Charlie Unwin: Forget fight or flight, embrace a challenge mindset

We sat down with Olympic mental performance coach Charlie Unwin. Unwin was an athlete and platoon commander in Iraq before becoming a mental performance coach for various GB Olympic teams. He is also a speaker and has recently released a book ‘Inside-Out: Train Your Mind and Nerve Like A Champion’, where he shares how anyone can program their mind to achieve their full potential.


Here's what we discussed during our discussion:


  • Your new book Inside Out: Train Your Mind and Nerve Like A Champion has recently been released. Would you be able to explain to our listeners what an Inside Out mindset is and what an Outside In mindset is? (0:48)
  • How does the Inside Out mindset differ from an Outside In mindset? (03:24)
  • One of the themes that is integral to this concept is that the quality of practice is more important than the quantity of practice and the goal. How does the Inside Out mindset align with these ideas? (08:47)
  • Is social media stopping us from having an Inside Out mindset? (16:08)
  • Why is our relationships with ourselves important? And how can people make their self-talk better? (21:34)
  • Is the way we are understanding the capacity of our minds is changing? (26:00)
  • Is Virtual Reality a visualisation crutch or tool? (32:11)
  • You speak about approaching adversity with a challenge response as opposed to a fight or flight response. Can you explain what this means? (35:01)
  • Is there a particular story or person that you’ve worked with that are memorable to you? (38:39)
  • Answer the Internet: How can people turn negative things into motivation? (42:14)


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