Self Talk
In the 1998 NBA Finals, with just 18 seconds to go and the Chicago Bulls down by one point, Michael Jordan nicked the ball from an opponent and made the winning shot. This was his last game with the Bulls.
That moment would go down as one of the greatest in basketball’s history. Beyond what the world saw, the remarkable part was what was happening in Jordan’s mind during those crucial seconds.
Michael Jordan was one of the most talented players but in that crunch moment, what drove him was more than just skills — it was also about his inner conversations.
“When I got that rebound, my thoughts were very positive,” Jordan later said, according to the book The Mindful Athlete by George Mumford, his sports psychologist at the time.
Years before that championship game, Jordan had been working with Mumford to master mindfulness and harness the power of self-talk.
Self-talk is anything you say to yourself, whether in your head or out loud. It’s the inner dialogues —the “voice in your head” that you hear.
Many people don’t pay attention to the internal dialogues going on in their minds and how they impact their lives.
It’s only when they learn about these constant chatter that they realize how much they affect their self-esteem, productivity, mental health, and overall quality of…
