Jim Murphy

All the hard times, the really scary times and low times in my life, God's been training me.

I didn't know it at the time, but now I can see it much clearer now.

It was not just the five years of writing the book, but there was all my experiences and, you know, my mom's background and community background that my dad got into with the Hutterites and my brother and the spiritual background, all of that.

Yeah, that was really a life-changing thing for me to realize in the desert.

So kind of how that happened was I give away over half my possessions to go live in a life of solitude to figure out what to do with my life.

I wanted to find something that I could devote my life to.

And when I was there, I decided to become a personal coach to pro baseball players and teach them how to have peace and confidence under pressure.

And so then I started to put together this manual for future clients after my first two clients did amazing.

And what I realized in the research was that what good is it if I spend my life making people really successful, whether it's winning an Olympic gold medal or being world number one or making millions of dollars?

if it doesn't make a difference in their heart and in the world, if it just makes them more successful, like, that may not even be a good thing.

And then when I found out that to teach someone how to have the most poise under the most pressure is the same path as living the best possible life, a meaningful, fulfilling life with amazing experiences and deep, enriching relationships where you're learning and growing and making a difference,

It's the same path, a wholehearted path.

When I realized that, that's when everything changed.

That's what inner excellence is.

It's to teach someone how to be wholehearted, how to walk in love and not fear, and develop yourself as a person and optimize that and become your true self.

And then you're a better athlete, you're a better parent, better coach.

You're more present, more gracious, more aware.

Yeah, that's right.

So the book came out in 2009 and I wrote the book because I wanted to read the best book ever on mental toughness.

I wanted to use that as a manual for my clients to use that I can give them and say, here's how you train your mind and your heart.