Class of ’53 Lectureship: Gio Valiante
On Wednesday, April 20th, Dr. Gio Valiante spoke to the school as part of the annual Class of ’53 lectureship series.
“I thought it [the speech] was very inspiring, and I actually didn’t want to fall asleep during it,” sophomore Madelyn Bou said.
Valiante is a renowned sports psychologist, author and educator.
“I was very inspired by today’s speaker; his strategies are applicable to any field, not just sports. It never occurred to me that Einstein and Steve Jobs were “big failures” because we always remember these public figures for their great accomplishments. The road to success is full of disappointments, but these disappointments make us great in the end. I am now determined to “fail better” everyday,” Spanish teacher, Yensen Lambert said.
Valiante specializes with the mental game of golfers, but works with other sports and businesses.
“I never realized the importance of good mental health on one’s performance in sports until after Dr. Gio’s speech today. His four points do a great job of analyzing and simplifying the steps towards self improvement,” said junior Herren Burgess.
In the past 15 years, his players have won 55 PGA Tour events.
Valiante offered some advice to the students today on how to be most successful in the real world.
“His speech reminded me that in order to be a winner, you gotta learn to lose,” junior Casey Holden said.
He says there are four simple things, that once understood, can be done to improve your mental game:
- Kaizen is improving every single day. He advises for you to choose a goal every day so that every day you learn something new. By doing this, you make improvement a habit.
- Failure is a lesson, not a setback. Valiante believes that you should keep trying and “fail better” than you did the last time. If you continue to work harder and “fail better,” eventually you’ll succeed.
- Getting rid of Entitlement is about having to earn what you get. It is understanding that you must work for everything because you are entitled to nothing.
- What do you see? Valiante argues that everyone comes out of the same experience with different perspectives. He compared it to giving three students a ‘B.’ One person would be happy that they somehow managed to get a ‘B’, another would be disappointed by the unfairness of the grade and another would be happy that all of their hard work paid off and their grade is improving.