Iain Highfield

I am fascinated with human performance and have spent the entirety of my graduate years studying and working in this field. Perhaps what I have only recently realized is that this path began a long time before I finished my academic career. This fascination began on the day I failed.

At the very tender age of eight, I picked up a rugby ball for the first time competitively. My dad, an extremely well-versed rugby player and international level coach, and my mum, a super-fan of the Scottish national team and ex-international hockey player, combined with my disinterest in TV and math homework, led me to explore rugby, among other sports.

By the age of twelve, I had played rugby, football, cricket, and golf for my city and/or county. I was given the tag of being a “natural.” By twenty years of age, I played none of these sports.

I am, you may be surprised to learn, extraordinarily grateful for my personal failures. I have been shaped as a man and as a coach by my own experiences and it has sparked in me a true sense of motivation. It’s a compulsion that I never felt before. One that demands I embark on this journey to enable others to find fulfillment.

This journey has now taken me all over the globe as both student and teacher and I have concluded that a clear focus on enjoyment, on the development of mental fortitude, and on the pursuit of inner satisfaction, rather than external rewards, is by far the best way to ensure that you live a happy and productive life but also make the maximum contribution to society that your talents will allow.

That is why I write books: I suppose if I were to examine it closely, I would have to say, selfishly, that my coaching and my writing is where I’ve found my sense of inner satisfaction.

I gain fulfillment from using sports as a vehicle to create positive change in the world.