To be a champion, I have to be at the top of my game–I can’t keep playing below my best to match the crowd.
Every spring, the best sixty-eight college men’s basketball teams finish the season with a sixty-seven game elimination tournament that establishes one standing champion. These elite athletes level up their play from their high-performance regular seasons into top performance and leave it all on the court.
Football is my sport, but, like millions, I tune in for March Madness. I study up on the players and teams and I choose my brackets–and I always spot the champion team early. I’m watching for the team that best implements three key lessons from their regular season:
- Clarity – They review game footage, run endless drills, and analyze their own plays throughout the season. They are crystal clear on the strategies, game plans, and line-ups that worked, which ones didn’t, and what can be done differently to raise their performance to the next level.
- Trust – None of their regular season games stand alone–every time they hit the court, they are in process, building their team and building trust. They understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses and they learn how to play well together. By the end of the season, you could blindfold all the players and they would still move the ball with precision and cohesion.
- Tenacity – It’s the end of a long hard season, but the players aren’t dreading clocking into these final games. They’re burning to win. Each player runs out of the locker room hungry. They know they’re only one loss away from a crashing end for the year, and they play with determination, persistence, and intensity.
Each time, the team who can pivot their entire championship play around those points cuts the nets and takes home the trophy.
I’ll be watching March Madness with a special intensity of my own this year. I usually don’t share a lot about my business with readers, but that’s changing. As a speaker and an author, I’ve known for a while that 2019 was the start of my own championship season. As I approach the end of the first quarter, I’m reviewing my own game footage and plays for strengths and weaknesses. I’m getting some clarity around my business that I’ll be rolling out to you, because it’s time for us to level up together.
See, I am an athlete. That is my background, that is my mindset, that is how the Game Changer Mentality was built. When I analyzed my team–that’s all of you–I realized you are athletes, too. Most of us don’t spend our days on the court or the field, but we play our best in our offices, homes, and lives when we tackle each day like the champions we are.
Entering into the inspirational and motivational industry, I knew my voice: strong, no-nonsense, quick, funny, and tough. It’s not the way the game was played, though, and over the years, I tempered my approach. I softened myself to appeal across the spectrum, and it started to show. I was stretching on some of the insights I shared, searching for words that weren’t coming.
To be a champion, I have to be at the top of my game–I can’t keep playing below my best to match the crowd.
Game Changer Mentality is already playing at another level from everyone else out there, and if you’re in it, it’s because you’re a BEAST. We’re not trampled, we’re not down and out–we’re champions, even coming out of our worst seasons. We’re here to learn the best plays and acquire skills no one can touch. We’re not scared of the hard work–the only thing that keeps us up at night is the thought that we won’t leave it all on the court.
I don’t do you any favors when I treat you like you’re fragile. You’re here to win, and I’ve got moves to teach you. We’re going to drill, we’re going to scrimmage, and we’re going to stare down the toughest challenges until we master it all.
So, my pivot is to stop talking to you like you’re made of glass. No more long-winded lead-ups, no holding your hand and walking you gently towards the solutions. We’re cutting the fluffy stuff and driving towards the basket every day. We’re going hard, and from here on out, it’s all action.
For the rest of March, we’re focusing on the pivot in multiple areas of life. You’re going to hit the showers with new skills, new abilities to deftly maneuver difficult situations.
Today, you need to take stock and review how you play the game. What are your first-quarter stats going to be? Which of your strategies and game plans have been working, and which ones do we need to switch up? How hungry are you to win, and how can you get hungrier?
Get ready to up your game–2019 is our year. We’re taking this game to a whole new level.
Rodney