George Mumford – författare

A world-renowned psychologist and mindfulness performance expert who has helped superstars such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant transform their careers, offers proven strategies for unleashing our innate strengths, avoiding burnout, and discovering enduring success.

We all strive to find flow, when our skills, expertise, and mindset are aligned and we can perform, unimpeded, at the highest level. George Mumford calls this being “unlocked”—a state anyone can achieve at any time. A psychologist trained in the field of mindfulness and personal development expert, Mumford has decades of experience helping a wide range of individuals—from CEOs and NBA superstars to the chronically underrepresented, those experiencing homeless and fighting addiction—contend with the challenges and opportunities inherent in life. Now, in this life-changing guide, he shares his wisdom with all of us, no matter our background or socioeconomic status, brilliantly guiding us on a path to discovering and harnessing our own individual potential.

“People have called me the ‘performance whisperer,’” Mumford writes. “I coax and tease. I ‘whisper’ to the stubborn, oppositional part of us that resists growth, that refuses to break old habits. To unlock the greatness within, we have to crack that shell to access what’s underneath. It can be a difficult, painful process, much the way performance-training stretches our body and the limits of our endurance. The mental training, I do with athletes, prisoners, teachers, college administrators, businesspeople and others has a similar aspect. It shakes us out of the familiar and puts us in touch with deeper aspects of ourselves.”

Chock full of tangible insights, unexpected ancient wisdom, and inspiring stories from his clients and his own life—from his darkest moments of addiction and inner turmoil to training some of the best athletes in the world—Unlocked is the culmination of Mumford’s life’s work; it helps us discover our gifts. To sustain success no matter the game or the stakes. To step into the power within us and embrace the freedom of being unlocked.

A world-renowned psychologist and mindfulness performance expert who has helped superstars such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant transform their careers, offers proven strategies for unleashing our innate strengths, avoiding burnout, and discovering enduring success.

We all strive to find flow, when our skills, expertise, and mindset are aligned and we can perform, unimpeded, at the highest level. George Mumford calls this being “unlocked”—a state anyone can achieve at any time. A psychologist trained in the field of mindfulness and personal development expert, Mumford has decades of experience helping a wide range of individuals—from CEOs and NBA superstars to the chronically underrepresented, those experiencing homeless and fighting addiction—contend with the challenges and opportunities inherent in life. Now, in this life-changing guide, he shares his wisdom with all of us, no matter our background or socioeconomic status, brilliantly guiding us on a path to discovering and harnessing our own individual potential.

“People have called me the ‘performance whisperer,’” Mumford writes. “I coax and tease. I ‘whisper’ to the stubborn, oppositional part of us that resists growth, that refuses to break old habits. To unlock the greatness within, we have to crack that shell to access what’s underneath. It can be a difficult, painful process, much the way performance-training stretches our body and the limits of our endurance. The mental training, I do with athletes, prisoners, teachers, college administrators, businesspeople and others has a similar aspect. It shakes us out of the familiar and puts us in touch with deeper aspects of ourselves.”

Chock full of tangible insights, unexpected ancient wisdom, and inspiring stories from his clients and his own life—from his darkest moments of addiction and inner turmoil to training some of the best athletes in the world—Unlocked is the culmination of Mumford’s life’s work; it helps us discover our gifts. To sustain success no matter the game or the stakes. To step into the power within us and embrace the freedom of being unlocked.

Michael Jordan credits George Mumford with transforming his on-court leadership of the Bulls, helping Jordan lead the team to six NBA championships. Mumford also helped Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom and countless other NBA players turn around their games. A widely respected public speaker and coach, Mumford is sharing his own story and the strategies that have made these athletes into stars in The Mindful Athlete: The Secret to Pure Performance. His proven, gentle but groundbreaking mindfulness techniques can transform the performance of anyone with a goal, be they an Olympian, weekend warrior, executive, hacker, or artist.

Mumford’s deeply moving personal story is unforgettable. A basketball player at the University of Massachusetts (where he roomed with Dr. J, Julius Erving), injuries forced Mumford out of the game he loved. The meds that relieved the pain of his injuries also numbed him to the emptiness he felt without the game and eventually led him to heroin. After years as a functioning addict, Mumford enrolled in Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program, and made meditation, on and off the cushion, the center of his life. He kicked drugs, earned a master’s degree in counseling psychology and began teaching meditation to inmates and others.

When Michael Jordan left the Chicago Bulls to play baseball in 1993, the team was in crisis. Coach Phil Jackson, a long-time mindfulness practitioner, contacted Dr. Kabat-Zinn to find someone who could teach mindfulness techniques to the struggling team—someone who would have credibility and could speak the language of his players. Kabat-Zinn led Jackson to Mumford and their partnership began. Mumford has worked with Jackson and each of the eleven teams he coached to become NBA champions. His roster of champion clients has since blossomed way beyond basketball to include corporate executives, Olympians, and athletes.