It didn’t take me very long to realize “smart” didn’t only mean intelligence. Smart also meant mental toughness.
As I picked the book off the shelf, took it over to a nearby chair and started reading, I recognized the man I had always thought of as my father, but never considered as a competitor in and of himself. The book stated the importance of daily discipline, and I remembered, day after day, watching my father repeat his same morning routine: coffee, workout, oatmeal in the car on the way to work. The book emphasized control over mental focus and attention, and I recalled all the school nights my father would come home at 8:00 p.m., eat his late plate of dinner, and say, “Had to do two, six-hour laminectomies today. Brutal.” The book made the case for why positive energy is exponentially more conducive to high performance than negative energy, and I couldn’t help but acknowledge my father’s ability to leave work issues at work, walk in the door, and give the last two or three hours of his day to his wife and kids.
“Success is 95% mental.”
That’s the central idea within the book. Furthermore, “MENTAL TOUGHNESS IS LEARNED, NOT INHERITED,” the book yells in all caps.