Inside the 100-Mile Mind: Matt Young on failure, endurance and mental resilience

Matt Young is a mental resilience speaker, former professional footballer and ultra-marathon runner whose work begins where comfort ends.

From professional sport to 100-mile endurance races, his story is shaped by distance, pressure and the private battles that unfold long before the finish line appears.

A former footballer with more than 100 professional appearances, Matt later built Made in the Mind, a performance coaching business focused on mindset, human behaviour and personal development.

His experience spans elite sport, endurance running and corporate coaching, with work for organisations including Google, Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Shell and The London Marathon. 

In this exclusive interview with the London Keynote Speakers Agency, Matt Young explores the mental side of ultra-marathon running, how failure can become a learning process, and why true potential often sits behind the blocks people place in their own minds.

Q1. Which qualities are important as an ultra-marathon runner?

Matt Young: “For me personally, ultra-marathon running is a mental game. That's why I've been invested in it, why I continuously do it, and why I still do it, because I enjoy the mental growth, the mental challenges and the learning that goes in with it.

“For me, it's a lot of mental resilience and strength. It's being able to have an adaptable mindset, and then probably third underneath that is about conditioning your body to be able to do that.

“You're not going to get through it solely mentally, but for me, that's what it is all about. It's the unlocking of doors in your mind. It's the strategies you have to play in your mind. It's the way your mind tries to play tricks on you that I love. I then have to adapt to and overcome, and thankfully, I have done so far.

“So that's what ultra-marathons are to me. That's why I'm so invested in them and why I love them so much.”

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Q2. Can you describe a time in your sporting or running career where you faced failure, and how did you overcome the challenge?

Matt Young: “How long have we got? No, I faced failure.

“I can talk about running. Being at the 70-mile mark when you've got 110 miles to complete, for example. You've been running for the best part of 25 hours non-stop. There are challenges there and failures at your doorstep.

“But one that I can touch on in a sporting context would be, obviously, I had a professional football career for eight years, and there was a time where I went on 19 different trials, which I suppose are like job interviews in the everyday world, where every single time I was knocked back.

“I went on 19 different trials, getting those knockbacks, before the 20th one opened the door for me.

“I think, for me, in that period of my life, with different things that were going on, what people would call failure was a constant learning process.

“What can I take from what's gone on to then serve me in my next trial, and then the next one?

“Don't get me wrong, there's a couple in there where I think it was Einstein that said, you keep doing what you're doing, sort of, that's the definition of insanity. There was a little bit of that going on.

“I was doing the same thing. Why am I getting knockbacks?

“But when you adapt, I think they're the bits that I took from that period of my life that people would call a failure.

“I was able to adapt mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, however you want to look at it, to then eventually find the key to unlock the door.

“I think that is how you overcome a failure, whether that's in a sporting context, a relationship context, a mindset context, whatever it may be.

“That constant ability to adapt your mindset and be able to choose different ways to approach a situation is ultimately what's going to give you the golden key in the end.”

Q3. What inspired you to launch Made in the Mind, your performance coaching service?

Matt Young: “Funny enough, it was always something I knew I was going to get into after football. I never knew the actual timestamp of when that would be, but I always knew that after football, I've always been fascinated with psychology and what makes people tick, what makes that person so successful, and all these different things.

“Secondly, I love people. I absolutely love people. I love giving to people and things like that.

“I think, for me, I'm passionate. Passion is an understatement. It's a mission of mine to impact people's lives. It is such a drive of mine to be able to take someone from whatever situation they are and improve that exponentially.

“When it comes to setting up Made in the Mind and what inspired me to do that, one, for me, everything is made in the mind.

“Secondly, it is that ability to combine what I love, i.e. the mind, psychology and behavioural traits, and then give that to people. That is, for me, the ultimate goal in life.”

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Q4. You empower people to “unleash their true potential.” How would you define someone’s potential?

Matt Young: “It's a really good question, and I've thought about this a lot.

“For me, someone's potential is simply a limitless pool of resources that you can tap into.

“What I mean by that is that we all have this limitless pool of resources within us. We all have the resources to have the courage, confidence, belief, determination, commitment and motivation. It's all in there.

“Whether we put blocks in the way or barriers in the way, or try to make reasons why we can't, is up to our own belief systems and behavioural traits.

“Ultimately, that is what's underneath. It's a limitless pool of courage, conviction, determination and confidence that you can tap into.

“That's what I do, and when my whole thing is ‘unleash your true potential,’ it is exactly that. Unleash that limitless pool of resources that you have, tap into that, and then that all comes out. So that's what it means to me.”

This exclusive interview with Matt Young was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.

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