1 00:00:01,262 --> 00:00:03,412 June 8, 2010, 2 00:00:04,444 --> 00:00:08,180 Russell Wilson, fourth-round pick to the Colorado Rockies baseball. 3 00:00:08,204 --> 00:00:09,364 I'm fired up, 4 00:00:09,388 --> 00:00:11,243 one of the highest moments of my life. 5 00:00:11,267 --> 00:00:14,450 Every kid's dream to be drafted by a Major League Baseball team. 6 00:00:14,474 --> 00:00:15,878 June 8, 2010. 7 00:00:16,639 --> 00:00:18,134 June 9, 2010 -- 8 00:00:19,149 --> 00:00:21,243 (Imitating flatline sound) 9 00:00:21,855 --> 00:00:23,122 The line goes flat. 10 00:00:23,696 --> 00:00:24,963 My dad passes away. 11 00:00:26,967 --> 00:00:28,347 The highest of the high 12 00:00:28,371 --> 00:00:29,803 to the lowest of the low. 13 00:00:30,303 --> 00:00:31,570 Just like that. 14 00:00:31,594 --> 00:00:33,602 My dad laying in his deathbed, 15 00:00:33,626 --> 00:00:35,665 just tears running down my face, 16 00:00:35,689 --> 00:00:37,344 you know, what do I do next? 17 00:00:37,368 --> 00:00:40,728 My mind racing, memories, flashbacks, moments, 18 00:00:40,752 --> 00:00:42,274 early mornings, getting up, 19 00:00:42,298 --> 00:00:43,793 taking grounders and throwing, 20 00:00:43,817 --> 00:00:48,164 speed outs and deep post routes to my brother and my dad, 21 00:00:48,188 --> 00:00:50,548 to early morning car rides to AAU baseball, 22 00:00:50,572 --> 00:00:53,129 to my dad being the third-base coach. 23 00:00:53,532 --> 00:00:57,228 Fast-forward to the championship high of winning a Super Bowl, 24 00:00:57,252 --> 00:00:58,752 holding up the Lombardi Trophy 25 00:00:58,776 --> 00:01:01,037 and the emotions and the excitement of it all, 26 00:01:01,061 --> 00:01:03,092 blue and green confetti all over the place 27 00:01:03,116 --> 00:01:05,227 and knowing that you just won the Super Bowl, 28 00:01:05,251 --> 00:01:07,660 to a year later, the pressure of the game, 29 00:01:07,684 --> 00:01:09,620 the ball on the one-yard line, 30 00:01:09,644 --> 00:01:13,070 and this is the chance to win the game, and it doesn't work. 31 00:01:13,094 --> 00:01:15,607 And however many millions and millions of people 32 00:01:15,631 --> 00:01:17,514 all over the world watching. 33 00:01:17,538 --> 00:01:19,108 And having to walk to the media, 34 00:01:19,132 --> 00:01:21,982 and what do I say next, what do I do, what do I think? 35 00:01:22,739 --> 00:01:24,549 Being married at a young age 36 00:01:24,573 --> 00:01:27,026 and just coming out of college and everything else, 37 00:01:27,050 --> 00:01:29,688 to, you know, shortly after, marriage not working out 38 00:01:29,712 --> 00:01:31,165 and realizing, you know what? 39 00:01:31,189 --> 00:01:33,116 Life happens. 40 00:01:33,140 --> 00:01:35,156 Life happens, life happens to all of us. 41 00:01:35,180 --> 00:01:36,954 Loss of family members, divorce, 42 00:01:36,978 --> 00:01:39,823 fear, pain, depression, concerns, worries. 43 00:01:39,847 --> 00:01:41,871 When you think about being superpositive -- 44 00:01:41,895 --> 00:01:43,292 yes, I'm positive by nature, 45 00:01:43,316 --> 00:01:46,697 but positivity, you know, it doesn't always work, 46 00:01:46,721 --> 00:01:50,128 because when you're down 16-nothing in an NFC championship game, 47 00:01:50,152 --> 00:01:51,303 and people are like, 48 00:01:51,327 --> 00:01:53,985 "Russ, we're not going to be able to win this game, man, 49 00:01:54,009 --> 00:01:55,845 it's not a great situation right now," 50 00:01:55,869 --> 00:01:57,287 or when you're facing cancer, 51 00:01:57,311 --> 00:01:59,429 or when you have things you have to deal with 52 00:01:59,453 --> 00:02:00,895 or finances and this and that, 53 00:02:00,919 --> 00:02:02,318 like, how do we deal with it? 54 00:02:02,342 --> 00:02:04,622 It's hard to be positive in the midst of it all. 55 00:02:04,646 --> 00:02:06,366 And what I definitely knew was this: 56 00:02:06,390 --> 00:02:08,544 that negativity works 100 percent of the time. 57 00:02:08,568 --> 00:02:10,437 Negativity was going to get me nowhere. 58 00:02:10,461 --> 00:02:13,488 I started saying to myself, "New are his mercies every morning," 59 00:02:13,512 --> 00:02:14,823 new beginnings, new starts. 60 00:02:14,847 --> 00:02:18,418 And despite hardship and pain and worries and wanting to get through it 61 00:02:18,442 --> 00:02:19,997 and "How do I do this?", 62 00:02:20,021 --> 00:02:21,768 I started thinking about a car. 63 00:02:21,792 --> 00:02:24,532 You know how when you drive a car, you've got stick shift 64 00:02:24,556 --> 00:02:26,147 and you want to shift to neutral? 65 00:02:26,171 --> 00:02:29,016 You go from first gear to second gear, all the way to fifth? 66 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,042 You've got to know how to shift to neutral. 67 00:02:31,066 --> 00:02:34,160 And I needed to shift to neutral immediately, before I crashed. 68 00:02:34,645 --> 00:02:36,503 Sitting there after the Super Bowl, 69 00:02:36,527 --> 00:02:38,244 I had a decision to make: 70 00:02:38,268 --> 00:02:41,244 Will I let this define my career? Will I let it define my life? 71 00:02:41,268 --> 00:02:42,418 Hell, no. 72 00:02:42,442 --> 00:02:44,847 What I found out was this: that mindset is a skill. 73 00:02:44,871 --> 00:02:46,450 It can be taught and learned. 74 00:02:46,474 --> 00:02:48,752 I started 10 years ago, training my mind, 75 00:02:48,776 --> 00:02:51,791 with this guy named Trevor Moawad, my mental conditioning coach. 76 00:02:51,815 --> 00:02:53,320 He's been with me for 10 years, 77 00:02:53,344 --> 00:02:55,788 and we've been best friends and partners ever since. 78 00:02:55,812 --> 00:02:57,293 As athletes, we train the body, 79 00:02:57,317 --> 00:03:00,593 we train ourselves to be able to run fast, throw farther, jump higher 80 00:03:00,617 --> 00:03:02,048 and do these different things, 81 00:03:02,072 --> 00:03:03,599 but why don't we train our mind? 82 00:03:03,623 --> 00:03:05,493 What do you want your life to look like? 83 00:03:05,517 --> 00:03:07,269 Write it out, talk about it, say it. 84 00:03:07,293 --> 00:03:09,369 What's our language, what does it look like, 85 00:03:09,393 --> 00:03:12,499 watch these highlights, Russell, when you're in your best moments. 86 00:03:12,523 --> 00:03:14,050 What does that look like? 87 00:03:14,074 --> 00:03:16,680 And be that, live that, sound like that. 88 00:03:16,704 --> 00:03:18,098 The best free throw shooters, 89 00:03:18,122 --> 00:03:20,425 they don't worry about the shot they just missed. 90 00:03:20,449 --> 00:03:21,762 They think about this shot, 91 00:03:21,786 --> 00:03:23,650 this putt, this throw, this first down. 92 00:03:24,814 --> 00:03:27,070 Then I met this kid Milton Wright, 19 years old, 93 00:03:27,094 --> 00:03:28,847 he had cancer three different times. 94 00:03:28,871 --> 00:03:31,294 This day when I went to see him, he was frustrated, 95 00:03:31,318 --> 00:03:33,635 "Russ, I'm done, I don't want to do this anymore, 96 00:03:33,659 --> 00:03:34,810 it's my time to go." 97 00:03:34,834 --> 00:03:37,023 I started telling him this story about my dad, 98 00:03:37,047 --> 00:03:38,862 how he used to say, "Son, why not you? 99 00:03:38,886 --> 00:03:41,950 Why don't you graduate early, play pro football and pro baseball? 100 00:03:41,974 --> 00:03:43,223 Why not you, why not you?" 101 00:03:43,247 --> 00:03:44,634 I said, "Milton, why not you? 102 00:03:44,658 --> 00:03:46,871 If you tried T-cell therapy, 103 00:03:46,895 --> 00:03:49,474 and you try this and it doesn't work, 104 00:03:49,498 --> 00:03:50,672 you won't remember it." 105 00:03:50,696 --> 00:03:52,705 So Milton got a smile on his face and said, 106 00:03:52,729 --> 00:03:53,934 "You're exactly right. 107 00:03:53,958 --> 00:03:55,825 Yes, I do have cancer, Russ. 108 00:03:56,530 --> 00:03:58,340 But I can either let this kill me, 109 00:03:58,364 --> 00:03:59,808 not just physically, 110 00:03:59,832 --> 00:04:03,293 but I can also let it kill me emotionally and mentally. 111 00:04:03,317 --> 00:04:06,531 And I have a choice right now, in the midst of the problem, 112 00:04:06,555 --> 00:04:07,842 in the midst of the storm, 113 00:04:07,866 --> 00:04:09,873 to decide to overcome." 114 00:04:11,317 --> 00:04:14,652 One of the questions I always get asked about neutral thinking is this: 115 00:04:14,676 --> 00:04:17,476 "Does that mean I don't have any emotion?" 116 00:04:17,840 --> 00:04:19,668 And I always say, absolutely not. 117 00:04:19,692 --> 00:04:20,883 Yeah, we have emotions, 118 00:04:20,907 --> 00:04:22,384 we have real-life situations, 119 00:04:22,408 --> 00:04:23,800 we have things to deal with. 120 00:04:23,824 --> 00:04:28,045 But what you have to be able to do is to stay focused on the moment 121 00:04:28,069 --> 00:04:31,069 and to not be superemotional. 122 00:04:31,093 --> 00:04:34,204 It's OK to have emotions, but don't be emotional. 123 00:04:34,998 --> 00:04:36,149 When people look at me, 124 00:04:36,173 --> 00:04:38,658 they see that I'm the highest-paid player in the NFL, 125 00:04:38,682 --> 00:04:40,599 they see that I have the girl and Ciara, 126 00:04:40,623 --> 00:04:42,586 that I have the family and this and that. 127 00:04:42,610 --> 00:04:44,799 But I still have real-life situations. 128 00:04:44,823 --> 00:04:45,974 We all do. 129 00:04:45,998 --> 00:04:48,157 We all have, you know, sadness and loss 130 00:04:48,181 --> 00:04:50,371 and depression and worries and fear. 131 00:04:50,395 --> 00:04:51,806 I didn't just get here. 132 00:04:52,196 --> 00:04:53,609 What's the truth, 133 00:04:53,633 --> 00:04:55,887 and how do I come through this better? 134 00:04:55,911 --> 00:04:59,063 And that's really, kind of, how my mind started shifting. 135 00:04:59,087 --> 00:05:02,536 It was not just on the success of it all or the failure of it, 136 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:04,561 it was on the process, like: 137 00:05:04,585 --> 00:05:09,053 What is the next step, how do I do this right here, right now? 138 00:05:09,077 --> 00:05:11,049 We have a choice to make in life. 139 00:05:11,073 --> 00:05:13,618 And for me, when I was young and I didn't have much, 140 00:05:13,642 --> 00:05:14,792 I made a choice. 141 00:05:14,816 --> 00:05:16,866 I made a choice that I was going to believe 142 00:05:16,890 --> 00:05:18,760 that great things were going to happen, 143 00:05:18,784 --> 00:05:20,791 that I was going to have my mindset right, 144 00:05:20,815 --> 00:05:23,021 and I was going to have the right language 145 00:05:23,045 --> 00:05:24,767 and the right things to think about, 146 00:05:24,791 --> 00:05:26,426 which helped prepare me for today. 147 00:05:26,450 --> 00:05:27,600 Because I'm just human. 148 00:05:27,624 --> 00:05:30,085 I just have the ability to throw the ball a long way 149 00:05:30,109 --> 00:05:32,466 and run around and make some cool and fun throws 150 00:05:32,490 --> 00:05:34,509 and make some people smile. 151 00:05:34,533 --> 00:05:36,727 But the reality is that I still have pressure, 152 00:05:36,751 --> 00:05:38,729 I still have worries, I still have fears, 153 00:05:38,753 --> 00:05:40,807 I still have things that happen. 154 00:05:40,831 --> 00:05:42,363 Still have loss. 155 00:05:42,387 --> 00:05:44,267 Positivity can be dangerous. 156 00:05:44,291 --> 00:05:46,557 But what always works is negativity. 157 00:05:46,581 --> 00:05:48,454 I never wanted to live in negativity, 158 00:05:48,478 --> 00:05:50,223 so I stayed in neutral. 159 00:05:50,247 --> 00:05:52,477 I kept my shift in neutral. 160 00:05:52,501 --> 00:05:54,540 And so that's where I lived, 161 00:05:54,564 --> 00:05:57,001 and that's where I've been living ever since.