17 Dec 2025 · 0 min
Brian Johnson shares Jack Canfield's story about Ty Cobb, who said he'd still bat .290 or .300 at 70. The lesson: build confidence by doing what you say you will do today.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. In our last couple 1s, we spent some time with Jack Canfield and explored his number one and number two principles for success. First, we need to take 100% responsibility for our lives. Heroes don't make excuses. We don't blame, we don't complain. We know that we always have the freedom to choose our response to any given situation as we practice our reactive discipline. And remember the E plus R equals O equation. Second, we do the hard work to get clarity on our purpose. And by the way, we have a note on Jim Mattis great book on leadership called Call Sign Chaos coming soon. In it, he tells us, and I quote, Mattis strategy is hard unless you're a dilettante. You must think until your head hurts. Newsflash. Crafting a coherent purpose and strategy for how you will escape the tyranny of mediocrity of modern life and create a truly heroic life is hard work. If your head isn't at least occasionally hurting from the effort you're putting in, you're not doing it right, period. But that's not quite the point of today's plus one. This is. As I was rereading my notes on the success principles, I literally laughed out loud at a story about the great baseball player Ty Cobb. Canfield shares it in the context of telling us how important it is that we believe in ourselves. Here's the story Jack tells us. Quote, when baseball great ty Cobb was 70, a reporter asked him, what do you think you'd hit if you were playing these days? Cobb, who had a lifetime batting average of.367, said, About.290, maybe.300. The reporter replied, that's because of the travel, the night games, the artificial turf and all the new pitches. Like the slider, right? No, said Cobb, it's because I'm 70. As Canfield says, Now that's believing in yourself. And that is fantastic. And that's today's plus one. Do you believe in yourself? If you don't have the confidence, AKA intense trust in yourself that you'd like to have, then earn it. Do what you say you will do today.
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