66. 3 Traits of A Winning MINDSET In Sports And Business

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Hey. Hey. It is Friday. It is time for Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary. Each week, I deconstruct my journey, my struggles through professional baseball to help unpack yours so you can live a life on purpose. I take the lessons I learned in baseball and help you apply them in business and in life. So if you're ready to join me, grab your glove, grab a ball, get ready to take the mound, and get ready, bear down to strike out the limiting beliefs in your life. All right, here we go. Hey, hey. Welcome back to Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary, and this is episode six. Six. Six. Today we're going to talk about the winning mindset of an athlete. How you can use this mindset to help you have success on the field and in business and life. Making a little pivot here with the the Bullpen Sessions podcast. I'm excited about it. And.

Back about a year ago when I wanted to start the podcast, what I wanted to make it about was that athletic mindset, the mindset of an athlete, and how you can use that mindset to not only have success in sports, but also have success in business and in life. And my goal with it was to have a huge impact not only on business professionals, but young athletes as well. And so I'm excited to kind of bring it back to that all started. My goal from here on out is I really want to use this podcast as a platform to help business professionals, young athletes, you know, elevate the mindset to understand what it takes to win on the field, win in the boardroom, because, let's face it, there's a lot of struggles going on right now if you're a young athlete. Covid has done a lot of damage to your sport, right? It could have been canceled, could have been greatly altered. There's a chance your scholarship was pulled. I don't know. But young athletes today are going through a lot of battles, especially between the ears. Same thing with business professionals. It's no different. So what I want to do, especially with the Tuesday interviews, is bring former athletes, former professional athletes on who are having success after the sports career was over, so that we can talk about all things sports, all things business, and how can you can use that mindset of an athlete to have success in your career. So I'm excited about that. So today we're going to talk about what it takes to have that winning mindset of an athlete. But before I dive into that, I do want to make a quick invitation in mid November. I'm going to be running a 10 day holiday challenge. There's a good chance you are struggling right now with time management. You might be a husband, a wife, a mother, a father trying to work from home. Your kids are going to school at home. Time management is a struggle right now. Daily habits are probably a struggle right now. Right? You were in such a groove back in January and now you feel like you've been knocked off your kilter with making sure you're taking care of yourself and just keeping your mindset in a good place. So this 10 day challenge is going to be set on addressing just that. Time management, daily habits, positive mindset. Here's what I want you to do if you want to be involved in this challenge. It's a free challenge. All I want you to do is text me the word challenge to 414-622.1462. That's the word challenge to 414-622-1462. We're going to have some awesome, an awesome drawing for those who participate every single day of those 10 days. So you don't want to miss this. So go do it right now. Go jump in. If nothing else, it's going to help you kick off the holiday season in fine fashion. All right, let's dive into this week's episode.

Okay. Let's talk about the winning mindset of an athlete. Now, before I get into this and share three traits I think winning athletes or those with a winning mindset have. I want to take you back. As a kid, I was not a good loser. I was actually.

A poor loser. You know, when I was playing little league baseball, little league basketball, man, if I lost, I was a sour puss. I would cry, I would whine, I would blame, I would complain. I would not acknowledge the victory of the competitor. And so I share this with you because it has taken me.

Some maturing as a kid to understand what it meant to be.

A professional when it came to my sport, my craft, what it meant to have a winning mindset. Because I will tell you, for much of my childhood sports career, I did not have a winning mindset. I was a very sore loser. And so that's what I want to dive into today. But let me tell you why I want to talk about this episode or this topic this week. Over the last weekend, I was watching highlights from the college football and I it's nice to have college football back. It's not the same without full stadiums, but hey, it's great to be watching college football again. Some of the stadiums have at least some fans in it. And you know what? It's. It provides some great, great entertainment on the weekends, especially Saturday night. The Alabama Georgia game was great, but here's what I noticed when I was watching the highlights. There were two specific highlights I want to really address right now. Number one, I believe it was the UCF Central Florida Memphis game. I might have that wrong, but I know Central Florida was definitely one of the teams involved. And what happened was the game went into overtime. I don't know the full details, but I believe the kicker missed an important field goal for Central Florida and they ended up losing the game in overtime. I believe it might even have been in regulation. But here's the highlight that I saw that just kind of blew me away. After he missed the kick, he came off the field. He's distressed. I think it was a long snap or a punter. A teammate of his came over to console him, but one of the backup quarterbacks came over and from what you could see on the footage, he was trash talking him. Literally. The coaching staff had to separate.

A teammate from the kicker who had just missed a very important kick, was already feeling terrible, and on top of it, he has to deal with a teammate who comes over and gets in his face and piles on with the trash talking. That blew me away. It was actually really, really sad to see. The second highlight was from the Auburn. Who did Auburn play this week? Auburn, South Carolina. And if you're a college football fan, you know Auburn was beaten by South Carolina, kind of a little upset there. And the highlight was Bo Nicks, quarterback for Auburn, coming off the field with one of his receivers and his receiver is just getting into his face. And I imagine what happened was it was a pass that was errant, an incomplete pass that Bo Nix may have missed. But instead of just playing like winners and saying, you know what, we'll get them next time, we'll come off the field and strategize. Let's come up with a better game plan for the next set of downs. His wide receiver was sitting there getting in his face, pushing him. Coaching staff had to separate him. And this just got me thinking after seeing these two highlights. Now these are kids that could be anywhere from 18 to 22 years old, right? And I am seeing this pattern right now, not only in youth sports, professional sports, but hell, the business world. People can't lose. Hell, look at our government, look at Washington D.C.

Look at the people leading this country, and you'll see a prime example of people who don't know how to lose it is permeating society right now and it's depressing. So I thought I'd play my part today. I don't know how much of a part it is, how big it is, but I wanted to address this and I want to actually flip the script and say, okay. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of good role models out there right now who are showing us what it means to win with dignity, win with honor, win with a winning mindset. So today I wanted to talk about three traits that I think winners in sports portray.

That definitely tie into the business world. And again, using what I saw over the weekend in these two highlights, the Central Florida game and the Auburn game as examples of where I just flat out, I'm seeing kids who don't know how to lose right now. And when something goes bad, something goes the way they didn't plan on. Instead of pausing, reflecting and learning, they react most often in a negative way. So I want to address that today because again.

This, this inability to lose right now is just impacting our country at scale. And let's face it, 2020 has brought a lot of losses for many people. And so what can we do to have that winning mindset? And it's a winning mindset that I feel like I grew into as a young kid, as I matured, as I was honored with the ability to be captains of teams in high school, the captain of my college baseball team. The winning mindset is something you have to embrace if you are going to have success here on forward again, whether it's in sports or in the business world. So let's dive into trait number one.

The first trait I see in athletes that have a winning mindset is when they lose.

They take 100% responsibility for their loss.

If you ever get a chance and get to watch old footage of sports, whether it's baseball, football, basketball, hockey, go watch some of the greats. The Wayne Gretzky's, the Cal Ripkens, the. I'm just trying to think of people who really stood up on a pedestal, what it meant to be winning athlete or an athlete with a winning mindset. With every loss, they took 100% responsibility.

Even if it was obvious they had nothing to do with the loss they looked for, where they did not perform at their best, where did they not contribute to the team to put their team in the best position to win. And again, portraying this now, sidestepping this into the business world. Think about again. 2020 has brought a lot of loss on people, a lot of unexpected Loss, a lot of loss. Nobody asked for. Quite frankly, there's a chance you didn't do anything.

To deal with loss. It was just thrown upon you with everything we have dealt with and it's easy to blame, it's easy to point the finger. But that winning mindset does not allow you to go that, to go to that place. You have to figure out what you have done to contribute. Where can you take respons.

For your losses? As a pitcher, I could throw a gem, but unfortunately have four or five errors behind me and I still come out of the game with a loss even though I did my part. But guess what? At the end of that game, I looked back and said, where did I go wrong? Where could I have been better? It wasn't the fault of my teammates who made an error here or there. What did I do or what could I have done to be better, to be at my best, to put my team in the best position to win? I want you to think about that. If you feel like you're losing a little bit right now, you haven't hit your sales goals.

It'S a struggle because your kids are at home, you're trying to be father, husband, CEO, school teacher, and you feel like you're losing. Where can you get better?

If you're an athlete, you're struggling right now for performance on the field. Where can you get better? Take 100% responsibility for everything in your life. That is trait number one in my opinion. Trait number one of a winning mindset of an athlete is they take 100% responsibility for every single loss, every single on the field, in business, in their life. They don't blame, they don't complain. They take responsibility number two, winning mindset. The winning athletes I watched growing up, I watched as an adult, I played with, played against, never, ever, ever trashed the competition.

In fact, they actually went the other way. They actually put the competition up on a pedestal. They respected their peers. They never said a bad thing about their competition, even though quite frankly, in some, in some cases the competition deserved it. They wouldn't go there. Whether it was on camera, in the locker room after the game, or having a beer with a friend when no one else was listening. They do not trash the competition.

So I want you to look in the mirror.

Where do you stand right now when you look out in your market.

And you look at who you're competing against, what are you saying about them? When the conversation comes up, are you lifting them up?

Are you respecting them?

Or whenever you get the chance, are you Taking the time to trash them. I know, I have to totally admit, early on, five, six years ago, when I was starting to grow my personal brand, starting to make a name for myself in the health insurance industry, traveling around the country, speaking at industry events, I found myself in those conversations where we would talk about certain others in the industry, some competitors, and often that conversation went towards the trash talk. It went towards cutting the competition down.

And I regret that. I look back and I'm embarrassed that I actually took the time or put myself in a position to allow me to be in that type of conversation. And so think about that one. Are you trash talking your competition? Now, here's where else that comes into play. Imagine you're sitting at a conference room table, or in this case today, on a computer in a virtual meeting with a prospect.

And you know who your prospects currently working with or working with one of your competitors. What do you say about your competition? In a meeting with a prospective client, you take the time to kind of cut them down. Talk to your prospect about the weaknesses their current, current advisor partner has, the current person they've hired. You talk about their weaknesses or do you talk about their strengths? You cut down your competition in front of your prospects or do you lift them up, say, hey, you're with somebody good, they're doing, they know what they're doing. I'm excited to be competing for the business because, listen, if you find yourself, if you actually take the time in a prospecting meeting with a potential new client, you take the time to cut down your competition. I'm here to tell you, you have zero chance at winning that business. You have zero chance at earnings that new client. Because the second you cut on your competition, your prospect is going to defend their decision to work with that individual or that company. So trait number two of having a winning mindset.

Requires you to always talk positive about your competition. Gary Vaynerchuk said this so well. He said, hey, if you want to build the tallest building in town, you can do it two ways. You can just flat out outwork the competition and build the tallest building in town, or you can spend all of your time tearing down all the other buildings in town. So you now have the tallest building.

So what are you doing today? Are you constantly lifting up your competitors? Are you respecting them?

You respecting their game? Or do you spend the majority of your time.

Talking about what they don't do, right, ripping on their abilities?

Because a winning mindset, whether it's in sports or business, same holds true if you're a young Athlete out there, you look at your competition, some of your teammates, Are you spending more time gossiping about them, ripping on their abilities, cutting down their talent, or are you respecting the game? Now listen, you don't have to respect the individual. Think Stuart Scott said it well on SportsCenter. Hate the player, don't hate the game. You don't need to have absolute respect for the individual, but respect their game. Don't spend your time talking about what they can't do, ripping on how poorly they played. Winning mindset, the people with the winning mindset. Whether you're an athlete or a business professional, you are constantly uplifting your competition.

So don't go, Don't. Don't go down the path of tearing down the building. Just work your ass off to build the tallest building in town. It's going to serve you well. It's going to make you a true professional at what you do, and it gives you that winning mindset you need, whether it's on the field or in the boardroom. Trait number three.

Athletes that have a winning mindset don't spend a second dwelling or complaining after a loss. Now, this might sound like an offshoot of number one, which was they don't blame. They take 100% responsibility. But trait number three, in my opinion, is about dwelling and complaining. Instead of taking the time to make excuses, they focus all of their time on getting better. And for a classic example, in my opinion, of an organization or of an example where this is not done, it's an example you should never follow, is, look what Uber did to the taxi industry. Now, I know this has nothing to do with sports, but follow me here. When Uber came out and launched and absolutely disrupted the taxi cab industry.

Did the taxi drivers pause and say, you know what, guys, let's put our heads together and let's figure out a way that we can get better. Let's band together and figure out how we can compete at a higher level with Uber. It's obvious Uber has made a dent in the industry. What can we do to get better? No, no, no, no. That's not what they did. Instead, they spent all their time complaining, whining about how unfair it was that Uber had come into their space. And they still do that today. What, a decade later? They want rules changed because it's unfair they can't compete with Uber?

When the hell did it become okay to make excuses? Why not look in the mirror and say, you know what? They're kicking our ass. How do we get better? And I see that the same trait between those athletes who are winning, have a winning mindset, and those athletes who end up finding themselves on the bench, end up finding themselves out of a job and even out of a career. They spend all their time complaining and dwelling. They take their ball and they go home. They don't say, wait a second, I just got my ass kicked today. My competitor was truly better than I was, so what can I do to get better? And I want you to dwell on that right now. Not on complaining. I want you to dwell on how you can get better. If you're behind on your 2020 sales goal right now, your team isn't running to the efficiency, to the productivity it could, or the team you're playing with on the athletic field isn't winning. You aren't winning on the athletic field like you should. Where can you get better? Look at your competition, those that are succeeding, and see what they're doing, study what they're doing and figure out how the hell you are going to get better so you can start winning more than you are right now.

So that's it, guys. I wanted to keep it simple today. This is kind of an introduction to where I'm taking the Bullpen Sessions podcast. I'm excited to talk all things athletic mindset because I truly believe it's going to make a huge impact on those young athletes out there right now who are struggling with the pandemic. Business professionals who are trying to figure out how they can do better than they are today or figure out how they can try to take their success to the next level. It starts with having the winning mindset. So the three things you can learn from athletes who have that winning mindset is, number one, take 100% responsibility for every loss in your life. Everything you do on the field or in the boardroom is on you. Own it. Number two, never, ever trash your competition. If anything, go the opposite. Respect them, honor them, talk about the things they do well. It'll serve you. It'll serve your reputation. And number three, when you lose, don't dwell, don't complain. Just figure out how the hell you're going to get better if you do those three things. If you put those three thoughts, those traits in between the six inches up in your head, man, it's going to be unbelievable what you are going to do in your athletic endeavors or your business endeavors, wherever you are right now. So that's it today, folks. Do me a favor, if you're listening in and you have a child, maybe ages 15 to 22, who's either a high school athlete or a college athlete and you think they would find value in this, this message? Do me a favor, invite them to subscribe to the podcast. Like I said, it's going forward. It's we're going to have some fun. We're going to have some pro athletes, former pro athletes. We're going to talk about all things mindset. And so I'm just grateful that you are listening in and you remember when confidence and clarity collide, action happens. Go make it happen today.

Shift your mindset.

Hey, thank you for taking the time to listen to this Friday Bullpen session. If you are enjoying these episodes, please do me a favor, go over to Apple, subscribe, give it a five star rating. And if you know of anybody in your life, whether it's in your family, personal life, your friends, business colleagues that you think would find benefit in listening to these episodes as well, do me a favor, please share the bullpen sessions with them. I'd be extremely grateful if you did and again, go out and make it happen today. Thank you.