The Competitor’s Brain

I remember golfing with my friends. Some of my closest friends. I was in my twenties. I was a decent golfer, got down to the low teens, regularly in the low 80s. Two of my roommates were excellent golfers. They were both accountants. They did not fit into Happy Gilmore’s stereotype of golfers. They were a plus-two and a three. Learn how recall can make you into a better performer here .

The legendary catcher Crash Davis was at the center of the baseball movie Bull Durham. Early in the movie, rookie pitcher Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh and Crash meet behind a bar in Durham… you know, the classic “wanna step outside” moment. The moment culminates with Crash challenging Nuke to throw a baseball at him, followed by Crash planting seeds of what could happen if Nuke misses. Read more on...

If you have access to something that can set you apart, and you're willing to put in the work necessary, your skill set can compound. The gains that you can make will set you apart from others due to the advantage you have been given. Will you capture it, or will you let it slip? 

We are the average of the people we spend the most time with. We pick up their habits, we pick up their opinions, we pick up their attitudes toward the world. If you hang with people who make bad choices... well, you will make bad choices too. 

For most of us, it's not enough to read. The information just tends to get lost over time. It's about cataloguing the information in a meaningful way in order to be able to reference it later. There are many different ways to go about it, and there's no right way... but there needs to be a way. 

If you want to be successful, you need to look at what those who are truly successful are doing. The best students... are they taking notes differently? How do they study? How do they organize their thoughts? The best athletes... how do they practice? Do they watch film? What do they look for during a game?

This episode started out about compounding, and how a small investment in a person at a critical time in their lives can make a massive difference. I guess it's still about compounding. But there are times you can take a small thing—an offer of space or access—and give it to someone to see what they'll do with it. It happened with Bill Gates and his access to the computer lab in his town. It happe...

Shane Parrish had a great quote in his Brain Food newsletter in late July about life rewarding action. We'll review the quote here and how this ties into becoming a champion, and why hard work wins. 

Sometimes things just tie together. We have just finished reviewing the Core Values for UNC Women's Soccer, and I was reminded of a quote from their legendary coach Anson Dorrance to Mia Hamm. He saw her working out on a cold morning and wrote her a note that said "The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.” Oth...

Leaders can change an organization's culture. For the 1988 Dodgers, that leader was Kirk Gibson. Gibson was on the receiving end of a prank that changed the Dodgers' season. “Basically, I don’t want to be a part of their fun and comedy act,” said Gibson. “I’m not a radical guy. I go by the rules. This other bull is foreign to me. I like to have a good time, but a good time to me is winning.” “I wa...

Oftentimes, athletes don't realize how good they have it. UNC wanted their team members to realize that feeling grateful for what you have received is a necessary aspect to a winning culture. 

This one reminded me of the scene from Miracle where Mike Eruzione finally realizes what Coach Brooks wanted from them all along: to play for each other on a team, not to be different people from different schools. The best teams play for each other and that manifests itself in love.   

When you're on a team, you have to actually care about your teammates. It sounds elementary, but it's not always something that happens - which is why we need a reminder of this core value. The winningest teams have a culture of caring about one another. 

I get it, it's hard to support the team when you aren't playing. But in order for you to be ready to play at any moment, you have to be in the game, and support your team no matter the circumstances. 

Give respect to everyone. Don't make anyone feel as if they are beneath you.

Your attitude is a choice. What will you choose in the situation you're in?

Or, as P.D. Eastman wrote in the classic children's book, "don't make big problems out of little problems."

How hard are you willing to work to get whatever it is that you really want?

This is #3 of the UNC Women's Soccer core values as espoused by their coach, Anson Dorrance. He says "And we want these four years of college to be rich, valuable, and deep." This means doing the right things to become educated, but also making the right choices to get value out of your education. Or, you could be like someone Will Hunting derided: "You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda g...

UNC women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance says that UNC players must do something every day to get better. It's not just practice for the sake of practicing. It's deliberate practice, to get better.  The reference in this is incorrect, btw: it's Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris. (My bad, my source was wrong, but I didn't want to re-record.)

Legendary UNC women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance is retiring, and his Core Values for his program set the tone for the winningest program in the sport's history. #1: Don't Whine. Why is this important? Learn more in just under three minutes.

In life, we often think that riches will be bestowed upon us. But good things rarely happen without hard work and self-reflection. In today's podcast, I'll dig into a quote from Shane Parrish's Brain Food newsletter that really drives this point home. 

Epictetus said "It is not things that upset us, it is our opinion about those things." He's right. When we take things personally, we project perceived opinions of others about us onto them, accurate or not.  When you're going about your day today, make an effort to realize it's not all about you. Take small slights that have nothing to do with you and realize it's ok to have no opinion about them...

Arnold Schwarzenegger brought it up in his daily newsletter yesterday. The fact that when we start a habit, we generally need everything to be right. Going to the gym? What supplements should I take? Should I take a pre-workout?  It goes back to the old adage Rob Gilbert brought up yesterday. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Hopefully, I don't take six w...

I was on Instagram (boo) watching Mookie Betts talk to himself during a round of BP. There were two things that happened in the video (thanks @sweetspothitting for posting it).  1. He sort of dictates the outcome before he takes the swing. Of course, this is hard to do, and we're talking about a guy who's hit as high as .346 during a season. But you can do the same thing off a tee. 2. He's kind to...