The loss of YouTube legend Ken Block earlier this year in a snowmobile accident is still being felt by motorsport and stunt fans all over the world. I was once lucky enough to interview Block at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to ask about what went through his mind at the many peak moments he enjoyed in such an intense career. The below exchange has never been published before and I hope as it serves as yet another worthy tribute to a great man… Block gained fame by ‘hooning’ rally cars around the world’s most unsuitable locations in his gymkhana videos. His final creations are true works o ..read more

It was a treat to visit the studios of Premier League Preview earlier this week to talk about the climax of the 2021-2022 season. Focusing on Manchester City's match away at West Ham on Sunday, we talked about how Pep Guardiola calls on the power of belief to turn in such an impressive string of strong performances when it matters. The London Stadium has been a happy ground for Manchester City in recent years but this time the pressure is magnified as they aim to get over the line in the title race - potentially with a makeshift defence after a run of injuries. West Ham also head into the ma ..read more

The sad news has reached me of the death of Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, whose seminal Seventies work Flow details how we are most alive when we’re fully engaged in what we are doing, whether it’s work or play. In flow we live totally in the moment and are so absorbed in our task nothing else matters. We lose all sense of time along with real-life concerns such as hunger, ego and money – allowing our true self to flood out, along with any skills we have acquired along the way. Csikszentmihalyi first felt the sensation for himself in sport, rock-climbing as a teenager. He l ..read more

The Olympics start tomorrow and elite athletes all over the world are dreaming big. For five long years they have dedicated their entire existence to Tokyo, regularly picturing the view as their national anthem sings out to a packed arena. This is the justification for decades of focus on a single target: every early morning, every mile run through wind, hail and snow, every vomit-inducing gym session. All the pain will make sense when they reach the top of the world. Right? Pity few enjoy this golden pay-off. The rest will fail – very publicly – in full view of their family, friends, natio ..read more

We all start life as dreamers. Whether we picture our future selves as footballers, film stars or astronauts, we have a natural, effortless ability to transport ourselves into any reality we choose. Then we grow up – and most of us give up. That’s not entirely our fault. Parents and teachers usually mean well but rarely grasp the power their words have. The world’s most effective dream destroyer is the phrase: ‘You’ll never earn a living doing that…’ Ian Cartabiano is one of the lucky few who slipped through the net. The son of a toy designer father and an artist mother, he once saw his Dad ..read more

The loss of boxing legend Marvin Hagler has capped off a sad weekend for sports lovers. It was a huge privilege to meet the great man several times, most recently a year ago at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin, where I gave him a copy of In The Zone to thank him for the interview he gave me for the book. I couldn't resist grabbing the chance to have another short chat, and I'm so glad I did. Thank you Champ. Here is what he told me… How powerful is failure on the route to success? I don’t think you think about failure. What you do is you feed the faith and you starve the doubt. Tha ..read more

It was a pleasure to speak to Ryan Hartley of the Always Better Than Yesterday podcast earlier this month. You can check it out in the video above, where we talk about the Zone and its relationship to everyone from Travis Pastrana to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi... And if you're in the mood for a really good listen, check out this podcast by the Enterprise Sales Club's Adrian Evans with the irrepressible mind coach Don MacPherson, author of an exceptional new book How to Master Your Monkey Mind ..read more

Huge thanks this month go to hurling ace Gearóid Hegarty, who was the man of the match as his Limerick team triumphed in the 2020 All Ireland final against Waterford - see video below. While later speaking to the Irish press, Hegarty said: "I read a book, In the Zone, by Clyde Brolin, and it's all about flow and getting into flow... "I got a bit of a slagging after the match because I came into the dressing-room and knew I was after having a really good game, but genuinely didn't know what I scored. So I got out my phone and texted my girlfriend who was at home watching it and she said, 'ye ..read more

What's the quickest way out of a nightmare? Wake up. Then dream up something better instead ..read more

This will be old news to many of you but I just wanted to give a shout-out to Simon Mundie's outstanding BBC Radio 4 show and podcast Don't Tell Me The Score. This is an incredible resource, full of insightful interviews with the greats of sport about what they do and how they do it. There is such a range of material that it's hard to pick out favourites, but two episodes have particularly stood out in recent weeks. Multiple major golf winner Nick Faldo's insights into his mental approach make for a masterclass, particularly regarding how he used visualisation to reach the top of the world ..read more