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.

Pillar: Growth Mindset

Key Topics: pressure, expectations, perfection, become perfect, best yet, growth mindset, mentality, attitude, self-doubt, fear of failure, belief in self

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.

Pillar:   Servant Leadership

Key Topic: servant leadership, leaders always lead, leadership skill, hard work, sacrifice, speaking up, encouraging others, dependable, set the example

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. The rise and grind mindset doesn't just apply to the morning, though. When your mindset is rise and grind, that translates to making your whole day better.

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.

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. 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.

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:
1.Character is a talent amplifier.
2.Character is your foundation.
3.Character is the truth about who you are.

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. There are three main ways that taking responsibility transforms your life: It helps you own your mistakes. It helps you learn how to learn. And It helps you do your job.The ability to take responsibility is a superpower that will transform the way we act. Let's take responsibility today.

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.

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.

Pillar: Goals

Key Topics: goals, focus forward, letting go of mistakes, entitlement, action steps, goal setting, unearned praise