What are the key takeaways from this The Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast episode?

Key insights include: **Mental Health Continuum:** Mental health exists on three levels - struggling (emotional issues affecting work and home), surviving (functioning well in ordinary conditions), and thriving (excelling under extraordinarily difficult conditions). Top performers develop daily holistic habits around mind, body, and soul that allow them to thrive where most would fail, not just survive when conditions are comfortable.; **Physical Habits Drive Mental Performance:** Elite leaders intentionally schedule specific exercise times, get lab work drawn to customize diet based on physiological needs, and prioritize sleep consistency. Speed and accuracy of information processing directly correlate to these behavioral health habits. Leaders who optimize physical health see measurable improvements in emotional stamina, situational awareness, and decision-making ability under pressure.; **Wingmen System:** Surround yourself with trusted advisors who help overcome four gaps - blindness (unseen problems), complacency (recognized but deprioritized issues), distraction (too busy to address known problems), and despair (feeling hopeless about change). Train these wingmen to recognize your specific warning signs and communication patterns, empowering them to speak truth even when external performance looks strong.

What did Nba Psychologist discuss on The Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast?

Craig Groeschel interviews Dr. Wayne Chappelle, performance psychologist who works with NBA teams, military officials, and Olympic athletes. They discuss mental resilience under pressure, the difference between surviving and thriving, building emotional stamina, and how Chappelle helped Groeschel through burnout in 2019 using behavioral changes and wingmen support systems. Key topics include: **Mental Health Continuum:** Mental health exists on three levels - struggling (emotional issues affecting work and home), surviving (functioning well in ordinary conditions), and thriving (excelling under extraordinarily difficult conditions). Top performers develop daily holistic habits around mind, body, and soul that allow them to thrive where most would fail, not just survive when conditions are comfortable.; **Physical Habits Drive Mental Performance:** Elite leaders intentionally schedule specific exercise times, get lab work drawn to customize diet based on physiological needs, and prioritize sleep consistency. Speed and accuracy of information processing directly correlate to these behavioral health habits. Leaders who optimize physical health see measurable improvements in emotional stamina, situational awareness, and decision-making ability under pressure..

How long is this episode of The Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast?

This episode is 55 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

The Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast

NBA Psychologist: The Secret to Thriving Under Pressure | Dr. Wayne Chappelle

February 5, 2026

55 min episode · 2 min read

Nba Psychologist

Episode

55 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Productivity, Health & Wellness, Psychology & Behavior

AI-Generated Summary

Published Feb 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Mental Health Continuum: Mental health exists on three levels - struggling (emotional issues affecting work and home), surviving (functioning well in ordinary conditions), and thriving (excelling under extraordinarily difficult conditions). Top performers develop daily holistic habits around mind, body, and soul that allow them to thrive where most would fail, not just survive when conditions are comfortable.
✓Physical Habits Drive Mental Performance: Elite leaders intentionally schedule specific exercise times, get lab work drawn to customize diet based on physiological needs, and prioritize sleep consistency. Speed and accuracy of information processing directly correlate to these behavioral health habits. Leaders who optimize physical health see measurable improvements in emotional stamina, situational awareness, and decision-making ability under pressure.
✓Wingmen System: Surround yourself with trusted advisors who help overcome four gaps - blindness (unseen problems), complacency (recognized but deprioritized issues), distraction (too busy to address known problems), and despair (feeling hopeless about change). Train these wingmen to recognize your specific warning signs and communication patterns, empowering them to speak truth even when external performance looks strong.
✓Expect the Unexpected: Condition your brain to anticipate difficult conditions rather than becoming comfortable during calm periods. When leaders think everything is great, they become complacent and stop maintaining mental conditioning. Extraordinary performance means excelling under extraordinarily difficult conditions, not just ordinary ones. Visualize performing well in storms before they arrive, making excellence an expectation rather than aspiration.
✓Lean Into Anxiety: Moderate anxiety produces peak performance according to research. Rather than medicating or visualizing calm beach scenes, visualize executing your role excellently under specific difficult conditions you anticipate facing. Professional athletes practice performing well against challenging opponents while anxious, not eliminating anxiety. This mental rehearsal creates neural pathways for composed performance when actual pressure arrives.

What It Covers

Craig Groeschel interviews Dr. Wayne Chappelle, performance psychologist who works with NBA teams, military officials, and Olympic athletes. They discuss mental resilience under pressure, the difference between surviving and thriving, building emotional stamina, and how Chappelle helped Groeschel through burnout in 2019 using behavioral changes and wingmen support systems.

Key Questions Answered

•Mental Health Continuum: Mental health exists on three levels - struggling (emotional issues affecting work and home), surviving (functioning well in ordinary conditions), and thriving (excelling under extraordinarily difficult conditions). Top performers develop daily holistic habits around mind, body, and soul that allow them to thrive where most would fail, not just survive when conditions are comfortable.
•Physical Habits Drive Mental Performance: Elite leaders intentionally schedule specific exercise times, get lab work drawn to customize diet based on physiological needs, and prioritize sleep consistency. Speed and accuracy of information processing directly correlate to these behavioral health habits. Leaders who optimize physical health see measurable improvements in emotional stamina, situational awareness, and decision-making ability under pressure.
•Wingmen System: Surround yourself with trusted advisors who help overcome four gaps - blindness (unseen problems), complacency (recognized but deprioritized issues), distraction (too busy to address known problems), and despair (feeling hopeless about change). Train these wingmen to recognize your specific warning signs and communication patterns, empowering them to speak truth even when external performance looks strong.
•Expect the Unexpected: Condition your brain to anticipate difficult conditions rather than becoming comfortable during calm periods. When leaders think everything is great, they become complacent and stop maintaining mental conditioning. Extraordinary performance means excelling under extraordinarily difficult conditions, not just ordinary ones. Visualize performing well in storms before they arrive, making excellence an expectation rather than aspiration.
•Lean Into Anxiety: Moderate anxiety produces peak performance according to research. Rather than medicating or visualizing calm beach scenes, visualize executing your role excellently under specific difficult conditions you anticipate facing. Professional athletes practice performing well against challenging opponents while anxious, not eliminating anxiety. This mental rehearsal creates neural pathways for composed performance when actual pressure arrives.

Notable Moment

Chappelle reveals that top performers can compartmentalize emotions so effectively they appear fine externally while suffering internally. He trained Groeschel's team to recognize that when Groeschel said he was not doing great while still performing well, it represented a level nine warning requiring immediate intervention, not reassurance about visible performance.

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Episode Transcript

In order to become extraordinary, it's not just being extraordinary in ordinary conditions. Mhmm. You have to be extraordinary in extraordinarily difficult conditions. Good. So what gets you there? And it's these traits that define people that allow them to, in my opinion, thrive under these very difficult conditions. Hey. Great to have you back for another episode of the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast, where our whole team, you can't see them, they're behind the scenes, but our mission is to help you become a leader that people love to follow. Today, I'm gonna get ridiculously open. I have with me both the co author of my new book, Heal Your Hurting Mind, doctor Wayne Chappell. But not only is he the co author of the book, but he's also the person who counseled me through a difficult time in my life. He's worked with top government military officials, he works with Olympic athletes, he is one of the brains behind the Oklahoma City Thunder, He works with top pastors and he works with top business leaders around. He has a brilliant mind and you're gonna see why, today I'm welcoming Doctor. Wayne Chapelle. Doctor. Chapelle, welcome to the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. Thank you. So just so our community will know and they can get to know you, I want them to get to know you. I affectionately nicknamed you Doctor. C. Is it sticking? Yes. It is sticking. Good. So this is Doctor. C. Glad to have you on. And, you are not only, the person I called to help me kind of as a, someone would say, an executive coach, a counselor, a psychologist, and, but you are a fascinating person, hard to introduce. I wanna tell our community a little bit about you and you can fill in the blanks. Correct me when I'm wrong. Okay, will do. So you have helped top government military officials, both personally, professionally, and have been the strategic mind behind a lot of important stuff nationally. That's exactly right. Yes. You work with top Olympic athletes. Yes. You are one of the geniuses, and I say one of them because it's because the Oklahoma City Thunder has a a team full of brilliant minds, But you have helped put together what may be one of the greatest basketball teams in history. It's been an honor and a privilege to be a part of that, for sure. Yeah. So you you actually help select players based on mental resilience, work with the team and such. Yes. Work with elite athletes, and you work with top performers, both in ministry and professionally in business as well. Yep. Amongst many other things. So we got to know each other, I think 2019. Our mutual friend with the Thunder, Doctor. Strack, recommended you to help me when I hit a point where I needed outside help. And since then, we've been doing a lot together. We actually wrote a book together, I'll hold it …

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