October 14, 2025 • 41 mins
In this episode of Youth Inc., Greg sits down with James Clear, bestselling author of Atomic Habits, to talk about how parents and coaches can help young athletes develop the right habits—on and off the field.
They discuss the power of identity-based habits, how to create systems that support growth, and why the small things done consistently matter more than big moments. James also shares practical strategies to help kids stay motivated, build confidence, and create lasting change without burning out.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Make sure you subscribe to both our YouTube channel and our RSS
feed for all future conversations here at you think.
What's up everybody? Welcome back to a really special
edition here on You Think I Am joined by New York Times best
selling author James Clear, author of one of personally, one
of the most probably breakthrough books that I've
(00:20):
ever personally read. And that is genuine.
That is not a plug that is not being paid like I, and that's
the reason I reached out to you,James.
Like thank you so much for joining us here.
I can't wait to dive into AtomicHabits, your big best seller,
and all your other newsletters and all the other information
you share weekly with your followers.
I just think it's going to be such a great resource for all of
(00:40):
our listeners here on You think so.
I really appreciate your time. Yeah, of course.
Thanks for saying that and excited to do it.
Thanks, Greg. Yeah, so, so I was telling you
before we started. So I have like a a stack of
books. I'm an avid reader.
I love reading new things, whether it's things that I'm
familiar with or just completelyout of the blue.
So I have a very wide array of different books.
So I was actually gifted Atomic Habits by a friend.
(01:03):
I just finished it within the last three weeks, 2-3 weeks,
shortly after I reached out to you for this conversation.
And so I want to start here. We live every day in the youth
sports world. I'm a dad of three.
I grew up the son of a coach. All of our listeners, all of our
families are all going through these same struggles where
they're trying to navigate a very weird world.
(01:24):
I know you have your own really interesting background as a
baseball player in college and overcoming really significant
injury. And it's the opening of your
book and and we can touch on that in a minute, but I want I
want to start here. I think the number one moment
reading your book where I was like, this guy gets it.
You talk about latent potential,you talk about the the melting
of the ice cube where the temperature gets warmer and all
(01:46):
of a sudden the ice cube melted,but nobody saw the degrees
rising to 31. They only saw 32 and above.
Like, and I just thought it was such a great metaphor for kind
of the world we're in in youth sports where we don't delay
satisfaction. It's instant results.
We don't develop, we don't worry.
It's just instant in the moment wins, losses like start big
(02:08):
picture there for me, like framethat to me.
That was the part of the book where I was like, wow, like this
is this. And and obviously I chewed up
through the rest of the whole entire, you know, every page.
So yeah, it's a great point. I you know, I think we all have
thought about results versus process and you know all that.
We've heard things like that before.
But the reality is the world is very results oriented.
(02:31):
You know, like everything usually gets discussed after the
milestone is crossed, right? You hear about Hamilton after
it's a Broadway hit, not like when when Mandel Miranda's
sitting there writing it, you know, you hear about it after
Tom Brady set some record. You hear about, you know, the
New York Times bestseller after it hits the best seller list,
not when somebody's writing it. So that's fine.
Like I, I'm very achievement oriented too.
(02:52):
Like we all, you know, we all want results, we all want better
outcomes. But I think because we see them
again and again, like nothing isever a news story until it's an
outcome. You're never going to see a news
story That's like, man eats chicken and salad for lunch
today. You know it's going to be, it's
only a story when it's like man loses 100 lbs.
So we tend to overvalue the outcome and undervalue the
(03:13):
process. And, you know, there is all this
work that has to be done in order to get to that that
result. Like the San Antonio Spurs have
this quote that hangs in their locker room, right?
They've won five NBA championships and says something
like whatever. I feel like giving up.
I think about the stone cutter who takes his hammer and bangs
on the rock 100 times without itsplitting in two.
(03:34):
And then at the 101st blow, it cracks.
And I know that it wasn't the 101st that did, it was all the
100 that came before. And man, you can say that about
almost anything, certainly in sports.
You know, it wasn't the last Repthat you know, got you the
outcome that you wanted. It was all the 100 that came
before. It wasn't the last sentence that
finished the novel. It was all the 100 that came
before. And I think if you can have that
attitude and realize that the work is not being wasted, it's
(03:58):
just being stored, then it givesyou, you know, a new lens for
thinking about putting your repsin each day.
The, the ice cube metaphor that you mentioned, I would like to
say, you know, imagine you walk into this room, it's cold.
You can like see your breath. You know, it's like 25°.
Then you start heating the room up. 262728 the ice cube is
sitting on the table. Nothing's happened to it yet.
293031 ice cube still sitting there.
(04:21):
And then you hit 32° and it's this, it's this 1° shift, you
know, not unlike the ones that came before.
But all of a sudden you hit thisphase transition.
And I think that is often what the process of building better
habits and what the process of trying to improve, whether it's
in sports or just in life in general, what it's like because
you show up and you do the rightthing.
(04:41):
And a lot of the time you have nothing to show for it that day.
You know, like my parents like to swim, right?
So they, you know, they jump in the water, their body looks
exactly the same when they get out as it did when they jumped
in. If they're doing it for the
physical results, well, that that takes way too long.
That takes a year or two or three.
Like it, you're not going to seeit on that day.
And so you have to have this willingness to show up and
(05:04):
continue to put your reps in andthis mindset where you realize
that just because you didn't getthe outcome you wanted that day
does not mean that the work was wasted.
It's just being stored. Every building, every
professional team, every collegeteam, maybe every business
organization has a sign that says get 1% better.
I know it's a big part of your research, a big part of your
(05:27):
kind of philosophies you layout throughout the course of the
book. Let's boil it down, though, to
some practical applications. And, and we're going to get into
some of the habit building and, and the four, you know, kind of
the four sections of Q and reward and all that.
We'll we'll get to that. But for for our followers,
whether they're coaches, whetherthey're parents, like when you
talk about delaying gratification and it's not
(05:48):
about, you know, that moment in time, but it's about stacking
those moments over time. How do we get in this world
where it's highlight reel culture, it's only putting the
highlights of our life, the the game-winning goal, the home run.
We never put the strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth on on
Instagram. How?
What is a practical approach forparents, teachers, coaches,
(06:10):
leaders to get young people to understand this is a this is a
long term play, Don't cheat the moment now to sacrifice what you
say you or really want down the road.
Yeah, Well, I think first of all, I think just saying out
loud some of the things you justsaid is helpful.
Like I, I have 3 kids. I certainly will be saying that
(06:30):
to my kids. You know, like they, they're
very young right now, but when as they get older and get into
sports, like that's something that they need to hear, you
know. So I think some of it is that,
but more broadly, there is a huge cultural emphasis on
position. And what I'm trying to get
across when I talk about 1% better each day is I'm trying to
shift that focus from being focused on position to being
(06:54):
focused on trajectory. So, so much of the discussion is
about position. What's the number on the scale?
How much money is in the bank account?
How many games have you won? It's all about what position are
we in right now? Who's in first, who's in last?
And instead I am trying to shiftit to say, hey, instead of
worrying about what our current position, let's focus a little
bit more on our current trajectory.
(07:16):
Are we getting 1% better or 1% worse?
You know, is the arrow pointed up and to the right or have we
flatlined? Because if you're on a good
trajectory, all you need is time.
You know, you just need to let the days keep working for you.
But if you're on a bad trajectory, even if you're in a
pretty strong position right now, it's not going to end well.
And so this idea of getting 1% better each day, it's not really
(07:39):
about getting wrapped up in the number.
You know, it's not like, oh, is it a 1% improvement or 1.6% or
something like that. It's just, it's an attitude,
it's a philosophy, this approachfor life where you can say, I'm
going to show up today and I'm going to try to find some small
way to improve. And I'm going to trust that if I
do the same thing tomorrow and keep stacking these days up,
then I'm going to end up in a pretty good place.
(08:00):
And this is where you start to see the power of building better
habits. It's not that doing some small
thing really benefits you on anygiven day.
It's that when you start to accumulate the days, you realize
that time will magnify whatever you feed it.
So if you have good habits, timebecomes your ally.
And every day that goes by, you're putting yourself in a
(08:22):
stronger position. But the person who has bad
habits, every day that goes by, they dig the hole a little bit
deeper. And so you start putting
yourself, you know, behind the 8ball to try to figure out how do
I, how do I get the results I want?
And that all comes back to this philosophy or this approach of
trying to emphasize trajectory over position.
You know, again, I can name 50 points you made in the book that
(08:45):
I'm like, Oh my God, like this is so it's what I've been
taught. You know, every team is trying
to implement and but like, no one really feels like got it
right. Like I felt like you were one of
the few people that were able tolay it out as, as clearly as you
just did there and like have it and, and, and make it make
sense. So we had, we have a, we had a
kind of a slow game on teams that I've been on and what not,
(09:05):
where the goal is just who can get better the longest, right?
It's not a matter of are you in first place, second place?
It's very similar to what you'retalking about there.
And the idea of it's not about setting goals.
It's about building systems and about building processes.
And, you know, the team we coachnow is like a middle school
football team. And I tell them all the time.
I say, guys, we don't have team rules.
(09:28):
I'm not gonna tell you what yet.We have expectations and we have
standards. So like all these similar
things, I think you word it a lot better.
So like again, teaching these kids that it's where you're
going and not where you are and and it makes a lot of sense.
It's very clear for all of us. In my experience, with can get
better than the. Longest, you know, like that's
(09:49):
that I, you know, I never playedprofessionally like you did, but
I, I ended up having a good college career and was an
academic all American in my senior year.
And that who can get better? The longest is basically a
description of my career becauseI was never the best player on
any team I was on and I didn't have like even a good high
school career. But I just decided that I was
not going to stop. And, you know, like, by the time
(10:11):
I was 22 years old, I ended up being decent.
And so they're, you know, I think you can apply that to a
lot of things in life. And I, you know, I try to do the
same thing with my writing career now.
And I think that's really one ofthe big gifts of sports too, is
that it's not only a way to win games, it's a way to live.
You know, it's a way of being, it's a way to live life.
And you're kind of equipping them with a mindset that they
(10:32):
can use in in many different situations.
And in today's world where we want to crown 12 year olds and
14 year olds and 10 year olds and you, and you know, you're
laughing, you have kids. How old are they?
4/2 and four months. OK, yeah.
So you you got you got a little ways, but you'll see what I'm
talking about in a couple years.Yeah, but I'm sure it'll come.
It'll be. It it's getting younger.
(10:52):
Trust me, I have I have a 13 year old and 212 year olds and
the landscape. That frustration is why we're
even doing this show and having these conversations.
So be patient. You know, the other, the other
thing that I, that really struckme was like this idea that get
rid of goals, right? I feel like every player on
(11:13):
their team or motivation, peoplewant to call them goals or
motivation, whatever you want tocall it.
There's a lot of ways to be motivated, right?
Some guys in the NFL are motivated by money.
Some guys in the NFL are motivated to get their family
into a better situation. They want to make a Pro Bowl.
They want a second contract. And throughout the course of my
career, I always felt I was always chasing the next goal.
(11:34):
And then the goal came and then it was like, but now what I, I
just reached my goals. So do I stop?
Do I? And that was something that I
had to really wrestle through tolike always move the carrot down
the road. And, and an Atomic Habits you,
you really dive into like goals are not, they're fine, they're
immediate satisfaction, but they're not really of the
(11:55):
importance that everybody makes them.
I'd love for you to kind of expand on that idea cuz again,
like so many of these chapters like hit me so head on cuz I'm
like, I, I can relate to this. Yeah, Yeah.
I think what you said goals are fine is that's probably how I
would land on it now. They serve a purpose, but they
aren't the solution that people are kind of hoping they would
(12:16):
be. You know, if you take most
domains in life, take an Olympicathlete for example, presumably
every athlete at the Olympic Games has the goal of winning
the gold medal. You know, the goal is not the
thing that determines the performance.
It's genetic ability, coaching and strategy for the events, how
much sleep they got the night before.
Like all kinds of things, right?Or if you have a job opening and
(12:38):
100 people apply, presumably every IT has the goal of getting
the job. You know, the goal does not
determine the outcome. It's education and experience,
presentation skills in the interview, who they know at the
company, all kinds of stuff. So if this pattern is true in
many areas of life, that the winners and the losers often
have the same goals, well then clearly the goal cannot be the
(13:00):
thing that determines the outcome.
You know, like we're all told, hey, you should be more
ambitious, 10X your vision, think bigger, set bigger goals
for yourself. But the goal is kind of the easy
part, You know, like if I wanted, I'm an author, right?
So I could set a goal to sell 100 million books.
Took me 3 seconds. You know, the goal is not the
hard part. It's building a system of
(13:21):
behaviors, a collection of habits that carries you toward
that outcome. So what I would say is, look,
you don't rise to the level of your goals.
You fall to the level of your systems.
And so often in life we're surprised by this dynamic, but
we see it again and again. And so if I was going to put a
little finer point on the language, what do I mean when I
say goal and system? Your goal is your desired
(13:44):
outcome. It's like the target, the thing
you're shooting for. What is your system?
It's the collection of daily habits that you follow.
And if there is ever a gap, if there's ever this difference
between your desired outcome, your goal, and your daily
habits, your system, your daily habits will always win.
You know, almost by definition, your current habits are
(14:05):
perfectly designed to deliver your current results.
So whatever habits you've been following or, or the team has
been following, whatever collection of of habits you've
been following for say the last six months or year or two years,
it's carried you almost inevitably to the outcomes that
you have right now. Now, you know, I'm not saying
that habits are the only thing that matter in life, right?
Certainly there are other thingsthat influence outcomes.
(14:28):
You've got luck and randomness. You have misfortune, but by
definition, luck and randomness are not under your control and
your habits are. And the only reasonable rational
approach in life is focus on thepieces of the situation that are
within your control. So, you know, after the book's
been out about five years now and I've, you know, got to talk
(14:48):
to a lot of businesses and teamsand, and players about this
stuff. And so where I've come down on
it now is goals are good for setting a sense of direction.
So it's good to say, hey, this is our goal is what we're all
working toward. That's that's good for focus and
clarity. They're good for filtering.
So if somebody comes to you and they say, hey, do you guys want
to do this? You can run it through the
filter your goals. And you said, does it get us
(15:08):
closer to that or not? And if not, it's easier to say
no. But once you've selected the
goal, you should probably kind of set it on the shelf because
and spend most of your time focused on your daily habits and
the system that you're building.Because goals are good for
people who care about winning once.
Systems are best for people who care about winning repeatedly.
(15:29):
You know, if you really want to make progress again and again,
you're going to need some kind of system, some process to keep
you up there. So, you know, ultimately I'm
kind of describing this like a dichotomy, right, with goals,
with systems. But of course, what we really
want is both. We want an alignment between
your daily, your, you know, yourdaily habits and the outcomes
that you ultimately want. And I think most people spend a
(15:50):
lot of time thinking about the goals or dreaming up of what
results they would like, and notnearly enough time thinking
about the system and the daily habits required to get there.
What's up guys? Do you want custom fan wear like
this cricket shirt for CharlotteChristian School?
We've got premium apparel from your favorite brands.
The best part about it is I don't have to just wear it to
Charlotte Christians events. I can wear it to golf, I can
(16:11):
wear it to lunch. It's turned into my uniform.
Go right now over to Youth dot, Inc Sign up for our newsletter
that talks about our podcast forthat week.
Our interview guests all the breaking news across the
landscape of youth sports. And you can win one piece of
merch for your school by going to Sign up today.
And remember itsnot.com, it's Youth dot, Inc.
Now back to our episode. So is it fair?
(16:32):
Like as my brain processes hearing you say that, Like, is
it fair to say that whether you want to call it winning or you
want to call it success or you want to call it reaching set
goal is almost a byproduct. Like it's almost a secondary
component where it's like, you know what if we win, great.
But we're going to win because we train hard in the off
(16:52):
seasons, we show up on time XYZ,winning almost becomes a
byproduct goal. You know, reaching goals almost
becomes a byproduct. Like, is that?
Is that a fair characterization?Almost have to admit that that
is like probably the case. You know, it's the kind of that
famous Bill Walsh quote. The score takes care of itself.
Yeah. I mean, right.
You know, imagine you're about basketball team and in one
(17:15):
scenario you're only going to focus on the score.
Every time you get a possession,the first thing you do is you
look at the scoreboard and then imagine another basketball team
that the scoreboard like is off or something.
The power went out and all you can do is focus on how well
you're going to execute that possession.
I mean, which team is in the better position to win?
You know, it's like the the score is not the thing that you
need to focus on. And it's true even for like dumb
(17:37):
little stuff to like, you know, you want to clean out your
garage. Well, that's fine.
You can have a goal of having tohaving a, a clean garage, but if
you don't have the habits of living in, you know, kind of a
clean and orderly lifestyle, then even if you clean it for a
day, you're going to turn arounda month later and it's going to
be messy again. And you know, so it just, it
works that way in like big and small ways in life.
And it almost, it almost is to the point where I think people
(18:02):
should, if you don't want to live the lifestyle that is
required, you should release yourself from the desire for
that result because to, to desire the outcome and to not
want the lifestyle is just to end up frustrated.
And so it's really, I think thisis what you see with these
people who get really incredibleresults in, in most fields is
(18:23):
they like living that way. You know, they like living the
way that is required, doing the habits that are required day in
and day out. It's the person who likes the
lifestyle that is much more likely to get the result as the
byproduct. Well, it's a great segue because
I want to spend some time talking about identity.
I I know identity is a big part.You know, you use the idea, you
know, someone offers you a cigarette and you say, I don't
(18:45):
smoke or I'm not a smoker, right.
It's not necessarily I work out.I am an athlete.
Like you give a lot of those examples, even just how we talk
to ourselves, how we classify ourselves wrapped up in our
identity. That might be what you just
said, though, that that needs tobe on every youth, high school,
college, name it across the board.
(19:06):
Frustration comes from people that have their goals but aren't
willing to live the lifestyle that will lead to that goal.
Like if you could put one sayingand wrap it in a bundle and send
it out to all young kids right now.
They all want to be LeBron James.
They all want to be whoever. Sure.
How many kids are really willingto do that day in, day out, over
(19:28):
and over and stack that? Which is awkward.
That's the most I mean, this is I heard this when I was a kid
too. But like, you know, you should
focus on what you really love orwhat you're obsessed by, or at
least what you're maybe if we don't like words like that, you
know, people say what you're passionate about or something.
Maybe you could say like, what are you genuinely interested in,
you know, or like, what are you enthusiastic about that it's
(19:49):
just like pulling you in. You almost can't stop yourself
from doing it cuz you just thinkit's so fun or cool.
And maybe that's programming on the computer, maybe it's playing
basketball, maybe it's, I don't know, something out gardening,
whatever, it doesn't matter. I I almost think for my kids,
what I really want, almost more than anything, is for them to
find the thing that lights them up.
Because if they can find that, then you're like, OK, you have
so many ways to get better at that thing now because you're
(20:12):
already in you're, you're in thegame.
You want to be doing it. You want to live that lifestyle.
And you know, the performance can come naturally if if you're
really lit up by it. Yeah, All right, so let's stay
on identity. You hear a lot of you know we we
had doctor Michael Gervais, world renowned sports
psychologist and and we, me and him have had a lot of really
interesting conversations and myways that worked for me maybe
(20:33):
don't work great for my kids. And one thing to a person that I
think all athletes struggle with, I know me personally went
through this where from the big part of my life, I was a
football player now I lived thatlifestyle every day.
I was really, I enjoyed living and breathing and eating that
every single day of my life. And it worked out for me.
(20:57):
But that's not everybody, right?Like, not everyone's going to
have the outcome that merits putting that kind of effort and
work. So then there is the other side
of that coin where if it does become your identity and you
only see yourself through, it could be sports, it could be
academics, whatever it is and whatever it is, are we now
lending these kids to wrapping their identity too much up in
(21:19):
what they're doing and the outcome that comes?
Like, how do we find that balance, especially with young
kids? OK, All right, so there's a lot
to say here, so give me just give me a minute.
All right, so. The floor is yours.
All right, So ultimately, I think where we want to get to is
the point where we are taking pride in being that type of
person. You know, there are all kinds of
(21:40):
external reasons to do stuff. Hey, you might go to work to get
a paycheck in two weeks or you might, you know, play the game
because you hope to win the championship at the end of
season or whatever. And the external rewards are
great. But ultimately, we want to get
to a point where we take pride in being that kind of person
because if you take pride in that aspect of your identity,
you'll fight to maintain the habit.
You know, like if you take pridein the size of your biceps, you
(22:02):
never skip arm day at the gym. You know, if you take pride in
how your hair looks, you have this long hair care routine, you
do it every day. Like, I wouldn't know, but you
know what I mean? You know, And it's like the more
that you do those things and start to adopt them as part of
your story, the more likely you are to stick with it.
And so I think that's where you can see the value of these small
habits is that they reinforce being that type of person.
(22:25):
And to me, this is really the reason that that habits matter
is that it's not because of the external results.
Hey, habit, habits will help youmake, you know, twice the money
or get in the best shape of yourlife or reduce stress.
Like it's true that habits can do that stuff, but the real
reason they matter is every action you take is like a vote
for the type of person you wish to become.
(22:46):
And so no, doing 1 push up does not transform your body, but it
does cast a vote for I'm the type of person who doesn't miss
workouts. And no, giving one bit of
positive feedback to somebody onyour team does not make you the
world's best teammate. But it does cast a vote for I'm
the type of teammate who cares about the guys I play with or
the people around me. And so every step that you take
(23:08):
in that direction, you start to reinforce that story.
All right, so this is on the positive side of identity,
right? Like as we're building the
habit, we want to build up evidence of being that kind of
person. And I think just to give a real
simple example here, if you go outside and shoot a basketball
for 20 minutes this afternoon, you don't like instantly think,
oh, I'm a basketball player. But if you do it every afternoon
(23:29):
for the next 6 months or year ortwo years, like at some point
you cross this invisible line where you got to be like, you
know what? Playing basketball is kind of a
big part of my life. And so it works that way for
everything. You know, I, I almost think that
like whatever you want to be or whatever outcome you want or
identity you want to have, it's almost, it's like it's on the
other side of a certain number of repetitions.
(23:50):
And nobody knows exactly how many repetitions that is, but
maybe it's 100, maybe it's 1000.But really all there is left to
do is get your and get your repsin and start to prove that
identity to yourself. All right, So that's, that's the
good part, right? You build up these reps and you
start to foster this identity and you put yourself in a
stronger position where you feellike, yeah, I want to do this
(24:11):
habit every day because it's just part of who I am.
I'm being the type of person I want to be.
But on the far side of that, as you just mentioned, well, OK,
what if you've been an athlete for 20 years and now all of a
sudden you're not one day and your career's over and then
you're like, well, who am I? Or another example I came across
when I was working on the book, people have been in the
military, you know, for for a decade.
(24:31):
Their, their identity is I'm a soldier.
And then they leave the militaryand suddenly they're civilian
and they're like, well, who am Inow?
And I think two things come to mind.
So the first is when I played, my dad used to tell me, he said,
look, when you step between those lines, you have to play
like nothing else matters. And then as soon as you walk off
the field, you got to realize that it never mattered at all.
(24:53):
And I, I think that there's thislike dual place that you need to
be in your mind where you are both going to compete like
there's nothing else that you'reworking for in the world.
But also realize that you are more than just the sport, right?
You are more than just this game.
You're more than just this one thing and that you are a whole
person. And that this is not the loss of
this does not mean the loss of agood life.
(25:14):
There are many ways to live a good life.
And this is just one of them that you happen to be exploring
right now. So I think there's, there's that
part of it. And then the second piece, and
this is what I came across when I was studying that soldier
civilian example, is that you need to look for the elements of
your current identity that can be transported or trans are
(25:35):
transferable to the next chapterof your life.
You know, so the Soldier might be able to say, well, you know,
I'm not a soldier anymore, but Ican still be a good teammate or
I can still be the type of person that follows through on
the mission that's given to them.
You know, you find these, I can still be reliable.
You find these aspects of your previous identity that you can
say, OK, I can apply that to thejob I'm in or to, you know,
(25:56):
whatever scenario I'm in. And I think if you can do that,
you start to realize that maybe if you lean into your strengths
a little bit more as you transition from chapter to
chapter, then it becomes a little less about the label and
more about, you know, just who you are as a person.
So identity, identity can be a very powerful thing for getting
a habit established. But then on the backside of it,
(26:18):
you always need to be I, I kind of equate it to like a painting
that's always being retouched. You know, the, the picture is
never finished. You're always kind of adjusting
and upgrading, editing and expanding your identity for
whatever your next chapter requires.
I like that, that I just think it's such a powerful
conversation that kids are struggling with.
I think parents are struggling with.
(26:39):
The more we get wrapped up into the, you know, in our case, the
youth sports world, it for a lotof these kids, it does become
their identity. And maybe it didn't become our
identity until we were in high school and college.
But for some of these young kids, it becomes their identity
and what they're told is their purpose when they're in fifth
grade and I. Just think 10 and 12 and what
like it's your whole world, you know, I mean, you haven't, you
(27:00):
haven't seen that much of the world yet.
So it's I, I think the younger that you are.
No doubt. Let me ask you this, how much of
what you're describing as far asthe ability to execute all of
this is a product of just innatemakeup and just unique mindset
and unique approach, but also environmental, the environment.
I know you're obviously big on the environment that you're in
(27:21):
and you take on the personality of the people around you,
whether it's family, friends, teams, whatever.
Like what is that balance between, you know, wiring, we
can call it just hardwiring personality, innate traits, but
also the importance of environment, the importance of
surrounding yourself, your children, your family with other
like minded people, other positive influences.
(27:43):
Because if you're not building good habits, you're building bad
habits, there's really no neutral ground.
And you know, so how would you kind of lay out what that looks
like? I think environments critical.
I almost recommend that being one of the first places you
start if you're trying to build a better habit is by I think you
can first start with adjusting the physical environment.
(28:03):
So you know one simple question you could ask yourself.
Think of a habit you're trying to build and just hold it in the
back of your mind. And then walk into the rooms
where you spend most of your time each day, your office, your
living room, your bedroom, your kitchen.
And then look around and ask yourself, what is this space
designed to encourage? What behaviors are obvious here?
(28:24):
What behaviors are easy here? And you might be surprised by
what the path of least resistance is.
We all have these habits we say are important to us.
But then you look and it's like to do the easy thing, it only
takes one step. And to do the thing I want to
do, it takes like 7 steps in this room.
So how can we change that? So there's a bunch of examples.
You know, there's obvious stuff like if you want to go for a run
(28:44):
every morning, set your workout clothes and your shoes out the
night before. Or, you know, when I wanted to
read more books, I would sprinkle books around the room
so that I was never far from one.
I took Audible for audio books and I put that on the home
screen of my phone. So it'd be like the first thing
that I would see when I opened it up.
Like you're just trying to find ways to reduce distance, reduce
friction between you and the habit you want to perform.
(29:05):
So that's, that's the physical environment and then social
environment. I think if you're trying to get
a habit to stick for a long time, a year, 2, maybe even a
decade, the social environment is one of the most powerful
factors. You know, we, we perform habits
because of the results that we think they'll get us.
But that's not the only reason we do them.
(29:26):
We also perform habits because of what they signal to the
people around us. Hey, I, I get it.
I understand how we act here. I, I fit in, I belong.
And we're all, you know, humans are very social creatures.
We all want to bond and connect.We all want to be part of
something, whether it's your little friend group or your
family or whatever. It is like people don't want to
go against the grain of the group.
(29:48):
And so I think the punchline is you want to join groups where
your desired behavior is the normal behavior.
If it's normal in that group, then it's going to be really
motivating for you to stick to it and for you to follow through
because your friends and your teammates and you know, your Co
workers are going to be doing that thing too.
I always, you know, like to jokeabout like every school that I
(30:10):
went to, the swimming and cross country teams, their GPA S were
incredible. It was like they were always the
top two teams. Meanwhile, the baseball teams,
like, you know, down at the bottom or whatever.
But I swam for seven years, and I ended up having a bunch of
friends that really liked schooland got good grades.
And I kind of liked it too. And I wonder how much of that
was me soaking it up from them. Because it's like, look, if all
(30:32):
your friends are going to study for the test, like you kind of
care about the test, but mostly you just want to hang out with
your friends. And I'm not saying that you
should like, have your kids swimif you want them to be smart.
I don't know that it works exactly that cleanly, but you
get the point right there. In all groups, in all pockets of
life, there are expectations andstandards for how you act in
that group. And most of them are unspoken.
(30:54):
They're just kind of like soakedup from the people around you.
And so I think this is good career advice.
I think it's good sports advice.I think it's good life advice.
Look at the people you're hanging around and then ask
yourself, do I want to be where they're at?
The people that are at the top of this group?
Is that where I want to be in five years?
Like what does that lifestyle look like?
What are those outcomes look like?
(31:14):
And do I want what they have? Because if so, then I should
hang out here. If not that maybe this is the
wrong group for me. And so I do think both of those
elements, the physical environment and what is easy and
what is low friction for you to do, and the social environment,
what are you rewarded and praised for?
What are you criticized if you do?
What's the standard, What's the normal behavior in that group?
(31:37):
I think those are two really powerful ways to look at your
habits. Yeah.
And then not only do you want it, then to your earlier point,
are you willing to live the lifestyle to achieve it?
Right. And I think that's always
sometimes the disconnect, especially at the young age.
And I think that's a lot of these lessons of what we're
trying to tell coaches and parents and kids that listen to
our shows. Like there's a big difference
(31:58):
between being wanting something and being willing to achieve
something. It doesn't.
Typically those things don't runa line.
So I think the way you frame it is just so good for our
listeners to hear. The last thing I would love you
to talk about Matt Go. Ahead, just a click on that for
a second. The other thing that's really
hard about that is that it kind of can't be faked, you know,
(32:19):
there, That's why I use words like interested or your natural
enthusiasm for something or whatever.
Like there's, there's some things that just draw you in.
And so you can kind of play thisgame where you're like, well,
I'm going to really want it, youknow, and like try to, I don't
know, force yourself to do it for a while.
But if you don't genuinely love it, if it's not really like
pulling you in, naturally, it's going to be hard to stick to
(32:40):
that for five, 610 years, however long it takes to to
become really good at that thing.
And I think this is one of the potential downsides.
You know, I'm not even really indeep in the youth sports world
yet as a parent, but I do think this is one of the potential
downsides of kids niching down faster and focusing on one sport
faster there. What are the odds that the first
(33:01):
thing you pick is also the thingthat you're like naturally
really interested in? I mean, you should, you should
have a wide exploration to find the thing that's right for you
and then you can start to doubledown on it.
But when you when you narrow your focus so quickly, it's just
mathematically it's pretty unlikely that like the first one
or two things you try are the also the thing that's the
(33:22):
perfect fit for your natural interests and enthusiasm.
Yeah, because you think you got to Matt, you have to guess,
right at 10 years old that you're going to have the
interest level, everything you've talked about.
You're going to have the physical skill sets required,
right? I, I dream about being a
basketball player, but you're going to be 59.
I, there's not a whole lot there.
(33:42):
And then also, are you going to have the opportunities, the
pathway, the fortune, the, the, you know, the element of luck
and chance and all the other actors for all those things to
get thrown into a bucket and work out from the time you're 10
to whatever age this would, you know, come to fruition.
You're, you're exactly right. I had these conversations with,
with the high school kids that we work with and they all want
(34:03):
to pick their sport by freshman year because.
And I tell them, I say guys like, I couldn't advise against
that. Strong more strongly and.
It's just it's a tricky. It's a.
Hard battle though nowadays. Compete, right, like they want
to, they want to be able to compete at a high level.
And I get that, but it just I think this is another message
that I want to give my kids as they get older is that there are
(34:25):
many ways to live a good life. You know, there are many good
lives out there for you and you're just trying to find one
of them. And if there is no perfect
outcome, you're going to have tomake the best of it regardless
of what it shakes out like no doubt.
And if you if you are willing toaccept that, you know, if you
can believe that, then it doesn't feel quite as brittle.
You know, if you get cut from that one team or if you don't
(34:45):
make it into that one college, or if you don't, you know what
you like, you don't need, you don't need things to go
perfectly. And I think, I think that
actually, ironically, we kind oftalk about mental toughness and
grit and discipline as like, I'mgoing to force my way through
and it's going to be this way and I'm going to make it happen.
But ironically, that's actually a very brittle mindset.
Because if you, if you need things to go a certain way, then
(35:08):
you are now held hostage by thatscenario.
And if it doesn't go like that, all of a sudden your world comes
crashing down. And instead, actually the most
mentally tough and resilient mindset is to be adaptable, to
be flexible, to be willing to see I am in a position where I
will figure out I can be happy in many situations.
You know, I can be, I can enjoy success in many different ways.
(35:30):
And it's once you adopt that mindset that I think you, you
put yourself on the path to a much better outcome.
I love that. I mean, there's so many Nuggets
in this, like this is this is exactly why I asked you to come
have this conversation. And this is the last thing I
have for you. And I'm just curious.
So you speak to teams, corporateAmerica, some of the biggest
business leaders thought provokers wouldn't name it.
(35:54):
You have so many great Nuggets, so many key pieces.
You've laid a lot of them out for us today.
There's probably some we haven'teven touched on because there's
is there one element that you get as feedback from coaches or
CE OS or executives? Is there one element of your
work, of your studies of whetherit's the book or just your
thoughts? Like is there something that you
(36:14):
feel like connects the most often?
I'll get, so I'll give you 2. So 1 is a very practical
strategy. I like to, I try to make things
actionable. So I'd like to weave this in
there. So I called the two-minute rule
and it's just whatever habit you're trying to build, you
scale it down to something that takes 2 minutes or less to do.
(36:34):
So read 30 books a year becomes read one page or do yoga four
days a week becomes take out my yoga mat.
And sometimes when I tell peoplethat they resisted a little bit,
you know, like, OK, buddy. Like I, I know the real goal
isn't just to take my yoga mat out.
I know I'm actually trying to dothe workout.
And I get where people are coming from.
But there's this story that I tell in the book.
There's this guy named Mitch andhe lost over 100 lbs and he's
(36:58):
kept off for more than a decade now.
And when he first started going to the gym, he had this strange
little rule where he wasn't allowed to stay for longer than
5 minutes. So he'd get in the car, drive to
the gym, get out, do like half an exercise, get back in the
car, drive home. And it sounds silly because
you're like, this is not going to get the results that he
wants. But what you realize is he was
(37:18):
mastering the art of showing up.And man, I think that lesson of
can I master the art of showing up?
That just applies to like everything, you know, we, this
is a deep truth about habits that I think people often
overlook, which is a habit must be established before it can be
improved. You know, we're so busy
optimizing. We're so busy focused on the
best workout program, the perfect diet plan, the ideal
(37:42):
sales strategy. We're so focused on optimizing
that we don't give ourselves permission to show up in a small
way. But I think particularly for
busy people, you know, like I, Idon't know what's important to
you right now, Greg, like what project you're working on or
something. But you know, I could tell you
right now, like, OK, scale it down, find something you can do
in the next 5 minutes to move forward on that and it would
make sense to you. And then what's going to happen
(38:04):
two weeks from now? You're busy again, bunch of
stuff's in your inbox. People are waiting for replies
from you. You're, you know, and then all
of a sudden it's like you have to remind yourself again, scale
it down, get back to, you know, it's just like that durable
advice that you just can endlessly remind yourself to try
to make it easy and scale it down to something takes 2
minutes or less to do. And then the so that's the first
one and then the second one. The last thing I'll say is in a
(38:27):
lot of ways, I feel like the twotime frames in life that really
matter are 10 years or one hour.And what I mean by that is like
10 years is shorthand for prettymuch all the really meaningful
things in life that that we all want.
The big meaningful stuff, you know, building a, a business
that you're proud of, raising a great family, creating a
successful marriage, getting in the best shape of your life.
(38:49):
Pick whatever The thing is, but it's probably a multi year
process. Those are those things that
really provide a lot of meaning to us.
And So what is that 10 year vision?
And then one hour is shorthand for what can I do right now
that's going to move me toward where I want to be in 10 years?
And you know, there's a lot of stuff that just has to get done
every day, right? Like you got to take care of
your kids, you got to get to practice, you got to make meals,
(39:10):
what whatever. It's just stuff that needs to
happen. See, not every minute of the day
can be oriented in that way, butI think if you can do something
each day that works toward whereyou want to be in 10 years, that
you show up two or five or ten years later, you're in a really
great spot because you're thinking long term, but you're
acting short term. And that I think that's a
powerful combination. And so I the last thing I would
(39:32):
say is don't underestimate what 5 good minutes can do.
You know, 5 good minutes of try just go do push ups for 5
minutes like you'll be winded. You know, 5 good minutes of push
ups can be a good workout. Reset your mood for the day. 5
minutes of writing will make youfeel like the manuscripts moving
forward again. 5 minutes of conversation can restore a
strained relationship. Like you can do a lot with 5
(39:52):
minutes if it's oriented toward one of those things you really
want in 10 years. Yeah, Power progress, right?
Yeah. Moving forward.
Well, James, I, I had high expectations.
Obviously, I reached out to you just as a fan of your work and
your thoughts and your mindset and your and your work.
I think for our, for our audience and our listeners to be
able to hear it in your words. Explain so clearly the amount of
(40:15):
Nuggets, the amount of practical, simple advice that I
think can have such a big impacton their ability to raise kids
as parents, coach kids as youth sports coaches, and just improve
their own personal life. So on all levels, I think the
amount of information that people are going to take from
this is the reason why I reachedout to you and I can't thank you
(40:35):
enough for your time. It's super appreciated by all of
us that you think. And you, you have a really
special way of making complicated things simple and
practical and accessible. And I don't know.
I don't know. I don't.
I can't pay you enough compliments.
So I really. Appreciate you doing that.
Thank you so much, Greg. I appreciate it.
It's a pleasure to talk to everybody and I hope the the
(40:56):
parents and teams and kids listen to this find it useful.
So thanks again for the opportunity.
We'll catch you again next week right here on You Think.
Make sure you subscribe to both our YouTube channel and our RSS
feed for all future conversations here at you think.
What's up everybody? Welcome back to a really special
edition here on You Think I Am joined by New York Times best
selling author James Clear, author of one of personally, one
of the most probably breakthrough books that I've
(00:20):
ever personally read. And that is genuine.
That is not a plug that is not being paid like I, and that's
the reason I reached out to you,James.
Like thank you so much for joining us here.
I can't wait to dive into AtomicHabits, your big best seller,
and all your other newsletters and all the other information
you share weekly with your followers.
I just think it's going to be such a great resource for all of
(00:40):
our listeners here on You think so.
I really appreciate your time. Yeah, of course.
Thanks for saying that and excited to do it.
Thanks, Greg. Yeah, so, so I was telling you
before we started. So I have like a a stack of
books. I'm an avid reader.
I love reading new things, whether it's things that I'm
familiar with or just completelyout of the blue.
So I have a very wide array of different books.
So I was actually gifted Atomic Habits by a friend.
(01:03):
I just finished it within the last three weeks, 2-3 weeks,
shortly after I reached out to you for this conversation.
And so I want to start here. We live every day in the youth
sports world. I'm a dad of three.
I grew up the son of a coach. All of our listeners, all of our
families are all going through these same struggles where
they're trying to navigate a very weird world.
(01:24):
I know you have your own really interesting background as a
baseball player in college and overcoming really significant
injury. And it's the opening of your
book and and we can touch on that in a minute, but I want I
want to start here. I think the number one moment
reading your book where I was like, this guy gets it.
You talk about latent potential,you talk about the the melting
of the ice cube where the temperature gets warmer and all
(01:46):
of a sudden the ice cube melted,but nobody saw the degrees
rising to 31. They only saw 32 and above.
Like, and I just thought it was such a great metaphor for kind
of the world we're in in youth sports where we don't delay
satisfaction. It's instant results.
We don't develop, we don't worry.
It's just instant in the moment wins, losses like start big
(02:08):
picture there for me, like framethat to me.
That was the part of the book where I was like, wow, like this
is this. And and obviously I chewed up
through the rest of the whole entire, you know, every page.
So yeah, it's a great point. I you know, I think we all have
thought about results versus process and you know all that.
We've heard things like that before.
But the reality is the world is very results oriented.
(02:31):
You know, like everything usually gets discussed after the
milestone is crossed, right? You hear about Hamilton after
it's a Broadway hit, not like when when Mandel Miranda's
sitting there writing it, you know, you hear about it after
Tom Brady set some record. You hear about, you know, the
New York Times bestseller after it hits the best seller list,
not when somebody's writing it. So that's fine.
Like I, I'm very achievement oriented too.
(02:52):
Like we all, you know, we all want results, we all want better
outcomes. But I think because we see them
again and again, like nothing isever a news story until it's an
outcome. You're never going to see a news
story That's like, man eats chicken and salad for lunch
today. You know it's going to be, it's
only a story when it's like man loses 100 lbs.
So we tend to overvalue the outcome and undervalue the
(03:13):
process. And, you know, there is all this
work that has to be done in order to get to that that
result. Like the San Antonio Spurs have
this quote that hangs in their locker room, right?
They've won five NBA championships and says something
like whatever. I feel like giving up.
I think about the stone cutter who takes his hammer and bangs
on the rock 100 times without itsplitting in two.
(03:34):
And then at the 101st blow, it cracks.
And I know that it wasn't the 101st that did, it was all the
100 that came before. And man, you can say that about
almost anything, certainly in sports.
You know, it wasn't the last Repthat you know, got you the
outcome that you wanted. It was all the 100 that came
before. It wasn't the last sentence that
finished the novel. It was all the 100 that came
before. And I think if you can have that
attitude and realize that the work is not being wasted, it's
(03:58):
just being stored, then it givesyou, you know, a new lens for
thinking about putting your repsin each day.
The, the ice cube metaphor that you mentioned, I would like to
say, you know, imagine you walk into this room, it's cold.
You can like see your breath. You know, it's like 25°.
Then you start heating the room up. 262728 the ice cube is
sitting on the table. Nothing's happened to it yet.
293031 ice cube still sitting there.
(04:21):
And then you hit 32° and it's this, it's this 1° shift, you
know, not unlike the ones that came before.
But all of a sudden you hit thisphase transition.
And I think that is often what the process of building better
habits and what the process of trying to improve, whether it's
in sports or just in life in general, what it's like because
you show up and you do the rightthing.
(04:41):
And a lot of the time you have nothing to show for it that day.
You know, like my parents like to swim, right?
So they, you know, they jump in the water, their body looks
exactly the same when they get out as it did when they jumped
in. If they're doing it for the
physical results, well, that that takes way too long.
That takes a year or two or three.
Like it, you're not going to seeit on that day.
And so you have to have this willingness to show up and
(05:04):
continue to put your reps in andthis mindset where you realize
that just because you didn't getthe outcome you wanted that day
does not mean that the work was wasted.
It's just being stored. Every building, every
professional team, every collegeteam, maybe every business
organization has a sign that says get 1% better.
I know it's a big part of your research, a big part of your
(05:27):
kind of philosophies you layout throughout the course of the
book. Let's boil it down, though, to
some practical applications. And, and we're going to get into
some of the habit building and, and the four, you know, kind of
the four sections of Q and reward and all that.
We'll we'll get to that. But for for our followers,
whether they're coaches, whetherthey're parents, like when you
talk about delaying gratification and it's not
(05:48):
about, you know, that moment in time, but it's about stacking
those moments over time. How do we get in this world
where it's highlight reel culture, it's only putting the
highlights of our life, the the game-winning goal, the home run.
We never put the strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth on on
Instagram. How?
What is a practical approach forparents, teachers, coaches,
(06:10):
leaders to get young people to understand this is a this is a
long term play, Don't cheat the moment now to sacrifice what you
say you or really want down the road.
Yeah, Well, I think first of all, I think just saying out
loud some of the things you justsaid is helpful.
Like I, I have 3 kids. I certainly will be saying that
(06:30):
to my kids. You know, like they, they're
very young right now, but when as they get older and get into
sports, like that's something that they need to hear, you
know. So I think some of it is that,
but more broadly, there is a huge cultural emphasis on
position. And what I'm trying to get
across when I talk about 1% better each day is I'm trying to
shift that focus from being focused on position to being
(06:54):
focused on trajectory. So, so much of the discussion is
about position. What's the number on the scale?
How much money is in the bank account?
How many games have you won? It's all about what position are
we in right now? Who's in first, who's in last?
And instead I am trying to shiftit to say, hey, instead of
worrying about what our current position, let's focus a little
bit more on our current trajectory.
(07:16):
Are we getting 1% better or 1% worse?
You know, is the arrow pointed up and to the right or have we
flatlined? Because if you're on a good
trajectory, all you need is time.
You know, you just need to let the days keep working for you.
But if you're on a bad trajectory, even if you're in a
pretty strong position right now, it's not going to end well.
And so this idea of getting 1% better each day, it's not really
(07:39):
about getting wrapped up in the number.
You know, it's not like, oh, is it a 1% improvement or 1.6% or
something like that. It's just, it's an attitude,
it's a philosophy, this approachfor life where you can say, I'm
going to show up today and I'm going to try to find some small
way to improve. And I'm going to trust that if I
do the same thing tomorrow and keep stacking these days up,
then I'm going to end up in a pretty good place.
(08:00):
And this is where you start to see the power of building better
habits. It's not that doing some small
thing really benefits you on anygiven day.
It's that when you start to accumulate the days, you realize
that time will magnify whatever you feed it.
So if you have good habits, timebecomes your ally.
And every day that goes by, you're putting yourself in a
(08:22):
stronger position. But the person who has bad
habits, every day that goes by, they dig the hole a little bit
deeper. And so you start putting
yourself, you know, behind the 8ball to try to figure out how do
I, how do I get the results I want?
And that all comes back to this philosophy or this approach of
trying to emphasize trajectory over position.
You know, again, I can name 50 points you made in the book that
(08:45):
I'm like, Oh my God, like this is so it's what I've been
taught. You know, every team is trying
to implement and but like, no one really feels like got it
right. Like I felt like you were one of
the few people that were able tolay it out as, as clearly as you
just did there and like have it and, and, and make it make
sense. So we had, we have a, we had a
kind of a slow game on teams that I've been on and what not,
(09:05):
where the goal is just who can get better the longest, right?
It's not a matter of are you in first place, second place?
It's very similar to what you'retalking about there.
And the idea of it's not about setting goals.
It's about building systems and about building processes.
And, you know, the team we coachnow is like a middle school
football team. And I tell them all the time.
I say, guys, we don't have team rules.
(09:28):
I'm not gonna tell you what yet.We have expectations and we have
standards. So like all these similar
things, I think you word it a lot better.
So like again, teaching these kids that it's where you're
going and not where you are and and it makes a lot of sense.
It's very clear for all of us. In my experience, with can get
better than the. Longest, you know, like that's
(09:49):
that I, you know, I never playedprofessionally like you did, but
I, I ended up having a good college career and was an
academic all American in my senior year.
And that who can get better? The longest is basically a
description of my career becauseI was never the best player on
any team I was on and I didn't have like even a good high
school career. But I just decided that I was
not going to stop. And, you know, like, by the time
(10:11):
I was 22 years old, I ended up being decent.
And so they're, you know, I think you can apply that to a
lot of things in life. And I, you know, I try to do the
same thing with my writing career now.
And I think that's really one ofthe big gifts of sports too, is
that it's not only a way to win games, it's a way to live.
You know, it's a way of being, it's a way to live life.
And you're kind of equipping them with a mindset that they
(10:32):
can use in in many different situations.
And in today's world where we want to crown 12 year olds and
14 year olds and 10 year olds and you, and you know, you're
laughing, you have kids. How old are they?
4/2 and four months. OK, yeah.
So you you got you got a little ways, but you'll see what I'm
talking about in a couple years.Yeah, but I'm sure it'll come.
It'll be. It it's getting younger.
(10:52):
Trust me, I have I have a 13 year old and 212 year olds and
the landscape. That frustration is why we're
even doing this show and having these conversations.
So be patient. You know, the other, the other
thing that I, that really struckme was like this idea that get
rid of goals, right? I feel like every player on
(11:13):
their team or motivation, peoplewant to call them goals or
motivation, whatever you want tocall it.
There's a lot of ways to be motivated, right?
Some guys in the NFL are motivated by money.
Some guys in the NFL are motivated to get their family
into a better situation. They want to make a Pro Bowl.
They want a second contract. And throughout the course of my
career, I always felt I was always chasing the next goal.
(11:34):
And then the goal came and then it was like, but now what I, I
just reached my goals. So do I stop?
Do I? And that was something that I
had to really wrestle through tolike always move the carrot down
the road. And, and an Atomic Habits you,
you really dive into like goals are not, they're fine, they're
immediate satisfaction, but they're not really of the
(11:55):
importance that everybody makes them.
I'd love for you to kind of expand on that idea cuz again,
like so many of these chapters like hit me so head on cuz I'm
like, I, I can relate to this. Yeah, Yeah.
I think what you said goals are fine is that's probably how I
would land on it now. They serve a purpose, but they
aren't the solution that people are kind of hoping they would
(12:16):
be. You know, if you take most
domains in life, take an Olympicathlete for example, presumably
every athlete at the Olympic Games has the goal of winning
the gold medal. You know, the goal is not the
thing that determines the performance.
It's genetic ability, coaching and strategy for the events, how
much sleep they got the night before.
Like all kinds of things, right?Or if you have a job opening and
(12:38):
100 people apply, presumably every IT has the goal of getting
the job. You know, the goal does not
determine the outcome. It's education and experience,
presentation skills in the interview, who they know at the
company, all kinds of stuff. So if this pattern is true in
many areas of life, that the winners and the losers often
have the same goals, well then clearly the goal cannot be the
(13:00):
thing that determines the outcome.
You know, like we're all told, hey, you should be more
ambitious, 10X your vision, think bigger, set bigger goals
for yourself. But the goal is kind of the easy
part, You know, like if I wanted, I'm an author, right?
So I could set a goal to sell 100 million books.
Took me 3 seconds. You know, the goal is not the
hard part. It's building a system of
(13:21):
behaviors, a collection of habits that carries you toward
that outcome. So what I would say is, look,
you don't rise to the level of your goals.
You fall to the level of your systems.
And so often in life we're surprised by this dynamic, but
we see it again and again. And so if I was going to put a
little finer point on the language, what do I mean when I
say goal and system? Your goal is your desired
(13:44):
outcome. It's like the target, the thing
you're shooting for. What is your system?
It's the collection of daily habits that you follow.
And if there is ever a gap, if there's ever this difference
between your desired outcome, your goal, and your daily
habits, your system, your daily habits will always win.
You know, almost by definition, your current habits are
(14:05):
perfectly designed to deliver your current results.
So whatever habits you've been following or, or the team has
been following, whatever collection of of habits you've
been following for say the last six months or year or two years,
it's carried you almost inevitably to the outcomes that
you have right now. Now, you know, I'm not saying
that habits are the only thing that matter in life, right?
Certainly there are other thingsthat influence outcomes.
(14:28):
You've got luck and randomness. You have misfortune, but by
definition, luck and randomness are not under your control and
your habits are. And the only reasonable rational
approach in life is focus on thepieces of the situation that are
within your control. So, you know, after the book's
been out about five years now and I've, you know, got to talk
(14:48):
to a lot of businesses and teamsand, and players about this
stuff. And so where I've come down on
it now is goals are good for setting a sense of direction.
So it's good to say, hey, this is our goal is what we're all
working toward. That's that's good for focus and
clarity. They're good for filtering.
So if somebody comes to you and they say, hey, do you guys want
to do this? You can run it through the
filter your goals. And you said, does it get us
(15:08):
closer to that or not? And if not, it's easier to say
no. But once you've selected the
goal, you should probably kind of set it on the shelf because
and spend most of your time focused on your daily habits and
the system that you're building.Because goals are good for
people who care about winning once.
Systems are best for people who care about winning repeatedly.
(15:29):
You know, if you really want to make progress again and again,
you're going to need some kind of system, some process to keep
you up there. So, you know, ultimately I'm
kind of describing this like a dichotomy, right, with goals,
with systems. But of course, what we really
want is both. We want an alignment between
your daily, your, you know, yourdaily habits and the outcomes
that you ultimately want. And I think most people spend a
(15:50):
lot of time thinking about the goals or dreaming up of what
results they would like, and notnearly enough time thinking
about the system and the daily habits required to get there.
What's up guys? Do you want custom fan wear like
this cricket shirt for CharlotteChristian School?
We've got premium apparel from your favorite brands.
The best part about it is I don't have to just wear it to
Charlotte Christians events. I can wear it to golf, I can
(16:11):
wear it to lunch. It's turned into my uniform.
Go right now over to Youth dot, Inc Sign up for our newsletter
that talks about our podcast forthat week.
Our interview guests all the breaking news across the
landscape of youth sports. And you can win one piece of
merch for your school by going to Sign up today.
And remember itsnot.com, it's Youth dot, Inc.
Now back to our episode. So is it fair?
(16:32):
Like as my brain processes hearing you say that, Like, is
it fair to say that whether you want to call it winning or you
want to call it success or you want to call it reaching set
goal is almost a byproduct. Like it's almost a secondary
component where it's like, you know what if we win, great.
But we're going to win because we train hard in the off
(16:52):
seasons, we show up on time XYZ,winning almost becomes a
byproduct goal. You know, reaching goals almost
becomes a byproduct. Like, is that?
Is that a fair characterization?Almost have to admit that that
is like probably the case. You know, it's the kind of that
famous Bill Walsh quote. The score takes care of itself.
Yeah. I mean, right.
You know, imagine you're about basketball team and in one
(17:15):
scenario you're only going to focus on the score.
Every time you get a possession,the first thing you do is you
look at the scoreboard and then imagine another basketball team
that the scoreboard like is off or something.
The power went out and all you can do is focus on how well
you're going to execute that possession.
I mean, which team is in the better position to win?
You know, it's like the the score is not the thing that you
need to focus on. And it's true even for like dumb
(17:37):
little stuff to like, you know, you want to clean out your
garage. Well, that's fine.
You can have a goal of having tohaving a, a clean garage, but if
you don't have the habits of living in, you know, kind of a
clean and orderly lifestyle, then even if you clean it for a
day, you're going to turn arounda month later and it's going to
be messy again. And you know, so it just, it
works that way in like big and small ways in life.
And it almost, it almost is to the point where I think people
(18:02):
should, if you don't want to live the lifestyle that is
required, you should release yourself from the desire for
that result because to, to desire the outcome and to not
want the lifestyle is just to end up frustrated.
And so it's really, I think thisis what you see with these
people who get really incredibleresults in, in most fields is
(18:23):
they like living that way. You know, they like living the
way that is required, doing the habits that are required day in
and day out. It's the person who likes the
lifestyle that is much more likely to get the result as the
byproduct. Well, it's a great segue because
I want to spend some time talking about identity.
I I know identity is a big part.You know, you use the idea, you
know, someone offers you a cigarette and you say, I don't
(18:45):
smoke or I'm not a smoker, right.
It's not necessarily I work out.I am an athlete.
Like you give a lot of those examples, even just how we talk
to ourselves, how we classify ourselves wrapped up in our
identity. That might be what you just
said, though, that that needs tobe on every youth, high school,
college, name it across the board.
(19:06):
Frustration comes from people that have their goals but aren't
willing to live the lifestyle that will lead to that goal.
Like if you could put one sayingand wrap it in a bundle and send
it out to all young kids right now.
They all want to be LeBron James.
They all want to be whoever. Sure.
How many kids are really willingto do that day in, day out, over
(19:28):
and over and stack that? Which is awkward.
That's the most I mean, this is I heard this when I was a kid
too. But like, you know, you should
focus on what you really love orwhat you're obsessed by, or at
least what you're maybe if we don't like words like that, you
know, people say what you're passionate about or something.
Maybe you could say like, what are you genuinely interested in,
you know, or like, what are you enthusiastic about that it's
(19:49):
just like pulling you in. You almost can't stop yourself
from doing it cuz you just thinkit's so fun or cool.
And maybe that's programming on the computer, maybe it's playing
basketball, maybe it's, I don't know, something out gardening,
whatever, it doesn't matter. I I almost think for my kids,
what I really want, almost more than anything, is for them to
find the thing that lights them up.
Because if they can find that, then you're like, OK, you have
so many ways to get better at that thing now because you're
(20:12):
already in you're, you're in thegame.
You want to be doing it. You want to live that lifestyle.
And you know, the performance can come naturally if if you're
really lit up by it. Yeah, All right, so let's stay
on identity. You hear a lot of you know we we
had doctor Michael Gervais, world renowned sports
psychologist and and we, me and him have had a lot of really
interesting conversations and myways that worked for me maybe
(20:33):
don't work great for my kids. And one thing to a person that I
think all athletes struggle with, I know me personally went
through this where from the big part of my life, I was a
football player now I lived thatlifestyle every day.
I was really, I enjoyed living and breathing and eating that
every single day of my life. And it worked out for me.
(20:57):
But that's not everybody, right?Like, not everyone's going to
have the outcome that merits putting that kind of effort and
work. So then there is the other side
of that coin where if it does become your identity and you
only see yourself through, it could be sports, it could be
academics, whatever it is and whatever it is, are we now
lending these kids to wrapping their identity too much up in
(21:19):
what they're doing and the outcome that comes?
Like, how do we find that balance, especially with young
kids? OK, All right, so there's a lot
to say here, so give me just give me a minute.
All right, so. The floor is yours.
All right, So ultimately, I think where we want to get to is
the point where we are taking pride in being that type of
person. You know, there are all kinds of
(21:40):
external reasons to do stuff. Hey, you might go to work to get
a paycheck in two weeks or you might, you know, play the game
because you hope to win the championship at the end of
season or whatever. And the external rewards are
great. But ultimately, we want to get
to a point where we take pride in being that kind of person
because if you take pride in that aspect of your identity,
you'll fight to maintain the habit.
You know, like if you take pridein the size of your biceps, you
(22:02):
never skip arm day at the gym. You know, if you take pride in
how your hair looks, you have this long hair care routine, you
do it every day. Like, I wouldn't know, but you
know what I mean? You know, And it's like the more
that you do those things and start to adopt them as part of
your story, the more likely you are to stick with it.
And so I think that's where you can see the value of these small
habits is that they reinforce being that type of person.
(22:25):
And to me, this is really the reason that that habits matter
is that it's not because of the external results.
Hey, habit, habits will help youmake, you know, twice the money
or get in the best shape of yourlife or reduce stress.
Like it's true that habits can do that stuff, but the real
reason they matter is every action you take is like a vote
for the type of person you wish to become.
(22:46):
And so no, doing 1 push up does not transform your body, but it
does cast a vote for I'm the type of person who doesn't miss
workouts. And no, giving one bit of
positive feedback to somebody onyour team does not make you the
world's best teammate. But it does cast a vote for I'm
the type of teammate who cares about the guys I play with or
the people around me. And so every step that you take
(23:08):
in that direction, you start to reinforce that story.
All right, so this is on the positive side of identity,
right? Like as we're building the
habit, we want to build up evidence of being that kind of
person. And I think just to give a real
simple example here, if you go outside and shoot a basketball
for 20 minutes this afternoon, you don't like instantly think,
oh, I'm a basketball player. But if you do it every afternoon
(23:29):
for the next 6 months or year ortwo years, like at some point
you cross this invisible line where you got to be like, you
know what? Playing basketball is kind of a
big part of my life. And so it works that way for
everything. You know, I, I almost think that
like whatever you want to be or whatever outcome you want or
identity you want to have, it's almost, it's like it's on the
other side of a certain number of repetitions.
(23:50):
And nobody knows exactly how many repetitions that is, but
maybe it's 100, maybe it's 1000.But really all there is left to
do is get your and get your repsin and start to prove that
identity to yourself. All right, So that's, that's the
good part, right? You build up these reps and you
start to foster this identity and you put yourself in a
stronger position where you feellike, yeah, I want to do this
(24:11):
habit every day because it's just part of who I am.
I'm being the type of person I want to be.
But on the far side of that, as you just mentioned, well, OK,
what if you've been an athlete for 20 years and now all of a
sudden you're not one day and your career's over and then
you're like, well, who am I? Or another example I came across
when I was working on the book, people have been in the
military, you know, for for a decade.
(24:31):
Their, their identity is I'm a soldier.
And then they leave the militaryand suddenly they're civilian
and they're like, well, who am Inow?
And I think two things come to mind.
So the first is when I played, my dad used to tell me, he said,
look, when you step between those lines, you have to play
like nothing else matters. And then as soon as you walk off
the field, you got to realize that it never mattered at all.
(24:53):
And I, I think that there's thislike dual place that you need to
be in your mind where you are both going to compete like
there's nothing else that you'reworking for in the world.
But also realize that you are more than just the sport, right?
You are more than just this game.
You're more than just this one thing and that you are a whole
person. And that this is not the loss of
this does not mean the loss of agood life.
(25:14):
There are many ways to live a good life.
And this is just one of them that you happen to be exploring
right now. So I think there's, there's that
part of it. And then the second piece, and
this is what I came across when I was studying that soldier
civilian example, is that you need to look for the elements of
your current identity that can be transported or trans are
(25:35):
transferable to the next chapterof your life.
You know, so the Soldier might be able to say, well, you know,
I'm not a soldier anymore, but Ican still be a good teammate or
I can still be the type of person that follows through on
the mission that's given to them.
You know, you find these, I can still be reliable.
You find these aspects of your previous identity that you can
say, OK, I can apply that to thejob I'm in or to, you know,
(25:56):
whatever scenario I'm in. And I think if you can do that,
you start to realize that maybe if you lean into your strengths
a little bit more as you transition from chapter to
chapter, then it becomes a little less about the label and
more about, you know, just who you are as a person.
So identity, identity can be a very powerful thing for getting
a habit established. But then on the backside of it,
(26:18):
you always need to be I, I kind of equate it to like a painting
that's always being retouched. You know, the, the picture is
never finished. You're always kind of adjusting
and upgrading, editing and expanding your identity for
whatever your next chapter requires.
I like that, that I just think it's such a powerful
conversation that kids are struggling with.
I think parents are struggling with.
(26:39):
The more we get wrapped up into the, you know, in our case, the
youth sports world, it for a lotof these kids, it does become
their identity. And maybe it didn't become our
identity until we were in high school and college.
But for some of these young kids, it becomes their identity
and what they're told is their purpose when they're in fifth
grade and I. Just think 10 and 12 and what
like it's your whole world, you know, I mean, you haven't, you
(27:00):
haven't seen that much of the world yet.
So it's I, I think the younger that you are.
No doubt. Let me ask you this, how much of
what you're describing as far asthe ability to execute all of
this is a product of just innatemakeup and just unique mindset
and unique approach, but also environmental, the environment.
I know you're obviously big on the environment that you're in
(27:21):
and you take on the personality of the people around you,
whether it's family, friends, teams, whatever.
Like what is that balance between, you know, wiring, we
can call it just hardwiring personality, innate traits, but
also the importance of environment, the importance of
surrounding yourself, your children, your family with other
like minded people, other positive influences.
(27:43):
Because if you're not building good habits, you're building bad
habits, there's really no neutral ground.
And you know, so how would you kind of lay out what that looks
like? I think environments critical.
I almost recommend that being one of the first places you
start if you're trying to build a better habit is by I think you
can first start with adjusting the physical environment.
(28:03):
So you know one simple question you could ask yourself.
Think of a habit you're trying to build and just hold it in the
back of your mind. And then walk into the rooms
where you spend most of your time each day, your office, your
living room, your bedroom, your kitchen.
And then look around and ask yourself, what is this space
designed to encourage? What behaviors are obvious here?
(28:24):
What behaviors are easy here? And you might be surprised by
what the path of least resistance is.
We all have these habits we say are important to us.
But then you look and it's like to do the easy thing, it only
takes one step. And to do the thing I want to
do, it takes like 7 steps in this room.
So how can we change that? So there's a bunch of examples.
You know, there's obvious stuff like if you want to go for a run
(28:44):
every morning, set your workout clothes and your shoes out the
night before. Or, you know, when I wanted to
read more books, I would sprinkle books around the room
so that I was never far from one.
I took Audible for audio books and I put that on the home
screen of my phone. So it'd be like the first thing
that I would see when I opened it up.
Like you're just trying to find ways to reduce distance, reduce
friction between you and the habit you want to perform.
(29:05):
So that's, that's the physical environment and then social
environment. I think if you're trying to get
a habit to stick for a long time, a year, 2, maybe even a
decade, the social environment is one of the most powerful
factors. You know, we, we perform habits
because of the results that we think they'll get us.
But that's not the only reason we do them.
(29:26):
We also perform habits because of what they signal to the
people around us. Hey, I, I get it.
I understand how we act here. I, I fit in, I belong.
And we're all, you know, humans are very social creatures.
We all want to bond and connect.We all want to be part of
something, whether it's your little friend group or your
family or whatever. It is like people don't want to
go against the grain of the group.
(29:48):
And so I think the punchline is you want to join groups where
your desired behavior is the normal behavior.
If it's normal in that group, then it's going to be really
motivating for you to stick to it and for you to follow through
because your friends and your teammates and you know, your Co
workers are going to be doing that thing too.
I always, you know, like to jokeabout like every school that I
(30:10):
went to, the swimming and cross country teams, their GPA S were
incredible. It was like they were always the
top two teams. Meanwhile, the baseball teams,
like, you know, down at the bottom or whatever.
But I swam for seven years, and I ended up having a bunch of
friends that really liked schooland got good grades.
And I kind of liked it too. And I wonder how much of that
was me soaking it up from them. Because it's like, look, if all
(30:32):
your friends are going to study for the test, like you kind of
care about the test, but mostly you just want to hang out with
your friends. And I'm not saying that you
should like, have your kids swimif you want them to be smart.
I don't know that it works exactly that cleanly, but you
get the point right there. In all groups, in all pockets of
life, there are expectations andstandards for how you act in
that group. And most of them are unspoken.
(30:54):
They're just kind of like soakedup from the people around you.
And so I think this is good career advice.
I think it's good sports advice.I think it's good life advice.
Look at the people you're hanging around and then ask
yourself, do I want to be where they're at?
The people that are at the top of this group?
Is that where I want to be in five years?
Like what does that lifestyle look like?
What are those outcomes look like?
(31:14):
And do I want what they have? Because if so, then I should
hang out here. If not that maybe this is the
wrong group for me. And so I do think both of those
elements, the physical environment and what is easy and
what is low friction for you to do, and the social environment,
what are you rewarded and praised for?
What are you criticized if you do?
What's the standard, What's the normal behavior in that group?
(31:37):
I think those are two really powerful ways to look at your
habits. Yeah.
And then not only do you want it, then to your earlier point,
are you willing to live the lifestyle to achieve it?
Right. And I think that's always
sometimes the disconnect, especially at the young age.
And I think that's a lot of these lessons of what we're
trying to tell coaches and parents and kids that listen to
our shows. Like there's a big difference
(31:58):
between being wanting something and being willing to achieve
something. It doesn't.
Typically those things don't runa line.
So I think the way you frame it is just so good for our
listeners to hear. The last thing I would love you
to talk about Matt Go. Ahead, just a click on that for
a second. The other thing that's really
hard about that is that it kind of can't be faked, you know,
(32:19):
there, That's why I use words like interested or your natural
enthusiasm for something or whatever.
Like there's, there's some things that just draw you in.
And so you can kind of play thisgame where you're like, well,
I'm going to really want it, youknow, and like try to, I don't
know, force yourself to do it for a while.
But if you don't genuinely love it, if it's not really like
pulling you in, naturally, it's going to be hard to stick to
(32:40):
that for five, 610 years, however long it takes to to
become really good at that thing.
And I think this is one of the potential downsides.
You know, I'm not even really indeep in the youth sports world
yet as a parent, but I do think this is one of the potential
downsides of kids niching down faster and focusing on one sport
faster there. What are the odds that the first
(33:01):
thing you pick is also the thingthat you're like naturally
really interested in? I mean, you should, you should
have a wide exploration to find the thing that's right for you
and then you can start to doubledown on it.
But when you when you narrow your focus so quickly, it's just
mathematically it's pretty unlikely that like the first one
or two things you try are the also the thing that's the
(33:22):
perfect fit for your natural interests and enthusiasm.
Yeah, because you think you got to Matt, you have to guess,
right at 10 years old that you're going to have the
interest level, everything you've talked about.
You're going to have the physical skill sets required,
right? I, I dream about being a
basketball player, but you're going to be 59.
I, there's not a whole lot there.
(33:42):
And then also, are you going to have the opportunities, the
pathway, the fortune, the, the, you know, the element of luck
and chance and all the other actors for all those things to
get thrown into a bucket and work out from the time you're 10
to whatever age this would, you know, come to fruition.
You're, you're exactly right. I had these conversations with,
with the high school kids that we work with and they all want
(34:03):
to pick their sport by freshman year because.
And I tell them, I say guys like, I couldn't advise against
that. Strong more strongly and.
It's just it's a tricky. It's a.
Hard battle though nowadays. Compete, right, like they want
to, they want to be able to compete at a high level.
And I get that, but it just I think this is another message
that I want to give my kids as they get older is that there are
(34:25):
many ways to live a good life. You know, there are many good
lives out there for you and you're just trying to find one
of them. And if there is no perfect
outcome, you're going to have tomake the best of it regardless
of what it shakes out like no doubt.
And if you if you are willing toaccept that, you know, if you
can believe that, then it doesn't feel quite as brittle.
You know, if you get cut from that one team or if you don't
(34:45):
make it into that one college, or if you don't, you know what
you like, you don't need, you don't need things to go
perfectly. And I think, I think that
actually, ironically, we kind oftalk about mental toughness and
grit and discipline as like, I'mgoing to force my way through
and it's going to be this way and I'm going to make it happen.
But ironically, that's actually a very brittle mindset.
Because if you, if you need things to go a certain way, then
(35:08):
you are now held hostage by thatscenario.
And if it doesn't go like that, all of a sudden your world comes
crashing down. And instead, actually the most
mentally tough and resilient mindset is to be adaptable, to
be flexible, to be willing to see I am in a position where I
will figure out I can be happy in many situations.
You know, I can be, I can enjoy success in many different ways.
(35:30):
And it's once you adopt that mindset that I think you, you
put yourself on the path to a much better outcome.
I love that. I mean, there's so many Nuggets
in this, like this is this is exactly why I asked you to come
have this conversation. And this is the last thing I
have for you. And I'm just curious.
So you speak to teams, corporateAmerica, some of the biggest
business leaders thought provokers wouldn't name it.
(35:54):
You have so many great Nuggets, so many key pieces.
You've laid a lot of them out for us today.
There's probably some we haven'teven touched on because there's
is there one element that you get as feedback from coaches or
CE OS or executives? Is there one element of your
work, of your studies of whetherit's the book or just your
thoughts? Like is there something that you
(36:14):
feel like connects the most often?
I'll get, so I'll give you 2. So 1 is a very practical
strategy. I like to, I try to make things
actionable. So I'd like to weave this in
there. So I called the two-minute rule
and it's just whatever habit you're trying to build, you
scale it down to something that takes 2 minutes or less to do.
(36:34):
So read 30 books a year becomes read one page or do yoga four
days a week becomes take out my yoga mat.
And sometimes when I tell peoplethat they resisted a little bit,
you know, like, OK, buddy. Like I, I know the real goal
isn't just to take my yoga mat out.
I know I'm actually trying to dothe workout.
And I get where people are coming from.
But there's this story that I tell in the book.
There's this guy named Mitch andhe lost over 100 lbs and he's
(36:58):
kept off for more than a decade now.
And when he first started going to the gym, he had this strange
little rule where he wasn't allowed to stay for longer than
5 minutes. So he'd get in the car, drive to
the gym, get out, do like half an exercise, get back in the
car, drive home. And it sounds silly because
you're like, this is not going to get the results that he
wants. But what you realize is he was
(37:18):
mastering the art of showing up.And man, I think that lesson of
can I master the art of showing up?
That just applies to like everything, you know, we, this
is a deep truth about habits that I think people often
overlook, which is a habit must be established before it can be
improved. You know, we're so busy
optimizing. We're so busy focused on the
best workout program, the perfect diet plan, the ideal
(37:42):
sales strategy. We're so focused on optimizing
that we don't give ourselves permission to show up in a small
way. But I think particularly for
busy people, you know, like I, Idon't know what's important to
you right now, Greg, like what project you're working on or
something. But you know, I could tell you
right now, like, OK, scale it down, find something you can do
in the next 5 minutes to move forward on that and it would
make sense to you. And then what's going to happen
(38:04):
two weeks from now? You're busy again, bunch of
stuff's in your inbox. People are waiting for replies
from you. You're, you know, and then all
of a sudden it's like you have to remind yourself again, scale
it down, get back to, you know, it's just like that durable
advice that you just can endlessly remind yourself to try
to make it easy and scale it down to something takes 2
minutes or less to do. And then the so that's the first
one and then the second one. The last thing I'll say is in a
(38:27):
lot of ways, I feel like the twotime frames in life that really
matter are 10 years or one hour.And what I mean by that is like
10 years is shorthand for prettymuch all the really meaningful
things in life that that we all want.
The big meaningful stuff, you know, building a, a business
that you're proud of, raising a great family, creating a
successful marriage, getting in the best shape of your life.
(38:49):
Pick whatever The thing is, but it's probably a multi year
process. Those are those things that
really provide a lot of meaning to us.
And So what is that 10 year vision?
And then one hour is shorthand for what can I do right now
that's going to move me toward where I want to be in 10 years?
And you know, there's a lot of stuff that just has to get done
every day, right? Like you got to take care of
your kids, you got to get to practice, you got to make meals,
(39:10):
what whatever. It's just stuff that needs to
happen. See, not every minute of the day
can be oriented in that way, butI think if you can do something
each day that works toward whereyou want to be in 10 years, that
you show up two or five or ten years later, you're in a really
great spot because you're thinking long term, but you're
acting short term. And that I think that's a
powerful combination. And so I the last thing I would
(39:32):
say is don't underestimate what 5 good minutes can do.
You know, 5 good minutes of try just go do push ups for 5
minutes like you'll be winded. You know, 5 good minutes of push
ups can be a good workout. Reset your mood for the day. 5
minutes of writing will make youfeel like the manuscripts moving
forward again. 5 minutes of conversation can restore a
strained relationship. Like you can do a lot with 5
(39:52):
minutes if it's oriented toward one of those things you really
want in 10 years. Yeah, Power progress, right?
Yeah. Moving forward.
Well, James, I, I had high expectations.
Obviously, I reached out to you just as a fan of your work and
your thoughts and your mindset and your and your work.
I think for our, for our audience and our listeners to be
able to hear it in your words. Explain so clearly the amount of
(40:15):
Nuggets, the amount of practical, simple advice that I
think can have such a big impacton their ability to raise kids
as parents, coach kids as youth sports coaches, and just improve
their own personal life. So on all levels, I think the
amount of information that people are going to take from
this is the reason why I reachedout to you and I can't thank you
(40:35):
enough for your time. It's super appreciated by all of
us that you think. And you, you have a really
special way of making complicated things simple and
practical and accessible. And I don't know.
I don't know. I don't.
I can't pay you enough compliments.
So I really. Appreciate you doing that.
Thank you so much, Greg. I appreciate it.
It's a pleasure to talk to everybody and I hope the the
(40:56):
parents and teams and kids listen to this find it useful.
So thanks again for the opportunity.
We'll catch you again next week right here on You Think.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.