Breakthrough Diary - Meditations on Resilience through the Pandemic

On Managing Energy rather than Time:

The most hard-hitting concept in Peak Performance and Mental Toughness Training is "Manage Energy, not Time." For the past 35 years, I've seen every conversation I've had with world-class athletes and senior executives come to a dramatic pause when I mention it. At this time in history, the world is learning that the non-stop, continuous frenzy of activity expected from us has serious consequences. Even hummingbirds build a nest and rest.

The secret to managing physical and emotional energy is to "make waves," to balance stress waves with recovery waves every hour, every day, through every week and paying attention to the seasonality of our lives. We need to listen to our physiology. The body is the tool to create new capacity to do more, different and better.

Man is not a machine, yet most of the productivity studies carried out from the industrial to the technological revolutions take that perspective in service of efficiency. Such perspective has damaged our behavior: looking super-busy is a badge of honor and a drug of choice, the blur is the norm.

Now that we have time, we can pay attention to how we manage energy, how we recover and what the benefits are.

• Where is the joy in activity now during social distancing?
• Where is the joy in recovery time, in slowing down?
• What thoughts and anxieties arise when we are doing less?
• Where does our daydreaming lead: is it evasive or creative?
• What New Ideas and Opportunities emerge from slowing down and thinking? Can these ideas be categorized and become a New Direction and a Plan?

These are my current activities during social distancing - the connecting thread is "Redesign":

1. Contact all my professional sports clients and redesign their training plans to maximize their potential for breakthrough, new challenges and to perform at higher levels when restarting.
2. Contact all my new projects' stakeholders and business associates worldwide and align them with the timeline of each project to improve the quality of our thinking, creativity and new contacts to sell the final product (and get sponsorship, memberships, funding, etc.).
3. Redesign my daily strength training protocol to maintain its intensity and variety while at home, using basic equipment and body weight. There's no lack of great material online to train. I will still go the tennis courts and exercise in the open air, even alone. The court is my theater of purpose, my inspiration.
4. Write my book under a new format to ensure I can reach the widest possible audience.
5. Write my screenplay under new guidelines to present to producers within the next 3 months.
6. Read inspiring books every week (one on Humor, the other one on the power of Non-Conformism), as well as clocking time on Masterclass and TED Talks (tons of topics to enjoy).

Manage Energy, not Time. Act like you want to feel. Adapt.

On Systemic Failure as a Failure of Thinking:

When my father was working for U.S. companies in Argentina, I had the opportunity to have interesting conversations with the American executives who visited us regularly. I clearly remember one of them telling me that the American sociopolitical and economic system was resilient because it was built to bend so it wouldn't break - but that required foresight and a fast reaction time. What we are experiencing is a Failure of Thinking due to narrow perspectives and sectarian policies, leaving us with reactive measures.

The way forward might be inspired by the words of an expert in Resilience (note the date of the article, 8 years ago): "From climate change to overpopulation to recessions, the threats facing the world are as unpredictable as they are varied — which is why we need to craft systems that are nimble, that can bend under stress rather than break. "If we cannot control the volatile tides of change, we can learn to build better boats," writes Andrew Zolli, expert on Resilience. "We can design — and redesign — organizations, institutions, and systems to better absorb disruption, operate under a wilder variety of conditions, and shift more fluidly from one circumstance to the next."" - From the "The Power Grid: From Rickety to Resilient" [By Bryan Walsh, Tuesday, July 17, 2012, TIME Magazine.]

Foresight. Reaction Time. Redesign. Navigation. Fluidity. Learning.

On Heroism:

In these times the heroic act is a paradox: keeping the monster out so it starves while we connect with the world in isolation. The boundaries do not limit us, they expand our understanding. We are not helpless: by being conscientious and intentional, we lead by example and rescue everyone’s future.

By surviving, we might be able to change the world: streams of pathetic lies, inept decisions, criminal inadequacies and perverse maneuvers are being exposed for us to ensure the transformation of systems and societies so we can live openly again.

On Seeking Meaning:

I’m seeking meaning in the doing and the thinking, between the constraints and what I desire to contribute. Breakthrough is now surviving in service of a new tomorrow.

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real workand when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” ― Wendell Berry

On a Spiritual Outlook:

If there's a poetic, philosophical and spiritual outlook to consider as an action plan through what I'm living, I find it in these words by Fernando Pessoa (Portuguese Poet, 1888-1935):

• "In all, there were three things: the certainty I was always beginning, the certainty I had to go on, and the certainty that I would be interrupted before finishing.
• From the interruptions, one must make a new path, from the fall, a dance step, from fear, a ladder, from the dream, a bridge, from the search... an encounter."

On Toughness through Purpose:

I was born in a family of scientists, academics and fiercely independent entrepreneurs who managed to survive emigration, destitution, World War II, decades of Fascist dictatorships and economic calamities. Those relatives in science and medicine were guided by high ideals and curiosity: it was evident to me that they had a burning passion to benefit Humanity and their decisions were aligned with it. I never saw them quit, they always found a way to overcome and succeed, even though some of them like my cousin Dr. Humberto F. Mandirola had to take on several jobs to stay afloat. Some of them were and are overachievers who gained international recognition in their field, including my cousin.

Although I studied six years of Medicine, I never fully understood what held them firm under pressure until I specialized in Mental Toughness Training and Peak Performance in Sports. It's their unshakable sense of Purpose - but how did they sustain it, how did they train for it?

When I had the opportunity and the privilege to coach one of the most prominent oncologists in the United States (a Harvard graduate who went on to manage one of the largest medical investment funds in the world), he mentioned that in medical school he got the usual harsh treatment: long days, sleepless nights, bad food, no recovery, always on call, for weeks at a time. The constant nausea, dizziness and foggy thinking led him and his colleagues to take blood samples of themselves.

They were shocked: they were all close to physiological collapse. One of them was pre-diabetic, another one could have a heart attack at any time and they all had immune deficiencies that would alarm any physician. Such is the importance of managing stress and recovery under pressure, but most critically, that's the challenging training that steeled them as doctors and kept them on their mission, tied to their Purpose. They endured the intentionally punishing training and never quit, answering daily the question: "Why am I doing this?"

Although doctors might not swear by the Hippocratic Oath anymore and those who do know that it's not legally binding, they are bound by their Identity and their Purpose to do the utmost for those in their care. These days, under the most exigent circumstances, we are witnessing what that means. Unsupported by their national health systems, politicians, corporations and their communities, they continue to push forward. They have developed the necessary resilience on the job over many years, yet what they manifest in every action regardless of their exhaustion is what matters most. They can marginally take care of themselves and put their lives on the line through a situation that: a) could have been prevented earlier; b) could have been managed better; c) could have been funded faster and in a scalable manner; d) they don't know how to control with their resources; e) does not have a clear and statistically predictable end in sight.

But beyond their required resiliency and grit, doctors have to deal with criminal perspectives from politicians and C-level titans who believe that old people should become collateral damage and sacrificed in the altar of The Economy. These malevolent miscreants are outside the realm of the current world's experience, perched on their glass towers and speculating about the health of their portfolios. Other people's health is external to their economic focus.

I challenge them to answer "Why am I doing this?" without injecting defensive fallacies and without avoiding their social responsibility as public servants, corporate officers, men of faith and plain human beings. Their disappointing answer plays live on TV daily in "Dr. Fauci versus The Establishment." Reason versus Obscurantism and Mendacity, where Dr. Fauci is the one forced to take the middle position in service of saving human lives.

Lest we forget, Ayn Rand, the supreme golden calf of selfishness promoters, "discovered at the end of her life that she was only human and in need of help. Rather than starve or drop dead—as she would have let so many others do—she took the help on offer." (Quote from Open Culture.com). So much for the "greed is good" theory. Bad literature meets delusion.

The resolution of this pandemic should lead to medical international alliances and governance to forecast, prevent and heal populations without having to merely depend on the sacrifice of the staff on the ground. Perspective first, systems always, in service of sustaining life.

“Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that.”— Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, preacher, journalist, and activist (12 May 1802-1861)

On Superheroes:

Before the pandemic was declared, we played “Superheroes” with a group of friends (masks, capes and all) who are leaders in their fields. It was as much fun as it was enlightening and revealing. I would venture that they would agree that our combined superpowers could now be represented by this icon: the wisdom of staying in place, with thoughtful confidence and the strength of discernment and caution.

The battle is won in the mind before it’s fought. Superheroes prepare, adapt and redefine skills to tackle unforeseen challenges while they are healthy and strong.

Optimize Training Now:

I’ve suggested all my clients in business and professional sports to use our time of seclusion to optimize their mental training through specific strategies. We follow a protocol that yields a blueprint to operate at greater capacity in the future, yet the future is now.

Every exercise becomes a mental toughness one. They know they are the best under pressure and are free to design solutions on the fly, some of them at 230 miles an hour in a Formula race car. Winning is a design.

On Inner Connection:

Four insights for inner connection through a time of distancing (thanks to borrowed art):

• "We must make the best use of our time. We must fight for our dreams, and concentrate our efforts to that end. "But we must not forget that life is made up of small pleasures. They were placed here to encourage us, assist us in our search, and provide moments of surcease from our daily battles. "It is not a sin to be happy. There is nothing wrong in -- from time to time -- breaking certain rules regarding diet, sleep and happiness. "Do not criticize yourself if -- once in a while -- you waste your time on trifles. These are the small pleasures that stimulate us." — Paulo Coelho, Maktub
• “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
• “Live to the point of tears” — Albert Camus
• "The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater." —The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

On Writing:

Pencils: a lumber yard of dreams, of trial and corrections, of refinement and success. I used to write my theater play longhand on yellow notepads. Then I would type the scenes on my first Macbook. It took me 6 years and 14 drafts in English and Spanish to finish it. It was produced in 3 different countries.

Pencils remind me how I’ve earned the right to call myself a Writer, something I wanted to do since I was five: bit by bit. I now type on special software but occasionally work out complex concepts by hand. There’s something unique in the transfiguration of dreams into lead and on to paper to impact one mind at time, as those minds allow it.

On Being The Promoter:

I've always seen my roles as "transcendent" (each role is a platform for a bigger role) and going "beyond the status quo," driven by the entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit that runs in my family. The role of Promoter of new concepts, experiences, products and services is easy for me if I believe in it and if I have a stake on its success. In my work in professional tennis, motorsports, media, technology and corporate leadership I've created "Theaters of Purpose," where new, obscure or intangible concepts can be understood through an experience.

The biggest impulse came from promoting Dr. Jim Loehr's approach to Mental Toughness Training in sports and business around the world. On the court or on the stage, I marveled at how the audience could grasp breakthrough concepts and be ready to implement them the next day. This understanding helped me refine my own approaches to engage and promote participation.

I'm the experiment: there's no claim of supreme mastery, or guru-like declarations, magic pills or outlandish promises - just the disclosure that "I'm in training for life," that each day I make the choice to do what my training requires and that I invite my audience to make their individual decision.

The Promoter inspires by transcending "what is" and transporting the listener to "what can be" so "what shall be" starts to germinate. The Promoter demonstrates that you are what you want to be and where the stepping stones are, so you decide to take the first step. The Promoter leads from the front and recruits towards the vision, yet he walks the path with everyone else.

On Hope:

The hope we have not yet felt lives in the subtle whispers of our most fragrant desires.

On Loving the Challenge:

Loving the Challenge, because you chose to train for it. Your first step is guided by your eyes fixed on the opportunities and possibilities, while your mind is considering options and alternatives to manage the risk and ensure effectiveness. Your vision guides your impulse. Others might recoil, criticize you or think you walk on water. Only you know that you have trained to be able to do this well, or do it again.

The Breakthrough is in the implementation of the plan. The success is in realizing the vision and inspiring others to follow. The joy is in satisfying a powerful desire and affirming your identity. In sports, as in business and life, designing your meaningful Future and fulfilling it is what sets you apart.