Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed by Daniel McGinn
Daniel McGinn is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review, where he edits the IdeaWatch and How I Did It sections, manages the magazine’s annual Best Performing CEOs in the World ranking, and edits feature articles on topics including negotiation, sales, and entrepreneurship.
Prior to joining HBR in 2010, Daniel spent 17 years at Newsweek as a reporter, bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor.
He has appeared as a guest on NBC’s Today Show, the CBS Morning Show, PBS’s NewsHour, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and NPR.
His freelance writing has appeared in many magazines, including Wired, Inc., Fast Company, and The Boston Globe Magazine.
In addition to Psyched Up, he is the author of House Lust: America’s Obsession with our Homes (2008), and the editor of How I Did It: Lessons from the Front Lines of Business (2014).
The Host’s Perspective:
Most full-time professionals work over 2000 hours a year.
But, their overall success rests mostly on their performance during just a few crucial “performances” every year, like at pitch meetings or sales calls, or during a conversation with your boss or a client and so on.
Psyched Up shows how everyone can profit from honing their pre-performance routines. And now more so than in the past.
Here’s why: because the nature of work has changed, many professionals’ success or failure is now less dependent on repetitive daily tasks and instead based on a small number of key moments. Also, the growing number of self-employed as well as full-time workers pursuing more side hustles require people to interview for jobs or sell their services more frequently.
As the author explains, we’re in a “Shark Tank” economy, in which we have more riding on our ability to deliver a pitch under pressure. The last few minutes before a key presentation or “performance” are both terrifying and very important.
If you want to know how to make sure you ace that make-or-break event, the tools in this book will help you to better prepare and perform well under pressure when it really counts.
Listen to the Interview:
Show Notes
Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed by Daniel McGinn
Malcolm Gladwell’s Books (Amazon.com)
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
About the book, Psyched Up (psychedupthebook.com)
Harvard Business Review Article, “The Science of Peptalks” (Hbr.org)
Need some psyched up inspiration? Here’s a sampling from songs referenced in the book.
To psych himself up before each interview, the host of The Marketing Book Podcast watches this video:
If you enjoy the show, please rate it on iTunes or Stitcher and write a brief (one sentence) review. That would help more people like you to discover the show.
