all assumed that the news coming out of Tampa was true. They didn’t know about my life-changing mentality shift just the week prior. It was a long season with all the distractions. After the 1994 season was cut short, it was time to prepare to go to court.
We were up against the city of Tampa and two dozen police officers who had carefully constructed their stories. It was a jury trial so we were counting on honest citizens to see the truth and decide in our favor. We were up against some serious charges, and if we lost, we could both be facing up to five years in prison. Both Dave and I had our own attorneys, but the case was tried together. The city of Tampa had two attorneys plus the state’s District Attorney. It was crazy that the District Attorney was a part of this case. Typically, the District Attorney would be more focused on hardcore criminals rather than a couple of professional athletes, but that shows how seriously the city was looking at our case. My parents and my older brother Mel Jr. came to support me during the trial. I felt bad dragging my family through the mess with me. We hired a private detective to “get the word on the street” inside the police force. We learned that the running joke inside the Tampa police was that when they won the case, they were going to sue Dave and me so they could all buy boats and name them the Blue Jays. The things that came out in the courtroom were unbelievable.
Every officer testified on the stand under oath, but one of the officers was caught in a lie on the stand. The courtroom went wild. The judge immediately called for order and removed the jury from the courtroom before calling all the attorneys to the stand. The judge told our attorneys that we had a case for a mistrial because the officer had committed perjury on the stand. Our attorneys let both Dave and I know that we could walk from this now on a mistrial. We both said “No way!” We were going pursue this case to prove our innocence. We didn’t hit any officers; we were caught up in a serious police brutality case. We had been through hell, and we wanted to see this through so the truth could come out. We couldn’t win our reputations back on a mistrial.
The trial was tough on my parents and my brother. It was very emotional for them listening to the police tell lie after lie. I stayed calm. I was focused and in control of my mind. I owned it. We spent seven long days in the courtroom. Every day, after leaving the courtroom, a Tampa police car would follow me to the city limits. It was like they were trying to intimidate me. All the attorneys involved in the case made their closing arguments and the judge then dismissed the jury for deliberation. I remember being with my brother and my parents in the hallway while we waited for the jury to make their decision. It was nerve wracking. I knew that we were right, but we were counting on people, like you and me, to make the final decision.
They called us back into the courtroom quickly. The jury had decided: NOT GUILTY on all counts. Every officer was in the courtroom. It was so satisfying to watch the officers leave the courtroom, one-by-one after the decision. The same people who had beaten us physically on the streets earlier in the year had taken a moral beating in the courtroom. It was over. Dave and I were free, and our names were cleared!
It was crazy how many letters I received over the next couple of months from attorneys who wanted me to sue the City of Tampa and the police department. I never once even gave it a thought. I was tired, and they knew they were wrong. My suing them wasn’t going to change anything. It was time to move on with my life and my baseball career, but not without the experiences and lessons learned that I would be applying to the rest of my life.
One week of focusing on staying in the zone and not giving my mind away served me in a real-life situation. It could have had devastating consequences for both Dave and I, had I reacted with my prior habits. My resolve to immediately and relentlessly apply the lessons I’ve learned from my mentors in baseball, business, and life is what has brought me the successes that I’ve had. Other challenges came up as the years went on, but my mindset was where it needed to be. When I faced challenges in the future, I learned different lessons from each one, but being mentally in the zone permeated all that I did. I was back in control. The game-changing aspects came from the fact that I applied the lessons immediately during that police brutality case.
Learning the Peak Performance method and learning how to live in the zone is essential. Resolving to commit relentlessly to this system saved my life, career, and future that night. Fully committing to the Peak Performance method will launch you into your dreams and goals as well. You can succeed, and you deserve to live out your dreams to their fullest potential. Yes, there are going to be plenty of obstacles and many things that are out of your control. I am going to help you focus on the things that you can control so you can climb to the peak of your success.
STEP 1: SETTING GOALS
THE FIRST KEY to the Peak Performance method is setting goals. Do you remember that childhood feeling of invincibility? When we thought about the future, everything seemed possible. Our dreams were massive, and we were convinced we would not live small lives. That adrenaline of limitless possibilities coursed through my veins every time I roamed Yankee Stadium alongside my dad’s team as a kid. Being around some of the greatest baseball players of all time and watching their every move inspired me to dream of following in their footsteps. For me, it wasn’t a distant “if” because I was spending my time dreaming alongside the very role models I wanted to one day emulate. My environment fueled my dreams. My brothers and I roamed the field in our Yankee uniforms playing ball, knowing that time was all that separated us from the desires of our hearts. The percentages drastically opposed our dreams, but our childlike faith told us otherwise. The vision of playing Major League Baseball was crystal clear. We could feel the grass and infield dirt of Yankee Stadium under our cleats as the dreams grew in our hearts. Every time my father took the mound, I would watch carefully and think, “Someday, that will be me!”
My desire was birthed and fostered by my environment. My vision was based on my real-life experiences and observations. My belief in the plausibility of my dreams was founded by seeing my father live out that dream. However, I couldn’t hide in the shadow of my father forever; I had to do the work and embark on my own journey to become a Major League Baseball player. My childhood environment had set up my desire for what I hoped to accomplish, but accomplishing it was up to me.
I recognize that I was extremely fortunate to live a life where my environment shaped my goals, and I had a front-row view of the detailed reality of exactly what I was hoping to achieve. For you, this process may be reversed. Rather than your environment shaping your goals, your goals may need to shape your environment. Different seasons in life might look different. As I will talk about later in this book, my business success was a season of life where my goals that shaped my environment rather than the other way around.
As we travel through life, some of the goals and dreams we had as children fade away. That is certainly ok. I’m talking about what to do from the here and now and how to keep moving forward. I am a firm believer that when we have thoughts or desires that touch us, that make us stand up and pay attention, that those are reminders of what is possible for us. Too many times people quit before they even get started. I love the famous Zig Ziglar quote, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great!” How true is that! Some of us have lost sight of the belief that anything really is possible. Many times, people will quit as soon as moving forward starts to get difficult. Anything worth doing is going to come with challenges, especially when your dreams and goals are BIG. People who think big and do big, ultimately live BIG.
The first step is to get clarity on and solidify your goals. But before you can set goals you must create a mental picture of the desired outcome. It’s your time to be childlike again and dream without limitations. What will success look like? What will it feel like? What will your daily life be like? What will your weekly, monthly and yearly schedules look like? How will your family be impacted? How will your life be different from what it is right now? You want to craft a desire that
