133been sitting at that desk? Get up and get out of here!
Your brain stops working after you sit in a swivel chair
for 20 minutes. Keep the body moving around so the
juices will run to the right places. It’ll be good for the
brain! If you sit in that chair too long all of your
brainpower will be in your shoes. You cannot keep your
mind active when your body is inactive.’ ”
That one principle—an active mind cannot exist in
an inactive body—became Bobby Fisher’s secret weapon
in winning the world championship of chess. Who would
have guessed that swimming underwater would make
you a better chess player? Certainly not the overweight,
worn-out chess “genius” Boris Spassky.
Sometimes, all you need is the air that you breathe
to motivate yourself. Going for a run or a walk or sim-
ply deep breathing gives the brain the fuel it feeds on
to be newly refreshed and creative.
62. Bring on a good coach
After a rare disappointing round on the golf course,
Tiger Woods will often take a golf lesson.
When I first heard about this, I asked myself, who
could give Tiger Woods a lesson in golf?
But that was before I ever really understood the value
of coaching. The person who taught me that value was a
young business consultant named Steve Hardison.
Hardison taught me this: Tiger takes a lesson not be-
cause his coach is a better player who can give advice
and tips, but because his coach can stand back from Ti-
ger Woods and see him objectively.
Steve Hardison had created an art form of coming
into corporations and seeing things objectively. In fact,
his perception ran deeper than that. He had near-psy-
chic power to “see what was missing.” It was a gift he
Bring on a good coach