Performance Articles
“Write Like it Matters, and it Will.” –Libba Bray
The Championship Mindsets around Adversity & Failure
Definitionally, a “mindset” is an established set of attitudes held by an individual. Two of the strongest mindsets we see in athletes and leaders today that hinder their optimization include (a) the purpose of adversity, and (b) what it means to “fail.” Any...
Win Anyway.
“Well, the weather was miserable so my timing was off.” “I was really sore from our workouts and my hips just felt tight.” “The refs were terrible. Fairly certain the other team paid them off." “I just wasn’t feeling it today.” Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter how...
Slow Dance in the Fast Lane
29 days already into the New Year. 29 days!! 696 hours have already transpired since 2016 ushered itself in during the midst of College Football Bowl season, and it forces us to consider, “How productively have I used the last 29 days of this month?” The beauty of...
Vision of a Champion
With one week of fall camp down and pre-season rankings released, fans across the country are already anticipating what teams will hold the Championship trophy at the end of the season. Although not one official game has yet been played, murmur about upcoming stars,...
Don’t Just Look…See.
In today’s world of technology where information and access are nearly instantaneous, the human attention span has decreased to a mere 8 seconds: one second less than a shimmery goldfish who registers in at 9 seconds. Speed, efficiency, and fast-processing are not...
Mindset: Set Your Mind.
Mindset. That is, set your mind. It’s funny how simply switching around the sequence of words can trigger a new understanding to a common word. “Mindset” is a word thrown around frequently in all performance domains – heck, it’s even in our tagline. But have you ever...
How B.A.D. Do You Want ‘It’?
How bad do you want it!? With basketball playoff season upon us, this question is thrown around by coaches, players, fans, and commentators alike. Everyone wants to know how badly a team wants it. But what does that even mean? Relying on clichéd phrases like “How bad...
Be a Victor, Not a Victim
Adversity happens to everyone. But it is not adversity that defines an individual. Rather, definition occurs in how one chooses to respond to adversity in light of his or her greater purpose. Unfortunately, too many of us – coaches, athletes, leaders – experience...
It Feels Like Preparation
After the Seattle Seahawk’s divisional playoff win over the Carolina Panthers, which secured the Seahawk’s place in the NFC Championship, Seattle safety Kam Chancellor was asked how his fourth quarter interception and 90-yard touchdown return felt. His response was...
Winning Matters
Make no mistake: winning matters. If anyone claims that winning doesn’t matter, then chances are they have never won, are not in a position to win currently, and will never win. It’s about winning. It’s all about winning. And I’m not necessarily talking about taking...
From Grit to Greatness
Grit, or the conscious decision to push forward in light of adversity, failure, and physical or emotional pain without a clear understanding of when the trial may end, has been found to be a distinguishing trait of the best of the best in all fields. As coaches and...
Immediacy and Its Effects on Commitment
I recently read an article by a former philosophy professor at Notre Dame, Tom Morris, speaking about the “Magic of Commitment.” He intricately and creatively articulated the connection between Purpose, Danger, and Relational Bonds in driving magical levels of...
Leadership Development in College Athletics
College athletics are a breeding ground for developing leaders of American society. Unfortunately, however, because leadership is rarely being intentionally taught and developed within student-athletes through systematic, process-driven, and research grounded...
Canyons of Excellence
“We are what we repeatedly: Excellence, then, is not an act: it is a Habit.” This is one of my all-time favorite quotes, said thousands of years ago by Aristotle. Excellence is a habit. So what is a habit? While coaching Mental Conditioning at IMG Academy, I asked...
Identity: It’s Not What You Do, It’s Who You Are
Understanding your own personal identity is a broad concept that seems abstract at best and daunting at worst. But when intentionally explored, finding one’s true identity - who they are at the core as an individual – is not only a tangible reality but also a...
Essential Matters
There’s an essence of life that I think is completely underrated. It’s not the overtly known facts nor the general statistics, but rather the essential matters. It’s sort of like the difference between quantitative and qualitative research; the quant can give you...
Find Yourself. Find Your Passion.
I was recently asked how one might come to know his passion. Passion is inextricably linked to understanding one's self. Knowing ourselves in an intimate way leads to confident decision-making that aligns not only with our values but also with whom we believe we’ve...
Why Leadership?
At the core of personal identity work is this concept of leadership; personal leadership that ultimate leads to the capabilities to lead others. My heart beats for our athletic community because I see this as a massive breeding ground for revolutionary leaders in our...
