In Inner Excellence, performance coach Jim Murphy argues that chasing external achievements like promotions, trophies, or perfect scores creates a cycle of temporary satisfaction followed by endless wanting.
Instead, he presents a counterintuitive approach: focus on developing yourself from the inside out through mastering your values, beliefs, emotions, and mental focus. When you shift your attention from external validation to internal development, you naturally perform better under stress while experiencing the sense of purpose and aliveness that external success promises but rarely delivers. Keep reading for a full book overview.
Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life
What if the secret to success is not chasing it at all? In Inner Excellence (2020), performance coach Jim Murphy challenges our obsession with external achievements like winning games, earning promotions, or getting perfect grades. He argues that these traditional markers of success leave us constantly chasing the next goal while never feeling truly satisfied. Instead, real fulfillment comes from developing yourself from the inside out—mastering your values, beliefs, emotions, and focus. When you prioritize this kind of personal growth over external validation, you not only feel more alive and purposeful, but you perform better under pressure and achieve more long-term success.
Murphy has a master’s degree in coaching science and has coached world champion golfers and other professional athletes. He is also the president of the Inner Excellence Freedom Project, a nonprofit organization that builds homes for disadvantaged communities. To prepare for the book, he conducted five years of research on how elite athletes stay calm under pressure.
In this guide, we’ll explore Murphy’s approach to success in three parts: First, we’ll explain why it’s more effective to value personal growth over external achievements. Second, we’ll examine the mental barriers that limit your growth and performance, including the fear of failure, limiting beliefs, mental biases, and performance blocks. Lastly, we’ll discuss Murphy’s strategies for prioritizing personal growth by developing yourself in four areas: values, beliefs, emotions, and focus. Along the way, we’ll compare Murphy’s insights with those of other performance experts and share more tips for achieving peak performance.
Part 1: Why You Should Value Personal Growth Over Achievements
Murphy argues that we often put too much focus on external achievements like earning money, status, and awards. He argues that fulfillment doesn’t come from these material wins, but rather from continuous personal development and serving others. In this section, we’ll discuss why pursuing traditional markers of success often leads to disappointment, and why focusing on personal growth helps you perform better and achieve more lasting success.
The Problem With Chasing External Achievements
Murphy argues that building your life and identity around external achievements and validation is risky and makes you unhappy. He explains that many people mistakenly think these achievements can bring them happiness, but that happiness is only temporary. After you get the promotion or buy the expensive house, the sense of achievement fades, and you start wanting the next thing—a nicer car, a better job, or more money. Additionally, you can easily lose your wealth, status, or recognition if, for instance, you get laid off or the stock market crashes. Since you can’t control these events, worrying about losing what you have can leave you anxious and stressed all the time.
The Benefits of Pursuing Personal Growth
Murphy writes that you should prioritize personal growth over achievement because what we truly want is to feel alive, have purpose, and experience life fully, not to collect status symbols. These feelings come from growing as a person, not from counting achievements.
Murphy explains that personal growth means improving yourself as a person—your beliefs, your mindset, and your skills. Specifically, you must develop positive beliefs and skills like resilience, emotional control, and self-awareness. These beliefs and skills lead to true happiness since they’re part of who you are and can’t be easily taken away. When you work on personal growth, you perform better—even under stress—and feel more content. Your happiness no longer depends on outside situations or what others think.
Part 2: Mental Barriers That Limit Growth and Performance
While there are many benefits to valuing personal growth over achievements, mental barriers often prevent us from pursuing this path and performing at our best. Murphy says that these barriers create a cycle where our minds work against us, making us doubt our abilities and avoid the challenges that would help us grow. In this section, we’ll explore ways to overcome four common barriers: the fear of failure, limiting beliefs, mental biases, and performance blocks.
The Fear of Failure
Murphy explains that we often limit our growth due to our fear of failure. This fear comes from being too self-focused—we spend too much time thinking about how we look, what others think of us, and whether we’re doing things right. Since we only experience life through our own perspective, we naturally focus on ourselves, including our successes, our failures, and our standing in the world.
However, Murphy says we weren’t born with this excessive self-focus: As children, we enjoyed activities for their own sake. We painted pictures and played games without worrying about how we measured up against others. But as we grew older, we started becoming more aware of ourselves and our performance. We began comparing ourselves to others and judging how well we were doing. This shift from simply enjoying activities to worrying about our performance creates the fear that holds us back.
According to Murphy, when we’re too self-focused, our ego takes over. As a result, we become judgmental about ourselves and others, overthink scenarios, and doubt ourselves. If we see more successful people, we feel inferior or unsatisfied, losing whatever pleasure we might have had in our achievements or possessions. We also hold onto past mistakes and worry about messing up again, which creates a cycle: Our mind brings up old failures, making us nervous, which makes us more likely to fail again. Thus, fear of failure perpetuates itself.
Limiting Beliefs
Murphy explains that in addition to fearing failure, unhelpful beliefs about what you can and can’t do hinder your growth and your chances for success. These beliefs often come from your past experiences, especially from childhood, and they stick with you for life by creating a self-reinforcing cycle—your beliefs shape your actions, which create results that seem to prove your beliefs were right.
For example, if you’re an artist who was told your work wasn’t good enough as a child, you might avoid showing your drawings to others. This limiting belief about your own potential keeps you from getting feedback that could help you improve, which then reinforces your belief that you’re not talented enough to succeed as an artist.
Murphy writes that what you believe about yourself controls what you try to do in life. If you don’t believe you can do something, you won’t ever try it. Many successful people may not be the most talented, but they believe strongly that they’ll succeed. Meanwhile, talented people often fail because they doubt themselves. For this reason, your beliefs matter more than your actual skills because they determine what you’ll even attempt.
Mental Biases
Limiting beliefs are just one way that mental barriers can hold you back. Murphy writes that mental biases often cause negative thoughts and emotions that can hurt your performance. He explains that your brain uses mental shortcuts to process information quickly. These shortcuts help you make sense of the world, but they often create false negative thoughts. If you have negative thoughts, you’ll experience negative emotions that hurt your performance.
Murphy identifies four mental biases that often create negative thoughts:
Assumptions: You accept ideas as true without proof. For example, when a friend doesn’t text back quickly, you might assume they’re angry with you. In reality, they might just be busy.
Generalizations: You apply one experience to all situations. For example, after a bad interview experience, you might think you’re terrible at interviews in general.
Deletions: You ignore certain pieces of information. For example, you might obsess over one piece of criticism at work while forgetting the 10 compliments you received that same week.
Distortions: You alter or exaggerate information. For example, you might think your relationship is falling apart after a disagreement with your partner, even though most of your time together is positive.
Performance Blocks
Lastly, Murphy explains that performance blocks manifest as moments when you suddenly can’t do something you’ve done before—like freezing during a presentation or forgetting basic skills under pressure. These blocks come from your subconscious mind trying to protect you from repeating painful experiences.
No matter your level of skill or expertise, you’ll inevitably make a mistake or experience a failure of some kind. When that happens, especially if it triggers embarrassment or fear, your subconscious links that event with danger. Each time you approach a similar situation, it may send signals—anxiety, hesitation, or even panic—to prevent that experience from happening again, even in situations where you’ve met with success in the past. This protective mechanism is natural, but if you don’t address it, you’ll struggle to reach your full performance potential.
Part 3: How to Pursue Personal Growth and Unlock Peak Performance
Now that you understand the mental barriers to performance, let’s explore Murphy’s strategies for overcoming them. To get past these obstacles and achieve the fulfillment that comes from personal growth, you must master four areas: your values, emotions, beliefs, and focus. Developing these areas shifts your attention away from self-focused fears and toward growth-focused action. As a result, you’ll naturally achieve better results while creating the sense of purpose and aliveness that you truly want.
Area #1: Values
To perform at your best and be resilient to obstacles and failure, Murphy suggests you lead your life according to three values: love, wisdom, and courage. These values work together to create what he calls zoe—a Greek word that means feeling fully alive and engaged. When you embody these values, you’ll find it easier to overcome the mental obstacles that limit your performance.
Love
First, Murphy defines love as wanting the best for others without expecting anything in return. To live with love, make decisions based on what serves others, not just yourself. When you focus on giving rather than getting awards or approval, you stop worrying about yourself. This makes you more fearless, willing to take risks, and open to trying new things. You focus on what you can control: your effort, your attitude, your presence, and your kindness.
Murphy describes how one of his clients became a world champion by changing how he thought about his biggest rival. He realized this opponent pushed him to compete at his best and allowed him to participate in the sport he loves. This allowed him to shift his mindset from wanting to defeat this opponent to wishing him the best, an expression of love.
Wisdom
Second, wisdom means seeing beyond your perspective, recognizing how everyone’s connected, and then using this insight to live more meaningfully and generously. Wisdom allows you to stay humble and open to learning. When you acknowledge that there are many things bigger than you, you listen, learn, and keep growing, no matter how much you already know.
Murphy shares how Olympic swimmer Lewis Pugh completed a seemingly impossible one-kilometer swim at the North Pole. Scientists said the freezing water would kill most people in under a minute, and Pugh himself failed in practice attempts. However, when he connected his swim to a larger purpose—raising awareness about climate change—he was able to succeed.
Murphy says that to develop wisdom, you should practice seeing other perspectives. Look for ways to learn from and serve others. Recognize that most of what you have comes from outside of yourself (from your family, circumstances, luck, or help from other people). This encourages you to be more humble and grateful instead of prideful.
Courage
Lastly, Murphy explains that courage is the ability to face difficulties head-on, even when you feel scared or uncomfortable. It keeps you attuned to the present instead of worrying about the future or regretting the past.
To practice courage, set process goals you can control, like giving your best effort and staying grateful. Murphy urges you to see challenges as opportunities to grow stronger instead of as reasons to quit. He explains that hardship and suffering help you become a better person. If you accept difficulties as a normal part of life and growth, they become easier to handle—your attitude changes everything.
Area #2: Beliefs
The next area of personal growth you must develop is your beliefs. Murphy encourages you to replace limiting beliefs with new beliefs that support your growth and performance. As we previously mentioned, your beliefs control what you attempt in life. If you don’t believe you can do something, you won’t try.
Murphy offers two ways to create empowering beliefs: reshaping your inner dialogue and practicing visualization.
Reshape Your Inner Dialogue
Murphy says you can break limiting beliefs by changing how you talk to yourself. He suggests you describe struggles in the past tense to break your old patterns. For instance, instead of saying, “I’m bad with money,” say, “In the past, I struggled with money.” Then, tell yourself a new truth in the present tense: “I am learning to trust myself with money.”
He also recommends you interrupt any negative thoughts that pop into your mind. You can mentally shout “Stop!”, picture a red stop sign, or snap a rubber band on your wrist. These physical interruptions break the negative pattern and bring you back to the present. Then, immediately replace the negative thought with something positive.
Practice Visualization
Murphy recommends using daily visualization to build new beliefs: Spend a moment each day picturing yourself achieving your goals. Feel the emotions of success—pride, joy, satisfaction—as if they’re happening now. Feeling genuine excitement about your vision, even for a second, helps cement new beliefs.
He explains how college softball player Callista Balko visualized getting the game-winning hit against the best pitcher in the country every day for months. When that exact situation came up in the World Series, she got the hit.
Murphy adds that visualization helps you determine if your goals align with your identity. Before setting any goal, imagine that you’ve already achieved it and ask yourself if it feels right. If your goals clash with what you believe, you’ll work against yourself without realizing it. For example, if you want to be wealthy but believe “rich people are greedy,” part of you will resist success. Either adjust your goal or examine why you have negative beliefs about achieving it.
Area #3: Emotions
Murphy writes that managing emotions helps you overcome fear and perform at your best. Your feelings determine how you experience life and handle challenges. For instance, when you feel good, problems seem manageable, and you feel more confident that you’ll succeed. Conversely, when you feel negatively, problems seem much harder, and you don’t feel confident in your success.
Murphy offers methods for managing your emotions, including how to calm negative emotions and replace negative memories with positive ones.
Calm Negative Emotions
Murphy recommends you practice breathing exercises to calm yourself when you feel stressed. Take slow, deep breaths, and tell yourself that you don’t have any expectations. This reduces anxiety and keeps you in the present instead of worrying about the future.
You can also reduce negative emotions by gaining distance from them: Picture yourself rising above your body, watching your problems get smaller as you mentally float away from them. Then, slowly return to your body, bringing a sense of calm with you.
Additionally, Murphy recommends actively conjuring positive emotions through anchoring—a technique that links a physical cue (like a touch, gesture, or smell) to an emotional state. For example, you could touch your necklace while remembering a big win in your life. Over time, you can use that same cue to bring back those positive feelings whenever you need them, such as before a big presentation. In the moment, you can touch your necklace to recall the confidence you gained from your past success.
Replace Negative Memories With Positive Ones
Murphy writes that when a painful memory blocks your performance, you can change how it affects you. First, view the memory from a third-person perspective, like watching it on a movie screen, to make the memory less emotional. Next, identify one small, realistic change that could have improved the situation, like taking a deep breath or saying something different.
Then, recall a time when you felt calm, confident, or powerful, and feel those positive emotions again. Now imagine yourself back in that difficult memory, but this time bring your confident feeling with you and make that small change you identified. Finally, replay this improved scene in your mind several times until you feel more relaxed and capable—your brain starts to believe this new version, which replaces the old, painful memory.
Area #4: Focus
Being completely focused on the present helps you let go of fear and perform at your best when the stakes are high, Murphy writes. When you stay present and focused, everything clicks into place—time feels like it slows down, your actions flow smoothly without forcing them, and you notice small details you normally miss. Instead of feeling threatened by pressure, you see it as a chance to show what you can do.
Shift Your Attention From Overthinking
Murphy says that when your thoughts spin out of control, you need ways to shift your focus back to the present. One method is to switch from thinking to sensing: Close your eyes and identify three different sounds around you. Then notice how your feet feel touching the ground. This pulls you out of your head and back into the moment.
Murphy says you can also find things to appreciate around you. You can’t feel worried and thankful at the same time. Even when facing small obstacles, try to see how each experience might serve you, teach you, or give you an opportunity to grow. Start by noticing small things: the warmth of sunlight, a friend’s laugh, or a comfortable chair. When you look for good things, you naturally pay more attention to what’s happening in the present moment.
Lastly, Murphy says you can also redirect your attention using a mantra—a simple word or phrase you repeat when your mind wanders. This gives your brain something to anchor onto and pulls your attention back to the present.
Create Routines to Keep You Grounded
Murphy writes that routines help you stay present by giving you a reliable process to focus on. For example, before an exam, you could eat the same breakfast and set up your space the same way. This gives your brain something to anchor onto. When you face pressure or uncertainty, you can focus on carrying out the routine rather than worrying about outcomes beyond your control.
For example, baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. credited his detailed pre-game routine with helping him focus on the process instead of the results during his Hall of Fame career. He took the same route to the park, played the same music, and showed up at the same time before each game.
Murphy adds that hurry creates stress, so he recommends you build rest into your routine. When you stop rushing, your mind clears up and you can enjoy what you’re doing.
