The 90-Second Rule: How Top Performers Bounce Back Fast

⏳ Read Time: Less than 4 min.

Welcome back to The Winning Edge! This week’s topic hits home for anyone chasing ambitious goals: Mindset & Motivation.

We’re skipping the clichés and diving into the mental habits that elite performers actually use—but don’t always advertise. If you’ve ever felt stuck, stalled, or just meh, this issue is your mental reset.

Let’s fire it up.
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This Week’s Insights

✅ The 90-Second Rule – A mind-body reset used by Olympic athletes
✅ “Motivation Borrowing” – A weirdly effective energy hack
✅ AI Tool of the Week – Track your mental performance like a Fitbit for your brain
✅ Quick Hitters – Brain fuel that beats burnout
✅ Mindset & Motivation – The power of strategic apathy

THE MAIN EVENT
🎤 The 90-Second Rule: How Top Performers Bounce Back Fast

Here's something few people realize: your brain doesn’t control your emotions—your nervous system does.

When a stressful moment hits (a bombed pitch, tough feedback, or unexpected news), it takes about 90 seconds for the chemical surge of emotion to move through your body—if you don’t feed it.

Harvard-trained brain researcher Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor coined this as the 90-Second Rule:

“If you simply allow the emotion to run its course, it dissipates in 90 seconds. After that, you're just choosing to stay in it.”

💡 Try it: 
When you feel flooded, say to yourself:
"This is a 90-second wave. I don’t need to attach a story to it."
Breathe. Don’t react. Don’t narrate. Just ride it out.

🎯 Elite performers don’t avoid stress—they move through it fast.

🧠 “Motivation Borrowing”: The Energy Hack No One Talks About

We all hit days when our motivation tank is empty. But instead of forcing yourself to grind… what if you could borrow someone else’s momentum?

Here’s how:
🔁 Step 1: Think of a time someone you admire overcame resistance—publicly or privately.
🔁 Step 2: Ask: “What would they do in this exact moment?” 
🔁 Step 3: Do that for 5 minutes. Momentum creates motivation—not the other way around.

You can borrow energy from:
✅ A mentor or leader you respect
✅ A future version of yourself
✅ A past version of you who crushed it

This isn’t fake. It’s mental co-regulation. And it works.

QUICK HITTERS: Fast Wins for the Week

💡 Tip of the Week: Want to get motivated faster? Start ugly. Motivation is a byproduct of progress—not perfection.

📊 Stat of the Week: The average person’s focus drops after 23 minutes of uninterrupted work. Deliberate micro-breaks = higher output. (Source: DeskTime)

🎭 Power Move: Create a 10-minute “first thing” ritual each morning that signals: I’m in charge of the day—not the other way around.

📖 Recommended Read: “The Practice” by Seth Godin – A refreshingly honest look at motivation without the fluff.

WEEKLY DEEP DIVE
Strategic Apathy – The Mindset Skill Nobody Teaches

Let’s get weird for a second:
Sometimes, the most mentally tough thing you can do… is not care. At least, not right away.

Enter: Strategic Apathy.

It’s the ability to delay your emotional investment in things you can’t yet control. It’s not laziness or denial—it’s mental triage.

🎯 Elite operators in military, sports, and emergency medicine use this to avoid wasting cognitive fuel on the wrong fire.

✅ How to apply it in your world:

• Didn’t get the deal? Hit pause. Learn later. Don’t spiral now.

• Got blindsided in a meeting? Take notes—not revenge. Process later.

• In the middle of chaos? Focus on what moves the needle today.

Strategic apathy is emotional discipline. It buys you time to respond with clarity instead of reaction.

Not everything deserves your full heart right away. Mastering when to care is leadership gold.

AI TIP OF THE WEEK

📌 Tool: Reclaim.ai – The AI Calendar That Protects Your Focus

What it does:
✅ Automatically blocks time for tasks, routines, and breaks
✅ Reschedules low-priority meetings when your week changes
✅ Syncs with your energy patterns to plan smarter, not harder

🔗 Try it at reclaim.ai

🧠 Why it matters: Motivation dies when your day is hijacked. Reclaim helps you defend your time like it’s your most valuable asset—because it is.

WINNING WITH AI: The Future of Sales Proposals and Presentations

AI isn’t just for tech geeks or big corporations—it’s transforming how we sell, present, and communicate. The best sales teams are already using AI to:
✅ Generate compelling, tailored proposals in minutes (not hours).
✅ Turn data into engaging, visual stories that capture attention.
✅ Automate tedious tasks so they can focus on closing deals instead.

This isn’t the future—it’s happening right now.

Get your copy of my ebook here!

ACTION STEPS & COMMUNITY QUESTION

This week, try the 90-Second Rule during a high-stress moment—just breathe, don’t feed the feeling. See what shifts.

Also try Motivation Borrowing: Who can you channel when your own drive hits zero?

🧠 I’d love to know: What’s your go-to move when you’re dragging but need to perform? Hit reply and share—I might feature your strategy next week.

P.S.
Next week’s edition is all about Success Stories—real-world examples of professionals who’ve mastered these skills and changed the game. You’ll walk away with takeaways you can apply immediately.

Keep building your edge—one conversation at a time.

YOUR OPINION MATTERS!

If you have more feedback or just want to get in touch, respond to this email, and we’ll get back to you!

Thanks for reading!

Until next week!

Mary Beth