1 00:00:01,262 --> 00:00:04,405 June 8, 2010, 2 00:00:04,429 --> 00:00:08,159 Russell Wilson, fourth round picked to the Colorado Rockies baseball. 3 00:00:08,183 --> 00:00:09,347 I'm fired up, 4 00:00:09,371 --> 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 00:00:16,617 --> 00:00:19,125 June 9, 2010 -- 8 00:00:19,149 --> 00:00:21,243 (Imitating flat line 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 --> 00:00:29,538 The highest of the high, the lowest of the low. 12 00:00:30,253 --> 00:00:31,570 Just like that. 13 00:00:31,594 --> 00:00:33,602 My dad lay in his death bed, 14 00:00:33,626 --> 00:00:35,665 just tears running down my face, 15 00:00:35,689 --> 00:00:37,323 you know, what do I do next? 16 00:00:37,347 --> 00:00:40,728 My mind racing, memories, flash backs, moments 17 00:00:40,752 --> 00:00:42,244 early mornings, getting up, 18 00:00:42,268 --> 00:00:43,793 taking grounders and throwing, 19 00:00:43,817 --> 00:00:48,164 speed outs and deep post routes to my brother and my dad, 20 00:00:48,188 --> 00:00:50,548 to early morning car rides to AU baseball, 21 00:00:50,572 --> 00:00:53,129 to my dad being the third-base coach. 22 00:00:53,532 --> 00:00:57,228 Fast forward to championship, high of winning a Super Bowl, 23 00:00:57,252 --> 00:00:58,752 holding up the Lombardi trophy, 24 00:00:58,776 --> 00:01:01,037 and the emotions and the excitement of it all, 25 00:01:01,061 --> 00:01:03,092 blue and green confetti all over the place 26 00:01:03,116 --> 00:01:05,227 and knowing that you just won the Super Bowl, 27 00:01:05,251 --> 00:01:07,660 to a year later, the pressure of the game, 28 00:01:07,684 --> 00:01:09,620 the ball on the one yard line, 29 00:01:09,644 --> 00:01:13,069 and this is the chance to win the game and it doesn't work. 30 00:01:13,093 --> 00:01:15,540 And having the many millions and million of people 31 00:01:15,564 --> 00:01:17,514 all over the world, watching. 32 00:01:17,538 --> 00:01:19,108 And having to walk to the media, 33 00:01:19,132 --> 00:01:21,982 and what do I say next, what do I do, what do I think? 34 00:01:22,739 --> 00:01:24,549 Being married at a young age, 35 00:01:24,573 --> 00:01:27,026 and just coming out of college and everything else, 36 00:01:27,050 --> 00:01:29,688 to, you know, shortly after, marriage not working out 37 00:01:29,712 --> 00:01:31,165 and realizing, you know what? 38 00:01:31,189 --> 00:01:33,116 Life happens. 39 00:01:33,140 --> 00:01:35,156 Life happens, life happens to all of us. 40 00:01:35,180 --> 00:01:36,954 Loss of family members, divorce, 41 00:01:36,978 --> 00:01:39,823 fear, pain, depression, concerns, worries. 42 00:01:39,847 --> 00:01:41,815 When you think about being superpositive, 43 00:01:41,839 --> 00:01:43,228 yes, I'm positive by nature, 44 00:01:43,252 --> 00:01:46,697 but positivity, you know, it doesn't always work, 45 00:01:46,721 --> 00:01:50,081 because when you're down 16 nothing in an NFC championship game, 46 00:01:50,105 --> 00:01:51,335 and people are like, 47 00:01:51,359 --> 00:01:54,073 "Russ, we're not going to be able to win this game, man," 48 00:01:54,097 --> 00:01:55,891 it's not a great situation right now, 49 00:01:55,915 --> 00:01:57,287 when you're facing cancer, 50 00:01:57,311 --> 00:02:00,728 or you have things you have to deal with, or finances and this and that, 51 00:02:00,752 --> 00:02:02,173 like, how do we deal with it? 52 00:02:02,197 --> 00:02:04,466 It's hard to be positive in the midst of it all. 53 00:02:04,490 --> 00:02:06,212 And what I definitely knew was this, 54 00:02:06,236 --> 00:02:08,355 the negativity works 100 percent of the time. 55 00:02:08,379 --> 00:02:10,276 Negativity was going to get me nowhere. 56 00:02:10,300 --> 00:02:11,610 I started saying to myself, 57 00:02:11,634 --> 00:02:13,014 new [unclear] every morning, 58 00:02:13,038 --> 00:02:14,720 new beginnings, new starts. 59 00:02:14,744 --> 00:02:18,411 And despite hardship and pain and worries and wanting to get through it, 60 00:02:18,435 --> 00:02:19,585 how do I do this, 61 00:02:19,609 --> 00:02:21,768 I started thinking about a car. 62 00:02:21,792 --> 00:02:24,427 You know how when you drive a car, you get a stick shift 63 00:02:24,451 --> 00:02:26,125 and you want to shift to neutral? 64 00:02:26,149 --> 00:02:28,970 You go from first gear to second gear, all the way to fifth? 65 00:02:28,994 --> 00:02:31,042 You've got to know how to shift to neutral. 66 00:02:31,066 --> 00:02:34,621 And I needed to shift to neutral immediatelly, before I crashed. 67 00:02:34,645 --> 00:02:36,312 Sitting there after the Super Bowl, 68 00:02:36,336 --> 00:02:38,244 I had a decision to make. 69 00:02:38,268 --> 00:02:41,244 Will I let this define my career, will I let it define my life? 70 00:02:41,268 --> 00:02:42,418 Hell, no. 71 00:02:42,442 --> 00:02:44,788 What I found out was this: the mindset is a skill. 72 00:02:44,812 --> 00:02:46,450 It can be taught and learned. 73 00:02:46,474 --> 00:02:48,752 I started 10 years ago, training my mind, 74 00:02:48,776 --> 00:02:51,791 with this guy named Trevor Moawad, my mental-conditioning coach, 75 00:02:51,815 --> 00:02:53,506 and he's been with me for 10 years, 76 00:02:53,530 --> 00:02:55,973 and we've been best friends and partners ever since. 77 00:02:55,997 --> 00:02:57,514 As athletes, we train the body, 78 00:02:57,538 --> 00:03:01,098 we train ourselves to be able to run fast and throw farther and jump higher 79 00:03:01,122 --> 00:03:02,578 and do these different things, 80 00:03:02,602 --> 00:03:04,173 but why don't we train our mind? 81 00:03:04,197 --> 00:03:06,744 What do you want your life to look like, write it out. 82 00:03:06,768 --> 00:03:08,006 Talk about it, say it, 83 00:03:08,030 --> 00:03:10,156 what's our language, what does it look like, 84 00:03:10,180 --> 00:03:13,323 watch these highlights, Russell, when you're in your best moments. 85 00:03:13,347 --> 00:03:14,592 What does that look like? 86 00:03:14,616 --> 00:03:16,680 And be that, live that, sound like that. 87 00:03:16,704 --> 00:03:18,098 The best free throw shooters, 88 00:03:18,122 --> 00:03:20,425 they don't worry about the shot they just missed, 89 00:03:20,449 --> 00:03:21,870 they think about this shot, 90 00:03:21,894 --> 00:03:23,758 this pat, this throw, this first down. 91 00:03:24,814 --> 00:03:27,070 Then I met this kid Milton Wright, 19 years old, 92 00:03:27,094 --> 00:03:28,847 he had cancer three different times. 93 00:03:28,871 --> 00:03:31,315 This day when I went to see him, he was frustrated, 94 00:03:31,339 --> 00:03:33,680 "Russ, I'm done, I don't want to do this anymore, 95 00:03:33,704 --> 00:03:34,966 it's my time to go." 96 00:03:34,990 --> 00:03:37,172 I started telling him this story about my Dad, 97 00:03:37,196 --> 00:03:39,093 how he used to say, "Son, why not you? 98 00:03:39,117 --> 00:03:42,180 Why don't you graduate early, play pro football and pro baseball, 99 00:03:42,204 --> 00:03:43,466 why not you, why not you?" 100 00:03:43,490 --> 00:03:44,990 I said, "Milton, why not you? 101 00:03:45,014 --> 00:03:46,871 If you try T-cell therapy, 102 00:03:46,895 --> 00:03:49,474 and you try this and it doesn't work, 103 00:03:49,498 --> 00:03:50,672 you won't remember it." 104 00:03:50,696 --> 00:03:52,705 So Milton got a smile on his face and said, 105 00:03:52,729 --> 00:03:53,934 "You're exactly right. 106 00:03:53,958 --> 00:03:55,825 Yes, I do have cancer, Russ. 107 00:03:56,530 --> 00:03:58,340 But I can either let this kill me, 108 00:03:58,364 --> 00:03:59,807 not just physically, 109 00:03:59,831 --> 00:04:02,920 but I can also let it kill me emotionally and mentally. 110 00:04:03,317 --> 00:04:06,531 And I have a choice right now, in the midst of the problem, 111 00:04:06,555 --> 00:04:07,842 in the midst of the storm, 112 00:04:07,866 --> 00:04:09,873 to decide to overcome." 113 00:04:11,317 --> 00:04:14,652 One of the questions I always get asked about neutral thinking is this: 114 00:04:14,676 --> 00:04:17,476 "Does that mean I don't have any emotion?" 115 00:04:17,840 --> 00:04:19,668 And I always say, absolutely not. 116 00:04:19,692 --> 00:04:20,883 Yeah, we have emotions, 117 00:04:20,907 --> 00:04:22,384 we have real-life situations, 118 00:04:22,408 --> 00:04:23,800 we have things to deal with, 119 00:04:23,824 --> 00:04:28,045 but what you have to be able to do is to stay focused on the moment. 120 00:04:28,069 --> 00:04:31,069 And to not be superemotional. 121 00:04:31,093 --> 00:04:34,204 It's OK to have emotions, but don't be emotional. 122 00:04:34,998 --> 00:04:36,204 When people look at me, 123 00:04:36,228 --> 00:04:38,727 they see that I'm the highest paid player in the NFL, 124 00:04:38,751 --> 00:04:40,657 they see that I have the girl and Ciara, 125 00:04:40,681 --> 00:04:42,672 that I have the family and this and that. 126 00:04:42,696 --> 00:04:44,799 But I still have real-life situations. 127 00:04:44,823 --> 00:04:45,974 We all do. 128 00:04:45,998 --> 00:04:48,157 We all have, you know, sadness and loss, 129 00:04:48,181 --> 00:04:50,371 and depression and worries and fear. 130 00:04:50,395 --> 00:04:52,172 I didn't just get here. 131 00:04:52,196 --> 00:04:53,609 What's the truth, 132 00:04:53,633 --> 00:04:55,887 and how do I come through this better? 133 00:04:55,911 --> 00:04:58,629 And that's really, kind of, how my mind started shifting, 134 00:04:58,653 --> 00:05:01,061 it was not just on the success of it all 135 00:05:01,085 --> 00:05:02,252 or the failure of it, 136 00:05:02,276 --> 00:05:04,561 it was on the process, like, 137 00:05:04,585 --> 00:05:06,189 you know, what is the next step, 138 00:05:06,213 --> 00:05:08,772 how do I do this right here, right now? 139 00:05:09,077 --> 00:05:10,869 We have a choice to make in life, 140 00:05:10,893 --> 00:05:13,618 and for me, when I was young and I didn't have much, 141 00:05:13,642 --> 00:05:14,792 I made a choice. 142 00:05:14,816 --> 00:05:16,866 I made a choice that I was going to believe 143 00:05:16,890 --> 00:05:18,760 that great things are going to happen, 144 00:05:18,784 --> 00:05:20,791 that I was going to have my mindset right 145 00:05:20,815 --> 00:05:23,021 and that I was going to have the right language 146 00:05:23,045 --> 00:05:24,767 and the right things to think about, 147 00:05:24,791 --> 00:05:26,426 which helped prepare me for today, 148 00:05:26,450 --> 00:05:27,600 because I'm just human. 149 00:05:27,624 --> 00:05:30,044 I just have the ability to throw the ball long way, 150 00:05:30,068 --> 00:05:32,466 and run around and make some cool and fun throws. 151 00:05:32,490 --> 00:05:33,791 And make some people smile, 152 00:05:33,815 --> 00:05:36,727 but the reality is that I still have pressure, 153 00:05:36,751 --> 00:05:38,729 I still have worries, I still have fears, 154 00:05:38,753 --> 00:05:40,807 I still have things that happen. 155 00:05:40,831 --> 00:05:42,363 Still have loss. 156 00:05:42,387 --> 00:05:44,267 Positivity can be dangerous. 157 00:05:44,291 --> 00:05:46,557 But what always works is negativity, 158 00:05:46,581 --> 00:05:48,454 I never want to live in negativity, 159 00:05:48,478 --> 00:05:50,223 so I stayed in neutral. 160 00:05:50,247 --> 00:05:52,477 I kept my shift in neutral. 161 00:05:52,501 --> 00:05:54,540 And so that's where I lived, 162 00:05:54,564 --> 00:05:57,001 you know, that's where I've been living ever since.