One thing the top performing athletes have in common

I get this asked this question more frequently than any question about specific exercises, types of workouts, ways to throw harder or run faster.

This type of question exists because we need to know the mystery.

What do the best athletes in the world do to make them so great?

If you were looking for the sexy answer, sorry to disappoint you. After watching the most talented players work towards being the greatest at their respective sports, I have found a common theme. These athletes have a process that they repeat every single day. I’m talking a specifically outlined, adapted over time, easy to follow process that starts from the moment they wake up until the moment their head hits the pillow.

Common things this process includes:

• Prioritizing sleep, nutrition, adequate hydration, mobility
• Being on time to each part of the day
• Having clear defineable things to work on for that day
• Staying laser focused and relentless in pursuit of their goals

Once you peel back the curtain, you realize that most of your favorite players aren’t just incredibly gifted. Sure, they have the talent that separated them from their town or county while growing up. But to survive and thrive in a group of other incredibly gifted athletes you need more than talent. It does not look like one of those YouTube videos narrated by a motivational speaker. Morgan Freeman isn’t talking while you foam roll at 6 am. Sometimes it’s a boring tv show nobody would watch. It’s waking up at 5 am to go to the park. It’s taking your same swings in the cage that you took the previous 100 days building trust in your coaches and in your swing. It’s groundhog’s day being in the same clubhouse around the same teammates doing the same schedule. Sometimes it’s easier to think there’s a secret formula to hacking great performances. But in my experience, most of the best just do the little things and do them everyday for longer.

Imagine if I told a group of people to do something that would definitely make you a better athlete in 150 days if you would just follow it everyday for 25 minutes. How many of those people would follow through the 150 days? How many would stop here and there and pick it back up again a week later? Would you be consistent all 150 days? Be honest. How many in that group have the discipline to maintain that kind of focus and determination? In my experience, less than you would expect. Most people are fueled by motivation. Motivation is a bad fuel source on it’s own because it’s fleeting. Running purely on motivation is like racing a speed boat to your end goal. Talented young players are so far away from becoming a superstar that the speed boat runs out of gas before they get there. Now stranded and lacking motivation, most athletes decide it can’t be done and swim back to the shore. Superstars don’t run on motivation by itself. Most of them have an endless supply of fuel that drives them. By focusing on their process, they aren’t looking so far ahead that they realize how far they have yet to go. They ride at that slow and steady pace knowing exactly where they are going no matter how long it takes to get there. When they finally do, they aren’t surprised because they have spent all that time laying the bricks to what is now a sturdy house.

I hope some young athletes can read this and understand that it’s not about the days you feel great and decide to go hit for an hour. It’s definitely not on the days you play in front of your town under the lights. The difference between the good and great players is on the days you don’t feel like doing anything. When there’s a big party and your friends want to skip out on the cage work and leave early what do you do? If the cage work is a part of your process that you do every single day do you skip it? Do you decide to stay but rush through it? This is the separator. This is common theme I see among superstars. They put in the boring work when exciting stuff is going on around them. They lay the foundation for something better to come.

So how can you improve your process?

1. Find out what you need to work on.
2. Detail in writing how you are going to improve on those things.
3. Attack them with a plan that goes for at least 3 months.
4. Do this every day with laser focus not letting up until the time period you decided in step 3 is done with.
5. Re-assess after that time period and continue the process with better understanding.