Chasing Excellence

Simon Sinek, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” Ted Talk, September 2009, https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action

The comparison aspect I mentioned is particularly damaging to athletes, and its absence is the part of the racehorse’s mind I most wish I could download into the minds of the athletes I train. In our sport, especially, comparison is everywhere, and it’s ridiculously hard to avoid.

We fear adversity and do everything we can to avoid it, even though it is a guaranteed part of life for every species on planet Earth. It’s not a matter of if we will encounter it, but only a matter of when. And when we do face it, the form the adversity takes is far less important than how we respond to it.

Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence. —Vince Lombardi Jr.

“Sports do not build character, they reveal it.”

The personalities on those two teams will be different, but both teams will have the same thing in common: habits. Boring old habits. I know you want me to let you in on some big secret to success in the NBA. The secret is there is no secret. It’s just boring old habits.

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. —Leonardo da Vinci

In management, this is known as the “aggregation of marginal gains.”

Psychologists call this adversarial growth. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is not a cliché but a fact. It’s a classic example of the way successful people use adversity to grow and thrive.