6 things you probably need to hear as an athlete

6 things you need to hear as an athlete. Number 1, most athletes do not understand what it actually takes to be elite. I see a lot of athletes say, I want to play at the Division 1 level, I want to be a pro one day, I want to be in the NBA, I want to go to the MLB, which is awesome, those are amazing goals. But do you know what the players who are in the MLB or in the NBA or in high-level Division 1 programs actually had to do to get them to where they are at. It is early mornings. It is discipline going to bed on time. It is showing up day after day after day, even when it's boring. It is doing the little things that no one else is willing to do, like dialing in on your nutrition, or saying no to a party, or not drinking with your friends. It's saying no to a lot of things that people aren't willing to say no to, and saying yes to things that people aren't willing to say yes to. It's relentless. And the people who are that good at what they do, don't live normal lives. So when I see athletes saying, I just want to be a kid, I just want to have a normal life, and I want to be one of the best players to ever exist, or play with some of the best players to ever exist, usually unless you hit the genetic jackpot, you can't have both. Number 2, athletes are goldfish. If you put a goldfish in a small bowl, it'll stay small. But if you set that goldfish into a large pond, it has the ability to grow to be at least a foot long. The only difference between the small goldfish and the big goldfish is the environment that it lives in. So if you are the best athlete at your gym or in your friend group or on your team, it might be time to find a new gym or friend group or team. If you stay in a small bowl and don't push yourself to a bigger pond, you will always stay a small goldfish. Even if that goldfish is trying its best to grow into what it wants to become, That's the environment that you're in. Your friends may be amazing friends, and I'm not saying to ditch them or get rid of them, but chances are that they don't have the same goals as you. Chances are they're not trying to achieve the same things that you're trying to achieve. They're probably staying up late or partying on the weekends or goofing off at practices when you are trying to literally make it to the Division I level, which only 1% of athletes in the entire country will do. You become who you hang out with most. If you're hanging out with friends that goof off and, and don't take things seriously, you will become someone who goofs off and doesn't take things seriously. You will lower your bar. And just like you will lower to the level to the people who don't have the same goals as you, you will raise to the level of people who have the same or even bigger goals than you. Number 3 is the work begins when the excitement wears off. Every single elite athlete in the world will understand that to become elite, you have to be willing to do the boring things over and over and over and over and over again. You have to be willing to do the fundamentals over and over and over and over and over again. You will see Steph Curry put up thousands and thousands and thousands of the same move, of the same shot, to become elite and a killer at what he is good at. It's fun to start a new workout program or a new training program because you've been at this one for 5 weeks already. It's fun to be in season, to hit game-winning shots, to be in the spotlight, but it's not so fun to show up multiple hours a day in offseason when there are no lights on, when no one is watching, working on your skill and your craft day in and day out. But this can be used to your advantage because it is hard for everyone. No one wants to do the boring things. No one wants to do the mundane things. No one wants to focus on sleep when it's summertime. No one wants to focus on their nutrition. But if you choose to say yes to those things that no one else is willing to say yes to, you will get results that no one else is able to get. Number 4 is become an expert and a killer at one thing. This very much ties into number 3, and that is college coaches want killers in what they're good at. They want role players. Take basketball for instance. Not every single person has to be a 30-point-a-night player. They need players that will set amazing screens. They need players that will go get those rebounds. They need defensive killers. They need people who are willing to shine at the role that they need them to have. So running with the basketball analogy, instead of showing up to the gym and saying, hmm, I'm gonna work on some ball handling today, and then I'm gonna do passing, and I'm going to do court vision, I'm going to do Eurosteps, and then I'm going to do 3-point shots, and I'm going to, I'm going to spend like 3 hours in this gym. Show up, have a plan, and know exactly the skills that you need to work on. Say that your team sucks at the mid-range jumper, you're going to become a killer in that mid-range jumper, and you're going to do 500 of them that day and do them game-like, do them fast, and become a killer at that so your coach can't not play you. Number 5 is motivation is not a requirement to get things done. I have a lot of athletes who ask me all the time, I don't have motivation to eat right, I don't have motivation to go to the gym all the time, I don't have motivation to go to sleep on time. Great, welcome to the club. No one has motivation. Motivation will come and go. You have to learn that motivation is not required to actually get things done. Discipline is needed to get things done. Waking up at 5 AM, no one is gonna be motivated to wake up at 5 AM, but the disciplined athletes will know that they've got to be to the gym at 5:30 to get their lift in so that they have time after school to get their skill work in. They're going to show up and do it anyway. Most people aren't motivated to eat veggies every day with their meals. The disciplined players are going to know that those are really important for their bodies, so they're going to do it anyway. So when you wake up in the morning and you don't want to get out of bed, it's okay to go and do it anyway. You don't have to always feel like doing it before you actually go and do it. And number 6, your biggest competition as an athlete— it's not your teammates, it's not the competition, it's not this other team over here. It is your phone. Your biggest competition is that little device that you have in your hand that sucks time away from you every single day. Athletes are constantly saying, I don't have time to meal prep. I don't have time to go to sleep on time. I don't have time to get all my homework done and still get everything else I need to get done. And then we go and look at their screen time, and there's their time back. That's 4 hours on their phone, or 3 hours on their phone, or 2.5 hours on Instagram. That is where the lost time goes. So if you feel like you don't have time to get things done, go to your screen time on your phone and you'll find the time to get it done. I shared these 6 tips because I care and I wish someone would've told them to me. I focus mainly on nutrition and on recovery in here, but I do think that it is valuable to have someone tell you something real. You might have coaches and people and friends and, and parents around you say like, you're amazing, you're so good at what you do, and you might be amazing and so good at what you do, and there's still going to be a ceiling that you hit if you don't understand these 6 principles that we just talked about. These 6 lessons are going to help you become the athlete and honestly the person that you want to be. You don't have to be perfect all the time either. If you stick to these things 85% of the time, that's consistency. That's going to get you there. A lot of times athletes confuse progress with perfection. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to make progress every single day towards these 6 things and to becoming the player that you want to be, and really cool things are going to happen for you. You guys got this. I'm rooting for you, and I'll see you in the next video.