You Don't Know Jack

What do you do when you want more playing time, feel overlooked by your coach, or believe your boss favors someone else?

In this episode of You Don't Know Jack, Dr. Haley Perlus presents Dr. Jack Groppel with three situations athletes and employees commonly face when communicating with their coaches and leaders.

Together, they explore how to approach difficult conversations, ask for greater responsibility, navigate perceived favoritism, and communicate when you're questioning whether your coach or leader believes in you.

Whether you're an athlete fighting for playing time, an employee seeking more opportunities, or a leader looking to better understand your team, this conversation offers practical insights for communicating more effectively.

Three situations. Jack's advice. Conversations worth having.

Subscribe to You Don't Know Jack for conversations about performance, mental toughness, leadership, and preparing for life's challenges.

Life is hard. Let's prepare for it.

Goal setting is supposed to improve motivation, focus, and performance, but what happens when your goals actually start working against you?

In this episode of You Don’t Know Jack, Dr. Jack Groppel and Dr. Haley Perlus explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of goal setting. We break down when goals help, when they create unnecessary pressure, and why knowing WHAT you want and WHY you want it may not be enough.

From outcome goals and performance goals to the daily behaviors that actually move you forward, this conversation challenges some traditional goal-setting advice and offers a more practical approach to achieving meaningful results.

Whether you’re an athlete, coach, leader, or simply working toward something important, you’ll learn how to use goals without letting the goal get in the way of your performance.

Life is hard. Let’s prepare for it.

Subscribe to You Don’t Know Jack for conversations about performance, mindset, resilience, purpose, and preparing for the moments that matter.

To learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel: https://jackgroppel.net/ 

To connect with Dr. Haley Perlus: https://drhaleyperlus.com/ 

To connect with Evolve Leadership: https://evolveleadership.com/

When was the last time you approached life with the curiosity of a child?

Somewhere along the way, we become so focused on achieving, succeeding and getting things right that we forget how to play, explore and simply enjoy the experience.

In this episode of You Don't Know Jack, Dr. Jack Groppel and Dr. Haley Perlus explore the power of childlike curiosity and its role in performance, happiness, longevity and living a fulfilling life.

We discuss how staying curious can help us embrace new experiences, continue learning, find joy in everyday moments and bring more fun into our personal and professional lives.

Whether you're an athlete, leader, parent or simply someone who wants to get more out of life, this conversation is a reminder that growing older doesn't mean losing your sense of wonder. Life is hard. Let's prepare for it.

Subscribe to You Don't Know Jack for conversations about performance, purpose and living a meaningful life.

To learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel: https://jackgroppel.net/
To connect with Dr. Haley Perlus: https://drhaleyperlus.com/

What can you actually learn from watching someone who is great at what they do?

Whether it’s an elite athlete, coach, speaker, or leader, we often see the finished performance—but we miss the small behaviors and patterns that make that performance possible.

In this episode of You Don’t Know Jack, Dr. Jack Groppel and Dr. Haley Perlus break performance down into four dimensions: physical, emotional, mental, and purpose.

We explore how to become a more active observer by looking for the details: How do great performers move? How do they respond to mistakes? Where do they direct their attention? What patterns show up consistently? And what can their behavior under pressure reveal about who they are and what matters to them?

One of Jack’s biggest lessons from decades of studying world-class performers:

The greatest performers make simple unbelievably good.

We also discuss emotional regulation, body language, focus, the power of the pause, purpose, coaching, and why the best performers never stop being students.

Because getting better isn’t only about doing more.

Sometimes it starts with learning how to watch.

Subscribe for more conversations about performance, leadership, resilience, and what it takes to prepare for the hard things in sport, work, and life.

Life is hard. Let’s prepare for it.

To learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel: https://jackgroppel.net/

To connect with Dr. Haley Perlus: https://drhaleyperlus.com/

What if training for hard things isn't just about preparing for the challenge you know is coming, but preparing yourself for the challenges you don't?

In this episode of You Don't Know Jack, Dr. Jack Groppel and Dr. Haley Perlus explore what happens when we intentionally train ourselves to experience discomfort, pressure, anxiety, and higher levels of arousal rather than always trying to avoid them.

Sometimes we know exactly what we're preparing for - like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Other times, the real value of the training doesn't reveal itself until life gives us something we never anticipated.

Jack and Haley share personal examples of how deliberately doing hard things has influenced the way they perform, respond to pressure, and navigate life.

They also dig into research often associated with flow, but this conversation isn't really about achieving flow. It's about what may happen when we train in higher arousal and anxiety zones and develop greater capacity to perform there.

In this episode:
• Why intentionally doing hard things matters
• Training for challenges you know are coming
• How training prepares you for challenges you can't anticipate
• The relationship between arousal, anxiety, and performance
• Why the goal isn't always to eliminate discomfort
• How Jack and Haley intentionally train themselves
• How physical training can build psychological capacity
• What mental toughness looks like when life doesn't go according to plan You can't prepare for everything that's going to happen.

But you can prepare yourself to handle more of what happens.

Life is hard. Let's prepare for it.

Subscribe for weekly episodes on performance psychology, resilience, leadership, and mental strength. To learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel: https://jackgroppel.net/ To connect with Dr. Haley Perlus: https://drhaleyperlus.com/

We know recovery matters. So why is it so hard to actually do it?

We know comparing ourselves to others can pull us out of our own experience. So why do we keep looking sideways?

And if flow is supposed to be the ideal performance state, why can chasing it actually make performance harder?

In Part 2 of our Real-Life Coaching series, Haley puts Jack on the spot with real challenges athletes, performers, and high achievers face every day.

Together, we unpack:
✔ Why knowing you need recovery isn’t enough to make you recover
✔ How to stay in your own experience instead of getting lost in someone else’s
✔ Why making flow the goal can work against you
✔ How to recognize and take advantage of a clutch state
✔ What procrastination may actually be telling you—and how to move through it

These are real mental blocks from real people—and they’re challenges most of us can recognize in ourselves.

Jack and Haley don’t pretend to have every answer. They challenge each other, share what they’ve learned, and explore practical ways to navigate the moments when our own minds get in the way.

Because life is hard. Let’s prepare for it.

🎯 Want to take this further?
To learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel: https://jackgroppel.net/
To connect with Dr. Haley Perlus: https://drhaleyperlus.com/

👍 Like this video, subscribe, and share it with someone who wants to perform at their best under pressure.

Have you ever known you could make the shot... and still missed when it mattered most?

Why doesn't telling yourself, "I've made this hundreds of times" always work under pressure?

In this episode of You Don't Know Jack, Dr. Jack Groppel and Dr. Haley Perlus explore the thinking patterns that quietly undermine performance in sport, business, and everyday life.

You'll learn how distorted thinking shapes emotions, confidence, and decision making, including:
• Catastrophizing
• Overgeneralization
• Polarizing 
• Perfectionism
• Personalization

We also unpack why affirmations sometimes help and why they sometimes don't. Simply repeating positive statements isn't enough if your brain doesn't believe them under pressure.

Using real performance examples, including the pressure packed free throw, we discuss how to challenge irrational thoughts, build believable confidence, and develop a mindset that performs when the stakes are highest.

Whether you're an athlete, coach, leader, parent, or simply someone who wants to think more clearly under pressure, this episode offers practical tools you can use immediately.

Life is hard. Let's prepare for it.

🎯 Want to take this further?
To learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel: https://jackgroppel.net/
To connect with Dr. Haley Perlus: https://drhaleyperlus.com/ 

👍 Like this video, subscribe, and share it with someone who wants to perform at their best under pressure.

Have you ever known exactly what you wanted to do... but couldn't seem to take the next step?

Whether it's making a decision, having a difficult conversation, competing under pressure, or chasing a goal, many of us get stuck in what psychologists call analysis paralysis.

In this episode of You Don't Know Jack, Dr. Jack Groppel and Dr. Haley Perlus explore why overthinking happens, what your brain is trying to accomplish, and how to break the cycle without ignoring your instincts.

Together, they discuss:

✅ Why intelligent people often overthink
✅ The neuroscience behind analysis paralysis
✅ The difference between strategic thinking and overthinking
✅ Practical tools to move from hesitation to action
✅ How athletes, business leaders, and high performers learn to trust themselves under pressure.

If you've ever felt stuck waiting for the "right" decision, this conversation will help you understand what's happening and what to do next.

Life is hard. Let's prepare for it.

Want to take this further?
To learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel: https://jackgroppel.net/
To connect with Dr. Haley Perlus: https://drhaleyperlus.com/

People hear the phrase "control the controllables" all the time. Coaches say it. Leaders say it. Psychologists say it.  

But almost nobody explains how to actually train that skill.  

In this episode of You Don't Know Jack, Dr. Jack Groppel and Dr. Haley Perlus explore why our minds naturally gravitate toward things we cannot control and why that's completely human. They discuss the psychology behind attention, stress, uncertainty, and performance, then share practical exercises that help you redirect your focus to what truly influences your results.  

Along the way, they share personal stories, coaching experiences, and plenty of laughs while breaking down one of the most important mental skills in sport, business, and everyday life.  

Whether you're an athlete, coach, executive, entrepreneur, or simply trying to handle life's uncertainty with more confidence, this episode gives you practical tools you can start using immediately. 

In this episode you'll learn: 
✅ Why our brains obsess over things outside our control 
✅ Why "just focus on the controllables" isn't enough 
✅ Exercises that strengthen your ability to redirect attention 
✅ How elite performers respond when life feels unpredictable 
✅ Practical ways to improve focus, confidence, and resilience  

Life is hard. Let's prepare for it.  

🎯 Want to take this further? 
To learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel: https://jackgroppel.net/ 
To connect with Dr. Haley Perlus: https://drhaleyperlus.com/  

👍 Like this video, subscribe, and share it with someone who wants to perform at their best under pressure.

What can a baseball movie, a country song, a Disney character, and Helen Keller teach us about navigating life?

In this episode of You Don't Know Jack, Dr. Jack Groppel and Dr. Haley Perlus share some of the quotes, lyrics, and movie lines that have stayed with them over the years—and why. These aren't just memorable words. They're reminders about resilience, purpose, courage, curiosity, relationships, and showing up when life gets hard.

Together, they explore how simple phrases can become powerful tools for handling pressure, overcoming setbacks, embracing uncertainty, and living with intention.

Because sometimes the right words at the right time can change the way we see everything.

In this episode:
√ Why certain quotes stay with us for a lifetime
√ Lessons from movies, music, and everyday life
√How to use borrowed wisdom to navigate challenges
√ The role of perspective during difficult moments
√ Turning inspiration into action

Life is hard. Let's prepare for it.

Subscribe for weekly episodes on performance psychology, resilience, leadership, mental strength, and living well while performing at a high level.

To learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel: https://jackgroppel.net/
To connect with Dr. Haley Perlus: https://drhaleyperlus.com/