One Day Better

Mental Performance Concepts to Transform Your Game and Life

Jeff Troesch

• Publisher: 80/20 Publishing
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Psychology
• eBook ISBN:
  9798990795853
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Psychology

Drawing from decades of experience with the world's best coaches, athletes, and teams, Jeff Troesch distills the practice of mental discipline into clear action items that drive personal development and performance.

The best athletes redefine the limits of human performance with regularity. Sports are a crucible for spectacular moments where anxiety, pressure, and doubt seem to melt away, but there's more to the story. Over his accomplished career serving individual and team sports, Jeff Troesch has helped countless athletes and coaches achieve excellence in the junior, collegiate, and professional ranks. In One Day Better he shares the multifaceted approach his clients use to elevate their mental acumen and resilience for the highest levels of performance.

The path to mental performance is unique to each individual—there is no list of absolutes. Troesch explains the concepts that drive his work with top athletes and teams, with keen observation and respect for their stories and experiences. One Day Better presents clear questions and points of application. It's up each person to consider the possibilities and test what works best for them.

The pursuit of excellence also plays out in the rest of life, and often with higher stakes. Troesch guides a process of personal discovery, cultivating the discipline and awareness that facilitate growth and effectiveness, inspiring more pros and amateurs, athletes and everyday people to commit to becoming one day better, every day.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. One Day Better
• 2. Commit to Mastery
• 3. Effective vs. Right
• 4. Mental Discipline Matters More Than Toughness
• 5. Response Ability
• 6. Trust vs. Commitment
• 7. Be a Scientist, Not a Judge
• 8. Awareness vs. Attention
• 9. Have a Purpose in Mind
• 10. Focus on What to Do, Not What It Means
• 11. Belief, Decisiveness, and Commitment
• 12. Be Here Now
• 13. Develop Routines and Rituals
• 14. You Can’t Steal Second with One Foot on First
• 15. Breathe
• 16. Do You Hit the Gas Pedal or the Brakes?
• 17. Approach or Avoid?
• 18. Look at the Target… or Don’t
• 19. Increase the Odds
• 20. ACE: Score the Controllables
• 21. Every Rep Matters
• 22. What Will You Do Next Time?
• 23. Eliminate the Shoulds, Needs, and Have-Tos
• 24. Build a Callus
• 25. What Triggers Your Attentional Drift?
• 26. Current Events, Not History
• 27. Incorporate Recovery into Your Routine
• 28. What If They Called You a Chair?
• 29. Think About an Elephant
• 30. Accept Your Role
• 31. How Do You Affect Your Environment?
• 32. Make Sure the Last Thing You Do Is Positive
• 33. Honestly and Accurately Evaluate Yourself
• 34. Acceptance vs. Satisfaction
• 35. Reaction vs. Response
• 36. Where’s the Fire Extinguisher?
• 37. Effective Communication
• 38. Focus on the Process, Not on the Outcome
• 39. Focus on Effort
• 40. Get To, Not Have To
• 41. There’s Only One Game or Point That’s Relevant
• 42. Eliminate Adjectives for Training and Competition
• 43. If You Don’t Feel It, Act Like It
• 44. “Hire” a Constructive Coach
• 45. Chart Your Progress
• 46. Tell Yourself What You Want to Have Happen
• 47. Your Thoughts Make You Mad
• 48. You Can’t Have Everything
• 49. The Only Failure Is a Failure to Learn
• 50. Regain Concentration on the Task at Hand
• 51. Practice as if It Is a Tournament
• 52. Success Is an Event; Excellence Is a Process
• 53. Pressure Doesn’t Exist
• 54. Task Orientation vs. Ego Orientation
• 55. Thought Stopping
• 56. The Problem with Positive and Negative
• 57. Dispute the Stories You Tell Yourself
• 58. Accept Your Humanity
• 59. Human Being vs. Human Doing
• 60. In Your Body, in Your Target, or in Your Mind?
• 61. The Power of Neutral Thinking
• 62. Do Something… Anything!
• 63. Build a Case Before Making a Correction
• 64. I Care, but It Doesn’t Matter
• 65. Anticipate vs. Expect
• 66. The Only Acceptable Expectations
• 67. Pace Yourself
• 68. The Role of Vision in Attentional Control
• 69. The First Domino
• 70. The Strongest Don’t Always Survive
• 71. Play Your Highlight Reel
• 72. Trust Me… or Don’t
• 73. Give 100% of Whatever You Have in Your Tank
• 74. “Fuck-It!” Mode
• 75. Courageous, Not Fearless
• 76. Questions to Eliminate
• 77. Mental Training vs. Education
• 78. Check Tempo and Muscle Tension Under Stress
• 79. Post-Execution Discipline Is Just as Important
• 80. Post-Execution Grading
• 81. We See the World Not as It Is but as We Are
• 82. Be All That You Want to Be vs. All That You Can Be
• 83. Raffle Tickets
• 84. Accumulated Evidence
• 85. Use Opportunities to Narrow Attention
• 86. How to Spot a Toxic Relationship with Sport
• 87. Be Your Best vs. Be the Best
• 88. The System Matters More Than the End Goal
• 89. Prioritize Decisiveness
• 90. Lose Yourself to Find Yourself
• 91. Fear Regret More Than Failure or Discomfort
• 92. Take Advantage of “What Is”
• 93. Eliminate Victim Mentality
• 94. Work the Puzzle
• 95. Develop a Mindset That Manages Uncertainty Well
• 96. Fair but Not Equal
• 97. Pizza and Chocolate
• 98. Do Hard Things
• 99. No End in Sight
• 100. Own Your Role on the Team
• 101. Scarcity vs. Abundance
• 102. Beware of Interpretations
• 103. Contemplation vs. Action
• 104. Yes Mode vs. Maybe or No
• 105. Sufficient vs. 100 Percent
• 106. Don’t Confuse Activity with Progress
• 107. Develop a Healthy Perspective
• 108. Who Do You Want to Be?
• 109. Are You Willing to Suffer?
• 110. Catch Yourself and Others Doing Things Well
• 111. Ask for Input with a Beginner’s Mindset
• 112. Get It Right or Be Right?
• 113. Reach the Ceiling or Raise the Floor?
• 114. Go Be You
• 115. Control the Second Thought
• 116. Minimize the Time You Spend Looking in the Grass
• 117. Brain Budgeting
• 118. Be the Best Athlete for the Team
• 119. Intent Is Not the Same as Imperative
• 120. Share Your Mistakes
• 121. Impostor Syndrome
• 122. Respect the Game
• 123. Answer Your Rhetorical Questions
• 124. How Would You Act if the Outcome Was Certain?
• 125. Haunted by the Ghost of the Past
• 126. Progress Is Messy
• 127. Good, Better, How
• 128. Commit to Getting Clean Data
• 129. Are You the Hunter or the Hunted?
• 130. Get Clarity Around Personal Success Criteria
• 131. Get Distance from Yourself
• 132. What Is Under the Tree?
• 133. Swing the Club vs. Hit the Shot
• 134. Cocky or Confident?
• 135. Use Yesterday as Fuel
• 136. Come to Your Senses
• 137. Complete Your Compassion
• 138. Don’t Let Preparation Go into Overtime
• 139. Build Strength Through Adversity
• 140. Name the Monster
• 141. Motivation Will Come and Go
• 142. You Are Your Most Important Opponent
• 143. The Game Cares What You Do, Not How You Feel
• 144. If You Put in X
• 145. Monitor Your Energy Expenditure
• 146. Appreciate the Success of Others
• 147. Gap vs. Foundation
• 148. How Would It Be to Face You?
• 149. Forget a Balanced Life
• 150. Squeeze Out the Last Drops
• A Final Word on Trust and Commitment
• Appendix: What’s Holding You Back?
• References
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Copyright