Great athletes train in their sport. They train daily. They train for years.
Why do they train?
To be their best.
Sitting in the sauna at the gym, waiting in line at the grocery, eating lunch in the faculty room at school - during the weeks of the NFL playoffs, so many of us expressed our armchair quarterback perspectives on how the teams were doing, where they screwed up, and the calls that coaches should’ve made to perform better.
Viewing, analyzing, and reacting.
I’m sure that most pro athletes do the same thing - view, analyze, and react - but they do it at a different level. They do it as players on the court. They do it to level-up. They do it to elevate their performance.
The rest of us? We’re observing from the stands.
We do this in our lives too. We judge. We analyze. We react. As observers in the stands.
We judge others. We judge ourselves.
School and culture made us pretty good at this - at critically analyzing. At comparing. At judging.
Those of us growing to be our best, though? We’re doing more than engaging in critical discourse in the stands. We’re in training, on the court.
A powerful creator (and client) said to me this weekend: “I appreciate how you help me be more intentional in my language.”
When we’re on the court, the conversation is different. It’s accurate. It’s intentional. It’s present-focused.
And so are we.
Being our best takes daily training. It's on the court practice in developing a profound relationship to reality.
The truth of it, however, is that each of us is already in daily training across the board in life - it’s just mostly unintentional training.
For example, just like quarterbacks are in training to become better quarterbacks, armchair quarterbacks are in training to be better armchair quarterbacks.
So what have you been training for?
If you’re curious what kind of life you’ve been in training for, just look around at your life. The great areas and the challenging areas. The authentic communication and the phony communication. The honest interactions and the people-pleasing interactions.
In what ways could you level-up in your life simply by bringing intentionality into your already-existing daily training?
For a couple weeks, I was dreading my morning training. Winter vacation ended and I had to get up much earlier to put in my training hour. So I resisted it, and I resisted it, and I resisted it. It was like trying to run in a pool.
Then one morning, my alarm went off at 5:45am, and I saw alllll the crappy, in-the-stands thinking between me and getting up to do my training to be my best.
I choose the training.
Where are you letting judgmental, in-the-stands thinking keep you from getting on the court to train to be your best?
And don’t forget these two crucial points:
everyone in our life is impacted by how we've trained (or not) to show up
great performers have great coaches
Thanks so much for reading. ❤️
P.S. There are three ways you can support yourself by working with me: one-on-one coaching, the Mind Mastery Experience happening on April 7, and hiring me to work with your team, group, or organization. Reach out when you’re ready. 💌