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The Texas Way® is a collaborative campaign between THSCA, THSADA, and 2Words Character Development to:

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There are two types of mindsets people operate from: a fixed-mindset and a growth-mindset. But there is only one mindset that leads to success: the growth mindset. That’s because the growth mindset isn’t focused on where you’ve been or what you have, it’s focused on where you’re going. It’s focused not on what you have in this moment, but instead on what you’re going to gain in every moment between now and then. “Become perfect” is a growth mindset. “Become perfect” says “I may not be there today, but I’m going to get there soon.”

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Have you ever wondered the difference between those people who are rushed by adversity and those who are catapulted by it? What makes some people fall apart when pain and adversity comes their way, while other people seem to be made stronger by it? Zig Ziglar said, “Tough times don’t last; tough people do.” Perhaps the single greatest characteristic of a “tough person” is their ability to transform their pain into “purposed pain.” When a person, 18 or 80, can point their pain in a positive direction they forge a strength that will allow them to overcome any obstacle, achieve any goal, and become more than they ever imagined.

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Forward is not just a direction. It’s a mindset. Having the focus and tenacity to keep moving forward no matter what distractions come your way is a powerful tool. The greatest predictor of success is not intelligence, physical strength, natural aptitude, or even a combination of these things. Instead, the greatest factor in whether or not a person can accomplish their goals is one thing: Grit. Grit is the willpower and determination to pick a goal and get to it, no matter what tries to get in your way. It’s the focus and tenacity that keeps you moving forward even if the whole world is trying to push you backward.

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“No one can choose your character but you.” Coach MackeyYour character is not dictated by your circumstances. You choose the type of character you will develop. Just as you choose your level of commitment and effort or your attitude.All year these lessons have been giving you the building blocks to construct a firm foundation for your character to grow on. The lessons apply to sports and being a good athlete, but they also apply to your life outside of the game.We’ve talked about taking responsibility, pushing through struggle, never giving up, owning your mistakes, and many other topics that will help you on and off the field to be the best possible version of yourself. The lessons only work if you let them, though. Ultimately, you choose whether or not to accept those lessons and integrate them into your life.No one can make you stand firm in the face of struggle or embrace discipline. No one can convince you to let go of things that are out of your control or to believe that overnight success is a myth. You have to come to terms with those things on your own, and that is a choice.You can be told these things all day, everyday, and still not have them affect your life unless you make the choice to take them seriously and let your actions reflect that choice. The future version of you is dependent on what the present version of you chooses to believe and to do. The belief and the action are both important. Without the belief, you’ll never have a reason to act, but without the action, the belief won’t have an impact on your life.Sports are a fantastic arena for learning these life lessons. In the end, they’re exactly that: Life Lessons. After you step off of the field, these lessons are still with you, helping you to live a better, more successful, life.That is, if you choose to let them.

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No one just stumbles into success. We have to succeed on purpose.A lot of time is spent focusing on why we are doing things. What is our reason and purpose for wanting to achieve this specific end result? Why is this goal special? But that’s not really what we’re talking about right now. There’sa difference between having a purpose and acting with purpose. Havinga purpose means having a goal that we are working towards for a reason. Acting with purpose means intentionally performing the actions required to reach that goal.

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It’s easy to say “I’m all in.” But how many of us actually put in 100% if we’re really being honest?It’s hard to actually go all in. What if we put all we have into this moment right here and it doesn’t work out? What if we give it our all throughout the game, and then we’re stuck in overtime with no energy left? “What if” is a mindset that will strangle our ability to give our all to anything. When we focus too much on what could potentially happen, the fear of not being prepared for it can cripple us.We need to let go of the “What if” mindset. We need to let go of the fear to trust. Because it’s only when we let go of the “What if” mindset that we can go all in on our goals and dreams. It’s only when we let go of the fear of trust that we can go all in on ourselves, our teammates, and our coaches

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The lessons you learn in the locker room can shape and change you for the rest of your life. Success in sports has a short shelf life; you can only play sports for so long before your body says it has had enough. Even if you’re the best athlete ever, the day will come when your ambition takes you to a place that terminates on a dead end road.Our character aligns us with something more than ourselves. When we love our family, we’ll do whatever it takes to succeed for their sakes. That deeper alignment between our goals, our family, and our character, moves us farther toward success than mere ambition ever could.

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We live in a world that is obsessed with proclaiming all that they’re going to do. What they want to do. Our world loves the “gonna” and the “wanna.” They talk non stop about their goals, so much so that they begin to be praised for it because they talk about it so much that people believe they’re getting something done.

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Too often people believe that opportunity is random, and received by being in the right place at the right time. The reality, however, is that opportunity is everywhere. Opportunity isn’t a “luck thing”, it is a “sacrifice thing”. The opportunities that lead to success come at a cost, and that cost is preparation, priorities, and practice.

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Everyone has a responsibility. Only you can take care of your responsibilities as a student, as an athlete, or as a son or daughter. Responsibility means doing what you have been trusted to do. The moment you fail to do your job and someone else tries to do your job for you, there’s two jobs that aren’t being done. Your team counts on you to do what only you can do.

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When it comes to competition, the main thing is to win the game. It’s why you fight hard and sacrifice more. It’s why you keep score. At the end of the day, the main thing is to win the game. That doesn’t mean each play doesn’t matter, but it does mean that you can’t let the terrible plays, or the great plays distract you from the main thing. As long as you major in minor things, it’s going to keep you from achieving the main thing. Minor things only matter so long as they contribute to achieving the main thing. Once they stop moving you forward, they no longer matter.

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When we lose or fail, it’s never caused by just one thing. Instead, it’s caused by a series of repeated errors. Often, you’ll see those errors, but you don’t do anything about them because you think they don’t matter. But think about an airplane. If the plane is just one click (one degree) off from the projected path and doesn’t course correct, it won’t reach its destination. The little errors left uncorrected cause the big failures. Success or failure is never caused by just one thing. It's caused by a lot of little things added together. To stay on course to reach the big picture goal, you need to be proficient in setting (and sticking to) smaller, SMART goals.

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The thing that you do most consistently is the thing you'll be most successful at. You get great at what you get reps at, and whatever you get the most reps at, whatever you are most consistent at, is what your normal will be. When you create a new normal to be consistently better today than yesterday, there's no limit to how successful you can be. Sometimes it's easier to accept a lie or half-truth than to look for the whole truth, but only by making total truth the new normal can you truly h on and off the field.succeed. The more consistently you get reps at creating a new normal, the more success you will find bot

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"Success is never owned, always leased, and rent is due every single day." -J.J. Watt Success is not final. There's no single finish line that once you reach it, you never have to work hard again. There's no one goal that once it's done, there's nothing left in life to go after. There's always another end zone, always another goal post. This is what it means to say that success is never owned, always leased. Success requires self-control. It requires the daily paying of rent in the form of hard work to make your dreams a reality.

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When you go after something big, there's no way you can achieve it in a day or even a week. Big goals and dreams take a long time to reach, so you need a plan for how to get there. That plan is where you aim small. There's a big goal that you're working towards, but before you can get there, you have to do all the little, daily things that will build on each other over time. Remember: To reach big dreams, you've got to aim small.

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Do you focus on what you have done right or what you have done wrong? Too often, we focus on the one thing we did wrong instead of the 99 things we did right. When you focus on what you do right, it makes you a better teammate, makes you tougher, and enhances your talent. When you focus on what you do wrong, the opposite happens. 

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We talk a lot about love and sacrifice and commitment. But so often we live out like. Like is conditional, while love is unconditional. The best teams are the ones that live out love for each other. The best teams don’t care much about what they like, but they care a lot about what they love. That’s because love is tough, love forgives, and love is transformational.

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Every morning you have to make the choice to either rise and whine or rise and grind. The morning is going to come whether you like it or not, but how you choose to greet the morning will determine how the rest of your day goes. Rise and whine is all about excuses and complaining–neither of which will get you anywhere. But rise and grind is all about getting up and doing the work anyway, which is the only way to succeed.

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We all have different lenses through which we see the world. Some of these lenses relate to our family heritage or regional culture. But perhaps the most important lens that we use is either faith or fear. A lens of faith sees a future of possibility while a lens of fear sees a future of difficulty. The way that we see the future determines how we act (or fail to act) in the present.

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Anger is an emotion that we all experience. There’s nothing inherently wrong with anger (or any other emotion). The thing we too often get wrong about anger is how we react to it. Anger is fleeting. We can’t let this short-term emotion stick us with long-term consequences. Instead, we want to respond to our anger in constructive or helpful ways. When we get angry, we need to take five.

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The best athletes are the smartest athletes. That’s not because they have a higher IQ or more common sense. It’s because they’re willing to ask for help.

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If you settle for the work that is required or mandatory, you will fall short of your potential. It is the unrequired work that challenges your talent and helps you to become the best you can be. Required work is what everybody has to do. Unrequired work is not laid out for you. No one is going to check that you’ve done the unrequired work. No one will even know if you do it. It is the unseen and unpraised work. Required work qualifies you to be in the game, but unrequired work permits you to become a champion.

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We all feel like life is chaotic sometimes. If you want to feel in control of your life, you've got to control the controllables. Instead of being a control freak about things that you can't control, be a control freak about the things you CAN control. That's things like preparation, effort, and focus. When you feel like life is chaos, let go of what you can't control, and become a control freak about what you can control.

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Hoping, wishing, and wanting will not help you achieve your goals. You've got to actually do the work to make your dreams come true. The One Day goal matters, but it is the next one thing that is going to get you there. Success is built over time by doing the next one thing that will help you reach your goal. What that one thing is will change, but the mindset that it matters never does.

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Everyone loves celebrating the big things. The trophies, the big wins, the acceptance letters. They’re all big achievements, and they are certainly worthy of celebration, but people tend to forget all of the little things that had to happen to make those big things a reality. If we want to find success on the field or court for the big wins, we need to commit to giving our best at the little things first. Over time, the little things will add up to become the big things.

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To be a champion, you need both internal and external accountability. Internal accountability is the standard you set for yourself based on your own integrity. It’s what makes you take ownership for your actions. External accountability is the standard you set for your teammates, your friends, and your family, and that they set for you. Accountability, both internal and external, calls us to do the things we know we should be doing. It holds us to a higher standard than we might otherwise reach.

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It's easy to get overwhelmed and worried when we try to change the past or control the future because neither of those things is possible. The past is already written, and the future is not here yet; your energy can only affect things in the present. That's why you have to be here. To be here is to give your best to the moment you're in. To be here is to learn the most that you can from this moment. When you learn to be here, in the moment you're in, it's harder for life to overwhelm you.

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A lot of people don't reach their long-term goals because they're sitting in a rocking chair. A rocking chair is comfortable and gives you something to do, but it doesn't help you move anywhere. If you want to get out of the rocking chair, you've got to be willing to be uncomfortable doing hard work. You are worth more than the time wasted sitting in a rocking chair. Your goals are worth more.

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Our society is obsessed with the idea of Look Right–editing social media posts, retouching photos, padding resumes. But life and sports are not an app on your smartphone. They are real. Sports and real life demand integrity, commitment, and hard work. They require not only that you Look Right, but that you Be Right. And the secret is, when you ARE right, then you will LOOK right, but the opposite is not necessarily true. So start with Be Right. Start with who you are.

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There is no secret or shortcut to success. Everything you need to reach your goals is hiding in plain sight. In other words, what you need to do to be successful is already right in front of your eyes. You just have to see it and then do the hard work to get there. The three things in plain sight are: the people around you, your process, and your perspective.

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To have a great team, you have to be willing to say No when it matters most. The five most important things you can say No to are: excuses, complaining, entitlement, lies, and the hokey pokey. When your team commits to the Five No's, you are also committing to saying Yes to: responsibility, positivity, hard work, the truth, and being all-in for your team. Through these commitments to avoiding what is not helpful and pursuing what is helpful, your team can become great.

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You know that your goals require commitment. But do you know why commitment matters so much? It's because commitment is the catalyst for the actions that lead to success. Specifically, commitment wins because it creates a cycle of perseverance, growth, and execution.

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It's good to have big goals. The problems arise when you try to take big steps towards those goals. No matter how big the goal, you always have to start small to reach it. Dream about that big goal, but work backwards from it to find a step small enough to achieve now. The more you succeed at the small steps, the closer you'll get to the big goal. But as you progress, you've got to remember to start small.

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The messy middle is when you feel stuck between where you used to be and where you want to be. It’s not something you graduate from; it's something you move through. If you don't realize this, you will spend a lot of time waiting for things to get better tomorrow without doing the work to make it so. But, if you learn the lessons that the messy middle is trying to teach, then when tomorrow comes, you will be ready to make the most of it.

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It takes few skills and little experience to get hired for the freshman team, but it takes a lot more to get hired as a team captain. The same is true for paid jobs–getting hired as a convenience store clerk requires less experience and fewer specialized skills than getting hired as a head coach. No matter the position you're trying to get hired for, there are certain skills that will always help you succeed, including: work ethic, consistency, discipline, and humility.

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While helping the baseball team at Cal State Fullerton learn to move on from mistakes, Dr. Ken Ravissa placed a toilet in the dugout. The idea was that after players made a mistake on the pitch, they would come back to the dugout and flush it away. It might sound silly, but this worked! The team performed significantly better after having the physical reminder to let go of their mistakes. Even if you don't have a toilet in the dugout, there are other ways to flush it after you make a mistake.

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You might know how to play, but that doesn't mean you know how to win. And knowing how to win doesn't necessarily mean you know how to compete. The best competitors and the winners are those who develop a competitive character. Lots of people have potential or talent, and everyone can practice. But only those who add tenacity, toughness, and purpose will develop the competitive character required to turn potential into achievement.

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Do you want to LOOK like you're going to reach your goals, or do you want to actually REACH them? To reach your goals and dreams, you must be willing to hear and speak the whole truth. It's easy to tell half-truths or versions of the truth that leave out the bits you don't like. But if you can't look at the whole truth, even when it's hard, then it’s always going to look like success is on the way without ever being in reach.

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Where you direct your attention has a huge impact on the daily choices you make and the goals that you do (or don't) reach. In other words, where you focus, you finish. If you don't care where your focus and attention goes, then your choices will lead you away from your goals, instead of leading you towards them. If you want better results for your life, then you have to start making better choices.

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Last Set, Best Set is a mentality that says "I will give everything I have to what is right in front of me." It's not about saving energy for the last rep or the last drill during training, and it's not about saving effort for the last quarter or the game-deciding shot. It's about how you do everything that you do. When you think "Last Set, Best Set," you set yourself up for more confidence, greater coachability, and better preparation.

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If we’re gripping onto something too tightly, whether that thing is good or bad, we’re not paying attention to other things around us that could be even better. When our hand is closed into a tight fist, we can’t accept any gifts. When our mind is latched onto a particular moment, we can’t focus on any other moments.So, the question probably isn’t: Am I holding on to something I should let go of?Instead, the question is: How do I let go of this thing?

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What kind of teammate are you? This question impacts you as an individual, but it also impacts your team. How you answer this question makes all the difference both on and off the field.You have a lot of teams, though you may not think of them that way. Aside from the obvious sports teams, your family, friends, and classmates are also your teams. The type of teammate you are impacts the people around you. So the big question to ask is: What kind of teammate are you? Regardless of what team you are on, there are four answers to this question: content, complicit, committed, compelled.

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“Step up” isn’t a negative challenge we should be hearing from other people; it’s a positive challenge we should be giving ourselves everyday. We step up because we can push our own boundaries. We can go further. We can be faster. We can get better. And we don’t need anyone else to push us to do those things. We have the motivation and discipline inside us to get there.Reminding ourselves to step up is less about having to get better than about knowing we can get better and proving it to ourselves every time we step on the court, field, or track. We can do whatever we can imagine, and the idea of stepping up is just accepting that fact and proving it to ourselves.

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It’s easy to say “I’m all in.” But how many of us actually put in 100% if we’re really being honest? It’s hard to actually go all in. What if we put all we have into this moment right here and it doesn’t work out? What if we give it our all throughout the game, and then we’re stuck in overtime with no energy left?“What if” is a mindset that will strangle our ability to give our all to anything. It’s only when we let go of the “What if” mindset that we can go all in on our goals and dreams.

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Attack mode is an attitude that defines how you do what you do. At its most basic, attack mode is giving your all to whatever you're doing. No half measure will do. You've got to go all in. In the weight room, in the classroom, at home—wherever you are, whatever you're doing, go all in and do it in attack mode.Anything worth doing is worth doing in attack mode.

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When you’re the lightning in your locker room or community, you’re more concerned with the action and the work, and you let the noise follow. You are willing to do the work before you ever get the praise. For you, praise is not a prerequisite for you to do the work, it’s a byproduct.Thunder is loud and captivating, while lightning is blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but the lightning clearly wins for which one makes the biggest impact. So which do you want to be: thunder or lightning?

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You've got to go pro in your mentality long before you go pro in reality. Otherwise, you might not get to the professional stage at all. Pros have three key things in common. They look for the next great challenge to overcome. They understand the concept of "garbage in, garbage out." And, they work when it is required, not when they feel like it.When you go pro in your mind, it allows you to go pro in your body. Go pro is a mentality. It's a mindset. It's a mantra. Stop thinking like an amateur and go pro today.

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Confidence is built, not born. It's like any skill on the field. Confidence comes from letting go of the outcome because you know that all you can control is your response. Confidence comes from getting reps at things that you aren't good at and seeing how much you improve over time. And, confidence comes from knowing who you are and living out that identity.If you want to be more confident, these are three things that can help you to build confidence.

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You are part of multiple families: your parents and siblings, your team, your friend groups. However you define your family, they should be first in your mind at all times. FAMILY means Forget About Me I Love You. You put your family first because you love them. Their well-being is important to you. Family should always be first and foremost in your mind because together you are stronger than you are alone.

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You've probably said "I don't have time" for something when what you really meant is "I don't want to." Not enough time is rarely a limiting factor; your will is the most common limit. It only takes one minute to make a change. If you decide that in this one minute you're going to work towards your goal, then the one minute becomes two and before long you've changed the way you use sixty minutes, so that you've worked towards your goal for an hour.Whether you reach your goals and dreams isn't about having enough time; it's about managing the time that you have. With the ABCs of time management, change the way you use one minute so you can change the way you use your whole day.

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Student-athletes everywhere share a fear: the fear of failure. It's not just athletes, though. People of all ages fear failure. But that fear comes from an unhelpful definition of failure and success. If you think that failure is when you get something wrong or make a mistake or lose a game, then of course you're going to be afraid of it. If you think that success is only when you win, of course you'll fear not winning.Failure is not lack of success; it's lack of learning. Success is not winning; it's getting the next smallest thing right. Fear of failure will try to hold you back, so you've got to redefine success and failure, so that you can fire failure.

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If you want to reach your goals, you must take action. Nothing will work unless you do. When you take action, you move towards your goal. And at the same time, you move away from things that will derail you from your goals, such as entitlement, unearned praise, and unsuccessful attempts.Your goals will never become reality if you do not take action.

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We’ve all had competitive moments where we go from only giving half effort to being GAME ON. For Coach Mackey, one such moment was with his oldest son Harrison, when they were playing a video game against each other. The way that they competed with each other while playing the game showed how much they value each other.

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The best athletes are the smartest athletes. That’s not because they have a higher IQ or more common sense. It’s because they’re willing to ask for help.

Description:
If you settle for the work that is required or mandatory, you will fall short of your potential. It is the unrequired work that challenges your talent and helps you to become the best you can be. Required work is what everybody has to do. Unrequired work is not laid out for you. No one is going to check that you’ve done the unrequired work. No one will even know if you do it. It is the unseen and unpraised work. Required work qualifies you to be in the game, but unrequired work permits you to become a champion.

Description:
We all feel like life is chaotic sometimes. If you want to feel in control of your life, you've got to control the controllables. Instead of being a control freak about things that you can't control, be a control freak about the things you CAN control. That's things like preparation, effort, and focus. When you feel like life is chaos, let go of what you can't control, and become a control freak about what you can control.

Description:
Hoping, wishing, and wanting will not help you achieve your goals. You've got to actually do the work to make your dreams come true. The One Day goal matters, but it is the next one thing that is going to get you there. Success is built over time by doing the next one thing that will help you reach your goal. What that one thing is will change, but the mindset that it matters never does.

Description:
Everyone loves celebrating the big things. The trophies, the big wins, the acceptance letters. They’re all big achievements, and they are certainly worthy of celebration, but people tend to forget all of the little things that had to happen to make those big things a reality. If we want to find success on the field or court for the big wins, we need to commit to giving our best at the little things first. Over time, the little things will add up to become the big things.

Description:
To be a champion, you need both internal and external accountability. Internal accountability is the standard you set for yourself based on your own integrity. It’s what makes you take ownership for your actions. External accountability is the standard you set for your teammates, your friends, and your family, and that they set for you. Accountability, both internal and external, calls us to do the things we know we should be doing. It holds us to a higher standard than we might otherwise reach.

Description:
It's easy to get overwhelmed and worried when we try to change the past or control the future because neither of those things is possible. The past is already written, and the future is not here yet; your energy can only affect things in the present. That's why you have to be here. To be here is to give your best to the moment you're in. To be here is to learn the most that you can from this moment. When you learn to be here, in the moment you're in, it's harder for life to overwhelm you.

Description:
A lot of people don't reach their long-term goals because they're sitting in a rocking chair. A rocking chair is comfortable and gives you something to do, but it doesn't help you move anywhere. If you want to get out of the rocking chair, you've got to be willing to be uncomfortable doing hard work. You are worth more than the time wasted sitting in a rocking chair. Your goals are worth more.

Description:
There is no secret or shortcut to success. Everything you need to reach your goals is hiding in plain sight. In other words, what you need to do to be successful is already right in front of your eyes. You just have to see it and then do the hard work to get there. The three things in plain sight are: the people around you, your process, and your perspective.

Description:
You know that your goals require commitment. But do you know why commitment matters so much? It's because commitment is the catalyst for the actions that lead to success. Specifically, commitment wins because it creates a cycle of perseverance, growth, and execution.

Description:
It's good to have big goals. The problems arise when you try to take big steps towards those goals. No matter how big the goal, you always have to start small to reach it. Dream about that big goal, but work backwards from it to find a step small enough to achieve now. The more you succeed at the small steps, the closer you'll get to the big goal. But as you progress, you've got to remember to start small.

Description:
The messy middle is when you feel stuck between where you used to be and where you want to be. It’s not something you graduate from; it's something you move through. If you don't realize this, you will spend a lot of time waiting for things to get better tomorrow without doing the work to make it so. But, if you learn the lessons that the messy middle is trying to teach, then when tomorrow comes, you will be ready to make the most of it.

Description:
It takes few skills and little experience to get hired for the freshman team, but it takes a lot more to get hired as a team captain. The same is true for paid jobs–getting hired as a convenience store clerk requires less experience and fewer specialized skills than getting hired as a head coach. No matter the position you're trying to get hired for, there are certain skills that will always help you succeed, including: work ethic, consistency, discipline, and humility.

Description:
While helping the baseball team at Cal State Fullerton learn to move on from mistakes, Dr. Ken Ravissa placed a toilet in the dugout. The idea was that after players made a mistake on the pitch, they would come back to the dugout and flush it away. It might sound silly, but this worked! The team performed significantly better after having the physical reminder to let go of their mistakes. Even if you don't have a toilet in the dugout, there are other ways to flush it after you make a mistake.

Description:
You might know how to play, but that doesn't mean you know how to win. And knowing how to win doesn't necessarily mean you know how to compete. The best competitors and the winners are those who develop a competitive character. Lots of people have potential or talent, and everyone can practice. But only those who add tenacity, toughness, and purpose will develop the competitive character required to turn potential into achievement.

Description:
Anger is an emotion that we all experience. There’s nothing inherently wrong with anger (or any other emotion). The thing we too often get wrong about anger is how we react to it. Anger is fleeting. We can’t let this short-term emotion stick us with long-term consequences. Instead, we want to respond to our anger in constructive or helpful ways. When we get angry, we need to take five.

Description:
The best athletes are the smartest athletes. That’s not because they have a higher IQ or more common sense. It’s because they’re willing to ask for help.

Description:
If you settle for the work that is required or mandatory, you will fall short of your potential. It is the unrequired work that challenges your talent and helps you to become the best you can be. Required work is what everybody has to do. Unrequired work is not laid out for you. No one is going to check that you’ve done the unrequired work. No one will even know if you do it. It is the unseen and unpraised work. Required work qualifies you to be in the game, but unrequired work permits you to become a champion.

Description:
To be a champion, you need both internal and external accountability. Internal accountability is the standard you set for yourself based on your own integrity. It’s what makes you take ownership for your actions. External accountability is the standard you set for your teammates, your friends, and your family, and that they set for you. Accountability, both internal and external, calls us to do the things we know we should be doing. It holds us to a higher standard than we might otherwise reach.

Description:
It's easy to get overwhelmed and worried when we try to change the past or control the future because neither of those things is possible. The past is already written, and the future is not here yet; your energy can only affect things in the present. That's why you have to be here. To be here is to give your best to the moment you're in. To be here is to learn the most that you can from this moment. When you learn to be here, in the moment you're in, it's harder for life to overwhelm you.

Description:
A lot of people don't reach their long-term goals because they're sitting in a rocking chair. A rocking chair is comfortable and gives you something to do, but it doesn't help you move anywhere. If you want to get out of the rocking chair, you've got to be willing to be uncomfortable doing hard work. You are worth more than the time wasted sitting in a rocking chair. Your goals are worth more.

Description:
Our society is obsessed with the idea of Look Right–editing social media posts, retouching photos, padding resumes. But life and sports are not an app on your smartphone. They are real. Sports and real life demand integrity, commitment, and hard work. They require not only that you Look Right, but that you Be Right. And the secret is, when you ARE right, then you will LOOK right, but the opposite is not necessarily true. So start with Be Right. Start with who you are.

Description:
There is no secret or shortcut to success. Everything you need to reach your goals is hiding in plain sight. In other words, what you need to do to be successful is already right in front of your eyes. You just have to see it and then do the hard work to get there. The three things in plain sight are: the people around you, your process, and your perspective.

Description:
To have a great team, you have to be willing to say No when it matters most. The five most important things you can say No to are: excuses, complaining, entitlement, lies, and the hokey pokey. When your team commits to the Five No's, you are also committing to saying Yes to: responsibility, positivity, hard work, the truth, and being all-in for your team. Through these commitments to avoiding what is not helpful and pursuing what is helpful, your team can become great.

Description:
You can’t control the events in your life – most of the things that happen to you in life will be beyond your control. Events you don’t plan for and outcomes beyond your control are the norm, and out of your hands. But there is one thing you can always control, and that is your response to a given situation. You can always control your response. We call that the R-Factor, and if you want success in the game of life, it might be the most important thing that you have to master in all your life.

Description:
Every great idea the world has ever known began with the question, “What if?”

From Thomas Edison to Dr. King, Kenny Sailors to Mark Zuckerburg, BIG ideas begin with a small question. Sadly, so many people refuse to “risk the if” and settle for the “is.” What is acceptable? What is easy? What is the path of least resistance? But, for those who are willing to risk failure, there is a world of unfathomable possibility– not only in your life, but through your life. IF you can ask the right question.

Description:
Comparison helps no one, in sports or in life. When we compare ourselves to our teammates, classmates, or opponents, all we see is our own deficiencies. That guy has a faster throw than I do. That girl spikes harder than I can. That guy is better in physics than I am. That girl gets more answers right in geometry than I do.It doesn’t matter what someone else does or how much better they do it. What matters is how well we do something and how close that is to our personal best.Competition helps us get better, but comparison just makes us bitter.

Description:
Do you live life with a “one day” mindset, or a “someday” mindset? With a “someday” mindset, it’s far too easy to go into the workout thinking, “this workout is just one of many. It is one of the 300 workouts between now and next season. What is really valuable is my max, or my rank, or how I play when the lights shine brightest.” But with a “one day” mindset you understand one very simple fact: You understand that today is all you have. Your effort is not diluted by a date on the calendar. You only get one chance to do today’s workout...learn today’s classwork...show today’s kindness. You only get one chance to give your all today. Whether you give your best or not, that opportunity is gone. Today is all you have. Do not neglect the work of today. Do not put it off until tomorrow.

Description:
To maximize the impact you can have on the world, yourself and your team, It’s not complicat-ed; it’s as simple as two words: character vs. talent.

Description:
It does you no good to be a 5-star athlete if you have 0-star character. Prowess on the field is temporary. Eventually, sports will end. When it does, you will still have the character lessons you learned while playing, and the skills picked up from the lessons will help you throughout your life… or not. Compartmentalizing your life pushes everyone else out so the focus is only on you and what you want out of life. It’s about what you are good at. On the other hand, having a 5-star character requires caring about others. It means leading a life that makes the world a better place. You can’t do that if you’re focused on nothing but being the best at your sport. Stop compartmentalizing. Do this, and you’re on your way to 5-star character.

Description:
Bad days are guaranteed to happen. What’s not guaranteed, is what you do when it does. The way you respond to a bad day determines your success for that day and the following days. Don’t sit and wallow in self-pity. Instead, choose to view the struggle as an opportunity. Bad days will come. When they do, instead of thinking “It shouldn’t be this way,” think “This is a GROWTH day.” To change your bad day to growth, focus on shifting your mentality. Remember that you are still learning, but you are still accountable for your actions.

Description:
In the same way that iron sharpens iron, people sharpen people. The most important role you have on any team is to sharpen your teammates—to make them better. You sharpen each other during the long hours on the track or in the pool, through the heat of the gridiron or the echoing squeaks of the basketball gym. You challenge each other to push farther than you think you can. You compete against one another not to put each other down, but to lift each other ever higher. You handle conflict without taking it personally. But why, when, and how do you do these things?

Description:
You understand the concept of “work in progress” in class when working on a big project, but you might forget that this also transfers to the real world. You are a work in progress, and you always will be because there is no end point for learning. Learning never stops, so long as you choose to stay in progress. When you are in progress, you always have something to celebrate, you learn from your mistakes, and you view others as teachers rather than threats. You get what a work in progress is, but you also have to understand that you are a work in progress. There's a process of growth that everyone has to go through, and learning never stops as long as you choose to stay in progress.

Description:
Whether you win or lose is less important than what you do in the aftermath. How well your team plays the game determines whether you win or lose, but how well you accept and respond to a win or loss determines whether you will be successful in future games and in life. Winning well makes you better at losing, and losing well makes you better at winning. How you deal with a win or a loss directly reflects your growth as a leader and a teammate. Everyone will lose at some point. The questions to ask are: What will you do when you win? What will you do when you lose?

Description:
When things don't go to plan or when we encounter a crisis, there are two primary ways that people respond: by focusing on what they CAN do or focusing on what they CAN'T do. The most successful people answer the question of Can't or Can? with a definite CAN. When you focus on what you can do instead of what you can't do, you'll find out how much more is within your control than you thought. There's a quote from former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt that will help you move from a Can't to a Can mindset: "Do all that you can with all that you have wherever you are." When things go wrong, you can either focus on what you can't do or what you can do. Focusing on what you CAN'T do will leave you stuck in place, a victim of circumstance. But focusing on what you CAN do will help you move forward to reach your goals and dreams despite circumstances.

Description:
The concept of YouTube and confidence for athletes is similar to duct tape and bailing wire for coaches. They are tools with which you can achieve anything. With YouTube and confidence, you can do anything you set your mind to if you are willing to put in the work. YouTube (or the Internet in general) is a good place to find information; that's a valuable tool. But where do you find confidence? Confidence is found through working to make an impact in the lives of others. When you seek to make an impact, you don't worry about failure or setbacks.

Description:
Here is the simple and difficult truth: The only thing standing between you and your goals is the work that you have to do. Achieving your goals is very simple, you just have to do the work that your goals require. But, simple does not mean easy. In fact, the simple work that will get you to your goals will be really difficult.

Description:
When someone tells you to do your best, does that encourage you? When you realize that you can do nothing better than your best, it can be encouraging. But for many students, and maybe for you, “do your best” isn’t encouraging because it translates to “you can’t win, so just try not to get beat too badly.”

Description:
In a world full of common, let’s be uncommon. Let’s think differently and act differently than the norm, especially where it really matters, such as when we see others being devalued or when we speak negatively to ourselves or when we’re stuck after we get knocked down. The norm in those situations is not the way we want to live. We want to create a new norm by being uncommon.

Description:
Many student-athletes carry heavy loads. These are things that they weren’t meant to carry, yet the burden is dragging them away from their goals and dreams. These burdens are things like pressure to be perfect, fear of failure, and self-doubt. If you are carrying these things, then it’s time for you to make the swap.

Description:
Confidence is built, not born. It’s like any skill on the field. Confidence comes from letting go of the outcome because you know that all you can control is your response. Confidence comes from getting reps at things that you aren’t good at and seeing how much you improve over time. And, confidence comes from knowing who you are and living out that identity. If you want to be more confident, these are three things that can help you to build confidence.

Description:
We’ve all had competitive moments where we go from only giving half effort to being GAME ON. For Coach Mackey, one such moment was with his oldest son Harrison, when they were playing a video game against each other. The way that they competed with each other while playing the game showed how much they value each other.

Description:
Everyone feels overwhelmed sometimes. The good news is, there’s a pretty simple way to reduce that feeling. We just have to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. See, when we’re having a bad day or dealing with things that other people don’t have to deal with, it’s really easy to get locked in on the struggle. But the struggle is just one small part of your life. If you look at the bigger picture, you’ll see that this struggle is only temporary.

Description:
An over believer is someone who believes strongly in something. For example, an over believer in generosity and humility will be guided in how to act based on those beliefs. Growth Follows Belief. What you believe determines what your actions are, and your actions determine what you can do. If you don’t believe that you can accomplish your goals, then you won’t. But you can choose to be an over believer in yourself and your team. You can choose to be an over believer in hope and teamwork. Every day you are an over believer in something, and you get to choose what that is.

Description:
hen you compare yourself to others, your greatness can only be comparative. But when you focus instead on growing and becoming the best that you can be, then you embrace competitive greatness. Competition fuels growth while comparison fuels shame. Shame will hold you back from achieving all that you can achieve, but a growth mindset will propel you forward to do things you can only imagine.

Description:
Most people feel the urge to curse at themselves or say something mean when they mess up. It's so common because our society has bought the lie that we can shame ourselves into growth. But all that negative self talk is really going to do is push us down a dark road. Instead of getting angry and calling yourself a loser or a failure; replace that lie with the truth that you lost or failed, but that the event of failure does not lessen your worth as a person. If you're going to reach your goals and dreams, then you've got to remove the heavy lies of negative self talk and replace them with the truth.

Description:
When you compare yourself to others, that comparison steals your joy in your own accomplishments. Instead of being inspired by what they have achieved, you just start to feel like you will never achieve the same things. Discouragement from comparison can stop you from achieving your dreams, but there's an antidote to discouragement: confidence. When you are confident in your preparation, in your teammates, and in your ability to make an impact, there's no room for discouragement.

Description:
We live in a world of convenience. We try to make everything as easy as possible. Sometimes that's really helpful and great. The problem arises when we think that everything should be easy–including our goals. But resistance is what makes us stronger in the weight room, and it's what makes it possible to achieve our goals. If we are constantly rejecting hard days, hard truths, and hard conversations, then we're rejecting our goals. Instead of saying "no thanks" to hard things, let's learn how to welcome hard.

Description:
We all fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others. But, no matter how far you go or how much you achieve, you will never consider yourself big time enough if you compare yourself to others. Instead of comparison, challenge yourself to make where you are the big time. Big Time is a mindset. You are big time when you live big time.

Description:
When we base our confidence on external factors, it will be like our confidence is on a roller coaster. That better-than-you confidence or that scoreboard confidence will keep us going up and down and through loop-the-loops. Roller coaster confidence is not helpful because we cannot rely on it.

Description:
Failure is part of the human experience. You will make mistakes in school, in sports, and in life. Those mistakes do not make you a failure; they present an opportunity for you to learn how to fail better. Failing better means striving to only make the same mistake once, being willing to fail, and using your failure to move forward. When you learn to fail better, you will learn to win more.

Description:
No matter how much weight he was lifting or pushing, professional bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman (now retired) always said the same thing: "Light Weight." A Light Weight mindset helps you expand your mindset for what is possible. When you believe you can achieve more, then you will work at a higher level to achieve it. It is not the belief that gets you there; it is the actions you take based on that belief. But if you don't believe your goal is achievable, you'll never see the actions that will help you reach it. When you face a big, heavy goal, tell yourself: "Light Weight."

Description:
Adversity can help you move toward your goals, or it can hold you back. What determines whether adversity moves you forward or backward? You do. How you respond to adversity determines the impact it will have on your progress and goals. Adversity can be a gift if you say Yes to the right things.

Description:
What's the secret to success? What's the shortcut? There isn't one. The only secrets are widely known by the pros, and none of those "secrets" involve shortcuts. As any professional athlete can tell you: Success comes from doing the right things again and again. These are things like focusing on the fundamentals, seeing that the little things are the big things, and being willing to make mistakes along the way. You don't choose to do these things once, and then you're successful. You choose them again and again.

Description:
You will get discouraged because you are human. Sometimes you'll fall short, sometimes people will tell you things you don't want to hear, and sometimes things just won't go your way. Whatever adversity you face, you can overcome it–so long as you do not become discouraged. As long as you press on, even when you want to quit, you will come out the other side closer to where you want to be.

Description:
Getting things wrong is how you learn to get things right. That's why failure will make up many of the steps on your path to success. Not all failure is created equally, though, and some failures are scarier than others. All failure can teach you how to become the leader, athlete, student, and person that you want to become, but only if you’re willing to learn from it.

Description:
The outer game is where you test your skills against your opponents' skills on the field. The inner game is where you face off with your own mind. When you win the inner game, you gain the ability to control your mind so it can't run away with you. Your inner game will affect, and even determine, your outer game. The ways that you talk to yourself, see yourself, and compete all influence your ability to win the inner game.

Description:
When you make a mistake, you can figure out how to fix it by trial and error eventually, but it's much easier if you have a coach around to teach you instead. Learning from mistakes is faster and easier when you have a more experienced person helping you to see where you went wrong and how you can get it right. Your coach is willing to coach you up, but for that to happen, you have to be willing to be coached up.

Description:
When you swing across the monkey bars, the only way to keep moving forward is to let go of the bar behind you, so you can grab the one ahead of you. If you don't let go of the bar behind you, you will eventually fall. The same is true as you move through life. The only way to keep moving toward your goals and dreams is to let go of the past. If you don't let go, the past will eventually pull you down.

Description: 
Having fun does not prevent you from winning, and having fun is not a consolation prize for losing. In fact, the things that lead you to win are the things that make playing sports the most fun. The more that you improve each day, compete with teammates and opponents, and build meaningful relationships with your team, the more fun you will have AND the more that you will win.

Description: 
How do you know if your work is good enough? You start by breaking that into two smaller questions: What is good? and What is enough? Good work requires preparation, coachability, and effort. The way to know if you've done enough good work is to measure your progress. When you measure how you have prepared well, received coaching, and given great effort, then you can be confident that your work is good enough.

Description:
Sometimes, you'll get so zoomed in on a bad day or self-doubt that it starts to feel like the negatives are all you have. But the truth is: A bad day only has staying power if you stay zoomed in. Staying zoomed in on the problem gives long-term power to a short-term circumstance. But, if you zoom out, you can see the bigger picture. This wider view puts bad days and self-doubt into perspective, and that brings hope that things will get better.

Description:
There are two types of mindsets people operate from: a fixed-mindset and a growth-mindset. But there is only one mindset that leads to success: the growth mindset. That’s because the growth mindset isn’t focused on where you’ve been or what you have, it’s focused on where you’re going. It’s focused not on what you have in this moment, but instead on what you’re going to gain in every moment between now and then. “Become perfect” is a growth mindset. “Become perfect” says “I may not be there today, but I’m going to get there soon.”

Description:
Too often we’re disproportionately focused on talent over character. We view talent as the way to make it. We strive to develop our talent; maximize our skill; because we think it’s the thing that will drive us to succeed in life. All the while it’s easy to neglect character. How many division one athletes do you know who are untalented? You see, at a certain level, talent levels out. To maximize your talent, you must maximize your character. The strength of your character will determine the success of your talents.

Description:
Anger isn’t any more inherently wrong than fire. But like fire, it can be destructive if it’s not kept within boundaries. You have certain rights when it comes to your anger, but those rights can be forfeited if you let your anger control you instead of the other way around. The more you control your anger, the more even-keeled you will be. The more you can be angry without committing any of these anger rights violations, the more even-keeled you will be able to remain. And, the more even your temperament is, the better leader and teammate you will be.

Description:
It does you no good to be a five star athlete if you have zero star character. Prowess on the field is temporary. Eventually, sports will end. When it does, you will still have the character lessons you learned while playing, and the skills picked up from the lessons will help you throughout your life… or not. Having a five star character requires caring about others. It means leading a life that makes the world a better place.

Description:
In the same way that iron sharpens iron, people sharpen people. The most important role you have on any team is to sharpen your teammates—to make them better. You sharpen each other during the long hours on the track or in the pool, through the heat of the gridiron or the echoing squeaks of the basketball gym. As iron sharpens iron, you and your teammates sharpen each other through the challenges you give, the competition you engage in, and the conflicts you overcome together.

Description:
The famous fable of the tortoise and the hare teaches us that consistent work ethic will always beat inconsistent talent. If all you have is great talent with no consistency, then like the hare in the story, you'll end up losing to a tortoise when you should have won no question. Slow and steady progress towards a goal will win over fast but faulty progress. Being slow and steady takes practice. It's a skill you acquire through repetition. To get that practice, follow the ABCs of consistent work ethic: Ask why until you know why, Be bound to the basics, and Charlie Mike.

Description:
Every great idea that’s ever changed the world found its genesis in two words: “What if?” People who choose to ask “what if?” are the brave and the bold. They choose to look beyond what is because they aren’t going to settle for how things have always been. To stop settling for what is, so that you can strive for what could be, ask yourself: “what if?”

Description:
The most important step we will ever take towards reaching a goal is the next step. It doesn’t matter if we’re on step 15 or if we haven’t taken a single step toward the end goal. No matter where we are on the present journey, the most important step is the one we are about to take. Instead of stewing on the past or trying to predict the future, we should be focusing on the one thing we can control: how we handle the next step. Are we going to take the next step with excellence and focus?

Description:
When someone tells you to do your best, does that encourage you? When you realize that you can do nothing better than your best, it can be encouraging. But for many students, and maybe for you, "do your best" isn't encouraging because it translates to "you can't win, so just try not to get beat too badly. "That thinking can lead to some dark places in your mind where you start to believe that your best isn't enough. If you believe your best isn't enough, you might start to believe that you are not enough. Know this: You are enough just as you are. And, when you do your best yet, whatever that is, that is enough.

Description:
Many student-athletes carry heavy loads. These are things that they weren't meant to carry, yet the burden is dragging them away from their goals and dreams. These burdens are things like pressure to be perfect, fear of failure, and self-doubt. If you are carrying these things, then it's time for you to make the swap. Swap the pressure to be perfect for a best yet mindset. Swap the fear of failure for a growth mindset. Swap self-doubt for the belief that you are enough. The swap isn't necessarily easy to make. But when you make the swap, all those heavy things you're carrying stop weighing you down. Without that overwhelming load, you can move on to reach your goals, no matter how big they may be.

Description:
Bad days are guaranteed to happen. What’s not guaranteed, is what you do when it does. The way you respond to a bad day determines your success for that day and the following days. Don’t sit and wallow in self-pity. Instead, choose to view the struggle as an opportunity. Bad days will come. When they do, instead of thinking “It shouldn’t be this way,” think “This is a GROWTH day.” To change your bad day to growth, focus on shifting your mentality. Remember that you are still learning, but you are still accountable for your actions.

Description:
In a world full of common, let's be uncommon. Let's think differently and act differently than the norm, especially where it really matters, such as when we see others being devalued or when we speak negatively to ourselves or when we're stuck after we get knocked down. The norm in those situations is not the way we want to live. We want to create a new norm by being uncommon. Being uncommon isn't about being a special snowflake. It's about going against the grain to do what is right and what is best (for you and the team). The norm isn't always a bad thing, but when it is, choose to be uncommon.

Description:
We’ve all had competitive moments where we go from only giving half effort to being GAME ON. For Coach Mackey, one such moment was with his oldest son Harrison, when they were playing a video game against each other. The way that they competed with each other while playing the game showed how much they value each other.

Description:
Everyone feels overwhelmed sometimes. The good news is, there’s a pretty simple way to reduce that feeling. We just have to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. See, when we’re having a bad day or dealing with things that other people don’t have to deal with, it’s really easy to get locked in on the struggle. But the struggle is just one small part of your life. If you look at the bigger picture, you’ll see that this struggle is only temporary.

Description:
An over believer is someone who believes strongly in something. For example, an over believer in generosity and humility will be guided in how to act based on those beliefs. Growth Follows Belief. What you believe determines what your actions are, and your actions determine what you can do. If you don’t believe that you can accomplish your goals, then you won’t. But you can choose to be an over believer in yourself and your team. You can choose to be an over believer in hope and teamwork. Every day you are an over believer in something, and you get to choose what that is.

Description:
When you compare yourself to others, your greatness can only be comparative. But when you focus instead on growing and becoming the best that you can be, then you embrace competitive greatness. Competition fuels growth while comparison fuels shame. Shame will hold you back from achieving all that you can achieve, but a growth mindset will propel you forward to do things you can only imagine.

Description:
Coach calls you out because he or she loves you too much to let you be less than your best. And love is the same reason why you should call out your teammates when they aren't meeting the standard. As uncomfortable as it might be, if you truly care about your teammates, if you love your teammates, then you've got to encourage them with a call out when they aren't living to the standard. You've got to speak up.

Description:
Most people feel the urge to curse at themselves or say something mean when they mess up. It's so common because our society has bought the lie that we can shame ourselves into growth. But all that negative self talk is really going to do is push us down a dark road. Instead of getting angry and calling yourself a loser or a failure; replace that lie with the truth that you lost or failed, but that the event of failure does not lessen your worth as a person. If you're going to reach your goals and dreams, then you've got to remove the heavy lies of negative self talk and replace them with the truth.

Description:
When you compare yourself to others, that comparison steals your joy in your own accomplishments. Instead of being inspired by what they have achieved, you just start to feel like you will never achieve the same things. Discouragement from comparison can stop you from achieving your dreams, but there's an antidote to discouragement: confidence. When you are confident in your preparation, in your teammates, and in your ability to make an impact, there's no room for discouragement.

Description:
We live in a world of convenience. We try to make everything as easy as possible. Sometimes that's really helpful and great. The problem arises when we think that everything should be easy–including our goals. But resistance is what makes us stronger in the weight room, and it's what makes it possible to achieve our goals. If we are constantly rejecting hard days, hard truths, and hard conversations, then we're rejecting our goals. Instead of saying "no thanks" to hard things, let's learn how to welcome hard.

Description:
We all fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others. But, no matter how far you go or how much you achieve, you will never consider yourself big time enough if you compare yourself to others. Instead of comparison, challenge yourself to make where you are the big time. Big Time is a mindset. You are big time when you live big time.

Description:
When we base our confidence on external factors, it will be like our confidence is on a roller coaster. That better-than-you confidence or that scoreboard confidence will keep us going up and down and through loop-the-loops. Roller coaster confidence is not helpful because we cannot rely on it.

Description:
Failure is part of the human experience. You will make mistakes in school, in sports, and in life. Those mistakes do not make you a failure; they present an opportunity for you to learn how to fail better. Failing better means striving to only make the same mistake once, being willing to fail, and using your failure to move forward. When you learn to fail better, you will learn to win more.

Description:
No matter how much weight he was lifting or pushing, professional bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman (now retired) always said the same thing: "Light Weight." A Light Weight mindset helps you expand your mindset for what is possible. When you believe you can achieve more, then you will work at a higher level to achieve it. It is not the belief that gets you there; it is the actions you take based on that belief. But if you don't believe your goal is achievable, you'll never see the actions that will help you reach it. When you face a big, heavy goal, tell yourself: "Light Weight."

Description:
Adversity can help you move toward your goals, or it can hold you back. What determines whether adversity moves you forward or backward? You do. How you respond to adversity determines the impact it will have on your progress and goals. Adversity can be a gift if you say Yes to the right things.

Description:
What's the secret to success? What's the shortcut? There isn't one. The only secrets are widely known by the pros, and none of those "secrets" involve shortcuts. As any professional athlete can tell you: Success comes from doing the right things again and again. These are things like focusing on the fundamentals, seeing that the little things are the big things, and being willing to make mistakes along the way. You don't choose to do these things once, and then you're successful. You choose them again and again.

Description:
You will get discouraged because you are human. Sometimes you'll fall short, sometimes people will tell you things you don't want to hear, and sometimes things just won't go your way. Whatever adversity you face, you can overcome it–so long as you do not become discouraged. As long as you press on, even when you want to quit, you will come out the other side closer to where you want to be.

Description:
Getting things wrong is how you learn to get things right. That's why failure will make up many of the steps on your path to success. Not all failure is created equally, though, and some failures are scarier than others. All failure can teach you how to become the leader, athlete, student, and person that you want to become, but only if you’re willing to learn from it.

Description:
The outer game is where you test your skills against your opponents' skills on the field. The inner game is where you face off with your own mind. When you win the inner game, you gain the ability to control your mind so it can't run away with you. Your inner game will affect, and even determine, your outer game. The ways that you talk to yourself, see yourself, and compete all influence your ability to win the inner game.

Description:
When you make a mistake, you can figure out how to fix it by trial and error eventually, but it's much easier if you have a coach around to teach you instead. Learning from mistakes is faster and easier when you have a more experienced person helping you to see where you went wrong and how you can get it right. Your coach is willing to coach you up, but for that to happen, you have to be willing to be coached up.

Description:
When you swing across the monkey bars, the only way to keep moving forward is to let go of the bar behind you, so you can grab the one ahead of you. If you don't let go of the bar behind you, you will eventually fall. The same is true as you move through life. The only way to keep moving toward your goals and dreams is to let go of the past. If you don't let go, the past will eventually pull you down.

Description:
When adversity comes, you’ll think “this is bad bad.” The shift here is to go from “bad bad” to “good good.” It’s good that adversity is here because it gives us a chance to grow and become better today than we were yesterday. It’s good that adversity is here because without it, we can’t progress. When we make the shift from thinking that this bad bad situation is against us to realizing this good good situation is for us, it changes everything.

Description:
Sometimes in a game, it seems like everything is against you. But then, a game changer steps up, and the momentum shifts back to your team. This happens in life, too. The difference is that in life, the game changer must be you. When you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or when circumstances carry you in a direction you don’t want to go, you can choose to change the game.

Description:
Adversity can be hard and unfortunate, but it can also be a gift. The gift comes from making the choice whether you will be defined or refined by adversity. When you let adversity define you, it boxes you in and limits you. But when you let it refine you, it becomes a tool and a way for you to be more than you already are. To be refined by adversity, you’ve got to forget the loss, remember the lesson, and move forward.

Description:
hen you compare yourself to others, your greatness can only be comparative. But when you focus instead on growing and becoming the best that you can be, then you embrace competitive greatness. Competition fuels growth while comparison fuels shame. Shame will hold you back from achieving all that you can achieve, but a growth mindset will propel you forward to do things you can only imagine.

Description:
Most people feel the urge to curse at themselves or say something mean when they mess up. It's so common because our society has bought the lie that we can shame ourselves into growth. But all that negative self talk is really going to do is push us down a dark road. Instead of getting angry and calling yourself a loser or a failure; replace that lie with the truth that you lost or failed, but that the event of failure does not lessen your worth as a person. If you're going to reach your goals and dreams, then you've got to remove the heavy lies of negative self talk and replace them with the truth.

Description:
When you compare yourself to others, that comparison steals your joy in your own accomplishments. Instead of being inspired by what they have achieved, you just start to feel like you will never achieve the same things. Discouragement from comparison can stop you from achieving your dreams, but there's an antidote to discouragement: confidence. When you are confident in your preparation, in your teammates, and in your ability to make an impact, there's no room for discouragement.

Description:
We live in a world of convenience. We try to make everything as easy as possible. Sometimes that's really helpful and great. The problem arises when we think that everything should be easy–including our goals. But resistance is what makes us stronger in the weight room, and it's what makes it possible to achieve our goals. If we are constantly rejecting hard days, hard truths, and hard conversations, then we're rejecting our goals. Instead of saying "no thanks" to hard things, let's learn how to welcome hard.

Description:
We all fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others. But, no matter how far you go or how much you achieve, you will never consider yourself big time enough if you compare yourself to others. Instead of comparison, challenge yourself to make where you are the big time. Big Time is a mindset. You are big time when you live big time.

Description:
When we base our confidence on external factors, it will be like our confidence is on a roller coaster. That better-than-you confidence or that scoreboard confidence will keep us going up and down and through loop-the-loops. Roller coaster confidence is not helpful because we cannot rely on it.

Description:
Failure is part of the human experience. You will make mistakes in school, in sports, and in life. Those mistakes do not make you a failure; they present an opportunity for you to learn how to fail better. Failing better means striving to only make the same mistake once, being willing to fail, and using your failure to move forward. When you learn to fail better, you will learn to win more.

Description:
No matter how much weight he was lifting or pushing, professional bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman (now retired) always said the same thing: "Light Weight." A Light Weight mindset helps you expand your mindset for what is possible. When you believe you can achieve more, then you will work at a higher level to achieve it. It is not the belief that gets you there; it is the actions you take based on that belief. But if you don't believe your goal is achievable, you'll never see the actions that will help you reach it. When you face a big, heavy goal, tell yourself: "Light Weight."

Description:
A standard is defined as “a level of quality or attainment.” It’s a measure of accountability that directly influences your impact in sports and in the game of life. When you have low standards, you will have low success. However, the opposite is also true. As the level of your standards increase, so increases your success. That’s because with higher standards, comes a higher level of accountability, training, commitment, grit, and focus on goal achievement. Your success in the game of life is directly related to the standards you hold yourself to.

Description:
Nobody likes making mistakes. They’re embarrassing. They’re uncomfortable. They make you confront the fact that you are not perfect. But, something powerful happens when, instead of shying away from the fear of making mistakes, we embrace mistakes as a welcomed teacher. Mistakes and the discomfort that comes with them can be one of the most powerful tools for our lives, if we let them. But, if all we do is run away from situations where we might make a mistake, we’ll never grow. When we let go of the fear and negative power of making mistakes, there’s no limit to what we can do.

Description:
Comparison helps no one, in sports or in life. When we compare ourselves to our teammates, classmates, or opponents, all we see is our own deficiencies. That guy has a faster throw than I do. That girl spikes harder than I can. That guy is better in physics than I am. That girl gets more answers right in geometry than I do.It doesn’t matter what someone else does or how much better they do it. What matters is how well we do something and how close that is to our personal best.Competition helps us get better, but comparison just makes us bitter.

Description:
Character will always overcome reputation. Sometimes that’s hard to believe because the cost has to be paid now, but the reward comes later. It’s a bit like saving for a car or college. We feel the pinch in the present and only have an intangible vision of the future to convince us that we’re doing the right thing by sacrificing now for something better later.Our character will always catch up to our reputation. The things that are true about us on the inside (our character) are always greater than what seems to be true on the outside (our reputation). Besides, it’s draining to live two separate lives. The energy we spend cultivating our reputation would be much better spent cultivating our character.

Description:
To be a champion, you need both internal and external accountability. Internal accountability is the standard you set for yourself based on your own integrity. It’s what makes you take ownership for your actions. It pushes you to prepare to the best of you ability and to put forth your best effort. It drives your commitment to your goals. Accountability, both internal and external, calls us to do the things we know we should be doing.It holds us to a higher standard than we might otherwise reach. Success requires giving your very best, and no one knows your best better than you do. That’s why no one can fully hold you to that standard except you.

Description:
Do you live life with a “one day” mindset, or a “someday” mindset? With a “someday” mindset, it’s far too easy to go into the workout thinking, “this workout is just one of many. It is one of the 300 workouts between now and next season. What is really valuable is my max, or my rank, or how I play when the lights shine brightest.” But with a “one day” mindset you understand one very simple fact: You understand that today is all you have. Your effort is not diluted by a date on the calendar. You only get one chance to do today’s workout...learn today’s classwork...show today’s kindness. You only get one chance to give your all today. Whether you give your best or not, that opportunity is gone. Today is all you have. Do not neglect the work of today. Do not put it off until tomorrow.

Description:
Our body language will communicate things that our words never will. Words can be misun-derstood, misinterpreted, or manipulated, but our body language will always tell the truth. It will always give us away. It’s a universal language.

Description:
Being dependable means keeping your word, which is simple, but not always easy. It’s simple because it’s black and white that “I said I would do X, so I’m going to do X.” But often, your promises will require more effort and sacrifice than you anticipated. It’s easy to say “Well, I said I would stay late after practice, but now my friends want me to get tacos.” Regardless of the external factors, you have to stick to your commitments if you want to be viewed as trustworthy and dependable.

Description:
Self-AwarenessEveryone has responsibilities or things they are expected to do, but there is always a choice as to whether you do it or not. Often in our daily language, we don’t make it a choice, though. We adopt a “have to” mentality and say, “I have to go to practice” or “I have to go to work.” We turn our responsibilities into obligations, and we deny any role in choosing them. Remember this: you always have a choice. You choose whether to view your responsibilities through a “have to” or “get to” lens, but everyday, you are making that choice.

Description:
You have a lot of teams, though you may not think of them that way. Aside from the obvious sports teams, your family, friends, and classmates are also your teams. The type of teammate you are impacts the people around you. So the big question to ask is: What kind of teammate are you? Regardless of what team you are on, there are four answers to this question: content, compliant, committed, compelled. Let’s dive in. What kind of teammate are you? This questions impacts you as an individual, but it also impacts your team. How you answer this question makes all the difference both on and off the field.

Description:
Anger isn’t any more inherently wrong than fire. But like fire, it can be destructive if it’s not kept within boundaries. You have certain rights when it comes to your anger, but those rights can be forfeited if you let your anger control you instead of the other way around. The more you control your anger, the more even-keeled you will be. The more you can be angry without committing any of these anger rights violations, the more even-keeled you will be able to remain. And, the more even your temperament is, the better leader and teammate you will be.

Description:
If someone asks you to go one mile with them, go two instead. In fact, don't wait for them to ask. As a servant leader, be willing to go the extra mile for others because of who you are, not who the other person is. But before you can go the extra mile, know that you've got to have humility. It is impossible to go the extra mile without being humble. That's because humility is giving the best of me for the best of you, even if it costs me. A servant leader will go the extra mile for others, but he or she is only able to do this with humility. A humble heart is a prerequisite for becoming an extra miler.

Description:
We are quick to say that family matters, but sometimes there is a disconnect between our words and our actions. If you really stop and ask yourself if your family matters, what do your actions say in response? Put another way, are you bought in on your family? Again, you may be tempted to just say yes, but what do your actions say? When you pay a price for your family, that is when you buy in. Family isn't just your blood relatives. Family is your team, your friends, and your classmates. Family is your community. Here are a few examples of how your actions might show that your family matters to you.

Description:
Working with a Last Set, Best Set mentality means that you give your all to the last set, even if you're tired and even if you don't want to. It doesn't just apply to the weight room. If you approach everything that you do with the mindset that you are going to finish it out better than you started, you will be unstoppable on or off the field. When your last set is your best set, that applies to everything that you do throughout the day. Instead of taking your prior effort as permission to go easier on the next task, accept the invitation to keep working hard. You are capable of more than you think you are, but you will never get to the more if you do not make your last set your best set.

Description:
When we place an outsize value on talent, it becomes a convenient excuse for when we lose or fall short of our goals. When the focus is on talent, we lost because how could we possibly compete with the other team’s stats and natural talent? When the focus is on skill, we lost because we weren’t prepared or we didn’t try hard enough or they out-worked us. Either it’s not our responsibility so we can’t do anything about it or it’s fully our responsibility and we can do better next time. 

Description:
When we reach for or try to become something that is not ours, we’ll always lose. Trying to be someone else never works. It’s nacho cheese; it’s not yours. There’s a difference between being inspired by someone’s success and being jealous of that success. When you’re inspired, it pushes you to be your best. When you’re jealous, it pushes you to be like them.

Description:
We talk a lot about teamwork because when the individual members of a team come together as a team, then the team works. As Phil Jackson said, “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” There are three conditions for team to work:

Description:
Your motivation for pursuing your goals matters. If you are driven by external factors like praise and recruitment, that’s different from being driven by internal factors like a desire to be your best or to help your team do something great.

Description:
Nobody wants to be a bad teammate, but too often, athletes settle for being a good teammate. What’s wrong with being a good teammate? Good is not enough when great is possible. The difference between being a good teammate or a great teammate is a simple choice, and that choice is love. When you love your teammates, it makes you a better teammate.

Description:
You get great at what you get reps at. If you’re constantly getting reps at eyes down and distracted, then that will be your default response when adversity comes on the path to your goals. With everyone’s eyes down and glued to their phones, it’s easy to think that there isn’t another way to be. But there is. Instead of eyes down and distracted, you can choose to be eyes up and focused. You can choose to be eyes up and present where you are developmentally and physically. And you can choose to be eyes up and truthful when the doubts come.

Description:
When you want something really bad, you're willing to run hard to get it. Running hard may look like actual running in practice, or it might look like studying when you'd rather play video games. Running hard means pursuing what matters in your life. Run hard after your passions. Run hard after your talent. But run hardest after what matters most: your character.

Description:
Whether you are driven by praise or pride makes a huge difference in how tough you are. If you are driven by praise, there will come a day when there's not enough praise in the world to get you to do what needs to be done. But if you're driven by pride, your sense of self worth will always be enough to help you overcome the obstacles in front of you. As with anything else, it's a choice. Do you choose to be driven by praise or pride?

Description:
It's easy to compare yourself to others, but that comparison will lead you to be the wrong size. For example, when you get too big, pride leads the way and then you fall, and when you get too small, you beat yourself. But, when you're the right size, you view yourself accurately. Instead of comparing yourself to others and trying to adjust your size accordingly, let humility and confidence guide you to be the right size.

Description:
The best way to have great teammates is to choose to be a great teammate. Great teammates are both quick and slow. They are quick to listen, to learn, and to love. But they are slow to speak, to anger, and to judge. Pride will try to twist you up so you're quick to speak, to anger, and to judge while being slow to listen, to learn, and to love. But humility will help you put things back where they belong. When you choose to be a great teammate, one who is both quick and slow in the right ways, then you will help your teammates to do the same.

Description:
When you think about love, you might think of it as something sweet and soft, unrelated to goals or the game. But that’s a limited view of love. Love is so much stronger, tougher, and more durable than that sweet and soft viewpoint makes it appear. Love isn’t just something soft and fluffy. Love is tough. It’s tough enough to love somebody at their worst. It’s tough enough to tell them hard truths or push them to do hard things. It’s also tough enough to be on the receiving end of tough love. True love is tough.

Description:
To be a great teammate, you've got to make some commitments. We call these the top ten commitments of a great teammate. The ten items are each important, but if ten is a little much to remember, know that they boil down to one simple idea: WE BEFORE ME.

Description:
What's the firm foundation that great teams are built upon? Trust and integrity. When those two things are present in every aspect of a team, it serves as a foundation that cannot be shaken. On that firm foundation of trust and integrity, your team can build talent, skill, strategy, and success. A team is made of its individual members. If you want your team to have a firm foundation, then you must have a firm foundation for yourself.

Description:
When you give time and effort in the weight room, you get strength. When you give attention and want-to to the classroom, you get a good education (and good grades). This principle of Get & Give is easy to see in those settings, but what about in your locker room?

Description:
Some people take pride in the wrong things. Some people take pride in nothing. But confidence comes from taking pride in the right things. When you succeed, no matter how big or small the win, take pride in yourself. Pride in yourself will motivate you in a way that shame never could. But to keep pride from turning into entitlement, you have to take pride in your teammates, too. And after you take pride in your success, you've got to get back to work.

Description:
What separates the best from the rest? It's not talent. It's not resources. It is commitment to three things that are solidly within your control. These three separators are choices that you make each day. Do you choose to finish through the line? Do you choose to work to the standard even when it's tough? Do you choose to accept hard coaching? These choices are what will separate you from the competition.

Description:
How you win matters just as much (if not more) than if you win. How you win is a reflection of who you are. You can't win with class and integrity if you don't have class and integrity. Winning in athletics prepares you to win in life. That's why it's important that you learn how to win right.

Description:
It costs nothing to set a goal, but it costs a lot to reach it. Committing to a goal is something to take pride in because so many people don't even make it that far. But setting a goal is not a guarantee of success, and the opportunity to succeed is not free. To actually reach a goal, you have to be willing to pay the opportunity cost of preparation, priorities, and practice.

Description:
It's easy to hear the words "give more" and swap them for "do more." But when you think you have to DO more so you can be your best, you’ll just get overwhelmed and worn out. It's impossible to say Yes to everything, and trying will only leave you with less to show for your actions. Give More is not about what you can DO, it's about what you can GIVE.

Description:
A lot of people sleep through life. They may look wide awake, but they're completely disconnected from the world around them as they just go through the motions of living. But everyone has to wake up eventually. If you wake up by choice, it's going to be uncomfortable. But if you wait for life to wake you up, it's going to be painful. Don't wait for life to wake you up. Choose to wake up to responsibility and reality. Choose to wake up to right now.

Description:
Do you know the real you? Who you are is not just what you like or what you hope will be true about you. It's deeper than that. To know yourself, means you know things like your purpose and desired outcome, motivations and discouragements, and strengths and weaknesses. Clarity and confidence come when you know yourself on this deeper level.

Description:
Your smartphone and apps require regular updates to function properly. If you go too long without updating, things won't work as they should--if they work at all. The same can be said for life. If you don't occasionally update the rules, then you're going to run into problems. Put another way, if you don't like what you're getting out of your life, then you need some new rules for what you're putting into it.

Description:
For great expectations to build you up and bring out the best in you, they must come from a place of love, passion, and want-to. If you're trying to live up to great expectations that you aren't passionate about or don't want, then they will just become pressure that weighs you down. Pressure leads to burnout, but great expectations encourage you to show up and give your best day after day.

Description:
The hokey pokey is a fun dance from childhood. But when hokey pokey can be used to describe your commitment, your hard work, or your effort, then it’s not so fun anymore. We all know people who put in their commitment and then when it costs more than they thought it would, they take it out again. Don’t be a hokey pokey.

Description:
There’s a saying: If you want to run fast, run alone, but if you want to run far, run together. You can be good on your own, but to be great, you need a team. You and your teammates are better together than any of you can be alone. The best teams know: No matter how great you are or I am, we will always be better together.

Description:
A standard is defined as “a level of quality or attainment.” It’s a measure of accountability that directly influences your impact in sports and in the game of life. When you have low standards, you will have low success. However, the opposite is also true. As the level of your standards increase, so increases your success. That’s because with higher standards, comes a higher level of accountability, training, commitment, grit, and focus on goal achievement. Your success in the game of life is directly related to the standards you hold yourself to.

Description:
Our body language will communicate things that our words never will. Words can be misunderstood, misinterpreted, or manipulated, but our body language will always tell the truth. It will always give us away. It’s a universal language.Your legs are burning, lungs on fire and your primary instinct is to bend over, put your hands on your knees, and catch your breath. At that moment, what does Coach say? “Stand tall!” Why? Because when you decide to stand tall, it communicates to everybody around you that you can be trusted. That you will be there when things get difficult.

Description:
A Do-For will only do things for what they get out of it, such as working hard for the praise. The problem is that eventually what we do the thing for will not be enough. On the flip side, a Do-Right does the right thing because it’s right regardless of where they are or what they will get out of it. To do right requires pride, time, and failure.

Description:
Many student-athletes carry heavy loads. These are things that they weren’t meant to carry, yet the burden is dragging them away from their goals and dreams. These burdens are things like pressure to be perfect, fear of failure, and self-doubt. If you are carrying these things, then it’s time for you to make the swap.

Description:
The chicken line is the point at which your fear says you can't go any further. It's the point where you chicken out. Developing the will and courage to pass the chicken line despite your fear will mean the difference between success and failure. That's because everything you want, all of your goals and dreams, is on the other side of your chicken line.

Description:
The best athletes and leaders—the ones that we want to be like—they are the real deal. They are genuine, tough enough to do hard work when it is required, and full of integrity. Being the real deal requires that you be put to the test. It requires that you move beyond the hype and the big talk about what you're going to do, to actually doing it. What the world needs more of is young men and women who are willing to stand up and say "I am the real deal me." Have the courage to be yourself. Have the courage to be the real deal.

Description:
There are thousands of voices out in the world telling you to be someone other than who you are. Some of the voices are external. Other voices are internal. These voices all have one thing in common: They are 100% wrong. You don’t need to be what anyone else tells you to be. And you don’t have to let negative self-talk hold you back from expressing yourself. You are enough.

Description:
In the game of sports and the game of life, there will be critics. You can’t avoid critics entirely, but you can prepare to ensure that the arrows they shoot at you can’t derail you. You prepare by developing a thick skin. You prepare for criticism by holding to your convictions, keeping a solid sense of self independent from success or failure, and seeking the whole truth in the criticism.

Description:
If you want to reach your individual and team goals, you’ve got to be all gas, no brakes. From the locker room to the classroom to your house—the little things always matter. It’s not easy to always be all gas, no brakes. But if you start tapping the brakes on the little things in life, you’re going to end up coming to a screeching halt on the big things.

Description:
Everyone has experienced times when they just didn't feel like doing what they needed to do. Everyone has struggled with the question: How do you do what needs to be done when you don't want to do it? The answer is simple, but not easy: You do what your goals demand, not what your feelings want. You are not alone in the struggle to do what you don't feel like doing. When you don't want to do what you know needs to be done, remember to ask your goals what is required, and then go do that.

Description:
When we place an outsize value on talent, it becomes a convenient excuse for when we lose or fall short of our goals. When the focus is on talent, we lost because how could we possibly compete with the other team's stats and natural talent? When the focus is on skill, we lost because we weren't prepared or we didn't try hard enough or they out-worked us. Either it's not our responsibility so we can't do anything about it or it's fully our responsibility and we can do better next time.Instead of focusing on talent and abdicating our responsibility, we can focus on cultivating zero talent skills. These are things like preparation, positivity, and coachability—skills you can learn that don't require any natural ability or athletic talent.

Description:
Everyone has a responsibility. Only you can take care of your responsibilities as a student, as an athlete, or as a son or daughter. Responsibility means doing what you have been trusted to do. The moment you fail to do your job and someone else tries to do your job for you, there's two jobs that aren't being done. Your team counts on you to do what only you can do. This applies to all areas of life, even when you think you're "just a" freshman, teenager, etc. You have responsibilities that only you can handle. Take responsibility for what you have been trusted to do because only you can do it.

Description:
Your motivation for pursuing your goals matters. If you are driven by external factors like praise and recruitment, that’s different from being driven by internal factors like a desire to be your best or to help your team do something great.

Description:
Nobody wants to be a bad teammate, but too often, athletes settle for being a good teammate. What’s wrong with being a good teammate? Good is not enough when great is possible. The difference between being a good teammate or a great teammate is a simple choice, and that choice is love. When you love your teammates, it makes you a better teammate.

Description:
You get great at what you get reps at. If you’re constantly getting reps at eyes down and distracted, then that will be your default response when adversity comes on the path to your goals. With everyone’s eyes down and glued to their phones, it’s easy to think that there isn’t another way to be. But there is. Instead of eyes down and distracted, you can choose to be eyes up and focused. You can choose to be eyes up and present where you are developmentally and physically. And you can choose to be eyes up and truthful when the doubts come.

Description:
When you want something really bad, you're willing to run hard to get it. Running hard may look like actual running in practice, or it might look like studying when you'd rather play video games. Running hard means pursuing what matters in your life. Run hard after your passions. Run hard after your talent. But run hardest after what matters most: your character.

Description:
Whether you are driven by praise or pride makes a huge difference in how tough you are. If you are driven by praise, there will come a day when there's not enough praise in the world to get you to do what needs to be done. But if you're driven by pride, your sense of self worth will always be enough to help you overcome the obstacles in front of you. As with anything else, it's a choice. Do you choose to be driven by praise or pride?

Description:
It's easy to compare yourself to others, but that comparison will lead you to be the wrong size. For example, when you get too big, pride leads the way and then you fall, and when you get too small, you beat yourself. But, when you're the right size, you view yourself accurately. Instead of comparing yourself to others and trying to adjust your size accordingly, let humility and confidence guide you to be the right size.

Description:
The best way to have great teammates is to choose to be a great teammate. Great teammates are both quick and slow. They are quick to listen, to learn, and to love. But they are slow to speak, to anger, and to judge. Pride will try to twist you up so you're quick to speak, to anger, and to judge while being slow to listen, to learn, and to love. But humility will help you put things back where they belong. When you choose to be a great teammate, one who is both quick and slow in the right ways, then you will help your teammates to do the same.

Description:
When you think about love, you might think of it as something sweet and soft, unrelated to goals or the game. But that’s a limited view of love. Love is so much stronger, tougher, and more durable than that sweet and soft viewpoint makes it appear. Love isn’t just something soft and fluffy. Love is tough. It’s tough enough to love somebody at their worst. It’s tough enough to tell them hard truths or push them to do hard things. It’s also tough enough to be on the receiving end of tough love. True love is tough.

Description:
To be a great teammate, you've got to make some commitments. We call these the top ten commitments of a great teammate. The ten items are each important, but if ten is a little much to remember, know that they boil down to one simple idea: WE BEFORE ME.

Description:
What's the firm foundation that great teams are built upon? Trust and integrity. When those two things are present in every aspect of a team, it serves as a foundation that cannot be shaken. On that firm foundation of trust and integrity, your team can build talent, skill, strategy, and success. A team is made of its individual members. If you want your team to have a firm foundation, then you must have a firm foundation for yourself.

Description:
When you give time and effort in the weight room, you get strength. When you give attention and want-to to the classroom, you get a good education (and good grades). This principle of Get & Give is easy to see in those settings, but what about in your locker room?

Description:
Some people take pride in the wrong things. Some people take pride in nothing. But confidence comes from taking pride in the right things. When you succeed, no matter how big or small the win, take pride in yourself. Pride in yourself will motivate you in a way that shame never could. But to keep pride from turning into entitlement, you have to take pride in your teammates, too. And after you take pride in your success, you've got to get back to work.

Description:
What separates the best from the rest? It's not talent. It's not resources. It is commitment to three things that are solidly within your control. These three separators are choices that you make each day. Do you choose to finish through the line? Do you choose to work to the standard even when it's tough? Do you choose to accept hard coaching? These choices are what will separate you from the competition.

Description:
How you win matters just as much (if not more) than if you win. How you win is a reflection of who you are. You can't win with class and integrity if you don't have class and integrity. Winning in athletics prepares you to win in life. That's why it's important that you learn how to win right.

Description:
It costs nothing to set a goal, but it costs a lot to reach it. Committing to a goal is something to take pride in because so many people don't even make it that far. But setting a goal is not a guarantee of success, and the opportunity to succeed is not free. To actually reach a goal, you have to be willing to pay the opportunity cost of preparation, priorities, and practice.

Description:
It's easy to hear the words "give more" and swap them for "do more." But when you think you have to DO more so you can be your best, you’ll just get overwhelmed and worn out. It's impossible to say Yes to everything, and trying will only leave you with less to show for your actions. Give More is not about what you can DO, it's about what you can GIVE.

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A lot of people sleep through life. They may look wide awake, but they're completely disconnected from the world around them as they just go through the motions of living. But everyone has to wake up eventually. If you wake up by choice, it's going to be uncomfortable. But if you wait for life to wake you up, it's going to be painful. Don't wait for life to wake you up. Choose to wake up to responsibility and reality. Choose to wake up to right now.

Description:
Do you know the real you? Who you are is not just what you like or what you hope will be true about you. It's deeper than that. To know yourself, means you know things like your purpose and desired outcome, motivations and discouragements, and strengths and weaknesses. Clarity and confidence come when you know yourself on this deeper level.

Description:
Your smartphone and apps require regular updates to function properly. If you go too long without updating, things won't work as they should--if they work at all. The same can be said for life. If you don't occasionally update the rules, then you're going to run into problems. Put another way, if you don't like what you're getting out of your life, then you need some new rules for what you're putting into it.

Description:
Your motivation for pursuing your goals matters. If you are driven by external factors like praise and recruitment, that’s different from being driven by internal factors like a desire to be your best or to help your team do something great.

Description:
Nobody wants to be a bad teammate, but too often, athletes settle for being a good teammate. What’s wrong with being a good teammate? Good is not enough when great is possible. The difference between being a good teammate or a great teammate is a simple choice, and that choice is love. When you love your teammates, it makes you a better teammate.

Description:
You get great at what you get reps at. If you’re constantly getting reps at eyes down and distracted, then that will be your default response when adversity comes on the path to your goals. With everyone’s eyes down and glued to their phones, it’s easy to think that there isn’t another way to be. But there is. Instead of eyes down and distracted, you can choose to be eyes up and focused. You can choose to be eyes up and present where you are developmentally and physically. And you can choose to be eyes up and truthful when the doubts come.

Description:
When you want something really bad, you're willing to run hard to get it. Running hard may look like actual running in practice, or it might look like studying when you'd rather play video games. Running hard means pursuing what matters in your life. Run hard after your passions. Run hard after your talent. But run hardest after what matters most: your character.

Description:
Whether you are driven by praise or pride makes a huge difference in how tough you are. If you are driven by praise, there will come a day when there's not enough praise in the world to get you to do what needs to be done. But if you're driven by pride, your sense of self worth will always be enough to help you overcome the obstacles in front of you. As with anything else, it's a choice. Do you choose to be driven by praise or pride?

Description:
It's easy to compare yourself to others, but that comparison will lead you to be the wrong size. For example, when you get too big, pride leads the way and then you fall, and when you get too small, you beat yourself. But, when you're the right size, you view yourself accurately. Instead of comparing yourself to others and trying to adjust your size accordingly, let humility and confidence guide you to be the right size.

Description:
The best way to have great teammates is to choose to be a great teammate. Great teammates are both quick and slow. They are quick to listen, to learn, and to love. But they are slow to speak, to anger, and to judge. Pride will try to twist you up so you're quick to speak, to anger, and to judge while being slow to listen, to learn, and to love. But humility will help you put things back where they belong. When you choose to be a great teammate, one who is both quick and slow in the right ways, then you will help your teammates to do the same.

Description:
When you think about love, you might think of it as something sweet and soft, unrelated to goals or the game. But that’s a limited view of love. Love is so much stronger, tougher, and more durable than that sweet and soft viewpoint makes it appear. Love isn’t just something soft and fluffy. Love is tough. It’s tough enough to love somebody at their worst. It’s tough enough to tell them hard truths or push them to do hard things. It’s also tough enough to be on the receiving end of tough love. True love is tough.

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To be a great teammate, you've got to make some commitments. We call these the top ten commitments of a great teammate. The ten items are each important, but if ten is a little much to remember, know that they boil down to one simple idea: WE BEFORE ME.

Description:
What's the firm foundation that great teams are built upon? Trust and integrity. When those two things are present in every aspect of a team, it serves as a foundation that cannot be shaken. On that firm foundation of trust and integrity, your team can build talent, skill, strategy, and success. A team is made of its individual members. If you want your team to have a firm foundation, then you must have a firm foundation for yourself.

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When you give time and effort in the weight room, you get strength. When you give attention and want-to to the classroom, you get a good education (and good grades). This principle of Get & Give is easy to see in those settings, but what about in your locker room?

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Some people take pride in the wrong things. Some people take pride in nothing. But confidence comes from taking pride in the right things. When you succeed, no matter how big or small the win, take pride in yourself. Pride in yourself will motivate you in a way that shame never could. But to keep pride from turning into entitlement, you have to take pride in your teammates, too. And after you take pride in your success, you've got to get back to work.

Description:
What separates the best from the rest? It's not talent. It's not resources. It is commitment to three things that are solidly within your control. These three separators are choices that you make each day. Do you choose to finish through the line? Do you choose to work to the standard even when it's tough? Do you choose to accept hard coaching? These choices are what will separate you from the competition.

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Who is the most valuable person in your life? You might say your mom, your grandfather, or maybe even your girlfriend or boyfriend. Sure, there’s always an easy answer to that question, but the easy answer may not always be the most accurate. If we zoomed out of your life and looked at the person you value the most, do the most for, and focus on the most, you’d most likely be looking in the mirror. If you want to find success in the game of life, then you must learn to treat every person you meet, from the custodian to the coach that’s recruiting you, the same. Treat every person you meet like they are the most valuable person you’ve ever met.

Description:
“No excuses” might be the most cliche, over-used, and repeated phrase in all of sports. It has been shouted, drilled, and repeated in every locker room from the big apple to the pineapple, plastered on walls, and printed on t-shirts. Yet, as familiar, and self-explanatory as this phrase is, few people (especially high-school students) ever actually put it into practice. In fact, most student athletes do the exact opposite: they give excuse after tired excuse. The reality is, however, that excuses have NEVER ONCE lead to success. Ever. So, if we want to be the kind of men and women that find success, despite our circumstances, we must learn to do more than talk about “No excuses.”

Description:
Our lives are touched by several different traditions. These traditions come from our family, our community, our school, and our team.We have a responsibility to uphold these traditions, but also to enhance them. Tradition doesn’t determine what we do. What we do determines our tradition.The tradition of our sports program may be winning the district championship or making it to state, but that tradition is only carried on by what we do this year. Just because we won last year doesn’t mean we’ll automatically win this year. Just because we win this year doesn’t mean that we’ll automatically win next year.The tradition of our family may be going to college, but that tradition is only carried on by us choosing to do the same and putting in the effort required to get there. Just because our parents went to college doesn’t mean that we will. Just because we go to college doesn’t mean that our children will.

Description:
Everyday, we have a choice to make as to whether we want to impress people or impact people’s lives.When we focus on trying to impress others, we care about our reputations (and ourselves) more than we care about the impact we can have on the lives of others. When we instead focus on trying to have an impact on others, we care about our character and the people we can assist more than we care about the records we can break to gain attention. When we desire to be impactful, our purpose is one of selflessness and striving to make the world a better place because we genuinely care about others.

Description:
Tomorrow’s leaders are built in today’s locker rooms. Playing on our teams are the nurses, teachers, politicians, lawyers, and doctors of the future. But becoming tomorrow’s leaders requires a willingness to assume a leadership role, not just tomorrow, but also today. The best leaders are willing to sacrifice to serve others. They will do the things that no one else does. They want to be right in the mix of the action, not hanging out on the sidelines watching others do all the work for them. They are willing to choose the harder right over the easier wrong. Leaders are willing to pay the higher cost because serving others is so worth it.

Description:
Every person we meet is either going through a struggle, coming out of a struggle, or about to go into a struggle. There’s nothing we can do about that because we can’t control whether we are going to struggle. In a sense, that’s kind of freeing because it means we have no reason to be ashamed that we are struggling.

Overcoming trials and struggle is how we grow into the most complete version of ourselves. Steel doesn’t become one of the hardest workable materials on earth unless it is tempered with fire, and a person doesn’t understand their true inner character without struggle. There is a bright future awaiting us, but we have to go through struggle to get to it.

Description:
True humility is possible when you find your identity not in what you do, but in who you are. Your worth comes not from things like looks, or strength, or brains. Your worth comes from who you are and the reality that there is breath in your lungs. A humble person is someone who is so secure in who they are that their confidence becomes contagious. They become someone that everybody wants to be around. They become a leader that everybody wants to follow. Everywhere they go, they’re so confident in who they are that they just look for other people to lift up and celebrate, never afraid that someone else is coming for them. When you live your life with true humility, you become absolutely undefeatable. You will develop a spirit that is utterly unbreakable.

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Stand firm and face your fears. Or turn and run from them. As tempting as it will be to turn and run, remember this: When you run from your fears your fears will overrun you. So, how do you find the fortitude to face your fears? You find F.A.M.I.L.Y. (Forget About Me I Love You). Turns out, F.A.M.I.L.Y. Is the antidote to fear. Whenever you have people surrounding you who are willing to sacrifice what’s best for them, for what’s best for you, you can face, and overcome any fear. Fear is a part of life. Overcoming fear is part of F.A.M.I.L.Y.

Description:
It’s not fair. Why is this happening to me? These are common thoughts when reality doesn’t meet up with your expectations. Common, but unhelpful. Life isn’t fair. Bad things happen to good people. Everyone makes mistakes. Even if you do everything right, you may still fail, but you have an opportunity to learn from this event and prepare for similar situations in the future. One method for seizing opportunities like this is the OODA Loop, originally developed by U.S. Air Force Col. John Boyd: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act

Description:
A well-known piece of writing advice is “Show; don’t tell.” A fictional character is built through showing them to the audience in bits and pieces throughout a story or book. In the same way, your character is built through small acts each day. When you act with integrity, honesty, self-discipline, and generosity, that shows your character, even when no one else is looking. Just as a fictional character is built through showing their actions, your personal character is built through your actions. Don’t tell me what you’re going to do. Show me by recognizing the difference between intention and demonstration, impacting the attitudes of others through your actions, and combating entitlement in daily life.

Description:
Conflict is guaranteed, but our response to conflict is not. We choose how we respond when someone wrongs us or when reality isn’t meshing with our expectations. It’s important to understand conflict resolution and practice it well because it limits the damage caused to our relationships and helps us move on together. Conflict resolution teaches us when to respond, what to respond with, and how to respond. We choose when, what with, and how we respond to conflict. Let’s be the generation that is overly generous with our forgiveness. Let’s learn to resolve conflict well, so it doesn’t cause further damage to our relationships.

Description:
“Humble warrior” might seem like an oxymoron at first glance, but the definitions of both words mesh really well. Humility is giving the best of me for the best of you, even if it costs me. And a warrior is someone who deploys their talents and energy for the good of others, for a cause greater than self. Warriors act not for their personal good, but for the greater good. Humility gives you the strength to work for others even when it costs you, just as a warrior does.

Description:
During a game, you don't ask the other team for permission to set the tempo because you know that permission will never come. In the same way, you aren't going to get permission from anyone to set the tempo in the locker room, in your education, or in your personal life; you just have to go first and set the tempo for yourself and others. Setting the tempo is about establishing the standard that you are going to uphold. A leader is defined by what they do, not what title they are given or what label is assigned to them. Leaders serve. Don't wait for permission to be a leader. Go first and be a leader. None of us can influence everyone, but we all have influence with someone. At its core, leadership is nothing but influence. So don't wait for permission to use your influence, go first.

Description:
There are many things you could think of when you hear the phrase "second chance." Here's how we like to think of it: A second chance is an opportunity to become who you can become. It's not something to be embarrassed about or to feel unworthy of. It's something to be thankful for. Practice gratitude for second chances. When you make a mistake, when you don't hold the standard, when you let someone down—These are all times when a second chance provides an opportunity for you to become who you can become. When others do those things, that's an opportunity for you to extend the second chance, the opportunity to become who they can become.

Description:
We talk a lot about love and sacrifice and commitment. But so often we live out like. Like is conditional, while love is unconditional. The best teams are the ones that live out love for each other. The best teams don’t care much about what they like, but they care a lot about what they love. That’s because love is tough, love forgives, and love is transformational.

Description:
You don't have to be a great athlete to be a great leader. They are separate skills. Make no mistake, leadership is a skill. It's something that you can learn, just like you learned how to throw a ball or jump a hurdle.

Description:
The hokey pokey is a fun dance from childhood. But when hokey pokey can be used to describe your commitment, your hard work, or your effort, then it’s not so fun anymore. We all know people who put in their commitment and then when it costs more than they thought it would, they take it out again. You might have even been that person.

Description:
It’s not about you. Too often, we hear that and go “yeah, right. Of course it’s about me!” That’s the ego talking. It’s the part of you that thinks only about me, myself, and I. But as a servant leader, you’ve got to learn to make the ego take second place to the team. We before Me. The goal of leadership is not to have other people help you achieve your dreams; the goal is to help others achieve their dreams.

Description:
When you think of someone who is in charge, what comes to mind? Is it someone who uses their power and authority to make his or her life easier? Is it someone who acts with entitlement because they’ve earned all the perks of life through talent or skill? That’s one type of leader, but maybe they aren’t as in charge as they think they are.

Description:
A leader doesn’t have to be a speaker or an extrovert. A leader’s actions speak loudly whether they talk aloud or not. Things like showing up prepared and on time, standing tall when you’re tired, and smiling just in general, all tell your teammates more about your leadership abilities than your words ever could. If you want to be a leader, don’t worry so much about speaking loudly with your words; instead, speak loudly with your actions.

Description:
If you want to be a great leader and a great teammate, then you’ve got to lose yourself in service to your team. When you lose your ego and pride and selfishness, you are better able to serve. And the better you serve your teammates, the more you will win their hearts. When you can’t wait to go out and help your teammate become better, then you’ve lost yourself in service.

Description:
When someone gives up, it's usually not because they are incapable of continuing, but because they become discouraged. As Daniel Eckstein said, "Encouragement closes the gap between a person's potential and their self-imposed limitations." To be good teammates, we need to help our teammates close the gap. To do that, we've got to become elite encouragers.

Description:
Coach calls you out because he or she loves you too much to let you be less than your best. And love is the same reason why you should call out your teammates when they aren't meeting the standard. As uncomfortable as it might be, if you truly care about your teammates, if you love your teammates, then you've got to encourage them with a call out when they aren't living to the standard. You've got to speak up.

Description:
One of the greatest leadership myths is that once you become a leader, you no longer have to follow. This is a lie because the best leaders remember what it was like to follow first. Your strength as a leader does not come from your position; it comes from your ability to bring together and work within the team. When you remember what it was like to follow first, it will make you a better leader.

Description:
A team is stronger as a unit than the sum of its individual players. Or at least, it can be–so long as the team trusts one another. A team that has trust will go much farther than a group of individuals who don't trust each other. If you want to build trust on your team, it's going to take three things: time, truth, and testing.

Description:
When we hear the phrase "one up" most of us will think about competing against others to show that we're better than them. But what if we flip that? What if, instead of trying to one up each other, we tried to lift one up every day? What if instead of viewing competition as a chance to best someone, we saw it as an opportunity to give our best to someone?

Description:
Do your actions communicate that you are committed to your teammates as a friend or fan? A fan's support goes up or down depending on how things are going in the game. They don't have any skin in the game. A friend is there for you through thick and thin. They care more about you than they do about your performance. To build a great team, you've got to be committed to one another as friends.

Description:
Everybody leads at some level, including you. We all lead, but we don't all lead our teammates towards the goal. So the question to ask is: Am I a leader worth following? You make the choice for how you will lead, whether you promote enthusiasm, positivity, and passion through your leadership or negativity, apathy, and a lack of accountability. When everyone on the team takes ownership for their leadership, it helps the whole team move forward. But first each team member has to decide: What kind of leader are you going to be?

Description:
If you're interested in rugby, then you've heard of the New Zealand All Blacks. They are three-time Rugby World Cup champions, and they've won 77% of the games that they've played. The All Blacks have been successful for many reasons, but what really sets them apart is their dedication to a simple mantra: Sweep the sheds.

Description:
We all do things that are not helpful to our team. We usually don't mean to do it, and we may not even realize that we are doing it. That's why we need to be able to call out and be called out by our teammates. But as helpful as call-outs are, they aren't necessarily easy. That's where the phrase "Not helpful" becomes helpful. If you see a teammate complaining, comparing, cutting corners, or being cocky, just say "Hey, that's not helpful," and then tell them what would be helpful.

Description:
If you don't connect your leadership in sports to leadership in life, then what have you really learned? How to play a game really well. Sure it's fun, and your friends right now are impressed by your skills, but what's that going to leave you with in the future? The point of being a leader for your team is not just to get better at throwing a ball; the point is to learn how to lead well long after your playing days are over. The Big Three actions to take your leadership beyond sports, are to love, encourage, and serve your teammates.

Description:
When you think of a leader, you might picture someone who does the right thing and sets a good example for others, but that's not all there is to leadership. In fact, those two things have more to do with handling your own business than leading others. So, what actually sets leaders apart? When leaders see something, they say so. The main difference between being a teammate and being a team leader is that leaders speak up and say so at key moments.

Description:
Excellence means giving the best of you, to whatever is in front of you, always. When you identify your best AND give it, again and again, you enter the Excellence Loop. Excellence is not about perfection or comparison. Excellence is a mentality that focuses on you and your choices. When you choose excellence, you either win or you learn; you never lose.

Description:
One of the hardest parts of leadership is that sometimes you'll lead in the right direction, and people will try to go their own way instead. In that moment, you have to choose to either give up on leadership or to lead anyway. You aren't a leader because other people follow you; you're a leader because you lead. Whether or not people follow from the start, lead anyway.

Description:
Striving to be first team means you want to be the best ON the team, while striving to be Team First means you want to be your best FOR the team. The best leaders are Team First, not first team. That's because being a great leader has nothing to do with your talent on the field and everything to do with your talent as a leader. People follow leaders they trust. To be a trustworthy leader, you've got to be team first.

Description:
The higher you rise in any field, the more that talent will level out, and the only thing that can separate you as an individual will be your character. What separates talented teams from the rest is their relationships. The teams with championship relationships win championships. No one wins alone. If you want to form championship relationships with your teammates, then there are a few things you'll want to start doing today.

Description:
Every problem, goal, or task is just a math equation to be solved. You take what you know and use it to solve for what you don't know. There are a lot of unknowns in life, but when you remember to use math, you can clear a lot of that uncertainty. Math can remind you and your teammates to focus forward, motivate you to practice consistently, and help you to recover more fully.

Description: 
How you spend your time matters. What you do and when you do it impacts your personal success and the success of your team. They say the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, but the next best time is today. That's because growth takes time. If you want to grow to be the best you can be, then you should start today.

Description: 
There's no shortcut for success, but there is a cheat code. That cheat code is: Love. It's not really cheating to love what you do or to love your teammates, but love amplifies everything else you do to such a degree that it looks like cheating. Love changes what you do and how you do it.

Description: 
You can probably come up with all sorts of excuses for why you should not or cannot be a leader. It's easy to ask: Why Me? But to make the impact that only YOU can make, you instead need to ask: Why Not? The mental shift from Why Me? to Why Not? helps you look for the reasons why you ARE cut out to be a leader. The more you look for reasons why you can lead, the more that you will find them

Description:
There are two types of mindsets people operate from: a fixed-mindset and a growth-mindset. But there is only one mindset that leads to success: the growth mindset. That’s because the growth mindset isn’t focused on where you’ve been or what you have, it’s focused on where you’re going. It’s focused not on what you have in this moment, but instead on what you’re going to gain in every moment between now and then. “Become perfect” is a growth mindset. “Become perfect” says “I may not be there today, but I’m going to get there soon.”

Description:
Too often we’re disproportionately focused on talent over character. We view talent as the way to make it. We strive to develop our talent; maximize our skill; because we think it’s the thing that will drive us to succeed in life. All the while it’s easy to neglect character. How many division one athletes do you know who are untalented? You see, at a certain level, talent levels out. To maximize your talent, you must maximize your character. The strength of your character will determine the success of your talents.

Description:
Anger isn’t any more inherently wrong than fire. But like fire, it can be destructive if it’s not kept within boundaries. You have certain rights when it comes to your anger, but those rights can be forfeited if you let your anger control you instead of the other way around. The more you control your anger, the more even-keeled you will be. The more you can be angry without committing any of these anger rights violations, the more even-keeled you will be able to remain. And, the more even your temperament is, the better leader and teammate you will be.

Description:
It does you no good to be a five star athlete if you have zero star character. Prowess on the field is temporary. Eventually, sports will end. When it does, you will still have the character lessons you learned while playing, and the skills picked up from the lessons will help you throughout your life… or not. Having a five star character requires caring about others. It means leading a life that makes the world a better place.

Description:
In the same way that iron sharpens iron, people sharpen people. The most important role you have on any team is to sharpen your teammates—to make them better. You sharpen each other during the long hours on the track or in the pool, through the heat of the gridiron or the echoing squeaks of the basketball gym. As iron sharpens iron, you and your teammates sharpen each other through the challenges you give, the competition you engage in, and the conflicts you overcome together.

Description:
The famous fable of the tortoise and the hare teaches us that consistent work ethic will always beat inconsistent talent. If all you have is great talent with no consistency, then like the hare in the story, you'll end up losing to a tortoise when you should have won no question. Slow and steady progress towards a goal will win over fast but faulty progress. Being slow and steady takes practice. It's a skill you acquire through repetition. To get that practice, follow the ABCs of consistent work ethic: Ask why until you know why, Be bound to the basics, and Charlie Mike.

Description:
Humility, or meekness, sometimes gets a bad rap because so many people think meekness and weakness are synonyms. And nobody wants to be weak. Despite the rhyming, meekness and weakness are in no way related. In fact, to practice meekness, you cannot be weak. Only the strong can be truly humble because humility requires self-confidence and security in who you are. When you live your life with true humility, you elevate and celebrate your teammates, and you demonstrate an inner strength that can’t be beaten.

Description:
Tomorrow’s leaders are built in today’s locker rooms. The young people playing on your teams are the nurses, teachers, politicians, lawyers, and doctors of the future. But becoming tomorrow’s leaders requires a willingness to assume a leadership role—not just tomorrow, but also today.Our athletes can be the leaders who are willing to get in it and take care of business. The leaders who jump right in to help others become their best selves. They’re already leaders because they are athletes, but if they are willing to get in it, then they will be leaders worth following.

Description:
Pressure is meant to catapult you forward, not to crush you. The difference lies in how you choose to view and use pressure in your life. Pressure by itself is neutral. It is your choices which change that neutral state to a positive or a negative. This includes the pressure of both internal and external forces, and it includes the pressure that you place on others.

Description:
“Humble warrior” might seem like an oxymoron at first glance, but the definitions of both words mesh really well. Humility is giving the best of me for the best of you, even if it costs me. And a warrior is someone who deploys their talents and energy for the good of others, for a cause greater than self. Warriors act not for their personal good, but for the greater good.Humility gives you the strength to work for others even when it costs you, just as a warrior does.

Description:
You don't have to be a great athlete to be a great leader. They are separate skills. Make no mistake, leadership is a skill. It's something that you can learn, just like you learned how to throw a ball or jump a hurdle.The best athletes aren't always the best leaders. They're two different skill sets that require different things of you. You don't have to be the best athlete to be a great leader; you just have to develop your skill to lead.

Description:
Character matters because character wins. Character is not a consolation prize. It's not the thing you get because you weren't talented enough to be a champion. It's the thing that allows you to become a champion at all. If you want to win on the field and in life, you must win in your character first. There are three reasons this is true:

Description:
It's not about you. Too often, we hear that and go "yeah, right. Of course it's about me!" That's the ego talking. It's the part of you that thinks only about me, myself, and I. But as a servant leader, you've got to learn to make the ego take second place to the team. We before Me. The goal of leadership is not to have other people help you achieve your dreams; the goal is to help others achieve their dreams. There are three things that happen when you fight for second place: When you fight for second place, you replace entitlement with gratitude. When you fight for second place, you don't take criticism personally. When you fight for second place, everyone succeeds together as a team.

Description:

Description:
A leader doesn’t have to be a speaker or an extrovert. A leader’s actions speak loudly whether they talk aloud or not. Things like showing up prepared and on time, standing tall when you’re tired, and smiling just in general, all tell your teammates more about your leadership abilities than your words ever could. If you want to be a leader, don’t worry so much about speaking loudly with your words; instead, speak loudly with your actions.

Description:
If you want to be a great leader and a great teammate, then you’ve got to lose yourself in service to your team. When you lose your ego and pride and selfishness, you are better able to serve. And the better you serve your teammates, the more you will win their hearts. When you can’t wait to go out and help your teammate become better, then you’ve lost yourself in service.

Description:
When someone gives up, it's usually not because they are incapable of continuing, but because they become discouraged. As Daniel Eckstein said, "Encouragement closes the gap between a person's potential and their self-imposed limitations." To be good teammates, we need to help our teammates close the gap. To do that, we've got to become elite encouragers.

Description:
One of the greatest leadership myths is that once you become a leader, you no longer have to follow. This is a lie because the best leaders remember what it was like to follow first. Your strength as a leader does not come from your position; it comes from your ability to bring together and work within the team. When you remember what it was like to follow first, it will make you a better leader.

Description:
A team is stronger as a unit than the sum of its individual players. Or at least, it can be–so long as the team trusts one another. A team that has trust will go much farther than a group of individuals who don't trust each other. If you want to build trust on your team, it's going to take three things: time, truth, and testing.

Description:
When we hear the phrase "one up" most of us will think about competing against others to show that we're better than them. But what if we flip that? What if, instead of trying to one up each other, we tried to lift one up every day? What if instead of viewing competition as a chance to best someone, we saw it as an opportunity to give our best to someone?

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Do your actions communicate that you are committed to your teammates as a friend or fan? A fan's support goes up or down depending on how things are going in the game. They don't have any skin in the game. A friend is there for you through thick and thin. They care more about you than they do about your performance. To build a great team, you've got to be committed to one another as friends.

Description:
Everybody leads at some level, including you. We all lead, but we don't all lead our teammates towards the goal. So the question to ask is: Am I a leader worth following? You make the choice for how you will lead, whether you promote enthusiasm, positivity, and passion through your leadership or negativity, apathy, and a lack of accountability. When everyone on the team takes ownership for their leadership, it helps the whole team move forward. But first each team member has to decide: What kind of leader are you going to be?

Description:
If you're interested in rugby, then you've heard of the New Zealand All Blacks. They are three-time Rugby World Cup champions, and they've won 77% of the games that they've played. The All Blacks have been successful for many reasons, but what really sets them apart is their dedication to a simple mantra: Sweep the sheds.

Description:
We all do things that are not helpful to our team. We usually don't mean to do it, and we may not even realize that we are doing it. That's why we need to be able to call out and be called out by our teammates. But as helpful as call-outs are, they aren't necessarily easy. That's where the phrase "Not helpful" becomes helpful. If you see a teammate complaining, comparing, cutting corners, or being cocky, just say "Hey, that's not helpful," and then tell them what would be helpful.

Description:
If you don't connect your leadership in sports to leadership in life, then what have you really learned? How to play a game really well. Sure it's fun, and your friends right now are impressed by your skills, but what's that going to leave you with in the future? The point of being a leader for your team is not just to get better at throwing a ball; the point is to learn how to lead well long after your playing days are over. The Big Three actions to take your leadership beyond sports, are to love, encourage, and serve your teammates.

Description:
When you think of a leader, you might picture someone who does the right thing and sets a good example for others, but that's not all there is to leadership. In fact, those two things have more to do with handling your own business than leading others. So, what actually sets leaders apart? When leaders see something, they say so. The main difference between being a teammate and being a team leader is that leaders speak up and say so at key moments.

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Excellence means giving the best of you, to whatever is in front of you, always. When you identify your best AND give it, again and again, you enter the Excellence Loop. Excellence is not about perfection or comparison. Excellence is a mentality that focuses on you and your choices. When you choose excellence, you either win or you learn; you never lose.

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One of the hardest parts of leadership is that sometimes you'll lead in the right direction, and people will try to go their own way instead. In that moment, you have to choose to either give up on leadership or to lead anyway. You aren't a leader because other people follow you; you're a leader because you lead. Whether or not people follow from the start, lead anyway.

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Striving to be first team means you want to be the best ON the team, while striving to be Team First means you want to be your best FOR the team. The best leaders are Team First, not first team. That's because being a great leader has nothing to do with your talent on the field and everything to do with your talent as a leader. People follow leaders they trust. To be a trustworthy leader, you've got to be team first.

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The higher you rise in any field, the more that talent will level out, and the only thing that can separate you as an individual will be your character. What separates talented teams from the rest is their relationships. The teams with championship relationships win championships. No one wins alone. If you want to form championship relationships with your teammates, then there are a few things you'll want to start doing today.

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Every problem, goal, or task is just a math equation to be solved. You take what you know and use it to solve for what you don't know. There are a lot of unknowns in life, but when you remember to use math, you can clear a lot of that uncertainty. Math can remind you and your teammates to focus forward, motivate you to practice consistently, and help you to recover more fully.

Description:
When you think of someone who is in charge, what comes to mind? Is it someone who uses their power and authority to make his or her life easier? Is it someone who acts with entitlement because they’ve earned all the perks of life through talent or skill? That’s one type of leader, but maybe they aren’t as in charge as they think they are.

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A leader doesn’t have to be a speaker or an extrovert. A leader’s actions speak loudly whether they talk aloud or not. Things like showing up prepared and on time, standing tall when you’re tired, and smiling just in general, all tell your teammates more about your leadership abilities than your words ever could. If you want to be a leader, don’t worry so much about speaking loudly with your words; instead, speak loudly with your actions.

Description:
If you want to be a great leader and a great teammate, then you’ve got to lose yourself in service to your team. When you lose your ego and pride and selfishness, you are better able to serve. And the better you serve your teammates, the more you will win their hearts. When you can’t wait to go out and help your teammate become better, then you’ve lost yourself in service.

Description:
When someone gives up, it's usually not because they are incapable of continuing, but because they become discouraged. As Daniel Eckstein said, "Encouragement closes the gap between a person's potential and their self-imposed limitations." To be good teammates, we need to help our teammates close the gap. To do that, we've got to become elite encouragers.

Description:
Coach calls you out because he or she loves you too much to let you be less than your best. And love is the same reason why you should call out your teammates when they aren't meeting the standard. As uncomfortable as it might be, if you truly care about your teammates, if you love your teammates, then you've got to encourage them with a call out when they aren't living to the standard. You've got to speak up.

Description:
One of the greatest leadership myths is that once you become a leader, you no longer have to follow. This is a lie because the best leaders remember what it was like to follow first. Your strength as a leader does not come from your position; it comes from your ability to bring together and work within the team. When you remember what it was like to follow first, it will make you a better leader.

Description:
When we hear the phrase "one up" most of us will think about competing against others to show that we're better than them. But what if we flip that? What if, instead of trying to one up each other, we tried to lift one up every day? What if instead of viewing competition as a chance to best someone, we saw it as an opportunity to give our best to someone?

Description:
Do your actions communicate that you are committed to your teammates as a friend or fan? A fan's support goes up or down depending on how things are going in the game. They don't have any skin in the game. A friend is there for you through thick and thin. They care more about you than they do about your performance. To build a great team, you've got to be committed to one another as friends.

Description:
Everybody leads at some level, including you. We all lead, but we don't all lead our teammates towards the goal. So the question to ask is: Am I a leader worth following? You make the choice for how you will lead, whether you promote enthusiasm, positivity, and passion through your leadership or negativity, apathy, and a lack of accountability. When everyone on the team takes ownership for their leadership, it helps the whole team move forward. But first each team member has to decide: What kind of leader are you going to be?

Description:
If you're interested in rugby, then you've heard of the New Zealand All Blacks. They are three-time Rugby World Cup champions, and they've won 77% of the games that they've played. The All Blacks have been successful for many reasons, but what really sets them apart is their dedication to a simple mantra: Sweep the sheds.

Description:
We all do things that are not helpful to our team. We usually don't mean to do it, and we may not even realize that we are doing it. That's why we need to be able to call out and be called out by our teammates. But as helpful as call-outs are, they aren't necessarily easy. That's where the phrase "Not helpful" becomes helpful. If you see a teammate complaining, comparing, cutting corners, or being cocky, just say "Hey, that's not helpful," and then tell them what would be helpful.

Description:
If you don't connect your leadership in sports to leadership in life, then what have you really learned? How to play a game really well. Sure it's fun, and your friends right now are impressed by your skills, but what's that going to leave you with in the future? The point of being a leader for your team is not just to get better at throwing a ball; the point is to learn how to lead well long after your playing days are over. The Big Three actions to take your leadership beyond sports, are to love, encourage, and serve your teammates.

Description:
We’ve all heard the saying, “When opportunity knocks, you better open the door.” That phrase claims if you’re not in the right place at the right time, you’ll miss your shot. Let’s get one thing straight: opportunity it not a unicorn. It’s not rare, and it’s definitely not a once in a lifetime chance. Opportunity is everywhere. The question is not, when will opportunity knock? The real question is, what doors am I building for opportunity to knock on? The more doors you build, the more opportunities you will have. The people that believe opportunity is a matter of luck haven’t picked up a hammer to make their own way. They’ve complained more than they’ve constructed.

Description:
When is the game really won? Is it when you run up the scoreboard? When the clock ticks out to zero? When you stride a few inches longer than your opponent? While all those are technically true, they don’t tell the whole story. A more complete story is, if you want to outscore your opponent on Friday night, you’ve gotta outwork them Saturday-Thursday. Victory is not simply had on the playing field, it’s had on the practice field. If you want to win in the game, you’ve got to win in practice. The math is rough, but in general, you will only spend around 8 percent of your time in a sport in the game. You’ll spend somewhere around 92 percent of your time practicing, watching film, working on the fundamentals, honing mental skills, and lifting in the weight room. That’s why we say: Prior Preparation Permits Proper Performance.

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Discipline gives us the impetus to move forward and keep improving. We can imagine laying on a beach without a care all day, but at the end of that day, what has that gained us for the next day? On the other hand, if we spend that day in the weightroom or the classroom, putting our time and energy into enhancing our bodies and our minds, the next day brings new and better things.If we discipline ourselves to do the things we don’t want to do today, we will get the things we do want tomorrow.

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“Don’t wait for success to come your way because if you do, it will never happen.”

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Champions don’t just win championships. Too often, people believe they can “hack” their way to champion status but cutting out the “fluff” and only focusing their efforts on making the “big changes” they see champions make. While there is no doubt value in learning from the greats --after all, success leaves clues-- we must learn about all the champions do, not just the big things. It will always be the commitment to and execution of the unseen and difficult fine tuning that separates the best, from rest. If you want to reach your goals in sports or in life, you’ve got to commit yourself to the small, incremental, fine tuning. This week, and every other, let’s commit to steady, consistent, incremental growth. To the Plus One.

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The secret to success is simple. It’s the thing that everybody is trying to avoid.The thing that everybody is trying to figure out a way around. The secret to success is hard work.

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Leaders are careful about what they commit to. They don’t commit to every good thing that is out there.

Description:
The first five minutes after waking up set the tempo for the rest of your day. It works the same way for the first five minutes of practice, the first five minutes of class or family time or hanging out with your friends. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth bringing the first five mentality to it. That means preparing well, arriving well, and doing your job. The first five minutes set the tempo, not just of your morning, but of everything you do. Whatever you’re doing, the first five mentality can improve it.

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The integrity gap is the gap between what is proclaimed and what actually is. It’s the space between your team’s stated values and the actual way those values come to life every day. For example, you would never let an opponent come in and trash your locker room; yet, you accept your teammate’s trashy talk and attitude there, and you look the other way because you don't want anyone to shine a light on the ways that you aren't ideal teammates. As leaders, teammates, and coaches we’ve got to close the G.A.P.

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You can come up with all kinds of reasons to procrastinate and to put today's work off until tomorrow. But today's finish line is tomorrow's starting line. Where you stopped yesterday is where you start today. You can come up with all kinds of reasons for why you can put off today's work until tomorrow, but that negative progress is cumulative, just as positive forward movement is cumulative. If you put off today's work for tomorrow, you will find it still waiting for you tomorrow. Maybe worry is holding you back from doing today's work, such as worry about performing well or worry about missing out on something more fun. Worry won't get you anywhere, though. The only way to make progress, the only way to consistently keep moving forward towards your goals and dreams, is to do today's work today.

Description:
The famous fable of the tortoise and the hare teaches us that consistent work ethic will always beat inconsistent talent. If all you have is great talent with no consistency, then like the hare in the story, you'll end up losing to a tortoise when you should have won no question. Slow and steady progress towards a goal will win over fast but faulty progress. The hare lost to the tortoise because consistent hard work will always beat inconsistent talent. Follow the ABCs of consistent work ethic and you'll see how slow and steady wins the race.

Description:
Before a new gym can host the sporting events you love, it has to be built. There's a long process to get from empty patch of ground to shiny gym, and it involves a very dirty process of growing. In the same way, there's a long, dirty process between where you are now and where you want to be. This isn't meant to be discouraging. If anything, be encouraged that you’re still in the process of reaching your goals. You're growing, learning, and improving every day. But you have to be willing to do the dirty jobs to ultimately reach the shiny dream. Before a gym can host games, there are a lot of dirty jobs that have to be done to build the place. In the same way, you have to do the dirty jobs to build the skills and character needed to reach your goals and dreams.

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What’s your superpower? The greatest power you can have is the strength to take responsibility. When you take responsibility, it doesn’t matter what you lack in talent or resources because taking responsibility puts the power to change your situation into your hands. As Marvel’s Uncle Ben said in so many versions of Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.” But the reverse is also true: With great responsibility comes great power.

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We can’t become our best if we don’t give our best. Giving our best requires that we lock in. That means giving our eyes, our attention, to what is right in front of us. When we’re locked in, we aren’t distracted by outside things. To lock in, we have to walk through a ritual that will help us go from distracted and dazed to locked in like a laser.

Description:
We live in a fast-paced society. Everything and everyone seems to be moving at the speed of electricity. But sometimes that breakneck pace can actually break our necks, or at least, it can break our goals and dreams. Life is too short to run through it like it’s a race. Instead, we need to learn to slow down.

Description:
We all have different things that help us to get fired up to do something difficult. Maybe it’s a song, a secret handshake with a workout buddy, or a chant. Whatever it is, you probably already know that thing can fail you. Sometimes, when you really don’t want to do what you need to do, the secret motivation sauce doesn’t work, and you’re left asking: How do I find motivation to do what I don’t want to do? 

Description:
Life is fast-paced. Sometimes the pace is so fast that you think you don’t have time to rest. But if you don’t take the time to rest and recover, then you won’t make it for the long haul. Think about a truck going down the highway. If you don’t stop for gas sometimes, you’re going to end up on the side of the road unable to continue. If you’re going to make it for the long haul, you’ve got to take time to rest.

Description:
A lot of people spend more time looking for a secret sauce or a cheat code to success than they do working towards the success they seek. The truth is: there is no cheat code. The only secret sauce you will find for success is a blend of hard work and consistency. When you show up day after day to put in the required and unrequired work, you earn your success. That’s the secret sauce for success: consistent hard work.

Description:
We live in a world that's obsessed with being THE best. And that can make you forget that what really matters is being YOUR best. Comparison to others and expecting perfection from yourself are traps that will try to prevent you from achieving your best. But your best is enough to reach your goals and dreams, so long as you consistently do the required and unrequired work.

Description:
If you feel like you're stuck on a hamster wheel, working really hard but not getting anywhere, then you need the 3 E's in your life. Set high Expectations for yourself and pair them with Encouragement from friends, family, and teammates. Allow your coach and your teammates to call you out, so they can Equip you to use the Encouragement and meet the Expectations. If you want off the hamster wheel, remember the 3 E's: Expectation, Encouragement, and Equipping.

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Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? It may sound like a silly question, but it has some serious implications for your success on the field and in the game of life. Every day, you must ask yourself: “Did I set the temperature of my life, or did others set it for me? Did I let positive influences into my life, or did I hang with people who lead me away from my goals?" Only you can decide whether you’ll be a thermostat who influences those around them or a thermometer who picks the right influences to have around them.

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Good coaches know to take time outs when the game is getting out of control. Time outs give your team a chance to breathe, and they create an opportunity to interrupt the (usually negative) flow of the game, so you can get your focus back where it needs to be. There's no game clock in life, but we can and should use time outs in life, too.

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The person in the driver's seat determines where the bus is going. So what's in the driver's seat of your life? Letting fear or rewards drive is exhausting because the trip never ends; there's always a new fear in the rearview mirror or a new reward on the horizon. When you let love and gratitude drive the bus instead, you'll find success because you already have it. Where you go and in what time frame depends on who's driving the bus. When you think about your goals and dreams, who (or what) is in the driver's seat?

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If you aren't pushing yourself to do the best you can, what are you waiting for? If you aren't leading your team, what are you waiting for? When you wait to push yourself or to act like a leader, you are paving the way for entitlement to enter your life. Entitlement dilutes your talent, causes you to compare yourself to others, and makes mole hills into mountains. To avoid entitlement, stop waiting and start working.

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Being a student-athlete is hard. But then, life is hard, too. In the game of life, there are going to be obstacles and difficulties, just like there are in sports. Through coaching, we can learn how to show up to any challenges we meet and then rise above them all. And if we can do it in sports, we can do it in life.

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You know that all you can give is your best, and you know that your best on one day won't always be the same as your best on another day. But how do you know when you've given your best?

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It's pretty easy to give total effort on a good day, when you're excited about what you're doing, and when your whole team is giving their best together. But life isn't always like that. There will be bad days. There will be days when you don't want to work. There will be days when you're the only one who does want to work. These situations will happen throughout your life–not just in sports. Don't let your effort be determined by your feelings or the environment. Give total effort regardless.

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If you walk through life with no skin in the game, then there's nothing to anchor you when the going gets tough. If you want to succeed in sports and in life, then you have to pay the cost of your commitments; you have to take responsibility for your actions. In other words, you have to own it.

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No matter how many times you're told that hard work is a good thing and that it pays off in the end, you'll still find yourself fighting against excuses, procrastination, and doubt, which all discourage hard work. When you face these de-motivators, remember: Hard work works.

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Everybody feels like there just aren't enough hours in the day sometimes. When you feel overwhelmed by your schedule, you can't create more time, but you can ensure that the time you have is well spent. Spending time well means you get more out of that time than you put into it, like when you spend time outside of your comfort zone, serving others, or resting.

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Missing your goals happens slowly, and then all at once. It starts with a little quit here or there, like mentally zoning out in the classroom or skipping a few reps in the weight room. You think these things don't matter because they're so small, but with each little quit, you get closer to missing your goal. Every choice you make is either a little quit or a little commitment.

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When you join a sports team or choose a class to take, that decision is the first Yes. The first Yes is important because it's the one that gets you started. But once you start, there will come a time when you have to choose whether or not to give a second Yes. The first Yes gets you inside, but the second Yes keeps you there. The first Yes matters, but the second Yes makes all the difference.

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The way that you motivate yourself when you don't feel like it or don't want to is to embrace discipline. Discipline helps you to say No in service of a greater Yes. Discipline helps you to do what you must today so you can get what you want tomorrow. When you embrace discipline, you align your work with your goals, and then you get it done.

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The purpose of practice is to learn all that you can, to build trust with your teammates, and to build confidence in yourself. A perfect practice is one that supports all three of these functions. You are in control of whether or not you have a perfect practice. That's because you choose whether or not you give total focus, give total effort, and are totally coachable.

Description:
We’ve all heard the saying, “When opportunity knocks, you better open the door.” That phrase claims if you’re not in the right place at the right time, you’ll miss your shot. Let’s get one thing straight: opportunity is not a unicorn. It’s not rare, and it’s definitely not a once in a lifetime chance. Opportunity is everywhere. The question is not, when will opportunity knock? The real question is, what doors am I building for opportunity to knock on? The more doors you build, the more opportunities you will have. The people that believe opportunity is a matter of luck haven’t picked up a hammer to make their own way. They’ve complained more than they’ve constructed.