1123: How to Move Past Setbacks through the Next Play Mindset with Alan Stein, Jr.

How to Be Awesome at Your Job

How to be Awesome at Your Job

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4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alan Stein, Jr. shares how elite performers bounce back and how you can do the same.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) How to take back control over your emotions and actions

2) How to practice self-compassion without lowering your standards

3) How to anticipate obstacles without becoming paranoid

Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1123 for clickable versions of the links below.

— ABOUT ALAN —

Alan Stein, Jr. is an experienced keynote speaker and author. At his core, he’s a performance coach with a passion for helping business leaders change behaviors. He spent 15+ years working with the highest performing basketball players on the planet (including NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Kobe Bryant). Through his customized programs, he transfers his unique expertise to maximize both individual and organizational performance.

Alan is a dynamic storyteller who delivers practical, actionable lessons that can be implemented immediately. He teaches proven principles on how to utilize the same approaches in business that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level.

• Book: Next Play: How to Focus on What Matters Most and Improve Performance, Productivity, and Fulfillment

• Instagram: @alansteinjr

• LinkedIn: Alan Stein, Jr.

• Website: AlanSteinJr.com

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Book: Exactly What to Say: Your Personal Guide to the Mastery of Magic Words by Phil Jones

• Book: Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Mike Krzyzewski, Donald Phillips, Grant Hill

• Video: “THIS IS WATER!” by David Foster Wallace

• Past episode: 1107: How to Confront Your Inner Saboteurs with Shirzad Chamine

— THANK YOU SPONSORS! —

• Monarch.com. Get 50% off your first year on with the code AWESOME.

• Vanguard. Give your clients consistent results year in and year out with vanguard.com/AUDIO

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The most important part about Next Play,
0:12.2	and the most important part about our ability to regulate our emotions
0:15.4	is separating how we feel and what we think from how we behave and how we respond.
0:27.1	That's Allen Stein Jr. He's an internationally renowned speaker and performance coach
0:31.2	who has worked with some of the highest performing athletes in the planet, including NBA
0:34.7	superstars Stefan Curry, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Durant.
0:38.4	He's a dynamic storyteller who reveals how the same strategies that elite athletes use to perform
0:43.6	at a world-class level can help organizations improve performance, productivity,
0:47.9	cohesion, accountability, and culture.
0:50.1	So you'll learn one, how to take back control over your emotions and actions.
0:53.7	Two, how to practice self-compassion without lowering your standards. And three, how to anticipate obstacles without becoming paranoid. And if you want a quick summary write-up of these actionable takeaways, I'd recommend you sign up for the free Gold Nugget email newsletter found at awesome at your job.com. I'm Pete McItis. This is How to Be Awesome at Your Job. And now here's Alan.
1:17.3	Alan, welcome back. So great to be with you, my friend. Well, I'm excited to be chatting.
1:22.3	You've got some goodies for us in your book, Next Play. And I understand that this idea came from a book to you
1:30.2	long, long ago. Tell us about that. Yeah, in the year 2000, I remember it vividly. I just graduated
1:35.6	from college, and I read Coach Kay's first book. Coach K, the Hall of Fame legendary, iconic
1:40.8	former men's basketball coach at Duke University. He was the one that actually
1:44.8	coined the term next play, although I think even with his admission, this concept of focusing
1:50.6	on the present moment is rooted in stoicism, which has been around for obviously thousands of years.
1:55.5	But Coach Kay is the first that I had ever heard coined the actual term next play. And he really
2:00.2	designed it as a way for his players to not worry about the missed shot or the
2:04.9	turnover or the referees missed call, but to dial into the exact next play of the game
2:10.3	and let go of the previous one.
	...

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