In the season 15 finale of the Building Championship Mindsets podcast, Dr. Amber Selking shares why excellence is not merely an act, but a habit shaped by consistent practice and mindset. Drawing on Proverbs 22:29, she illustrates how skilled individuals rise to meet great opportunities, urging listeners to embrace their potential without fear of standing out. Dr. Selking talks about the importance of cultivating habits that foster excellence in every aspect of life, whether in sports, business, or parenting. As the season wraps up, she encourages everyone to pursue their journey of excellence, trusting in the process and the promise of a hopeful future.

About Building Championship Mindsets

Welcome to “Building Championship Mindsets. | the Podcast!” From the LockerRoom to the BoardRoom, our purpose is to help individuals, teams, and organizations understand and leverage the power of Mindset and Leadership to drive results and achieve sustainable performance excellence. 

As a leader in the field of sport and performance psychology, Dr. Amber Selking has been fiercely devoted to optimizing human performance in people and systems throughout her entire career.

Dr. Selking is the founder of Selking Performance Group, a leading performance consulting practice that helps individuals, companies, and sports teams achieve sustainable results. She has served as the Mental Performance Coach for professional & collegiate sport programs across the country including the Denver Broncos, LSU Football, ND Softball, and Notre Dame Football during the winningest five years in program history! She is the Chief Culture & Leadership Development Officer for Lippert, a global, publicly traded manufacturing company whose corporate vision is to change the model of work, demonstrating that business can and should Be a Force for Good in our World. She has also served as an adjunct professor in the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame. Dr. Selking holds a Ph.D. in Educational and Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri, a master’s degree in Sport and Performance Psychology from the University of Denver, and an undergraduate degree in Management Consulting from the University of Notre Dame. At ND, Amber played soccer for the Fighting Irish before an injury ended her career, after which she founded Notre Dame Christian Athletes (NDCA) in the ND Athletic Department. She currently resides in South Bend, Indiana, with her husband, Aaron, daughter Elleeanna Belle, and their Doberman Pinscher, Rockne.

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Building Championship Mindsets, the podcast.

This is your host, Dr.

Amber Selkien, where we are in season 15 entitled Sports Psych and Scripture.

And here we are at our final episode of the season, episode 12, where we are looking at one of my favorite topics of all time, one of my core, core values in life, excellence.

And an incredible scripture that I found, Proverbs 22, 29, looking at the intersection of how excellence is understood, talked about, ascribed in the field of sports psychology, and what God has to say about excellence in the Bible.

And given that this is the final episode of this season, I couldn't think of a better topic to end it with than my fave.

So, as you know, at the Selkien Performance Group, we are all about helping individuals, sports teams and business organizations really understand and leverage the power of mindset and leadership.

And so I think when we really look at transformational elements of how people and teams operate, you can't get any more specific or grounded in both Scripture, in both science and in both applicable research and examples in the world than having great leadership and following some fundamental organizational leadership principles that lead teams to success and how mindset drives individuals inside of those systems to deliver their best consistently.

And so that's why we focus on mindset and leadership, because I truly believe when you get those two things right, excellence is the only thing possible to deliver.

And so, like I just said, the reality of it is there's scripture to support this, there's science to support this, and there are great individual high performers and organizational high performers.

And when you look at the data across those three elements, they align.

And so there are some fundamentals to organizational performance, and there are some fundamentals to human performance.

And this season particularly is looking at the intersection of sports psychology and scripture.

And so when we think about excellence from a sport psych standpoint, what we mean is the ability an individual has to deliver that a high level on a consistent basis.

And so we're looking again at a very specific thing, whether that be a football player, right.

If they're excellent at their craft on the field and can do that consistently, we would say that's excellence, right.

If you have an individual, whether, let's say they're an engineer, right.

And they can consistently solve the hardest problems that you have in front of them, man, they are excellent at their craft.

If you are a parent and you have all these beautiful kids or one beautiful kid, right.

And you know how to learn them, to understand them, to discipline them, but to love them and you can always find ways.

Man, you are an excellent parent.

My mom is an excellent parent.

And I'm hoping to be like her for our sweet little Eliana Bell.

Right?

And, and so again, whatever it is that you do, it's your ability to do what you do consistently at a very high level that determines excellence or not.

Now you can think about excellence more broadly, right?

In terms of just like for me, for example, excellence as a core value of my life.

I want to bring a layer of excellence or a standard of excellence to everything that I do.

And if I can't, then guess what, I don't do it because it's too important to me.

And I know that I can't do everything.

So I have to identify, well, what can I do?

What do I love to do?

What does the world need of me?

And then in those things, I'm going to show up and do my very best.

And so that's how excellence can be thought of as a little bit more broadly than just a specific skill or craft.

But let's stay on this skill or craft idea because I think that, you know as Guinness, when we work with our athletes, we talk all the time about habits and habits of excellence.

One of my favorite quotes is from Aristotle, and he says that we are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, therefore, is not an act, it's a habit.

And when I was a mental conditioning coach down at IMG Academy, we were talking about this and I had a room full of like 150 tennis players from the ages of like 13 to 17, and half of them spoke English and half of them did not.

Because, you know, at img, people come from all over the world to train there.

And so I ask, you know, what is a habit?

And this 13 year old young man from Portugal raises his hand and I just remember he says in this thick accent, a habit is something that you do so often that it becomes part of the very essence of your being.

And I was like, wow, first of all, secondly, what an incredible definition of a habit.

A habit is something that you do so frequently that it becomes part of the very essence of your being.

And Aristotle says that excellence is not an act, it's a habit.

So what if excellence became part of the very essence of our being, right?

And so when we talk to our athletes about training excellence, this is why we say everything you do matters because you're building habits in your life that will show up in other aspects of your life.

And so make sure that you're building great habits.

Do you put the shopping cart Away.

When you go to the grocery store, I.

Every time, I am so tempted, particularly at Costco, because they have those really big aisles that you're like, meh, it won't hit anybody's car.

I think about myself talking to other people about how excellence is a habit and using this example.

And then I just trot my little self in my little shopping cart to the little rack to put it in.

Because excellence is a habit.

Right.

My husband Aaron, challenges me all the time.

Well, if excellence is a habit, put your seatbelt on.

Yes.

I struggle sometimes to remember to do that.

The dinging in the car helps.

Um, so.

But excellence is a habit.

Are we thinking like that?

And that's why every practice rep you get is important.

Because when adversity strikes or when challenge comes, you resort to whatever habits you've created in your life.

And so we need to make sure that excellence is our default.

Because life is hard.

Performance is hard.

Business is hard.

Sport is hard.

School is hard.

Marriage is hard, Parenting is hard.

And when you have pressure or adversity or you get tired or a distraction tries to come at you, what do you resort to?

Do you resort to running, to God, to goodness?

To cling to something right and true?

Or do you go somewhere else?

You gotta ask yourself that.

And then if you realize that your default is not excellence, you gotta slap your mind back into focus and start looking at the minor elements, the fringes of your life, and ask yourself, what am I doing?

Am I scrolling on Twitter when I should be reading?

Am I?

Am I, you know, looking at stuff I shouldn't be looking at?

Am I thinking about things I shouldn't be thinking about?

Am I not?

Maybe I'm not even thinking about wrong stuff.

Maybe I'm just not thinking right about important people in my life.

Maybe I'm not thinking right about my customers, about my product, about the work that I get to do.

I saw a thing, you know, one of those things on social media.

Talk about scrolling social media.

But looking at.

And it said, you know, if you have crumbs on the floor, that means you had food to eat.

If you have a dirty house, that means you've got, you know, little ones that have run around and sort of created a mess.

And so it's almost like shifting the mindset on.

Do you see the negatives in your life or are you looking for the positives?

All of these things are building excellence into how you think and operate kind of at that macro level.

And then you got to bring that same mindset to how you hone and build your craft specifically, whether it's speaking, whether it's writing, whether it's engineering, whether it's football, whether it's sales, whether it's parenting.

Are you honing your craft and really thinking about, how do I get better and better and better?

It says, do you see a man skilled in his work?

He will stand before kings, not before obscure men.

Man, I love that.

And you know why I love that?

Because I feel like society a little bit today tells us that, oh, don't be too good, right?

Don't be too confident.

Don't stand out too much.

F.

That.

Yes, I know we're having a podcast on scripture and sports psychology, but, man, does it make me mad when we try to cut down excellence.

I have the opportunity to serve as the chief culture and leadership development Officer at Lippert.

And you know what I love about being at Lippert?

They love excellence.

And when people try to be great, they don't get knocked down.

They get encouraged.

And sometimes that's hard as leaders to manage that type of energy and drive.

I mean, trust me, I know I'm one of those persons.

And I think Jason and Ryan and Jamie lead me incredibly well.

Brian Kelly loves excellence, and he leads me incredibly well.

And I know I'm not always easy to lead.

And then, man, I've got high performers on my team, which means it's not always easy to lead high performers, but, man, is it worth it.

And I'm not perfect at that.

And I'm growing in it.

And I learn as a leader of high performers because of the leaders who are leading me.

And it is such a gift to get sharpened by one another, but we've got to welcome that, and our world needs to welcome that.

And one of my favorite quotes.

It's a long quote.

It's a poem.

It's by Marianne Williamson.

And she says, our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

She says that it is not.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people don't feel insecure around you.

I love that.

Don't shrink for average people that are around you.

You were born to make manifest the glory of God, and that is within all of us, not just some of us, is what she says.

And guess what?

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I love how.

I mean, there's more to that beautiful quote that she has so look it up.

Marianne Williamson.

Our deepest fear.

But that is so true.

And that comes with being excellent at whatever you do.

You could be a stay at home parent, you could be an executive, you could be an athlete, you could be a student.

I remember we had a room full of our freshmen going through our foundational mental performance training program when I was at the University of Notre Dame with Notre Dame football and we had a room full of freshmen and we had one five star sitting in the front of the room and he answered questions.

He was super engaged.

And at one point he answered a question and one of the guys sort of scoffed at him like, like, here he goes again.

And I snapped.

I said, listen, if you came here to be average, you can be average yourself.

This kid came here to be great.

And he's not worried about your mediocrity because he's here for greatness, he's here for excellence.

And I told him, I said, listen, you don't stop being great.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking.

So these fools don't feel insecure around you.

You be great.

Guess what?

Drafted in the first round and playing ball in the league still, because he came to Notre Dame for excellence.

And I.

And listen, everybody's on their own journey.

And I forget who that kid was that made that comment.

And he too could have turned out to be great, but that was part of his learning journey as well.

Don't be the slouch in the room just because you're not doing the right things, you're criticizing others.

And we're in that process right now.

Down at LSU football, we had a total cultural transformation and we're learning how to be excellent and leaders are learning how to use their voice.

And you can't let a few loud voices that want to pop off that are average disrupt that.

And I know that there's people listening to this right now, whether you're in business or in sport and you're feeling the same way.

Be courageous.

Do not be afraid to be great, because as you become skilled at your work, it will allow you to stand before kings.

The one other thing I'm going to note on that is listen, if you really want to stand before kings, that means you got to work, because you don't stand before kings with average work.

This says, do you see someone skilled in their work?

You know what it takes to build skilled.

You know what it takes to build skills, skill, time, effort, focus, sacrifice, discipline.

Doing stuff most people aren't willing to do.

So also don't come at Me and tell me you want an opportunity and you're upset because you don't get X, Y and Z when you haven't done the work.

People.

People are like, oh, you got to work in college football right away.

I was sending Brian Kelly articles for five years through his former strength coach before I even got an opportunity to have a conversation with him.

Five years.

I then corresponded with him for a full year, most times not getting a response.

So this is six years of effort and then still having to pitch it and sell it and position it and earn some stripes along the way.

And not to mention six years of training and two years of working in corporate America prior to going back to grad school, like.

And then prior to that, guess what?

My life's work.

I mean, I was doing this work.

I have two children's books out right now.

One called A Dream Come True and the sequel called A Winner's Circle.

You want to know when I wrote those?

Fifth and sixth grade.

So I know that wasn't formal training back then, but, man, I've been building my life for this type of work, adding on experience to education, to networking.

I've moved around the.

I've lived in 16 different, 17 different cities now to do these things and to grow and to develop.

And I'm still.

And I know I'm young and I am so grateful for the opportunities that I have, but it's not because I haven't worked my tail off for it.

And I know that those around that are also experiencing that effort or that excellence and the opportunities is because they've worked for it.

And some people get opportunities and they can't sustain them because they haven't built that skill.

So all I'm saying to you is, do not be afraid of excellence, but put in the work that it takes to become skilled in your craft, because that will allow you to stand before kings, not before obscure men.

And we never know when our timing might be, and I never know what's in the future might hold.

But I know I gotta keep training, I gotta keep honing my craft, because excellence is a core value of mine.

And quite frankly, you never really arrived there.

So let's get on this journey together and understand that sports psychology and scripture are intimately woven together.

And if you want to.

If you want to understand the truth behind human high performance and organizational high performance, I firmly believe that that's found in the words of the Bible and in Jesus Christ.

We learn a lot in sports psychology, but it merely amplifies what I know to be true.

In Scripture.

And so I would just encourage you as we wrap up season 15 of Sports Psych in Scripture, continue on your own journey of excellence wherever you might be right now.

Just take the next step and then the next step and then the next step.

To me, that is the coolest thing about being a Christian, is not knowing.

For I know the plans that I have for your life, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future.

And you know when I have clung to that verse more than ever?

Not when the not when I got an opportunity to work with Brian Kelly in college football.

Like, my dream was not when I got an opportunity to be an executive, which was a dream in my heart when I was in college at Lippert.

Those aren't the moments.

When it's hard, When Erin and I are going through something tough in our marriage.

When I'm not getting a call back.

When I'm wondering if I'm leading my team well enough.

When I'm in moments of silence in my life professionally and wondering what the future holds.

And to me that's freaking exciting.

And that makes me wake up and go after another day excited about what might the future hold.

And so I just want to encourage you wherever you're at, keep fighting your fight.

Hone your craft because your excellence will permit you to stand before kings.

But you got to be excellent.

So do the work, trust the process and find the intersections of sports, psych and scripture.

Listen, if there's any way we can help you on that journey.

Keynote speaking for your organization one on one performance coaching shoot me an email directly doctors elking performance.com we've got a ton of information on our website www.selkingperformance.com and then follow us or give feedback what your key takeaways were from this episode on all the social media platforms.

We are on LinkedIn and Facebook at Selking Performance Group and on Instagram and X at Champ Mindsets.

Thank you so much for tuning in again on this season.

It's been such a joy to be on this journey with you.

You've been listening to Building Championship Mindsets, the podcast.

This is your host, Dr.

Amber Selking.

And from the locker room to the boardroom, I just want to challenge you to continue building your championship mindset.