The Art of Mental Training by DC Gonzalez

This book aims to help us achieve success, but it’s doing so through a different perspective from other similar books. Some books focus on the duration and efficiency of practices, like the best-selling book Peak, while others focus on how to enter the best mental state during practices, including Flow and Stealing Fire. This book, unlike those, teaches us how to carry out mental training––namely, how warriors and champions perform steadily at critical moments, realize their full potential, and even exceed their best records, to reach peak performance.

It’s easy to understand why we are learning from championships––after all, they are often associated with the top performance. But why do we need to learn from warriors? Because warriors share many qualities with champions: They all have a steadfast goal, perseverance in the face of challenge, an effective training system, and highly strong ability of self-control. Ordinary people like us don’t usually pursue championships, but we can all be warriors. Everybody might be able to perform like a warrior in some aspects of life and work.

That’s why the method in this book is applicable for all of us. Author D.C. Gonzalez is a peak performance coach. In this book, he wrote about his own experience vividly through various stories, portraying a fictional coach named Danielsan, who’s sharing stories of his life experience and of his teaching. He also has a mentor, called Leo-tai, who influenced Danielsan to a great extent. This is a magical story about a super master giving lessons to another super master.