George Mumford’s deeply moving personal story is unforgettable. An aspiring 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 medications 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 of making meditation on and off the cushion the center of his life and getting clean, Mumford enrolled in Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program and collaborated with him to create the Inner-city Stress Reduction Clinic in the early nineties.
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 many of the 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 in many different sports.
You know there’s something amazing inside you.
You’ve been chipping away at it for years, uncovering new layers, but never quite reaching the core.
You’ve devoted hours to practice, you’ve read a ton of books on self-motivation, you’ve worked your ass off to get there. You’re dedicated to performing your best, and even more than that, being the very best version of yourself you can be.
But stuff gets in the way.
You get caught up in your own head, you self-sabotage, life throws you a curve ball … there’s always something that stops you going all the way.
Your inner masterpiece is ready to be let loose — what you don’t know is that you’re the only person who can make that happen.
But that doesn’t mean you’re on your own.
