How Corporate Athletes do better in the Hustle [W&S 71 ft. Ex National Athlete Alex Loh] 

How Cultivating an Athlete’s Mindset Can Propel Your Corporate Career

“If you understand how the mind works, it’s always a mind stretch. Once your mind has experienced a lot, it has already been stretched. It knows that it can handle that much. Anything less difficult than that, the mind thinks, ‘No problem, I’ve been there, done that.'” – Alex Loh, CEO of AXA Wellness

On this episode of Wise & Shine, hosts Reggie and Dawn sat down with Alex Loh, former national athlete and current CEO of corporate wellness company AXA Wellness, to discuss the powerful concept of the “corporate athlete” mindset. The riveting conversation explored how athletic principles of resilience, discipline, and a strong team can translate into incredible career success.

Defining the Corporate Athlete Mindset

Alex shared insights gained from decades competing at an elite level and now guiding top companies on well-being strategies. “The realities of the corporate race are no joke,” Dawn noted. Reggie was curious – “What does it take to perform like an athlete on the job?”

According to Alex, it’s about using “the tools and experiences that an athlete goes through and applying that to your specific role and job function as a corporate worker.”

He outlined a simple framework for cultivating this mindset:

1. Start with the Right Mindset

The foundation is adopting the same tenacious, resilient mindset of a high-performance athlete. As Alex stated, “If you say yes [to being a corporate athlete], then we can talk about strategies to make sure you become a better one.”

2. Build Your Team

Just like an elite athlete surrounds themselves with coaches, nutritionists, physical therapists and more, the corporate athlete needs a strong support system. “If you cannot identify a team supporting you, there’s an issue. You need to fill those slots,” advised Alex.

3. Training & Conditioning

Athletes go through intense training cycles building up to major competitions. For the corporate athlete, this means identifying key milestones and purposefully conditioning your mind and body to operate at peak performance levels for those events.

The Power of an Athlete’s Perspective

The reason this mindset is so powerful? Alex broke it down:

“As an athlete, we fail all the time. I’ve probably failed a million more times than someone who has not had that opportunity…that many hours of failing has trained me to be more resilient.”

Failure also breeds important life skills, if embraced instead of feared. As Alex’s cramping lap count reminded, maintaining peak fitness requires consistency not perfection. With an athlete’s growth mindset, each setback simply informs the next level-up.

He elaborated that dealing with those “micro-failures” with lower stakes helps rewire the brain’s fear response. So when bigger life hurdles emerge, the formerly battle-tested athlete can calmly think: “I’ve been there, done that. I can overcome this.”

Cultivating Discipline Without Sacrifice

One listener astutely pointed out that athletes seem to have incredible self-discipline ingrained from years of intense training from a young age. How can non-athletes who struggle with discipline cultivate that same dedication?

Alex argued that it comes down to reframing your mindset away from “sacrifice” and towards actively “choosing” your priorities. He advised finding your core purpose and passionately focusing on that, allowing it to become the powerful driving force behind your disciplined actions.

“If you say ‘I’m sacrificing time with friends because I have to train,’ you’re already thinking of it as a sacrifice,” he explained. “But if you choose training over going out with friends, it’s simply a choice aligned with your purpose.”

Other Core Athletic Traits for Career Success

Throughout the discussion, Alex and the hosts covered several other athletic traits critical for corporate peak performance, including:

– Developing tunnel vision and avoiding attempt to “do it all”
– Following a progressive, gradual process of taking on more challenges
– Proactively conditioning your mind for continually greater “mind stretches”
– Embracing failure as a growth opportunity
– Focusing on a clear, overarching purpose to maintain motivation

By adopting the corporate athlete mindset and embodying these key principles, anyone can unlock new levels of resilience, focus and high achievement in their professional lives.

For those ready to start competing like a pro, Alex suggested: “Build rituals like morning movement or journaling. Fuel with nutrition supporting recovery instead of dragging you down. Tune in to your purpose and let it lead daily decisions and team construction.” Overall, approaching ambitious careers with an athlete’s tenacity engrains the adaptability and grit defining top talent today.

You can check their full interview on Wise & Shine, Episode 71 on Spotify, YouTube, Google podcast, Apple podcast to channel the inner athlete in you to propel you to new heights of #resilience, #discipline and #peakperformance.

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