alright, we've got Jim Murphy here today and Jim is the author of,
well, not a new book, but, recently republished book called Inner Excellence
Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance in the Best Possible Life.
You've probably heard about Jim.
First thing I think I want to talk to you about is we all may have heard
about this book, from watching the NFL playoffs last year in the Super Bowl.
AJ Brown had your book on the sidelines.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
And how he
Yeah, I can
got the book.
Yeah.
So AJ uh, he got the book from his teammate, Moro Ojomo and, uh,
Moro Ojomo just said, Hey, um, I think you'd really like this book.
Take a look at it.
And so obviously he did.
Morrow got it from, uh, DJ Giaritelli at the University of Texas, Austin.
Um, he is the Athletes in Action leader there.
And so that's where Moro got it.
So I saw a picture of AJ reading the book on, on the sideline, but I
didn't know this was like three weeks before January 12th was the first time
in the Packers Wild Card game and, uh, that I didn't have any context.
And so when I found out on the 12th, that was, I didn't know that he was bringing
it to every game, reading it before every game to get centered and, and reading it
after every drive to get re refocused.
There was a specific passage I think that he highlighted I saw that he would
go back to after each series is that.
Yeah, he, he, they showed, uh, um, zoomed in on, on, uh, a few of the
pages that he had highlighted most of the words and, and yellow highlighter.
And, well, he, I think he really liked the part about, uh, having
a clear mind and unburdened heart, because being a receiver in the NFL,
it's a scary proposition, right?
And so, uh, he needs to have a clear mind if he wants, because
there's no fear when you're present.
And so I think he really used the book to help him get, uh, present.
So yeah, I think that leads us into.
What is Inner Excellence, the title of your book?
It's a system , as far as I can understand, and I think, I don't know
who said it, but Systems Over Goals is pro over amateur and we're dealing with.
It's kinda like James Clear, uh, atomic Habits.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Inner Excellence is an in-depth system to learn how to be fully present
in your life, fully engaged heart, mind, and body unattached to the
results of what you're trying to do.
And, uh, learning self-mastery, learning how to master the ego.
That part of your mind is always threatened to, always comparing,
never satisfied overthinking.
Yeah.
And, in the book, we will, get that in a little bit, but.
You talk about failure somewhere in the middle?
I have it in my notes.
I don't have the exact page.
I wish I did, but, there's no failure, only feedback and being in this,
in similar space, I just fell into it, I guess, trying to teach people
these skills that you talk about.
And, you know, coming from, I come from a sports background, baseball coaching,
and I want to get to that in a moment.
But, I say I've never really failed.
I've had a lot of opportunities for personal growth, is what
I say is how I reframe it.
Was it, is that, appropriate?
Yeah.
Powerful.
Yeah.
So, um, what is, what is failure and what is success?
It's, those words are very cliche.
And, and America, the American dream is to be a huge success and not to fail.
And, uh, so it's, it's, it's definitely an illusion because you can say
you're, you're a marathon runner and you have your very best time ever
personal best, but you don't win.
So you failed.
Yeah.
I mean, it's, it's a little crazy in America using, just using the wrong, wrong
barometer when wins and losses are not a good way to measure anything because.
You can win and, and play terrible or lose and play great.
And so we, we need a new definition of, of success.
And, and, and so much is outta your control when you're
performing in a business and in life and, and sports, everything.
So we really need to re redefine what's, what's, um, what we really want most in
our life and, and with Inner Excellence we focus on, um, training the heart
to, and training it to love most.
What's most empowering because your heart is a control center of your life.
And you have, you quote John Wooden in here on Success.
And I read another book and I can't, I don't know, I think it was, um, well,
I'm not even gonna worry about it.
But they, they had a definition of a success that was very similar and
I think it came from John Wooden.
Also, yours is more expansive than what I had written down.
I had written down peace of mind, a direct result of the effort to become the best.
And in your book you have a more expansive quote, like I said, peace of mind, which
is a direct result of self-satisfaction and knowing you made the effort to
become the best of which you're capable.
And those UCLA teams, like you mentioned in the book, uh,
he didn't even scout really.
Amen.
And he worked on fundamentals and their team and making sure their team was
on top of the best thing they can do.
And then they, you get on the floor and the game plays out.
Maybe talk a little bit more about that.
Uh, well, let, let's look at Scottie Scheffler.
Amazing guy.
World number one golfer, amazing caddy Teddy Scott in Louisiana.
Um, what's the greatest gift that he has?
He's super talented, right?
It's not golf.
Um, it, it would be golf.
If golf made it, um, you know, cured cancer or saved lives or,
or taught people anything that was really, really meaningful.
I mean, it does, it teaches you discipline and, and how to focus
and, and how to, uh, sacrifice.
So there are definitely great things about sports.
But the greatest gift that, that, uh, Scottie Scheffler has is, is his, his
wisdom, which I define as to know who God is and who you are, what God's doing
in the world, and how you can fit in.
Or another way you can say it is wisdom is, is, uh, an expansive view
of possibilities and an an obstructive view of connections to people and
to God, and to, and to yourself.
Your, your true self.
And so, um.
It's important to, to recognize that western culture is obsessed
with the symbols of success.
Okay.
When it's, it's such an illusion.
'cause we can, you can spend your whole life pursuing that and
never get what you really want.
And why do you want that house in the ocean?
Why do you want that, that, uh, trophy or that raise or that nicer car?
It's 'cause you want to have great experiences.
You wanna have a better life, right.
You can have a million followers and a million dollars and have a terrible life.
And so Inner Excellence is about pursuing what's really meaningful
and true with a capital T.
Yeah.
You brought up Scottie Scheffler.
I wrote about him yesterday, I guess, about the, the grind and the consistency
of Scottie you look at that tournament, if you watch it at all or read about
it, and it's just uh, just relentless.
I think I put it relentless consistency was what it was, and then it became
a record setting event for him.
I wanna talk real quickly, golf, because you brought it up and what success is.
This is a personal thing for me.
I played in one golf tournament my entire life.
I'm an okay golfer.
I haven't played in a long time, but played in one golf tournament.
It was a two day event.
And I think the first day, you know, I was like a, at the time, maybe like a
12 or 15 handicap, something like that.
So I shot a 92, the first day, 94, something like that.
I was like, yeah, it was okay.
But I was all over the place.
The next day.
I think I, I'd read somewhere about these Vietnam, prisoners of war where they
would just imagine playing golf in their head and then imagine the course, so I
had to go on a trip and come back like three hours each way later that night.
And so I'm just like thinking the course through.
Well, I get to the 18th hole and I'm like, holy cow, I'm gonna break 90
for maybe the first time in my life.
And like, I'm going, maybe I can make 83 or something if I hit the shot.
So I get over the ball and I do the whole thing, like it is, I'm on it.
I hit the shot and I'm, I, I got it.
I know, I know my distance, everything.
I shank it in the water, and I'm like, holy cow.
But then, through this whole discipline thing, I just collected myself, got
the bogey, and got out of there.
Still made a, and I end up like thinking I was stressing out.
Like I wasn't gonna finish in the top, but it turned out that I did.
But anyway, the point is I tell people this all the time.
I didn't lose on that shank.
I did everything I was prepared to.
It was just a bad hit or bad luck, and so I felt, you know, that was a
very successful round, even though I shanked it on 18, which if you
go to the pros, you know, you'd be.
Talked about as the, goat, not the greatest of all time, but the real, the
van de Velde or whatever it might be.
But I'm like, I would've done everything the same and I still felt fine.
So I think that type of success, 'cause I bettered my personal,
you know, I, I beat my self.
Mm-hmm.
You know, my previous self, I guess is what I'm saying.
So I don't know if you have any
Yeah, that's great.
And how that, it's
also, uh, um, likely that, uh, part of your mind was thinking about the future
a little bit when you're on, on 18.
Is that possible?
It,
a little bit, but you know, I was, I was,
I'd like to get a good score here.
I might finish with a good score.
I just got one more hole I could.
Just finished this score, this whole, okay.
And now it'll end up being a great day.
Yeah.
It was very, very common.
Yeah.
Well anyway, yeah.
So you work with golfers, you work with baseball teams or baseball players.
You're a former baseball player yourself, and am I correct that you
went to Portland State University?
That's right.
The Vikings,
Vikings.
I grew up in Portland, Oregon.
My,
oh wow.
My mentor of probably all mentors is Jack Dunn.
Really?
Yeah.
Jack Dunn.
That's amazing.
My coach.
Yeah, your coach.
So, and Mike Wantland, who you probably know from around.
Oh my gosh.
He is probably one of my biggest advocates in the game of baseball too.
And so,
oh my gosh.
I grew up with those guys going their camps and yeah, eventually
I worked with Coach Dunn.
That's amazing.
But yeah.
So, you went from Portland State to the Cubs organization?
That's about five years, right.
And yeah.
Three years of the Cubs and then two years independent.
Okay.
All right.
And so I was gonna ask how did the, your time as a pro athlete,
help you understand this?
Or was it, did you understand it at all in college or the pros or,
yeah.
So, uh,
and then I know you took your journey into the desert, you talk about,
but did you know anything about what you're talking about now back then?
I sure could have used it.
That definitely would've been, uh, uh, nice.
I, I started studying sports psychology probably when I was 17.
My head coach in, uh, high school in Kent, Washington Larry Book said, Hey, um,
you should read, uh, sports psychology.
Here's a book, and it's called Mental Toughness Training
for Sports by Dr. Jim Loehr.
I carried that book with me for years and years everywhere.
And, uh, I always remember one, one thing he said was that.
The correct emotional response to a problem is 75% of the solution.
Hmm.
And so now having emotional stability and behavioral flexibility, being able
to adapt to any situation, it's one of the five skills of Inner Excellence.
So, um, yeah.
Remind me of the question.
Oh, I was gonna say, how did your time as a professional athlete
in inform where you are now.
Yeah.
So a lot of failure, um, a lot of, uh, struggle and loneliness.
It was, it was really hard.
I had a vision problem that really, um, ended my career, but I
struggled with it for my, uh, almost my entire professional career.
I didn't know that.
And one of the biggest, um, loneliest things for me are we,
you know, we're created for love.
I shouldn't say, you know, but that's our, our, our number
one need is unconditional love.
And our greatest desire is to be fully known and fully loved.
And so when I signed with the Cubs, you know, everyone's rooting for
me in Portland and Seattle and I felt like I let everybody down.
And, um, also, I didn't really understand why I was not performing well and.
I was like, man, I just feel so bad about all these relationships that
I had that were rooting for me.
And I didn't know that I had a, a serious vision problem, um, for my, especially
the first three years of pro baseball.
Um, but now looking back, it was just amazing, you know, what
God did and teaching me, uh, how to handle, uh, um, adversity.
You know, one of the biggest things we need to learn is how to handle
fear and anxiety and adversity.
Yeah.
So this vision problem, did you know?
You say you didn't know, but do you, did you see signs of it
maybe in high school, college,
the hardest thing was
or did
not at all?
The game?
Um, I think it started in pro baseball.
Oh, it did?
Okay.
The, and because I think it was a mental thing from, and my subconscious
mind, um, my dad was, did not want me to become rich and famous.
Um, kind of ironic how things have turned out.
Um.
The, uh, he thought it would be bad for my character.
And so being a pro athlete was not, um, something that he really wanted for me.
And so, um, I think there was a bit of a mental block there
because when I turned pro, that's when my vision kind of went south.
Yeah.
And the hard thing, there's many hard things to it, but one thing was my, my
eye chart vision was better than 20/20, so I didn't know that I had a problem.
It's just what I, so what happened was I was struggling in school at the
University of Washington and I remember having headaches when I would read and
buying a can of Coke to read, uh, with, and then I finally went to the eye
doctor for some reason, and she checked my dynamic visual acuity and, and which
is the ability for your muscles to work together to track moving objects,
which is very helpful in baseball.
Pretty, yeah.
Pretty good skill to have in.
And so she checks it and she says, oh, okay.
I see the problem here.
And, uh, um, she said, by the way, what kind of work do you do?
I said, I'm a professional baseball player.
And she said, how did you hit the ball?
I was like, well, it's been hard.
And she was like, whoa.
Yeah.
I can't believe you'd be able to hit the ball without that.
So that was an issue that, that I struggled with, um, my whole career.
Yeah.
So you, but you overcame you work through this thing.
It's just like an almost an intractable problem there, physically, perhaps.
So as far as mentality goes, what would you say the uh, for, for pro
golfers, or pro athletes, what would you say the most common mental blocks
that you see even in high performance?
You, mentioned Scottie Scheffler.
He has down days.
He doesn't win every single tournament.
I mean, he won seven times last year, I think, but first time this year.
And how do you help guys like this Stenson and
there's, well,
Overcome it?
there's, there's two mental blocks that I see.
One is, is not being able to let go of your past to become
someone you've never been before.
The other one is, is, uh, um, mental block over some simple skill that you've,
you've always been able to do, but, but then, uh, um, becomes this mental thing.
Mm-hmm.
And so if we talk about the second one first, um, so in
golf, they call it the yips.
And, um, and in the book I mentioned that.
An NFL kicker kickers is generally not gonna have a mental block
on a 55 yard field goal because the expectations are low.
The mental blocks are on the PATs, the easy things, right?
A golfer generally is not gonna have a mental block on a 40 foot putt.
They may have it on a four foot putt because the
expectations get in their mind.
And the fear of failure, fear of being embarrassed.
And so what we wanna do is, is ask yourself, am I willing to be embarrassed?
Am I willing to fail?
Am I willing to look foolish in order to master my ego?
Do I, do I just want to, uh, be successful in this moment?
Or do I wanna master my ego?
And the ego will say, oh, you just gotta be successful in this moment.
So it's that challenge,
right?
So , I talk about sports a lot and relate, you know, life to sports, and I
mean, you do too, in your book, but how.
Uh, so the book really is not a sports book, but it has a lot of
examples from the sports world.
How do you say, all right, we're gonna take these lessons, and this is life.
This is what you're talking about is life, and you know, to be a better
sportsman, better athlete, whatever.
You can use some of these skills, but we, I guess.
When we talk about, you talked about success earlier, we see these bright,
shiny objects in the form of success as championships, Super Bowl wins,
Masters jackets, all that stuff.
How does this work for me or my people who don't do sports, they're just living life.
Yeah.
So, so Inner Excellence was developed over five years of, of 50 to 60
hours a week for five years straight.
Um, researching and writing about.
How to be mentally tough in the most, in the toughest pressure
situations in the world.
And so I focused on professional and Olympic athletes, but really, um,
there's a lot of Americans that have a lot more pressure than a pro athlete.
I mean, people working two jobs, there's no off season don't have coaches like
me that are, that are, um, you know, guiding them, uh, don't have massage
therapists and trainers and all that.
And so, um, average American may have it harder than the
pro athletes that I work with.
And so, um, Inner Excellence is really about understanding human
behavior, how your mind works, how your subconscious works, how fear
works, and, uh, especially, um, what the heart deeply needs and
how, and, uh, um, how to train it.
And so, um, Inner Excellence is about training the heart and, and, um, I mean,
you can think about if you're a listener.
Self-centeredness is the biggest challenge that we face in performance and in life.
And it leads to three things that really, um, um, become huge obstacles.
And one is over analysis.
Just way too many thoughts from way too many concerns.
And then the other one is, is, uh, negative thinking or judgmental thinking,
laying down a negative verdict on yourself or someone else, or circumstance when
you don't have all the information.
Often in life, we, we always know what we want or generally know what
we want and know what we don't want.
Um, like I always have given a choice, hot tub or poke in the
eye a hundred percent of the time.
I choose the hot tub.
I'm always going for comfort.
That's my human nature.
But that's not, um, often it's not the best thing for me.
May not be poke in the eye, but the best possible life has one
foot in joy, one foot in suffering.
That's how we grow.
That's how life was created.
Uh, um, we need to break down the muscles in order to get stronger.
Hmm.
The third big obstacle that comes is, is this, uh, um,
self-consciousness concern from, for what other people think about you.
The ego amplifies our deep need to be fully known and fully loved, and
says, Hey, if you get this success, this symbol of success, then you're
gonna get what you really want.
And so many people, perhaps most people.
And perhaps most people that are talented in some area get fall into
this trap where they just obsess about getting more success because it's
gonna give them that temporary positive feeling that they, that they, uh, want
when they don't realize that they're missing out on the whole candy store.
It's of abundance and joy,
do you think it's helpful for people to have this definition of success to walk
around with and reframe what that means.
I, I just don't see a whole lot of Americans, maybe people in the entire
world understand what we mean by success.
It's this ethereal thing, but it's what Wooden says.
It's ultimately peace of mind, and you can go full stop there.
Uh, success is peace of mind.
But do people, do you see people searching for peace of mind or
is that your work Does is help those people who are searching?
Anxiety is at, at epidemic levels in America and around the world, and
especially in America, we have the, the most affluence and the most anxiety
and uh, and that's not a coincidence.
People are obsessing about temporary, superficial things because they
feel, because they, they don't have this deeper understanding.
They feel if I get these temporary, superficial things,
it's gonna gimme what I want most.
Mm-hmm.
Which is the, the quote, love that I get from, I, I'll be somebody, I'll be enough.
So people are constantly trying to get more things, get enough
and, and do enough so they can be enough, but they're never enough.
It's never gonna work.
We need something deeper than, than material success and rewards.
We need to, we need a heart that's transformed, one that
loves and, and lives fully.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And you talked about over analysis being one of the things, and we, in
baseball, we often talk about paralysis by analysis, where you just can't.
You start thinking about things so much that you can't do
anything or your muscle seize up.
And then it's anxiety on the ball field or whatnot, and, the mental
thing becomes physical in many ways, so I think perhaps it's anxiety.
Overabundance of anxiety in America is perhaps also correlated with physical
issues too, with people.
Would you agree or disagree?
Yeah.
And, uh.
In pro baseball, I work with a lot of pro baseball players.
It's a unique sport because it's, there's 162 games plus we got, uh,
preseason and postseason and it's, it's, um, you're immersed in this
culture that's obsessed with results.
It's baseball is so statistically oriented.
And so stats are never a present thing.
But if you wanna be great, you, you need to be present.
And yet they're immersed in a culture that's obsessed
about this past future number.
And, uh, it's really hard to be when you're, you're hard to be your true
self and hard to have this peace and joy and freedom when you're in a
culture immersed in a culture that's obsessed about the, the opposite.
This, the, the temporary superficial things that come and go and you
can't, don't have full control over.
Hmm.
Yeah.
And as far as baseball goes, you've had a long career both in and around the game.
I'm interested in something I think you more or less offhandedly
mentioned in the book and that you talked about Olympic athletes.
You were an Olympic coach for South Africa, which I didn't
even know had a baseball team.
I think I saw them play in the World Baseball Classic one time.
But, can you tell me about how you got into that and how you
Yeah.
It was a, a really miracle how God has got in my life.
I've, I've, uh.
I had so many times where I felt like a failure and uh, now I look back,
I see it was all training for me.
I got the, I went to grad school, did my master's in coaching science.
I, I interviewed 39 major league baseball managers and GMs and
college and professional coaches on how to build a championship team.
I did all of that so I can get a job with the Texas Rangers because I thought
after coaching one year of high school baseball in O'Dea high school, inner
city Seattle, and we didn't lose a game.
I thought, oh, my destiny is to be a superstar majors league
manager, not a not a player.
And so I went to this path of getting the master's in coaching
science with this long-term plan of getting a job in pro baseball.
I, I end up getting the job two weeks after graduation and, uh, um, and then
I quit halfway through the season.
That first season, it just was not a box that I was could fit into at, at the
time I thought I was complete failure.
Now, looking back, I was, it was like, uh, um, they were, they were
boxing me in and, and, uh, I, I had got a far greater things for me to do.
. So that was, um, 1999.
You know, just what am I gonna do with my life now?
Then I get a call from Major League Baseball and said, would you be interested
in coaching South Africa, being their, uh, hitting coach for their Olympic trials?
And, uh, I said, where will I be, um, based?
And they said, Johannesburg, which at the time was one of the
most considered, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, right?
So I thought, are they asking me?
'cause everyone else has turned it down.
And, uh, I'm choice number 20.
Um, but I took, I took the job and, um.
The most amazing experience of my life.
Yeah.
I'm still friends with that whole group.
Uh, in South Africa, our bat boy Gift Ngoepe was living in the
tool shed of our baseball field
Pirates!
That's right, that's right.
He lived in the tool shed of our baseball field with his mother and
little brother, and just the most amazing story first, uh, African player
born, ever to play in the big leagues.
Yeah.
Gift.
I remember reading about him in Sports Illustrated or,
yeah.
Yeah.
He is awesome.
Yeah.
Well, great.
And you've got to know Tom Trebelhorn.
I take it from reading in your book.
Yeah.
Tom Trebelhorn is
Yeah
a Portland guy, played high school baseball for Coach Dunn.
I don't know if you knew that.
Yeah.
Played third base.
He talks about him all the time.
You talk to Coach Dunn, he saw how what a great mind for the game Treb had, and
I think Treb was the guy who basically taught Ricky Henderson how to steal bases.
Treb's amazing.
He actually, I was going to Portland State taking the baseball class that
Jack was teaching and he brought Treb in to speak and, and, uh, I just remember,
oh my gosh, this is so incredible.
I mean, there's probably only 25 people in the class.
I was like, how do I get to hear this?
And then, um.
He, so he coached with the Brewers and the Cubs.
He ends up coaching, uh, um, he takes a year and coaches independent
baseball a year that I was playing.
And I had, my eyes were better that year, so I had a great year.
And so I played against him.
We played them in the playoffs.
3 0 7.
Thank you.
And then, uh, um, uh.
So Treb and I became friends.
I used to go to, uh, spring training games and, and I would just sit with him, uh,
during the game that he's coaching in the minor leagues and uh, um, watch the game.
And he would just be telling me, I was like, Hey, tell me about
this, or why, what about that?
And, and all these amazing things.
He's brilliant.
Baseball mind.
Yeah.
He always was like, Jim, uh, uh, you just gotta keep it simple.
It's, it's just human nature.
You just gotta understand human behavior.
Coach Dunn, you talked to him.
He, he hit 3 0 2 in the Texas-Arizona League one year, so, you know, that's his,
I love Jack.
Yeah.
Yeah,
he's awesome.
I will tell him you say hi
Yeah, please.
, Thank you.
All right, well, I think we're running short on time.
Jim, it's been a pleasure.
Glad to get to know you a bit and, best of luck.
Inner Excellence.
Train your mind for extraordinary performance in the best possible life.
Any last words?
Sell the, soap
thanks so much, Brian.
Yeah.
Um.
I, I think it's, there's so much fear and anxiety in America
today and, and the need is great.
And what America needs is, is you the listener, to be their true self,
to, to focus on what's possible and, and true about themselves.
And, and you don't know who you can become and what's possible in your life.
So, um, that's why it's so important to continue to learn and grow.
Um, I'm excited to, uh.
Uh, be here and, and hopefully meet all the listeners.
Um, you can follow me on, uh, at Inner Excellence.com, the newsletter.
Sign up for the VIP newsletter or uh, um, follow me on Instagram Inner Excellence,
Jim Murphy or other social media.
Yeah, I did all that this week 'cause I saw that call to action.
So you gotta do the call to action
awesome
book and on the website.
Thanks Jim.
Okay,
thanks.