine spark in each and every human being. The values that are at the heart of who I am are love, curiosity, truth, wisdom, integrity, selfless service, compassion, courage.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
That's really important because we get identified with it and we're in it and we're focused on it instead of when you make a mistake. It's interesting. If you play an instrument, you're playing a guitar and you hit the wrong note. If you stop, Instead of just keep playing, people won't even notice it. But then you mentally know, okay, I need to reflect on that when I'm not, not now, but later.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I need that, you know, the post performance. I need to reflect on it and say, okay, how do I change that? What do I need to do so that I hit the right note? You understand what I'm saying? And so, but we're not on mistakes. Mistakes are just feedback. This is a neurolinguistic programming thing. There's no such thing as failure, just feedback. Yeah.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
so it's telling you okay so the question is what do i need to learn and practice so that i can do it and what's it telling me and and you see people all the time is like we talk about basketball we're in the playoffs it could be ice hockey but let's talk about basketball and so you miss a shot and you say okay i gotta make the next shot instead of when you miss a shot you gotta say okay so what do i need to do you mentally know okay i gotta
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
next time I just got to keep my elbow in or stick it or, or use my feet, whatever it is you mentally know, but then you have to drop it and then make the next play. It's always about the next play. If you're in a mistake, that's how you get scored on. And that's how you carry that mistake for the rest of the game or the rest of that, that sequence.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And so there has to be a, you know, short, you'd be able to just let it go or just drop it for now, bracket it and set it aside. You'll get to it later. But right now, it's the next moment. You got to make the next play. I love it. What's important now? That's the thing to win. What's important now? Just do the next thing. And once again, it comes back.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Do what you know to do and the next step will be given to you. It's just really simple. You know, this stuff, I'm not making this up. It's just really, really simple. But we get attached to it and we think about it. And the more you think about it, the more you reflect on it, the more it's in your mind and it's preoccupying you. So you're not really here. You're still in the past.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
You're not in the moment. And so this idea of, so how do you do it? You just notice it. But even calling it a mistake, it creates a whole physiological reaction where you get in the survival mode and you're trying not to make a mistake. And that's when you make more mistakes. You try, you know, and so you have to understand, oh, it's as simple as just saying, oh, that's the feedback.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
No judging, just notice it. Okay, bracket it. And then we'll get back to it because that's telling you, where your opportunity is. See, that's the mindset of an elite performer is you see it as a challenge, but you also see it as an opportunity to improve.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Instead of seeing it as a reflection on who you are.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
That for which I can be counted on for is to be loving with a warrior spirit, with a serving and compassionate heart, pursuing excellence and wisdom with grace and ease. That's what I'm up to. And those are my guiding ideas, my guiding principles.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And what I wrote- Does that make sense?
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yeah. And it's like everything else. We have an emotion. We have a feeling and we identify with it and we become it and we keep focusing on it. We keep it in our mind and we can't let it go. And the more we think about it, the more, you know, it's like, it's like it has Velcro, like you have Velcro on both things. If you try to push it away or pull it towards you, you're stuck with it.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And the idea is not to get stuck because if you're stuck with that, you're not available for the next thing. You're actually in prison. You're actually locked.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Freedom, power, love, gratification. What loss is your life? You're not, you know, but the first thing is self-expression power. and your ability to do whatever, you know, to have, to be spontaneous. That's another way of saying to be in the zone. And what is spontaneity means being of one's own self, being of your own mind. So nothing is, you're not being reacted upon. You are acting.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
You actually, you have autonomy. You get to choose.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
You get to direct your attention. And so, so that's the cost when you're locked up. It's like, say it another way. So, I have this pad of paper and let's say I have, you don't have to know the reading, but I got all this writing on it. And so with the writing there, there's no space to create. You got to fill in in between. But if I show you this, it's a blank slate.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
There's nothing there, but here's the secret. There's nothing there. And because nothing is there, everything is there.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
So now that's where your imagination, then you have room. You're not restrict. You don't have restrictions. It's not like,
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
know you're you're in a you know let's think about you're in a coffin or sarcophagus and you close the lid and you're safe in there but you're stiff can't move life is about movement life is about having getting out of the getting out of these you know out of the you know getting out of the box or getting to the point where you can just be able to move the way you need to yeah instead of being restricted so and so and it's a mental thing so when you get locked up mentally
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Your body, your mind, your heart, and your soul are all locked up.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I know a lot of UNC grads, man. Yes, sir. Rick Fox. Name a few.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yeah. Yeah. Kenny, Kenny Smith. Charlie's got one of my favorite dudes. Yeah. And see, you know, back in the day when they didn't have too many of us.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Um, it's interesting. Well, he, he, you know, he says it all the time. I helped him with his leadership when he came back, you know, he's coming back after getting beat up on by, by, uh, by the, you know, the bad boys and whatnot. And then he came back at the 18 months and these guys are all in the shadow of that. And, but yet they haven't won anything.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And, but yet the, but it was like, okay, so you guys don't really know what it takes to really do this. And you guys, you know, you gotta put in that, you know, it's old school, you know, you gotta fight for this stuff.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And so one of the things I, I helped him. do is be able to meet people where they are and realize that they don't see where you are, but you have to you have to meet them where they are. Then it's called leading and pacing as a neurolinguistic programing technique or first, if you want to look at it that way.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
It's like you meet people, you develop the rapport and then you leave, you meet them where they are and then you decide you give them a say on where they're going. See, this is a part of leadership that's really important. When you're a leader, you give other people a say in where you're going because then now they're in it. It's not your team, it's our team.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
It's not your company, it's our company. And we have to get that one where everybody has value in my job. And what I was telling them is you have to model, trust, and inspire. That's it. You have to model the behavior, but then you have to trust them and inspire them to do it. Because I remember when Phil talked about talking to Michael about letting the other guys...
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yeah, it was, you know, I talk about it in my other book, The Mindful Athlete's Secret to Pure Performance. So just to give you an idea, so fast forward, this is 1969. And I'm going to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. And it was the last orientation weekend. So the weekend just before classes started. So it was that Labor Day weekend.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
have more, you know, be more involved. And he had ideas about, okay, so, and he wasn't wrong. You know, you got a post player and he's got the ball. He's got to learn how to have footwork and learn how to control. So he's not just post, but he has to learn other skills so that he can, he can, he can handle the ball. He knows how to pivot away from pressure and he understands the game.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And so that's the thing. So everybody has to learn practice so that they can perform. Does that make sense? And so, So he had to open that up. And so as leaders, as people, even people we're engaged in, we have to see them as, just my opinion, as what they're possible becoming instead of seeing them where they are.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And then encouraging them, inspiring them. But they got to do the work. So that's where it becomes challenging because they have to take ownership. I say, I am responsible. I make choices. No B&D. The B&D is not allowed. You know what the B&D is?
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Blame and denial. Love it. No, like I am responsible. Boom. Once you embrace it. Yeah. Okay. I didn't, I didn't ask for this, but now that I'm here, how am I going to, what am I going to do in that space between stimulus and response? And am I going to be who I say I am? Am I going to do what I say I want to do? I have that opportunity, but I have to self-regulate.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I have to, and it's uncomfortable. And part of us comfortable blaming other people or denying it. But if I could say, yeah, I can't take responsibility for, I can't control some things, but I can always choose how I respond to it. And that's where the ultimate freedom is being able to choose. And, and that's, that's what we can do.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And then once you do that, now you develop this ability to know it doesn't matter what happened on some of what matters is what you're going to do. Are you going to get down? You know, still cool in the game. What you going to do? Right. Get up off the wall. You know, you got to get up to get down. You know, and that's it. But once we all assume responsibility and say, OK, here's my role.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Here's how I can contribute. Here's how I can help. So it's our team, it's our community. It's not waiting for somebody to come by. And as a country, as a society, we have this choice. We're waiting for other people to save us instead of saying we are the solution. We the people. We have to say, hey, you know, true north. There's principles involved here. Love, compassion, seeking to understand.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And I am the other one. I can't just make you a thing and then treat you like any old thing. No. And if somebody else is doing that in my name, I got to say, hey, I'm not down with that. We don't treat people that way. Right. You know, we don't relate to each other that way. We have to have mutual benefit, mutual respect. We have to understand how to do that.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Now we hold people accountable, but you don't have to make them into objects where you can just hate on them or treat them any old way.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
So that's it. It starts with us. You see what I'm saying? And so when we can do it, and me as a leader, that's how I lead. I model behavior, but I give people a say in what what we're doing and say, okay, what do you want to do? And it could be like where I'm going and you're not going in the same direction. There's a book called Good to Great.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
They said, before you get on a bus, you decide where you want to go. You make sure you have the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. And that's the thing. And that's a choice. Do you want to be here? Yeah. Okay. Here's what we're into. If you're not into that, You know, as my father used to say, don't let the door hit you where the dog should have bit you.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
You know, nothing personal, but you got to go. Like my father would say, you don't have to go home, but you got to get out of here. You got to get off this bus. You know, nothing personal, but you made a choice not to be here. So, you know, good luck. But this is what we're up to.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And if you're in for it, if you have the same values we have, you know, if their core values align with True North values, Like all the things I talked about, you know, compassion, seeking to understand, mutual benefit, mutual respect, love, compassion, being curious and trying to understand this thing in joy and love, not in this fear or, you know, trepidation. No, it's like you got to be all in.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yes, sir. You got to say yes to it. Yes, sir.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
So it started, I think, Thursday, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever it was. And so I stayed on campus and didn't have to. And so we, we, we were playing me and a couple of my friends were playing pickup basketball. So we went to this outdoor court and this dude was out there playing and he had on street shoes and he was dunking on people. And I would say, well, who's this homie here?
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
My website, georgemuffet.com. They can go there and they can, you know, and you go on and the website will tell you all you need to know. You know, you can
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
your email and you can get on the email list but there's a lot out there if you go to youtube i have a youtube channel with what i do at home with george every thursday so we got over 200 episodes of that um you know obviously you can get my book in you know amazon or or any you know you know random house penguin you know all of those books book places but um
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
But it's really, and then if you just Google my name on Google Me, you'll see all kinds of stuff.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Well, you know, it's interesting because I have this friend of mine, Roland, and he was teaching an interviewing course at VTech. And so I went to work with him and his students interviewed me. And that's when I became aware of it. He said, okay, here's the process. You got to find out who this guy is and what you can find out. They went on Google and there's all this stuff.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I said, whoa, I had no idea. I had all that stuff was on Google. And so that's it. It's like anything else. You want to go to Google. Now, here's the interesting thing. Just like there's a Google and you can put in a subject and you get the information.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
When we go inside, there's a part of us, there's that place of rest, the stillness, the idle hurricane I talk about, where all the answers we need are already there.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
It's just like Google. If you just reflect on it and think about it, you can get the access or the access, oh, you need to go to this one or talk to this one. Or like you said, I need to talk to Mr. Mumford. I need to read this book. And so just so you know, my Mindful Athlete book, I read that over 60 times. And the Unlocked book, I probably read about 15 times already, 20 times.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And every time I read it, I find something else. And I said, well, who wrote that? That's some good stuff.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yeah, but here's the thing is when you get in the flow, when you are accessing that higher consciousness or when you're coming from that silence, there's a wisdom and creativity, man, that you have no idea. That's when you see people in the zone or flow, that's what it is. But if you ask them, They say there's no self-consciousness.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
It's like I'm not there because the spirit is just moving through me. Call it love, whatever. It's moving through you, and you just know stuff. You have premonition. You know, oh, this is going to happen. I don't know how you know it, but you know it, and you can see it. And this is what I tell my athletes, whether they're a hockey goalie or soccer goalie or whatever.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
It's like when you are in that silence, your body's already moving where the ball is going to go. Yeah. Now you're playing on a spiritual level and you start to see things. And the same thing, if you're in the outfield, you know, you know, you can see your body starts going, but we get in the way and we start thinking, well, should there that? No, man, shut up. Just be still.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And no, just be still. And, and your body, you did the training now and let it take over. But that's when we're not into this. How am I doing? You know, I'm, I'm compelled by fear, desire. No, you're not compelled by either one. You're just in your center and you're just, honestly expressing yourself, fully deployed in the moment. That's it.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I mean, wait, wait, but I knew about him once he told me it was because my friend of mine said, Hey man, this is this guy, Julius Irving. You got to check him out. He's, he's the real deal. And so, and that, and that's, that's how we became friends. And, uh,
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I appreciate you saying that. And the thing is, it's being unlocked. And you're not unlocked all the time, just for a moment or whatever, and then you keep unlocking and unlocking. But the same capacity that you see in me is in you and everybody else.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And then eventually, you know, we were roommates, uh, and I was his roommate, you know, while he was, um, when he was, uh, just about to go pro. Um, so yeah, so I had that experience. And then my other roommate, uh, Al Skinner, uh, actually played, played with Julius and, and, um, and, and, uh, uh, New York nets and with, uh, 76ers. So he was my other roommate. Um,
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And of course, Patino, Rick Patino was there when I was there. So I knew all those, we all hung out together. Patino was from Oyster Bay. So sometimes we used to ride home, you know, with him, me, him and Al, you know, sometimes we, you know, if I was going to hang out with Al on the weekend, sometimes we'd drop Rick off. on the way to long Island.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yeah. So just to show that you're not the only one that feels that way. I don't know when it was several years back. The last time they had the NBA all-star game, in LA and Julius had a podcast. And so he went, he interviewed me for the podcast. So I actually was there right in the middle of it all. And as I'm going in, Isaiah Thomas is saying, wait a minute.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
you two going in there, I want to come in. And Judy said, well, I'll get with you later, but we just got to do this thing. Because Isaiah was saying, oh, man, I want to hear what these roomies are going to talk about.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yes. So people probably know my, my story about, you know, getting into recovery, getting injured and in college and, you know, not, not, not playing, not fulfilling my dream of playing in the NBA or even playing in college. Um, so, you know, I got, so I got addicted to pain meds, didn't, didn't alcohol and drugs and all that. So fast forward. So I got clean in 1984, fast forwarding.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I was a functional. substance abuse. And so I always worked and everything. So I was fortunate enough to be able to continue to work and to do things. But when I got clean, and then I started realizing that about me and how I had to go inside and unlock myself.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
But it was that gift of desperation that allowed me to look at it and start to see, okay, getting connected to my power source, high power, whatever you want to call it. And And just figuring out how to unlock myself. And so it started that way. And I was still working. But then I went back to graduate school.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
But then I got on this mission, which I think the competitive edge is learning and achieving. And when you learn and you achieve, you actually generate discipline. energizing enthusiasm. But what am I learning about? It's not so much about subjects.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
It's about me, my mind, body system, and how I, who I am, my body, mind, heart, and soul, and how I can relate to others being in the network of relationships. So that's how it got me there. And when I got into recovery, part of my recovery was if you want to keep it, you got to give it away. And if you want to learn it, you got to teach it.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And so, so it's like, it got me into it. So I, I, so just going through it and then I ended up working at the center for mindfulness, which used to be the stress reduction, relaxation, um, program at UMass medical center.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And, um, where I worked there for five years, I was, uh, you know, I had a prison project director prison project, and then we set up an inner city clinic on the other side of the other side of the railroad tracks. So some folks that live in the, in the hood. You know, they live on the other side of railroad tracks.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
We had a satellite clinic for them to learn how mindfulness-based stress reduction. So in the interim, the founder, Jon Kabat-Zinn, my boss, he used to go to Omega Institute, this place in New York. And at the same time, Phil was running this program called Beyond Basketball, where it really was, it was a fundraising activity for his teammate, a teammate he had with the Knicks.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
His name was Eddie Mast.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
and so he was doing this so they had it was like a fantasy basketball weekend for people when they come and play and everything and so they were there together and phil and and um actually john and phil's wife june at the time were talking about um you know the team and and this process that she was learning because she was a she was a social worker so she was she was doing a training
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And they knew Phil because they were always there and whatnot. And so Phil was told, John, that he needed somebody to come in and help the guys deal with the stress of success. So this was 1993. This is after they won their first three-peat. And so Phil, because Phil is like me, he believes in the whole person. It's not like shut up and dribble.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I'm interested in your body, your mind, your heart and your spirit. And you're like one of my, you know, you're, you're, you're my peeps.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
You're one of my congregation, if you will, that, you know, I'm concerned about your, your wellbeing beyond basketball, just about you being the best person you could be, but making sure that I value you as a, as a divine spark, you might even say, or a human being or a masterpiece, the word I use. And so he brought me in. And of course, when I got there,
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
By that time, Michael Jordan, we talked in July. And by the time I got there in October, Michael was gone. And so they were in full blown crisis. And then that's the start of my relationship working with Phil. And so that's how I got into it. That's how it began. I was still working at the medical center, but at the same time, it was like when you had a medical school, they like papers.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
They like publicity. They like people knowing that you're going out and what we're researching and what we're offering. is a value to the community.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Yes. Well, it's interesting because. Because being around greatness all my life, you know, in terms of, you know, all Americans in high school, but, you know, room with Julius and being around him and people don't realize he was like Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan, because even as college students, he couldn't go anywhere.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
He would draw a crowd and they line up for the game, you know, hours before and whatnot. So it was me just. trying to connect with them. I knew I wanted to serve and I knew I wanted to share what I had. And so I talked to them about being spiritual warriors.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
I talked to them about being in the zone, being in flow and explaining to them, like with MJ especially, it's like helping him understand why he was able to do what he was doing. And also I didn't have to ask him about the next level because him and Kobe and guys like that, Dr. J, you can name, you know,
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
LeBron, you know, all of the elites, you know, going back to my day when I watched the Celtics and, you know, I had favorites, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, you know, I can go on and on, Oscar Robinson. But there was something about the idea I'd noticed when I used to watch these cats play and like for the first three quarters, you know, they'll be shooting shots and they'll be doing things.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
But when the fourth quarter came, let's see, I was there, I was in the middle, I was watching this stuff. One of my first basketball games I watched was Elgin Bell is going 60 to 61 points against the Celtics in the way up a new championship. So I saw that there was, they had another level when it came crunch time. They had another level.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And of course I, you know, I, I studied this stuff and I was very interested in flow in the zone. So I studied it. So if you want to learn something, you teach it and you, you investigate, you explore it. And of course I, I, I live in flow a lot now, but when I was an athlete, I had flow experiences and I remember.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Thanks, Mick. I appreciate you. It's my honor to be here. And I can't tell you how delighted I am to hear that the book had value for you. And more importantly, that the book is helping you unlock you. Unlocked. We need you to be unlocked. We need everybody to be unlocked.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
when it took my game to like a whole other level, all of a sudden it's like, whoa, man, this is like, ooh, this is different. This is different. And so, yeah, so it was just a matter of me knowing I wanted to serve and just, you know, going there and meeting people where they are and then figuring it out. There's something about when you see elite performers, they're unlocked.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And one way to get unlocked is the only way to get unlocked really is to say yes to whatever's coming up and then than figuring out what you need to learn, what the universe is teaching you. Because if you don't learn the lesson, then you keep getting it. So you learn. So it was about this joy of discovery, but also this idea of wanting to help people alleviate or eliminate suffering altogether.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
So it was like not just performing, but I'm talking about pure performance. Lead performance is one thing, but pure performance is when you're doing the thing for the activity in and of itself, for no reason other than being in the moment and expressing yourself honestly and being who you are because you're unique. There's no one like you.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
And Bruce Lee used to talk about it in terms of martial arts is to honestly express yourself. And so these folks are unlocked, but there has to be this hunger, this desire to want to go to the next level because what people don't understand is when you go to the next level, It's not like, oh, everything is pieces and cream when you go to the next level.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
No, the goal in that process, you have to go through what Soren Kierkegaard talked about. He said one side of the coin is freedom, potential. The other side is uncertainty and anxiety. So you have to tolerate discomfort. Anxiety comes with it. And so everybody will say, you know, I have clients who say, oh, I want to be like Mike. I want to be like Kobe. I say, okay, here's what's required.
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
Well, I ain't signed up for that because it hurts. You know, you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. And if you're not uncomfortable, you're not growing. You see what I'm saying? So with those guys, I didn't have to do anything but just show up. Of course, I had a lot of street cred being Dr. J's roommate, okay?
Mick Unplugged
George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions
But also my authenticity and talking about, well, this cat used to be a dope fiend, man. He was in the shooting gallery. Now he's behind the bench of his NBA championship team during the championship run. How the hell does that happen? How do you get from there to there? You see what I'm saying? So a lot of it is because I have not made one free throw before. one turnover or one assist.