The other day I was working with an athlete on focus, specifically getting focused before game time. I asked him, “what helps you get ready for the game?”. He responded, “Well music does.” I said, “Great! What all is on your pregame playlist?”. He stopped thought about it and said “Well, I don’t have a specific one, I mainly just listen to Spotify or Soundcloud”. I let him know that we were going to stop right there and put one together for him.

During this process, I asked him, what do you need to do before your games to become focused. He let me know that he needed to get hyped up and excited. So we focused on a few songs that would get him hyped! We made sure that each song was going to be one to help him get excited, and we even removed some songs after we added them because they weren’t as “hype-worthy”.

As we were doing this I shared some of my old pregame playlists to give him an idea. Well, mainly I dated myself with some of the music. I don’t know if I lost or gained credibility with my music.

When we wrapped up we talked some more about how music can be beneficial to the pregame routine and using it specifically to get us hyped up. We determined a plan for how to use it with warmups and wrapped up that session.

Music is a powerful tool! It can help us deal with emotions and even change our mood. Think about it, you probably have one song that always puts a smile on your face, you maybe have one you associate with a breakup, and you probably have your hype/fight song. I have one for each of those. When we use music to help us get in the correct mood for the event, it heightens our focus.

Now this doesn’t mean that you need to listen to a hype playlist before every big moment. Maybe you need something smooth and light to help you relax before a big event. For me, I have a playlist that makes me want to dance around and have fun, before I give a presentation or have a session. Its much different than my old hype playlists, but it helps me lock in as a prepare to perform.

Do you have playlists for different moments? Are you using music to help you get prepared or focused? Take some time today putting a few songs together and making it a specific playlist. See how you can use it to change you mood!

Last week I arrived 30 minutes early to a meeting…It wasnt because I was trying to be diligent and arrive early, its because I totally messed up the time. Since I had that extra time on my hands, I decided to go for a walk and listen to a podcast I had in my queue. The episode was Tim Ferriss interviewing author Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman has written many books and two that I have particularly enjoyed, The Graveyard Book & American Gods. If you’re looking for a good fiction read I would start with both of them.

During the interview, Neil talked about his approach to writing, and the many ins and outs that come along with his process. He is a fascinating man to listen to, plus he has a great voice. One thing that Neil said stuck out to me during this conversation. When he was asked about setting aside time to write, he said that “When I set aside time, I tell myself I can write or do nothing, and doing nothing is quite alright but for that period of time that’s all I can do.” For Gaiman, he makes it distinct, writing or nothing. No gray area no in-between.

What stood out to me most, is the idea that even tho he wants to write, he accepts that doing nothing is perfectly acceptable. To me, doing nothing would drive me mad. If I sit down to write, I have a billion thoughts pop in my head. In fact yesterday I sent two emails and called someone during my “writing period”…then eventually got around to writing my post. But the point Gaiman is trying to make is that you have to be fully committed to that time period, and not allow yourself to become distracted by other items.

The other point Gaiman makes with this is “after sitting doing nothing for a little bit, writing seems a bit more appealing to you”. I honestly hadn’t thought of it that way before. It makes perfect sense, but it takes discipline to sit and do nothing instead of write. Its so easy these days to scroll, browse or fine other things to do, but if you sit with the process and it results in nothing then you’re committing to your process.

It may not even be writing. It could be studying, practicing, working, or whatever it is you may want to do. Try it out this week. When you need to get something done say that you can do that one thing or nothing at all…and that means nothing. See how this process goes for you.

Thanks for sharing Neil!

The other day I was watching a coach working with a player on a position specific skill. It was related to footwork and the young man kept making the same mistake. After a few more reps, the coach’s patience ran out, and he told the player that he was “just doing the same thing over and over, and he needed to have a short term memory because that was important to being a great football player”. As I sat there watching this interaction, I could see the player become more and more determined to do it correctly, but then I also saw him become confused once his coach said something about having a short term memory. I wanted to go interrupt the lesson and help both parties out, but that would have been pretty rude. Unfortunately the coach had the athlete thinking about having a short term memory, rather than working on it. He left out an important step, something I call “The How”.

“The How” is basically the process of achieving a successful outcome or goal. A lot of times as coaches (myself included), we focus on “what” we are going to do, and don’t spend as much time talking about “how” we are going to do it. When we ask a young athlete to work on a new skill, such as having a short term memory, it’s important we explain how to the athlete(s). If we just tell he or she, that they need to do this, we have left out a crucial ingredient to this process.

Discussing “The How” with athletes also lets us as coaches help walk them through discovery. We can share with them the steps to help them produce a new outcome for this specific rep, while also letting them figure out how they can use it for other areas of performance or life. If you give them a process, then they learn how to achieve new results.

So if you are a coach or a leader, take an inventory of how you work with your current athletes or team. Do you spend time just on “The What”? How can you better explain “The How” to your group? Take that extra step in coaching and see what you and your team are able to achieve.

Happy Opening Day everyone!! In case you missed it or aren’t sure, it’s opening day for baseball! To me opening day is the official start of spring. Yes I know it was technically last week, but I always felt when baseball was on at 1:00pm, it was officially spring.

If you haven’t been to an opening day game before, I definitely recommend it. At the very least, it’s an excuse to take a half day off work. It’s such a fun experience at the ballpark. Everyone is full of hope for their teams and enjoying the spring weather. I’ve attended one spring opener and it was a blast (RIP Turner Field).

So take some time today and catch part of a baseball game and celebrate the arrival of spring!

Red Sox are going 162-0 this season!

This week I am taking a digital detox. Well I guess it’s more a social media hiatus, but Digital Detox has a much better ring to it.

I enjoy doing these detox weeks from time to time for multiple reasons. First, I realize how much time I am spending on my phone, or really how every time I get on my phone I am checking in with social media with out even really thinking. Then all of a sudden I am scrolling for ten minutes and not even checking the email or text that I needed to do in the first place. Talk about being distracted! This weekend I realized I was all over my phone trying to keep up with all the march madness and it seemed like my world became the iPhone.

I also enjoy doing it because it becomes relaxing. Yes the first couple of days are rough because the habit of checking your phone, but once you get past that it really does feel good. My urge to check in with social media to see the latest post or information is sedated as I step away from the digital world. It seriously is much calmer, and I realize that I don’t miss as much information as I thought I would. So instead of reading the same post over and over again hoping it will change, I spend my reading different material.

Last reason I enjoy it, is because my productivity skyrockets! No surprise here. It’s the simple equation, removing a distraction, will improve your focus. Instead of being distracted by all the posts and dopamine infused apps, I am able to spend more quality time on my work. Not only that, instead of tweets, I am now reading different content. Content that is personally beneficial and thought provoking. I love clever tweets and IG posts, but when you replace it with a thought provoking article or a unique TEDtalk, it fills your brain up with creative fuel.

If you haven’t done a digital detox before I certainly think you should give it a shot! Try it for a week and see how it goes. Once you make it through the “withdrawal” symptoms, I think you will enjoy the detox.

Well I wrote 3 different rough drafts today and I couldn’t finish any of them. Seriously, had an idea wrote each of them out and then froze. My first one was about the Tom Izzo video from this weekend (Its ok for a coach to yell once in awhile). The second was about Special Olympics (This organization is great and has an tremendous motto). The third was about a digital detox (basically I am taking a break from devices & social media this week). Didn’t finish any of them.

I can’t decide if its writer’s block, laziness, or anxiety. If I had to bet, I bet its the anxiety of finishing a post. Yes I still experience that. I drill down on a topic wanting to make the point exceptionally elegant and I sound like a small child learning how to read. It’s pretty funny now that I think about it.

What I have found, and most of you already know, is that any skill takes not just practice but deliberate practice. This idea of being very intentional about using your time most effectively in regards to skill improvement. Setting the time and goals for each practice helps you become very deliberate with your work.

If there is something you are working towards, how is your practice plan. Is it set up in a way for you to experience gains and track your progress? If not, then take some time ahead of practice to structure your time. I think you will enjoy how much you are able to accomplish with your time once you do that.

For example, here is my plan tomorrow for writing. When I wake up I am going to hit the treadmill, finish up my thought process and post it out. I already have ideas, now its just about finding the time to flush them out. Whats your plan for tomorrow?

I love March madness! Honestly, this weekend may be the best sports weekend of the year. Games on nonstop and you never know what is going to happen.

What I enjoy the most about these games is watching teams who I wouldn’t normally watch succeed during the games. You’ll see teams you haven’t really heard of before show their success and process during the game. It’s a ton of fun to watch. Even if it means it’s at the expense of my bracket.

What I’ve come to learn from watching these games, is it doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters more about your game that day. That’s why upsets happen!

Never dismiss where you are at, but instead focus in on what makes you and your teammates successful!

Enjoy the madness!

That’s right! Two weeks in and I missed my first day! Dang it! Funny thing is I had an outline done in the morning I just didn’t follow through with it.

In fact after I wrote my initial topic, I decided I wanted to start another topic. So I saved my first draft and then started another. Later on while I was driving I started thinking about a new topic, and I really liked that one. So I made some notes on a 3rd.

So I wrote 3 outlines yesterday, but didn’t commit to 1, so I missed my personal deadline. If you know me, then you shouldn’t be surprised I got distracted like that. The frustrating part is, I did the work I just didn’t follow-up on it. That’s where the fortune is, the follow-up. Committing to the first idea, while making notes on the other topics, could have put me ahead, but instead I chose to multi-task on my writing topics.

There is some good that comes from this error though, I noticed I’m much more in the habit of writing. I would see something or read something, and consider how to put it into my own words. The habit is forming! Now it’s just about following up on that habit and starting a new chain!

There you are, standing over the ball at the tee box ready to drive the ball 200+ yds down the middle of the fairway. You swing and WHACK…the ball hooks left into that nice grove of trees beyond the rough. Before you have even finished your swing, you begin to colorfully explain to the world how much you suck at golf (or is that just me?). Truth is, we’ve all been there. Maybe it wasn’t on the golf course, but we’ve all had bad self-talk on the court, the field, or the boardroom.

Recently while working with athletes at differing levels, I have realized how bad self-talk has gotten. Constantly I’ll hear athletes start cursing at themselves after they have hit a bad shot, or self-deprecate after dropping a pass, or even worse talk to themselves passive aggressively about their bad performance. It’s a terrible symphony listen to and after that first error or mistake, only seems to crescendo.

Through these experiences, and my own, I’ve realized that, many athletes don’t know how to use self-talk to their advantage. They may have heard that self talk is important, but hasn’t explained how to actually improve their self-talk. Here are 3 ways athletes can begin to work on their self-talk.

Use a Reframe Colum

Take your athletic journal (or sheet of paper if you don’t have a journal) and split it into too columns. At the top of the left column, write “Negative” and at the top of the right column, write “Positive/Effective”.  Under the negative column write down the negative self-talk you find yourself using when you are practicing or competing. Then in the positive column, rephrase or reframe it to be a positive statement.  Here is an example:

NEGATIVE	POSITIVE/EFFECTIVE
“I suck at this!”	“Ok, I can do this!”

Using a reframe column is helpful for two reasons. First, it helps us identify the negative statements that we almost unconsciously will say to ourselves when we compete. Secondly, reframing it to a positive statement helps us prime our brain by thinking about the positive way to talk to ourselves. So when we do get tempted to verbally beat ourselves up, we have a positive statement locked and loaded.

Get Instructional

A lot of negative self-talk revolves around results. “I suck at tennis because we can’t get a serve in.” “I suck at curve balls because the batter hits a home run every time.” All of a sudden our words have shifted our focus away from the process, to the result. Getting instructional is all about bringing us back to a process oriented focus.

Instructional self-talk is all about getting back to the basics and becomes tactical. What is the one thing you need to remember to have a good serve or a good curve ball? What is your routine? Tell yourself that simple cue, so you can focus on making the next play. If not, history may repeat itself.

Thank you for sharing!

Look, we’re human, bad self-talk creeps in from time to time as much as we try to prevent it. Can I let you in on a little secret…you don’t have to own it, its just an opinion.  Even the most positive people you know have negative thoughts from time to time, but it doesn’t define them, so why would you let it define you? “Thank You For Sharing”, allows you acknowledge the self-talk as an opinion and then move on from it. It’s the same thing you would do when someone has a critical opinion about you. You say, “Thank You For Sharing”, but I’m going to go with this opinion over here. Acknowledge the thought and move forward.

Its been stated that a person has around 60,000 thoughts a day, so even when we aren’t aware of it, we are engaging in self-talk. To use self-talk to our advantage, we have to treat it just like any other skill and work at it. The goal of working at any skill is to become consistent at a high level. The 3 exercises above, Reframe Columns, Get Instructional, Thank You For Sharing are all designed to help you become more consistent with your self-talk so that you can feel more confident about handling yourself no matter the situation you may be facing. As always, these skills won’t work unless you do.

Its not just about having a game, its about being on your game.

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A few years ago I was listening to a colleague give a presentation about his work with teams and how he creates the materials or lessons. One of the aspects he shared during that talk was the concept that even though he is a subject matter expert, he goes into every situation with the perspective that he is a white belt.

If you aren’t familiar with the belt system, they used in martial arts to denote an individual’s current level of skill. The highest level is a black belt, which means that an individual is of high skill and essentially an “expert”. The lowest level is a white belt, which means a person is just a beginner.

While my friend is viewed as an expert and knowledgeable, he maintains the idea that he is a white belt, and has a chance to learn something in every situation. He shared that the idea or image of a white belt, allows him to set aside his ego about all of his efforts to become a subject matter expert and allows him to be open to the experience and willing to grow.

This idea has stuck with me since that presentation. It’s been humbling to accept that I may know a lot of things, but there is always something I can learn from someone and any given situation. If I allow myself to focus on the fact that I am the “expert” then I am shutting down opportunities to learn something new, and even connect with someone. When I don’t “wear my white belt” then my ego tends to become a 2×4 and smack me across the face.

Throughout this week, try “wearing your white belt” when you encounter different situations. You may be surprised what you learn, and what opportunities it opens you up to. There is always something we can learn.