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144. Process Over Outcome: Lessons from Steve Nash, James Clear, and Real-Life Sports image

144. Process Over Outcome: Lessons from Steve Nash, James Clear, and Real-Life Sports

E118 · Especially for Athletes Podcast
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6 Plays8 days ago

Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash said it best: “The process is what wins.” In this episode of the Especially for Athletes podcast, we unpack why process over outcome is more than just a motivational phrase—it’s a way of life for elite athletes and strong individuals.

 

Dustin and Chad reflect on lessons from Steve Nash, bestselling author James Clear (Atomic Habits), and past podcast guests like Brennan Schooler, Ally Gomm, and Justin Su’a to explore what it really means to stack hours, build discipline, and compete even when no one is watching.

Highlight Moments:

  • Why trusting the process builds long-term success—even after tough losses.

  • James Clear’s take on identity-based habits: “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”

  • How developing a consistent process leads to surprising victories—in sports and in life.

Whether you’re an athlete, coach, or parent, this episode will help you rethink what it means to win. Stick to the process. Trust the journey. Eyes Up. Do the Work.

Especially for Athletes:

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Credits:

Hosted by Shad Martin & Dustin Smith
Produced by IMAGINATE STUDIO

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Support the show: https://especiallyforathletes.com/podcast/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Transcript

Introduction to Life Lessons in Sports

00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the especially for athletes podcast where we explore essential principles that empower athletes to learn life's most valuable lessons through sports.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello, everybody.

Principles from Sports Figures

00:00:17
Speaker
Welcome to the Especially for Athletes podcast.
00:00:19
Speaker
Dustin and I are together again today and excited to talk about something, Dustin, that we've talked a lot about.
00:00:25
Speaker
But it's really cool when we hear Hall of Fame people, people that we admired growing up, teaching those same principles, maybe with different language.

Focusing on the Process, Not the Outcome

00:00:33
Speaker
But this one comes from All-Star Point Guard.
00:00:38
Speaker
Steve Nash, right?
00:00:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:40
Speaker
And he was speaking at what looks like a basketball camp.
00:00:43
Speaker
And he talked about process over outcome, something you and I have talked a lot about.
00:00:50
Speaker
But first, let's listen to what Steve Nash said.
00:00:52
Speaker
I'd love for our listeners just to hear this.
00:00:56
Speaker
Don't get fooled.
00:00:57
Speaker
Winning is not easy.
00:00:59
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:00
Speaker
Expect the unexpected.
00:01:02
Speaker
Expect something you don't expect right around the corner.
00:01:05
Speaker
So the number one message I want to give you guys to get used to winning, to get comfortable with winning is process over outcome.
00:01:13
Speaker
You guys heard that?
00:01:14
Speaker
If you haven't heard that, never forget this.
00:01:16
Speaker
Process over outcome.
00:01:18
Speaker
What does that mean?
00:01:19
Speaker
Do not worry about the outcome.
00:01:21
Speaker
The outcome is winning, okay?
00:01:23
Speaker
Do not worry about winning.
00:01:25
Speaker
Winning takes care of itself.
00:01:26
Speaker
The process is what wins.
00:01:28
Speaker
The process is what wins.
00:01:30
Speaker
So, you feeling a little bit of pressure?
00:01:33
Speaker
You feeling a little bit of how do we stay winning?
00:01:37
Speaker
Throw all that away.
00:01:38
Speaker
What do I have to do right now, today?
00:01:40
Speaker
How am I going to give it the best day I can give it?
00:01:43
Speaker
Okay?
00:01:45
Speaker
That includes starting last night.
00:01:47
Speaker
What's tomorrow going to take?
00:01:48
Speaker
All right.
00:01:49
Speaker
Cool stuff.
00:01:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:51
Speaker
Cool stuff from Steve Nash.
00:01:52
Speaker
And I think we've maybe said those exact words before, right?

Coaching Experiences and Process

00:01:58
Speaker
But let me just start with this question in general, Dustin.
00:02:01
Speaker
Why is it so important?
00:02:03
Speaker
As you've coached, why is it so important to...
00:02:06
Speaker
Like to take a team and to not be so outcome oriented, but to be more process oriented.
00:02:13
Speaker
Why is that so much more beneficial?
00:02:15
Speaker
Well, I think from a coach's perspective, for me, it's that sometimes the better, the teams I've had that have had the most talent didn't end up with the greatest outcome, where other teams that didn't, you know, did.
00:02:28
Speaker
And the reason I say that is that the outcome can oftentimes be, it's just, it's so, so fluid.
00:02:34
Speaker
You play one bad game and...
00:02:36
Speaker
Are you a bad team now?
00:02:38
Speaker
You know, you have one bad game as a player and it happened to be a playoff game.
00:02:41
Speaker
Are you a bad player now or did you just have a bad game?
00:02:44
Speaker
You became a really good player during the process.
00:02:47
Speaker
You became a really good teammate during the process.
00:02:49
Speaker
You learned all these things that you could, you know, there are coaches that would take you and want you to play for them all over because of this person you've become.
00:02:58
Speaker
But you didn't have a great game in this one game.
00:03:00
Speaker
Does that mean that you're no good?
00:03:02
Speaker
Does that mean that your team's no good?
00:03:03
Speaker
You know, for me as a coach, you know, Shad, and some of our listeners might know that I coached a team that lost a real difficult game this year, a state championship game, in a really tough fashion.

Lessons from Losing and Overcoming Challenges

00:03:19
Speaker
where we had a big lead and lost it late and ended up losing in a game that doesn't... getting to a state championship is really, really hard.
00:03:27
Speaker
Winning is, Steve Nash said it, it's so hard.
00:03:29
Speaker
And if you're in a program or on a team where winning is easy, then you're not learning much from the process.
00:03:35
Speaker
It's supposed to be hard.
00:03:36
Speaker
It should be hard.
00:03:37
Speaker
If we want to... Because in life, those wins are going to be hard.
00:03:41
Speaker
When you have a win with your kids or you have a win in your business, your work, your relationships, it's hard.
00:03:46
Speaker
We lost that state championship game.
00:03:49
Speaker
I don't for a second think that we are not the best team in the state.
00:03:53
Speaker
I believe our team was the very best football team.
00:03:57
Speaker
We just had a three-minute span where a bunch of really crazy things happened.
00:04:02
Speaker
To this day, I'll go to my deathbed saying that that was the best football team.
00:04:06
Speaker
And we did things during the year and we accomplished things in the way those boys are and then being with them all at graduation and taking a picture with all those guys and knowing what they're doing now and what the relationships that are there and the things we learned and the people who we proved wrong.
00:04:20
Speaker
The year before, they only won three games.
00:04:23
Speaker
They won 11 this last year and just played awesome.
00:04:28
Speaker
It's because the process of that year they won three, they were learning things that helped them the next year win 11 and will help them in two years from now when they're doing all sorts of other things.

Enjoyment and Growth Through Process

00:04:40
Speaker
But as a society, we seem to put way, way, way more attention on
00:04:47
Speaker
Just win.
00:04:48
Speaker
And I get it.
00:04:49
Speaker
That is what it is.
00:04:50
Speaker
That's what you're ultimately, in a lot of circles, judged on is did you just win.
00:04:53
Speaker
Really at the core of it, I think, the process is what's most fun too.
00:04:57
Speaker
I mean, that's where the learning happens.
00:04:59
Speaker
That's where the trips and the falls and the pain and the fun.
00:05:03
Speaker
The game is 5% of what you do.
00:05:06
Speaker
The 95% is the process of getting to the game.
00:05:09
Speaker
And that's where the real growth happens.
00:05:11
Speaker
But we have to make sure the kids understand that, look, if you're getting better,
00:05:17
Speaker
and you're getting stronger and you're having fun.

Patience in Health and Fitness Journeys

00:05:20
Speaker
Then you go out and play and you know what, sometimes you play great and you win and you probably wouldn't beat that team if you played them 10 more times, but you got them tonight.
00:05:27
Speaker
But can you look in the mirror and say, I've become something?
00:05:32
Speaker
Or did you just get lucky and win?
00:05:35
Speaker
I want my boys that I coach to be able to look in the mirror and say, I've become something.
00:05:38
Speaker
Yeah, we won or no, we didn't, but
00:05:41
Speaker
I know that I'm a good player, I'm a good person, I'm ready for the next stage of life.
00:05:44
Speaker
Because I know a lot of kids, a lot of coaches who have been on teams that they just had a lot of good athletes and they won, but those kids didn't learn how to win.
00:05:54
Speaker
They just won because they were so much bigger, faster, and stronger.
00:05:57
Speaker
And in five years from now, when that doesn't matter, or they're not the biggest, fastest, strongest anymore, they don't know what to do now because there was no process.
00:06:06
Speaker
It just happened because they were so much physically dominant than everybody.
00:06:10
Speaker
And it comes back around and kicks them in the butt five years later.
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:15
Speaker
In fact, that's one of the things I have a few thoughts on this, but one thought that just sprang to mind when you said that about this current transfer portal era that we live in.
00:06:24
Speaker
It seems to be like...
00:06:26
Speaker
It's more change oriented than process oriented.
00:06:30
Speaker
You know, there's a saying that I heard someone say, if a fridge doesn't work, you know, in your kitchen, it's not going to work in your basement.
00:06:38
Speaker
You know, just changing location is not going to work.
00:06:41
Speaker
And I think sometimes people are, okay, well, this just wasn't a good location for me.
00:06:45
Speaker
So I'm going somewhere else.
00:06:46
Speaker
And they aren't.
00:06:47
Speaker
We're just living in a society, in a sports society right now that's not trusting the process as much.
00:06:54
Speaker
And I think there's a reason for that.
00:06:56
Speaker
I've been thinking a lot about this.
00:06:59
Speaker
I shared with you something that I had wrote about it, about a few quotes from James Clear.

Identity Change and Intrinsic Motivation

00:07:04
Speaker
James Clear wrote Atomic Habits.
00:07:06
Speaker
And I love that book.
00:07:08
Speaker
It resonates with me.
00:07:09
Speaker
You know, it's a great, great book for anyone who wants a good book to read over the summer.
00:07:14
Speaker
Athletes, if you want a good book that will help you develop good habits and go into that subject, Atomic Habits is amazing.
00:07:23
Speaker
But James Clear says a few things.
00:07:24
Speaker
And as I read these things, I think what hit me about process was
00:07:29
Speaker
over outcomes is that process takes patience.
00:07:32
Speaker
I mean, right now I'm trying the best I can to like get in better shape in my life.
00:07:39
Speaker
I'm entering a different era of my life.
00:07:41
Speaker
And if I don't take control of my health, I don't know if you can relate Dustin, I think we were born.
00:07:47
Speaker
If I don't take control of my health now, then it's going to be a lot harder to do it 10 years from now.
00:07:53
Speaker
You know, if I wait until it's a crisis, it's going to be
00:07:56
Speaker
Yep.
00:08:19
Speaker
But we've heard this phrase in sports a lot about stacking days.
00:08:24
Speaker
We would say stacking hours, right, and win the hour.
00:08:27
Speaker
But if you just become a healthy eater, for example, become someone who works out, become someone who stretches and does those things that maybe are annoying, but you do them anyway, right?
00:08:43
Speaker
If you become that type of a person, eventually the outcomes are going to come because you're that type of a person.
00:08:50
Speaker
In fact, James Clear, here's a few quotes from him.

Changing Habits for Long-term Success

00:08:55
Speaker
He said, the ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.
00:09:04
Speaker
It's one thing to say, I'm the type of person who wants this.
00:09:09
Speaker
It's something very different to say, I'm the type of person who is this.
00:09:15
Speaker
And then he says this, I think it's cool.
00:09:17
Speaker
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
00:09:26
Speaker
True behavior change is identity change.
00:09:32
Speaker
I just love that.
00:09:33
Speaker
I think it's very, that says process to me.
00:09:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:38
Speaker
Right?
00:09:38
Speaker
Any thoughts you have as you hear those quotes from James Clear and just the patience of the process?
00:09:43
Speaker
The patience is the key because we, anything worth anything is gonna probably take some time and some change, some hard change.
00:09:52
Speaker
And what seems like a good idea on paper or in our mind when we're, you know, sitting on the couch,
00:10:00
Speaker
a little bit different when it's actually time to do the work and time to, to, to, sometimes you have to make, you have to change habits.
00:10:07
Speaker
You have to change the way you, uh, you know, the habit cycle, the habit loop refers to a, you know, there's a, there's a trigger that triggers the habit.
00:10:15
Speaker
Then, you know, there's the actual action, the habit itself.
00:10:17
Speaker
And then there's the reward that you get from that.
00:10:19
Speaker
Sometimes we have to change to change the trigger.
00:10:22
Speaker
We have, we, you know, don't drive by the cookie store.
00:10:25
Speaker
If you're trying to,
00:10:26
Speaker
eat healthier and there's a particular store that every time you drive by you're tempted to go in there.
00:10:30
Speaker
Well, you need to drive a different way home then.
00:10:33
Speaker
Part of changing your habit means you have to change the way you live and do things and that's hard.
00:10:38
Speaker
And the patience to do that is where I think most of us, we run out of that and we don't stick through it.
00:10:45
Speaker
And so if we can teach kids that, I know that I may have shared this on a podcast before here, but I talked to the boys that coach about this quite a bit, that there's an old Indian chief
00:10:56
Speaker
a man named Sitting Bull who said that in every man are two wolves and we're feeding both of them.
00:11:04
Speaker
And the one that becomes the alpha dog, the alpha wolf, is the one that we feed the most.
00:11:08
Speaker
And there's a part of us that wants to sit on the couch and eat sloppy and watch movies.
00:11:13
Speaker
And there's another part of us that wants to get up and go do stuff
00:11:16
Speaker
and be great and be accomplished.
00:11:18
Speaker
Right.
00:11:18
Speaker
And whichever one we feed the most, you talked about just the, the little, the little habits that we make, the little things that we become that the alpha dog or who we become is who we give the most attention to or what we give the most attention to.
00:11:31
Speaker
And so I think a smart thing to do would be to really decide, is this really something that I want?
00:11:37
Speaker
Like it, peel back the onion and at the core, am I really serious about this?
00:11:41
Speaker
The outcome, like where this is going to lead.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:45
Speaker
then, okay, then I got to be willing to understand that this, this, and this cannot get in the way.
00:11:52
Speaker
Know what your triggers are.
00:11:53
Speaker
We know what they are.
00:11:54
Speaker
Whatever the thing is we're trying to do, we know some of, not all of it, there's going to be surprises along the way in the process.
00:12:01
Speaker
But you know certain teams.
00:12:02
Speaker
A team knows that...
00:12:04
Speaker
They might not know who's going to get hurt, but there's

Summer Training as Competition

00:12:07
Speaker
probably going to be an injury during the season.
00:12:09
Speaker
There's probably going to be a game where there's bad weather.
00:12:12
Speaker
There's probably going to be a game where you're just kind of just not clicking on all cylinders.
00:12:16
Speaker
So what are we going to do in those games and have a plan for when those come?
00:12:20
Speaker
It's not the plan being I'm done.
00:12:23
Speaker
Never mind.
00:12:24
Speaker
Right.
00:12:24
Speaker
Like, and I think that's what Steve Nash was talking about, that it's hard.
00:12:28
Speaker
And, you know, you have to recognize that when the hard comes that it's OK.
00:12:34
Speaker
You knew this was coming.
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:36
Speaker
And you'll get through it and get stay on the bike and keep pedaling.
00:12:40
Speaker
Because really where all the growth happens in the process, you know, whether we win or not at the end.
00:12:46
Speaker
You can win at the end and not have learned anything in the process.
00:12:49
Speaker
You just, like the other team didn't play well and you won.
00:12:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:53
Speaker
Right?
00:12:53
Speaker
I mean, did you get better or did they just maybe get worse or something happened?
00:12:56
Speaker
Like the process is where we all grow and achieve.
00:13:00
Speaker
And what you said about patience, I think is critical to surviving the process.
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:06
Speaker
Putting first things first.
00:13:07
Speaker
I know we've all heard of C.S.
00:13:09
Speaker
Lewis, but he had this quote.
00:13:10
Speaker
I just saw this yesterday, Sheldon, before we even prepped for this episode.
00:13:15
Speaker
He said, put first things first and we get second things thrown in.
00:13:19
Speaker
Put second things first and we lose both first and second things.
00:13:25
Speaker
That's cool.
00:13:25
Speaker
During the process, know what first things first are and then second things will come.
00:13:31
Speaker
But if you're kind of doing the process, but you also have one foot over here doing this other stuff, you're not going to get there.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yep.
00:13:38
Speaker
I agree.
00:13:39
Speaker
In fact, this will sound like it's going to be longer than it is, but three past guests came to mind when we were talking.
00:13:47
Speaker
So we just had on Ali Gomm.
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:49
Speaker
Duke track runner.
00:13:50
Speaker
And she made a point that I thought that's a really profound point.
00:13:53
Speaker
And we probably have thought that in our heads, but I don't know that we ever articulated it the exact way for her.
00:14:00
Speaker
She said, the process is part of the competition.
00:14:05
Speaker
If I stick to my process, I'm in the, I'm in the midst of competing with my competitors.
00:14:12
Speaker
We just aren't on the same.
00:14:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:15
Speaker
field yet.
00:14:16
Speaker
So like right now, you know, it's summer and we have these football teams and drill teams and soccer teams.
00:14:22
Speaker
I've tried to think of all the fall sports cross country, like you're competing right now.
00:14:27
Speaker
The process is part of that competition, building strength and building unity and all of that.
00:14:35
Speaker
So the competition is happening right now.
00:14:37
Speaker
And she said, I have learned that like, even if I'm hydrating,
00:14:43
Speaker
I'm competing.
00:14:45
Speaker
Because if I hydrate myself sufficiently, then I can practice and I'm healthy.
00:14:51
Speaker
So hydrating myself, getting sleep is part of the competition.
00:14:56
Speaker
Because I know if I sleep right and I develop good sleep habits, putting down my phone two hours before I go to bed, that's part of competing against North Carolina if I'm at Duke.
00:15:07
Speaker
Because...
00:15:08
Speaker
I want to be the best I can be.
00:15:11
Speaker
So that was one thought about process, that process is part of the competition.
00:15:15
Speaker
The other was, do you remember Brandon Schooler?
00:15:18
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:15:19
Speaker
He said, like, the two dogs is what brought this to mind.
00:15:22
Speaker
He talked about how he competes with himself in the morning.
00:15:27
Speaker
Like, there's very few mornings that he wakes up at 530 in the morning or whatever and thinks...
00:15:32
Speaker
it's a brand new day, you know, but when he wants to stay home and not go work out, not go do film study, he actually said he talks to himself and he says things in his mind that he probably couldn't say on our podcast.
00:15:46
Speaker
Like you get your blanking butt out of bed right now and you get yourself like you are such a wuss, like stop, don't let sleep win, you know?
00:15:56
Speaker
And so I think that that,
00:15:59
Speaker
that competitive notion of the process.
00:16:03
Speaker
A lot of people are good at being competitors when game time comes, but they aren't good process competitors.
00:16:11
Speaker
And they'll be better when game time comes if they're competitive in the process.
00:16:16
Speaker
And then the third one was Justin Sua, and he talked about how mentally healthy it is to realize that showing up is really important.

The Importance of Consistent Effort

00:16:28
Speaker
Even if you can only show up at 70%.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:32
Speaker
You know, and I've realized that as I've been trying, you know, to take better care of myself.
00:16:38
Speaker
I've used those lessons, particularly Brendan Schooler, you know, when I want to stay in bed, I wake up 520 every morning, you know, to go, go exercise and work out.
00:16:48
Speaker
And like, when I want to stay in bed, I start exercising.
00:16:51
Speaker
You are so lazy, dude.
00:16:53
Speaker
Like get up and get going.
00:16:54
Speaker
You know you're gonna feel fine in 10 minutes.
00:16:57
Speaker
Like just get out of bed.
00:16:58
Speaker
But there have been times where I show up and I'm super excited to work out.
00:17:03
Speaker
It just feels so good.
00:17:05
Speaker
And there's other times that's like, you know what?
00:17:07
Speaker
I'm gonna go in and I'm just gonna get a little lift in today to keep my momentum.
00:17:11
Speaker
I do not feel up to it today.
00:17:14
Speaker
And sometimes I get there and it feels great.
00:17:15
Speaker
But other times I get there and it's 50% of what I did another day.
00:17:19
Speaker
But I got there.
00:17:20
Speaker
And so I just, I think as I, as we've talked to all these people who are great in their field, they emphasize so much more process and they seem to be very intentional.
00:17:34
Speaker
They set a process.
00:17:35
Speaker
They have Eric Weddle, you know, think of what Eric Weddle taught us, Tyler Haas and what he taught us, Peyton Henry and what he taught us.
00:17:44
Speaker
Like they have, you know,
00:17:47
Speaker
a process that they've put in place that they refine over time.
00:17:51
Speaker
And then they just stick to that process.
00:17:56
Speaker
And so I just think that that's something, even though we've talked about it a lot as we go into summer, if you want to hit fall different, then you have to set a process and patiently stick to it.
00:18:08
Speaker
And you can, you can come back to school completely different.
00:18:12
Speaker
Closing thoughts, Dustin.
00:18:14
Speaker
You're exactly right, man.
00:18:15
Speaker
It's,
00:18:16
Speaker
It's easier said than done though, but I think all of us know that if something is really important to us, even we may have done it, not even like officially said, I'm going to do this and plan it out and written goals.
00:18:29
Speaker
But if we just look at accomplishments we've had in our life, things we've done that we're proud of,
00:18:34
Speaker
we can probably sit down and write a process that was happening.
00:18:38
Speaker
What I mean is that we may not have known, it wasn't maybe a focused, I'm gonna do this at this time every day.
00:18:45
Speaker
But if we look back at it, we'll probably realize we were following a process just kind of intuitively because we did want this so much that we didn't let second things get in the way of first things.
00:18:58
Speaker
We made first things first, right?
00:19:00
Speaker
And we'll look back and say, that's why
00:19:02
Speaker
you know, that outcome was what it was.
00:19:04
Speaker
I think the big key in all of this is, and you kind of touched on it when we started, unfortunately, maybe, maybe, maybe it's unfortunate, there really is no, if the outcome is winning and that's it, that's the, there's no guarantee that if you do everything right in the process,
00:19:29
Speaker
that that outcome is still going to be the case.
00:19:32
Speaker
It's just that's in sports, that's the big sort of, that's the one you can't always control.
00:19:39
Speaker
And you can go out and play your very best and have a really good day and
00:19:43
Speaker
For whatever reason, something happens and you lose.
00:19:47
Speaker
But what we all know is that if we put all we have into the process, along the way are going to be lessons learned and growth and things that are going to happen that are probably going to help us in other areas.
00:19:57
Speaker
That if we look back, you and I played college baseball together.
00:20:00
Speaker
We can look back at our experience both before we met, when we were in high school, when we were in college and afterwards and realize that
00:20:08
Speaker
some of those processes, including things that we and our teammates experienced with that particular team at that particular time, that even though we did not win a national championship,
00:20:21
Speaker
the process of trying to become the best we could and the best men that we could and everything we were trying to do has led us into all these other things and all these other successes that were the byproducts of us trying to learn how to become a really good baseball player and a really good teammate has led into careers and families and all these other things that were byproducts of that, that at the time were not the reason we were doing what we were doing.
00:20:45
Speaker
We just wanted to win a baseball game.
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:47
Speaker
And we love baseball.
00:20:48
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:20:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:50
Speaker
That's what's so awesome about when you really commit to any sort of process that's a positive one, is that there's going to be all these byproducts of it, you know, these branches that are going to come off of it that you don't really realize until later that, oh my gosh, I wouldn't have had this had I not done that process.
00:21:07
Speaker
And this is completely, has nothing to do with sports.
00:21:10
Speaker
It has nothing to do with eating healthy or whatever.
00:21:12
Speaker
Right?
00:21:13
Speaker
I created a habit that
00:21:15
Speaker
now helps me and all these other things.
00:21:17
Speaker
So it's easier said than done winning, saying that it doesn't matter.
00:21:21
Speaker
Steve Nash wanted to win, you know, and it's not that you don't want to win.
00:21:25
Speaker
It's just that you don't necessarily put all of your opinions of yourself on whether or not you were first or second at the end of the year.

Instilling Process-oriented Thinking

00:21:35
Speaker
There's so much more to it.
00:21:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:37
Speaker
And I would just say to close Dustin, like if you haven't thought in depth about a process, like there are some processes that are
00:21:46
Speaker
that are put upon us by coaches.
00:21:48
Speaker
Like there are coaches who give out shooting charts for basketball over the summer or lifts to do or whatever it might be.
00:21:55
Speaker
If you are listening to this or you're a parent that's listening to this or a coach that's listening to this, if coaches and parents will help young people put a process in place and they start to discipline themselves to that process and really stick to it and stack hours and stack days
00:22:15
Speaker
you will be teaching them one of the greatest lessons in life.
00:22:19
Speaker
Those who put processes in place that lead to places they want to go are so much more likely to get there.
00:22:28
Speaker
And so I love

Goal Setting and Daily Processes

00:22:30
Speaker
this.
00:22:30
Speaker
We need a process in place.
00:22:32
Speaker
If you're a young person listening to this, sit down.
00:22:35
Speaker
Start with the destination.
00:22:36
Speaker
Where do I want to get?
00:22:37
Speaker
What are my goals?
00:22:38
Speaker
How am I going to get there?
00:22:39
Speaker
What am I going to do every day?
00:22:41
Speaker
And then win the hour.
00:22:43
Speaker
And just be patient.
00:22:46
Speaker
If you go to the gym every day and you're lifting every day and you're adding a little bit of weight every single week between now and August, you cannot not get stronger.
00:23:00
Speaker
You will get stronger.
00:23:02
Speaker
It's just you have to be patient that it's going to happen two and three pounds at a time per week.
00:23:08
Speaker
But you add that up over three weeks or three months, and now all of a sudden you're walking into football season, for example, benching 30 more pounds.
00:23:17
Speaker
You're that much stronger.
00:23:18
Speaker
It happens, but nothing good is going to happen in a few days.
00:23:23
Speaker
And so just be patient.
00:23:25
Speaker
Put a process in place, and then patiently be consistent and win the hour.
00:23:31
Speaker
And you can become way more than you think you can.
00:23:35
Speaker
Perfect.
00:23:36
Speaker
Awesome, man.
00:23:36
Speaker
Well, thank you, everyone.
00:23:37
Speaker
Eyes up.
00:23:39
Speaker
Do the work.
00:23:40
Speaker
Thank you for joining the Especially for Athletes podcast.
00:23:43
Speaker
To learn more about Especially for Athletes organization, get a copy of our book, The Sportlight, or to bring our program to your team, school, business, or organization, visit us at especiallyforathletes.org.