Embracing Your Potential

The drive to be #1 in a professional field or on a playing field is a powerful source of motivation for many people. Others place a higher priority on becoming a better person. Embracing Your Potential explains how to achieve excellence and balance in both the performance and personal domains of life.

Author Terry Orlick labels these two domains as the Gold and Green zones. The Gold Zone includes the visible, tangible achievement markers, such as career advancement, win-loss records, and financial status. The Green Zone involves relationships and intellectual, spiritual, and cultural pursuits. Orlick argues that going for the Gold need not-and should not-require sacrificing the growth and development of the Green, and that the two zones can be nurtured simultaneously.

Both inspirational and practical, Embracing Your Potential shares insights and quotes from elite athletes, performers, and people in highly demanding jobs. It also features 30 exercises that can help readers make meaningful, lasting changes to boost their performance and enrich their lives.

Embracing Your Potential applies to people from all walks of life that want to excel and yet enjoy every day in the process.

Terry Orlick, PhD, was a professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa for more than 40 years. He obtained his PhD in the psychology of sport and physical activity from the University of Alberta in 1972. He was one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychology of excellence and quality living and worked with some of the world’s top performers. His research focused on enhancing the quality of life and quality of performance with children and high-level performers in a variety of disciplines.

Orlick worked with thousands of Olympic and professional athletes and coaches; corporate leaders; astronauts; surgeons; top classical musicians; dancers, opera singers, and other performing artists; mission control professionals; and many others engaged in high-stress performance missions.

Former president of the International Society for Mental Training and Excellence, Orlick authored more than 30 highly acclaimed books, published hundreds of articles in a variety of professional journals, and was founder of the Journal of Excellence, Positive Living Skills, and the Zone of Excellence. He held distinguished service awards from numerous Olympic and education associations as well as certificates of merit from governments, universities, sport organizations, and schools for distinguished service to the community. He gave lectures on the pursuit of excellence in virtually every corner of the world.

Terry Orlick lived with his family at Meech Lake, Quebec, until his death in 2021.