The Recipe: A Guest Post by Jim Murphy
From being an athlete himself, to training athletes for the highest level of competition, Jim Murphy has invaluable insights into how to get the most out of life. This book is the accessible, digestible account of exactly that. Read on for an exclusive essay from Jim Murphy on writing Inner Excellence.
Paperback
$14.99
$19.99
Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life
Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life
By Jim Murphy
In Stock Online
Paperback
$14.99
$19.99
Discover the transformative New York Times bestseller—a step-by-step manual for mastering your inner mind for peak performance and living your life to the fullest.
Discover the transformative New York Times bestseller—a step-by-step manual for mastering your inner mind for peak performance and living your life to the fullest.
On January 12, 2025 an NFL football player was caught reading a book on the sidelines in the middle of the Wildcard playoff game. When interviewed after the game, wide receiver A.J. Brown shared that he reads the book before every game to get centered and after every drive during the game to stay focused. His teammates call it “The Recipe.”
Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life. By Jim Murphy
In December, 2003 I left for the desert to live a life of solitude. I wanted to, like Thoreau, live life fully, to suck the marrow out of life, and not come to the end of my life and realize I had not fully lived. I gave away over half my possessions, including my TV, hoping to discover what to do with my life, something deeply meaningful. My first New Year’s Eve I was writing in my journal and heard a noise outside. I went outside and saw fireworks. That was the moment I realized it was December 31st. I had no idea.
In the desert I decided to become a performance coach to pro baseball players and teach them how to perform with poise under pressure. My first two athletes did amazing, and so I decided to put together a manual for future clients. I called a sports psychologist and asked him: “How can a Major League Baseball player in Game 7 of the World Series, bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded, down by 1, full count… how can that guy have peace and confidence with so much on the line? And similarly, how can an Olympic athlete train for four years for an event that may last less than less than 60 seconds and have peace and confidence in that situation?”
That brought more questions than answers, so I called another psychologist and another and another. I dug into the research and spent 50 to 60 hours a week for five years straight going over the data. Much of the research was done at my favorite store in the world: Barnes & Noble. I spent many long hours at the Tucson, Arizona Barnes & Noble on N. La Cholla Blvd. It was my second home in the desert.
In my research I found something extraordinary: The training needed to have the most poise under the most pressure is the same training needed to live a meaningful, fulfilling life. It’s training your heart to be wholehearted… to love most what’s most empowering, so you can be filled with fullness of life; to be selfless and therefore fearless.
This book started out as a quest, launched in the desert at Barnes & Noble, to find a purpose I was willing to devote my life to, to live and die for. It all led to where we are now with INNER EXCELLENCE being a manual used by world-class athletes and leaders around the world, even on the sidelines during the Super Bowl for the 2025 Super Bowl Champions, Philadelphia Eagles.