Becoming a coach has been a transformational experience in my life, and is often times a reference point for looking at all aspects of our daily lives. How you do anything is how you do everything.
This being said, the more I grow on multiple levels (I’ll say this in the summary, but I’m ashamed of the coach I was at age 25 in many ways, which is a good thing), the more I link the resounding truths of life in general to everything that athletes go through, as well as what causes athletes to stagnate in performance. The same principles apply to growth and excellence on multiple fronts.
As Dan John brought forth in Just Fly Performance Podcast #96, There are four “F’s” in life that are all related, Fitness, Food, Finance and Friendship. How many times have you heard training correlated to cooking a fine dish, or probabilities and statistics in injury prevention to the stock market?
There is no doubt that some people will achieve success on the highest levels of sport, and even coaching, with virtually no personal development, maturity or growth, but that success is generally not long lived in these cases. As John Wooden has said:
“Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character”
So what are some things I’ve found that link general success in life to success in training? Many athletes can have great seasons of performance, but to be consistently great and reach one’s highest level, as well as gain fulfillment in the process, there are some helpful commonalities to be aware of. This isn’t to say that there aren’t amazing athletes who reach a high level while missing many of these, but the longer I’ve trained athletes, the more I find a good general response to these universal principles and stagnation when they are overridden or ignored. There are a few commonalities that are as follows:
Commonalities of Success in Life and Sport
- Intent, Desire and Vision
First and foremost, intent to succeed trumps all. Nobody who doesn’t want to be successful will become it. In many cases, the bigger the competition, the greater the intent, and the better the results. Wanting to win is important, but having a vision of what winning looks like is even more important. I’m a believer in vision boards, and the common stories of those who post the vision of what they want to be or achieve in a place they will always seeing it are wiring their subconscious mind to pull them towards that goal regularly. To me, Arnold Schwarzenegger (one of the most successful human beings of all time), is the epitome of this principle, and it’s written over any motivational piece you’ll watch on his life.
- Positivity
A positive attitude is key to success in anything. Our emotions that we put into work, or working out dictate our results. One of the Jay Schroeder principles that has always stuck with me is the “PIPES” (stimulating an athlete physically, intellectually, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually), and looking at only sets and reps while ignoring all others will seriously diminish a session. One of the sports this is the most seen in is actually bodybuilding. Check out legendary bodybuilder, Bill Pearl’s take on the matter.
“A proper mental attitude plays a large role in your efforts to build size and strength. When thinking positive thoughts, one has a happy outlook on life. You should think positively about all your daily activities, physical, mental and moral. It will aid you in your training in the gym as well as your personal life. A healthy, positive attitude will improve your body and help make you a better person.”
- Exploration
I’ve heard a successful day in one’s life includes the fact that you learned something new. To me, I am in full agreement, and I think the same thing exists in training. This isn’t to say that everyone needs to start going full “functional patterns mode” because it is very possible to do that type of work and not learn anything new about yourself due to it’s complexity. Rather, learning something new about a simple and basic movement you’ve been doing for years can be a complete game changer. Adding simple sensory and mechanical changes into a workout (such as on the level of feet or wrists) can turn what may become mundane into a stimulating learning experience that facilitates a new personal best.
- Environment
If you want to be fast, train with people who are fast. If you want to be a rich entrepreneur, hang out with other rich entrepreneurs. The crowd we constantly associate with will define us and shape our thoughts and goals. This is an important aspect of the world’s “talent dens”, where much of the world’s talent in a particular sport or skill is coming out of few small pockets of training.
- Having Fun
For me, the most successful times I’ve had in my life have been when I’d had the most fun in the process. My best years of track and field were the ones I had the most fun training, which was very much shaped by my environment and teammates. This doesn’t mean that willpower and the ability to sit down and focus into deep work isn’t important… without the ability to achieve deep work, none of us can get much of anything accomplished. It does mean though that there should regularly be points where we are having fun in what we are doing. There may be cases where people can put their head down and grind at the expense of their personal health and enjoyment of what they are doing (not social media “grinding” but actually working hard for an extended period of time), but the success that comes from this is short lived.
- Gratitude
Gratitude is a baseline for improvement. Not being satisfied is important, but equally important is being grateful for what one has accomplished. The act of gratitude itself has a multitude of psychological and physiological benefits, so take the advice of my friend Paul Cater and make this a part of your daily routine. You’ll see it in athletics via progressive coaches like Paul, and daily success routines such as the 5-minute journal. Growth starts from the base of gratitude.
- Attracting > Forcing
Here is a point that may seem like a fine line, but it is a place where training can actually offer a point of view that one can look at life success. I would like to call it the “Easy Strength” principle, named after one of my favorite books by Dan John and Pavel. It also reflects what Charles Staley drew from “The War of Art” by Pressfield in his landmark article on professionalism vs. amateurism on T-Nation, which draws on many of the same concepts, the most pertainent to this article being #7. Within the article, Pressfield is quoted:
“The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones.”
Ultimately it comes down to this: Amateurs often go as hard as they can emotionally in every set and rep they do in the hope of being a “pro” and identifying with their result but this attitude will yield short lived results and lots of waves and wild swings in training. Willpower is huge here, showing up daily, knowing what your limit is, enjoying the process, and patiently pursuing excellence with no excuses.
“Forcing it” often comes from overly identifying your self worth with your result, when we can get past that, we can move to a new level of success. When we become the person we want to be, we can attract the success and results to us in the aftermath, but chasing results to give us self-worth is never the road to ultimate achievement.
- Selflessness
When we can get our own image and what others perceive us to be out of the way, we have more room for growth and service of others. This fits into the point above as well. Ultimately, training and life are connected, and we should try to strive to become the best version of ourselves, but this version is characterized by an unconditional love for other people.
On the other side of things, there are definitely means of existence that lead to moving away from one’s goals in both training and life. I’ve found that these tend to lead to athletic roadblocks, and they can be listed as follows:
Commonalities of Stagnation
- Forcing it
We covered this before… and how does it show up in training? The biggest way is the need to test one’s self constantly rather than train one’s self constantly. Working around 85% of one’s 1RM is training, while working up to or over 95% is testing. There is a difference. The same exists in any other form of exercise. Granted, in training speed to be fast, you must train fast, but those of us who have been in the speed coaching game for long enough also know that most people run faster trying 90% than trying 100% the same way one tries for 100% in lifting a weight. There is a relaxed aggression that comes from the sense of personal control and a professional approach to training.
The same thing tends to happen in life. As admirable as it is to pull all-nighters for the sake of success, this leads to a quick burn out. Consistency and good habits will trump emotionalism in the long run.
- Ungratefulness
Yes, this is a simple one. The absence of gratitude tends to put us on a treadmill that equates our self-worth to what we achieve, rather than what life has given us. Be grateful on a regular basis to reach your best potential.
- Complacency
One of the resounding truths that I’ve heard over and over since having a full-time strength and conditioning role is to have a sense of urgency. Athletes who are just happy to be somewhere will never improve… it happens every time. Unless one is hungry to grow and reach the next level in life, they will stagnate, regardless of it being sport, career or personal development. If this is the prevailing attitude, the best training program in the world won’t offer much help. The attitude must be fixed before the grand periodization scheme comes into play (or perhaps just a simple vertical integration).
How you do anything is how you do everything.
- Goals that come from the wrong place
Attaching one’s result to one’s self worth also impacts goal setting. I’ve seen some ridiculous end-game performance goals in my career as an athlete and coach that just didn’t seem to fit where the athlete was at the time. Goals are important, but I believe they need to come from the right place. I also believe that they should also revolve around becoming the athlete one wants to be and letting the ultimate result fall into place just as much as the final time, height or distance. There’s nothing wrong with having an end-goal… it’s a vital part of the process (such as writing your goal down and placing it where you can see it all year), just not the whole process.
Lifestyle and consistency goals are also must-haves when it comes to psychological training. One of my favorite podcast episodes was with Nick Davis of UW-LaCrosse, and talking about the consistency goals he has for his athletes, in addition to an end-game performance goal.
A quote from coach Davis that I love is as follows:
“Where we spend most of our time is on the process goals; shorter term goals focused on skill acquisition. I also want them to set process goals for their mental approach”
Make process and development goals an important part of your equation and you’ll be on a great path.
- Selfishness
No matter who or where you are, never forget to give back. I believe that giving, whether it is of our time, to charity, or just in act of kindness, is something that allows us to come full-circle as athletes, coaches, or people in general. All aspects of life are truly connected.
Summary
In summary, consider this:
- It’s not about the weight you are lifting, it is who and what you are becoming
- It’s not what you do, it’s HOW you do it
- It’s just as much, if not more, your attitude about your workout than the exact specs of the workout
- It’s not about forcing a technique, it’s about allowing the body to explore and learn it’s optimal function in the process
- Invest your mental energy in becoming the best person you can be, not using athletics to create self worth
The journey has been good to me so far, and I’m happy to say that I can be fully ashamed of the coach I was at 25 as I turn 35 this upcoming year, in the sense that I’ve had the opportunity to grow as much as I have along the way. My best to you in your own personal and athletic journey.
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