Champion Thinking

As the sports reporter for BBC Radio 1 for the best part of a decade, Simon Mundie was pitch-side at many of the most high-profile sporting events in history. It was often thrilling, but when he took to the airwaves to report on what he had seen, it increasingly felt like something was missing. The emphasis always seemed to be on results, tactics and the score. But as the saying goes, sport is a metaphor for life - so Simon set out to explore that. Drawing on interviews with sporting legends from Jonny Wilkinson to Kate Richardson-Walsh, Will Carling to Goldie Sayers, along with psychologists, philosophers and world-renowned thinkers, Simon shares some of the tools and techniques that athletes have embraced to grow and evolve - as athletes and people. From developing emotional intelligence to the power of true acceptance and the joy of getting in flow, he explores eight universal themes that are highlighted in sport, but that are all too easily overlooked in the favour of simpler, shallower narratives about winning, trophies and 'success'. What can that careers of Gaël Monfils and Andy Murray teach us about exploring our potential? What can England's Olympic gold-medal winning hockey team teach us about the power of being truly selfless? Wise and inspiring, Champion Thinking illustrates that whether in sport, at work or in our relationships, worshipping at the altar of success isn't going to bring us happiness. The contentment we are all looking for isn't somewhere 'out there' - it's actually so close that we tend to overlook it.