Part 2 of this two part blog describes how each of the big 5 personality traits impacts our reward system, thereby influencing our motivation and grit.

Ever wonder what regulates our pursuit of long or short term goals? Part 1 of this 2 part series explains how the brain’s reward system advances us towards or away from a goal. Part 2 identifies how the big 5 personality traits influence an individual’s brain reward system.

Part 1 identified the important distinction between deviant behavior and mental illness. I introduced “trust” as a symbol for a person’s (in this context, athlete’s) biological and social influences composition in their psychological profile. Trust can be measured using CQ. The psychology behind the proprietary Be Sports Minded ML algorithm offers concise insights on trust and the framework of self-coherence (how one incorporates mental models, habits, and environment). (part 2 of 2)

Not all deviant behavior leads to disorder. Labeling a person’s mental health should not be the focus as much as understanding the individual, the source of their behavior, and preventatively preparing and adapting resources, mitigating personal and organizational risk.

Roger Federer and Tiger Woods took completely different paths to their sport’s summit. How we can learn from their story and rethink early sport specialization.

Everyone gets a trophy…until they don’t.  The exhaustive debate seems to have died down as early sports specialization feeds the need to differentiate and rank youth athletic talent.