A Coach's Diary

  “Your environment never defines you; it simply gives you the opportunity to find yourself.” - Peter Sage In his TEDx Talk titled, How to Become Your Best When Life Gives You Its Worst, Peter Sage says the most incredible adventure he has ever had the privilege of living was spending 6 months in one of the world’s toughest prisons. How? He said, “One of the greatest days in a human being's journey of emotional maturity is the day that we realize that life is not a comfort-centric experience but a growth-centric experience.”  Peter was an entrepreneur and personal growth expert, and he said being in jail was an opportunity for him to walk the talk that he had been teaching for so many years in a real environment, and an opportunity to learn new lessons about himself and life. Peter wrote a story called Mud or Stars about two prisoners sitting behind bars. One prisoner looked down and saw the mud, and the other looked up and saw the stars.  Peter said, “Your environment ne...

“It's supposed to be uncomfortable, it’s supposed to stretch you, and it's supposed to be a burden. Wrap your mind around it, accept it, and embrace it.” - Nipsey Hussle Rapper Nipsey Hussle was not only a great lyricist but also a successful businessman who talked a lot about wanting to grow, expand, and become the best version of himself. He said that growth and the added responsibility that comes with it are hard. As his career and businesses grew, he had to learn how to juggle and manage several different roles at the same time, and his mentality when everything started to become too much and overwhelming for him was to remember that this is what it is supposed to look like and feel like when you are pursuing greatness; it isn’t supposed to feel comfortable. He said when it becomes a lot, remember that it is supposed to feel like a lot, it’s supposed to feel uncomfortable, it's supposed to stretch you, and it's supposed to be a burden to a degree. He then said you h...

“Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.” - Angela Duckworth Championship football coach Nick Saban says every great team has three things: a vision, a plan, and discipline. Discipline is both doing what you are supposed to do when you don’t want to and not doing what you want to do when you know you aren’t supposed to do it. How do we have the discipline to do the right thing all the time? Grit. Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is sticking with your plan and having discipline no matter what tries to get in your way. Psychologist Angela Duckworth says the number one indicator of success is grit. Grit can be the one characteristic that can help you overcome any obstacle you will have to face. How do you build grit? It starts with having a growth mindset: the belief that you have the ability to get better at whatever you work at. Nick Saban was from a small coal town in West Virginia where many people didn’t even think about going t...

“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” - Moliere I once heard someone say life is all about battles and blessings. When we are in the middle of a battle, it can be hard to believe it will ever come to an end, and when we are in a season of blessings, we sometimes expect it will go forever. But nothing lasts forever, and that is the message behind The Hero’s Journey, the stages of ups and downs we all go through. The 5 stages of the hero’s journey: The Honeymoon Stage:  When you begin and everything is great. The Pit Stage:  When obstacles and battles knock you down. The Climb Stage:  When you are climbing out of The Pit. The Flow Stage:  When you are in the zone. The Impact Stage:  When you become a hero and help others through The Pit. When you find yourself in the middle of battles and stuck in the pit, you have three options: Become a hero, a villain, or a victim. Victims make excuses and stay stuck in The Pit, while heroes and villains ...

"We overestimate what we can do in one month, and we underestimate what we can do in 12 months, so resolutions often become a one-month thing." - Jay Shetty 365 days from now, who do you want to be, what do you want to be doing, and who do you want to be doing it with? These are questions author, podcaster, and influencer Jay Shetty says we should be asking to start a new year or season. Research says 80% of people stop practicing their New Year’s Resolutions by the end of January, so how can we find a better way to reset and start a new year? By focusing on doing the things we need to do so we can become the people we want to become. Jay says there are 4 types of seasons or years, and every year or season has a different feel and purpose: 1 - Learning 2 - Experimenting 3 - Performing 4 - Thriving Is this a learning year or season where you need to take a step back to learn, grow, and get better, or is this an experimenting season where you are trying to figure out what works...

"I did the ordinary things extra." - Kenny Smith Kenny Smith is best known for his work in the NBA on TNT, but he was also a great basketball player. He was a high school All-American, played for Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina, and won 2 championships with the Houston Rockets. When Kenny was in high school, he said he went from not being recruited at all as a junior with 0 scholarship offers to being an All-American and having scholarship offers from every school in the country as a senior. How did he do it? Work ethic and doing the ordinary things extra. He says, "Champions do daily what everyone else does occasionally. They aren’t extraordinary, they just do the ordinary extra." A mindset shift changed his work ethic, and a change in work ethic changed his career and life in just 6 months. Make the next 6 months your best 6 months by committing to doing just a few things you already do better, more consistently, or extra. Reflection Question: What ...

Failure is a part of everyone’s journey. The most successful people have a vision, create a plan, and stick to it no matter how much fear or failure they have or experience. Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, started with $5,000 and a dream and turned it into a billion-dollar business while balancing family and friends. In an interview with her husband, Jesse Itzler, Sara shared some of the keys to her success. Lemons Out of Lemonade Sara said she grew up wanting to be a lawyer because her dad was a trial attorney, but she was a terrible test-taker and after she bombed the LSAT twice, she changed the trajectory of her life. She said when bad things happen, they often feel like the worst thing ever but they often push us to our true purpose. Sara went to work at Disney for 3 months before taking a job selling fax machines for 7 years. She said she was kicked out of business every day, and one day decided she was in the wrong movie and wanted to do something different. Self-Discovery Sa...