Morten Andersen is a former professional football kicker who spent most of his career with the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons.  He played in a record 382 games during his 25 year career and is the all-time leading scorer in NFL history with 2,544 points.   In 2017, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  These days Morten is a motivational speaker and also oversees his family foundation.  He resides in Atlanta, GA. 

 

Some interesting insights from this episode: 

• As an exchange student, he never intended to stay in the United States for more than a year but when he tried out for the high school football team on a whim, he made the team which led to a full scholarship at Michigan State which led to one of the greatest NFL careers in history. 

• The goal is to practice enough so you can get to a level of “unconscious competence”. 

• He had to swallow a “humility pill” after he hit a performance plateau and hire a team of experts to get him back to a high level and extend his career many years. 

• He kicked on 8’ goalposts during practice so come game time, he would have a much easier time executing with 18’6” goal posts. 

• As an athlete, all you can control is effort and attitude. Everything else is white noise.  

• If you focus more on the process than the results, the results will follow. 

• His sports psychologist introduced the idea of “goal windows” which altered his mindset about how to measure performance and hence, how to feel successful. 

• He had his best year statistically over his 25 year career in his final season at the age of 47.