How much would you pay to spend almost 90 minutes with a world-renowned performance psychologist (a pioneer in the field), researcher, New York Times best-selling author, C-suite coach, co-founder of the Human Performance Institute (HPI), co-founder of APeak Tennis, advisor and coach of Evolve Leadership? In this podcast episode, I had the privilege of talking with Dr. Jim Loehr as he reflected on his more than 30 years of vast experience and applied research designed to successfully leverage the science of energy management to improve the productivity and engagement of world-class performers in the areas of sport, business, medicine, and law enforcement. He shares what he believes is the most important factor in success, personal fulfillment, and life satisfaction. Dr. Loehr also discusses his recently co-authored book that he believes is “the most important book [he has] ever written” called Wise Decisions: A Science-Based Approach to Making Better Choices.
Dr. Jim Loehr’s parents were deeply religious, devout Catholics so his whole life was centered around religious teachings and beliefs. His sister became a nun, and his brother became a Jesuit priest out of high school and was in the Jesuits for seven years. Dr. Loehr explained that “there was no choice as to where I was going to go to school…I had to go to a school that [my parents] approved.” So, he attended Regis High School then Regis University. The only graduate school his parents would accept, while staying reasonably close to home, was the University of Northern Colorado. Therefore, Dr. Loehr received his BA in Psychology from Regis University, and an MA and EdD in Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, CO.
During our discussion, Dr. Loehr reflects on his academic and professional journey highlighting the experiences and people that impacted him and explains the events that led him to become a pioneer in the sport and performance psychology field. Throughout our discussion, he offers thoughtful and practical advice to those interested in the field. He shares a story in which he wrote a book called Mental Toughness Training for Sports and sent it to 19 major league publishers and got 19 rejections where they all said, “what the heck is mental toughness?” Dr. Loehr’s father played professional baseball and read the book and said, “this makes sense…I’m going to go ahead and take a risk here” and he paid someone to produce the book and they sent it around to see what people thought of the book. The book became an underground bestseller and, all of a sudden, it was picked up by a major publisher and sold millions of copies all over the world. Dr. Loehr realized that the concept of mental toughness was so new and “because it was before its time, they thought it was absolute nonsense.” Resilience and toughness are needed when you are a pioneer and you are doing something different.
Dr. Loehr shares some of the most significant experiences of his career, the ones that impacted him and his journey the most, including his experience as Chief Psychologist and Executive Director of the San Luis Valley Mental Health Corporation. We discuss how he founded The Center for Athletic Excellence in Denver, CO and his involvement as the Executive Director and Sport Psychologist at the Jimmy Connors United States Tennis Center. Dr. Loehr shares the story leading up to getting that position. Essentially, there was an ad for someone to run the Jimmy Connors United States Tennis Center in Sanibel Harbor, so he called Bob Davis and said, “I’ll run all the facility for you, but I want to have access to Jimmy’s brain. I want to be able to do videos and everything else. I want to see what makes that competitive brain work. I need to learn. So, he didn’t check with Jimmy. He just said, ‘no, it’s done. We’d love to have somebody with a Doctor of Psychology down here.’”
He had such a reputation and following that many of the players at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, located up the road, were coming to him and Nick didn’t like it. Nick approached Dr. Loehr and asked him to set up his research institute at his place. So, Dr. Loehr became the Director of Sport Science and Sport Psychology at The Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy where he learned “everything” as he had access to over 240 of the best players in the world at the time. He hooked up the players “to more telemetry than you can possibly imagine” including EEG, EMG, and all kinds of heart rate monitoring between points, during points, and had access to a videographer so they would look at the videos of all their matches.
After 6 years at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, Dr. Loehr was ready to do something on his own, so he joined forces with Dr. Jack Groppel, who had a PhD in bioengineering. They created a company in 1992 called the Human Performance Institute (HPI). They set up the operation and raised the money needed. Dr. Loehr recalls “everybody said it would fail. We had no chance of succeeding at Lake Nona, which is a suburb of Orlando, and that’s when my career really began.” The Institute was purchased by Johnson & Johnson in 2008 and he stayed on during the transition for another 6 years. By the time he left, around 400,000 people went through the Institute which resulted in a huge database. Dr. Groppel was the head of the biomechanics lab at the University of Illinois, so he was looking at the biomechanical part of everything at the Institute and Dr. Loehr was looking at the psychological side of human performance. He states, “And then we brought in all kinds of people. Our faculty was probably some of the most extraordinary human beings I’ve ever been around. We had the former commander of the Navy Seals, former commander of the Blue Angels, Elite Air Force instructor, fighter pilot, we had gold medalists, silver medalists. When they spoke, people listened.”
In addition to multiple stories and experiences, Dr. Loehr shares advice throughout the interview. Some of the advice is geared toward those interested in the field of sport and performance psychology. He says that it is important to follow your interest and passion, but you also need to figure out how you are going to eat, how you are going to pay the bills. He said, “I know so many people who’ve gotten PhD’s in sport psychology and can’t find a job…you have to be an entrepreneur.” When you go out on your own, become a pioneer or an entrepreneur “you are setting up a business. The business of you.” His recommendation is to get a clinical degree and specialize in performance psychology as it has a much broader base than sport psychology. He adds “get licensed, get yourself an opportunity to set up a practice. There are lots of opportunities. Then you can begin to, you know, hone your career specifically in the direction you want.” Dr. Loehr shares that he has counseled many people to go into performance psychology and they have gone into the corporate world using the principles and knowledge from the HPI and “have started businesses, corporate businesses, and they’re doing exceedingly well, and they love it.”
Dr. Loehr recently co-authored a book with Dr. Sheila Ohlsson Walker called Wise Decisions: A Science-Based Approach to Making Better Choices. Dr. Ohlsson received her PhD in Behavioral Genetics from King’s College in London and is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University. Both she and Dr. Loehr serve on the board of the Youth Performance Institute the mission, of which, is “The Youth Performance Institute combines mentorship, coaching, character development, and technology to ensure kids of all backgrounds have the tools they need to overcome personal challenges, advance their talents, and live their lives to the fullest.”
Dr. Loehr shares “we make 35,000 or more decisions every day, 245,000 decisions every week, over 12 million every year. And if I ask you, what are you referencing when you make your decision, most people don’t have a clue.” Drs. Loehr and Walker and a team of industry experts took a science-based approach to decision-making and developed an evidence- and research-based blueprint for making the best decision you can given all of the information you have. In sport psychology you have an inner voice which is called “Self-Talk” which is untrained. In this book, you will learn about a trained inner voice called “Your Own Decision Advisor” or YODA. He says “some YODAs are dysfunctional. They’re not depositories of great wisdom, and so the whole book is about uploading the right stuff to your YODA so YODA can make the right decisions.” This book is a very practical guide as it helps automate the process so that you can turn your decision-making process into one informed by reason, emotion, intuition, and science.
Dr. Loehr reminds us that “the most important coach you will ever have is the coach no one hears but you. And the only voice you’ll have in your head until your death. And you want that not to be an adversary.” He asks “if we projected your self inner talk on a Jumbotron the way you coached yourself, would you be proud of the way you coached yourself through that situation? And when we get that space cleaned up, it is actually miraculous.”
When asked what his favorite term, principle, or theory is, Dr. Loehr replied “this notion of purpose. We are a purpose driven species. And a self-transcending purpose is how we are designed. We are social creatures; we exist to help everyone else be successful. When we get that right, our lives light up. And we can become fully engaged and fully satisfied and we’re likely to become the best we can be.”
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Dr. Jim Loehr is a pioneer in the sport and performance psychology field.
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