Focus on the 2x4

Bob Walsh (BLOG.COACHBOBWALSH.COM), Head Coach at Rhode Island College, posted this great excerpt from NFL coach Jimmy Johnson talking about how he prepared his team for the Super Bowl in 1993:

"I told them: if I laid a two-by-four across the room, everybody there could walk across it and not fall, because our focus would be that we were going to walk that two-by-four.  But if I put that same two-by-four ten stories high between two buildings, only a few would make it, because the focus would be on falling.  Then I said, your focus right now has to be as if we're playing on the practice field in front of nobody.  If you let it overwhelm you that it'll be the most watched sporting event in the world, that there will be 3,000 media people here - if you make it bigger than life it will be a distraction.  And that's the crux of this game. Focus on the two-by-four."