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165. The Fine Line Between Average and Good
55 Plays18 days ago
In this episode of the Especially for Athletes podcast, Dustin Smith and Shad Martin revisit a powerful insight shared by former NFL All-Pro Eric Weddle about the “fine line between average and great.” What follows is a deep discussion on consistency, sacrifice, self-motivation, preparation, humility, and the daily habits that separate people who merely dream from people who actually develop greatness.
The conversation explores why we often romanticize greatness instead of recognizing the discipline behind it, why consistency matters more than motivation, and how small daily choices eventually become extraordinary outcomes. The episode also dives into practical ways athletes, parents, coaches, and young people can create routines of excellence and build resilient habits that last.
This episode is a reminder that greatness usually isn’t dramatic—it’s accumulated.
Key Takeaways
- Greatness is usually accumulated, not inherited.
- Consistency matters more than temporary motivation.
- Small daily choices create long-term success.
- Most people romanticize greatness because it removes responsibility from themselves.
- Preparation allows people to capitalize on opportunity.
- Humility is essential if you want to improve.
- Motivation fades quickly; disciplined routines endure.
- Sacrifice is often the difference between average and great.
- Winning the battle with yourself is the most important competition.
- Developing skill requires patience and repetition long before anyone notices.
Main Topics & Timestamps
15:23 — Why revisit old podcast moments?
Dustin and Shad explain the new podcast format and why certain past conversations deserve deeper attention.
19:29 — Why do we romanticize greatness?
Discussion on why people often attribute success to talent instead of discipline and sacrifice.
24:04 — Capitalizing on opportunity
The role of preparation, timing, and work ethic in becoming successful.
26:52 — Greatness is accumulated
Why consistency matters more than flashes of motivation.
28:38 — “You’ll never go broke taking a profit”
A football analogy about small victories and daily progress.
32:03 — Motivation vs. consistency
Why self-motivation matters more than external inspiration.
35:39 — Tactical plans create progress
How routines and daily habits help athletes avoid procrastination.
38:33 — Humility and seeking mentorship
Why improvement requires asking successful people for help.
43:09 — Routine creates greatness
Building systems and habits instead of waiting to “feel motivated.”
46:11 — Talent vs. skill
Why talent alone is never enough without disciplined development.
Full Episode with Erik Weddle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWnB-UzhfdY&list=PLjow7UW4zcvU3CC2U5jUnrGEIbhbwhm0b&index=115
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Credits: Hosted by Dustin Smith & Shad Martin
Produced by E4A and IMAGINATE STUDIO
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
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.
00:00:15
Speaker
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Especially for Athletes podcast. and I'm Dustin Smith. I'm here with Shad, and we are excited to dive into kind of a different different episode here. Different in that, well, a lot a lot the same, I guess, because we're going actually replay a piece from a past podcast. So in that sense, it's the same, but it's kind of a different format, I guess. So one of the things we found, Shad, is we've been talking about different ways to add and improve on to the quality of of this podcast is that we get a lot of guests that we come on that make great comments.
00:00:51
Speaker
And there's really not enough time to dive into all of the things that that come up you know during the podcast. We may take a minute or two to break down ah ah a point that's made or an idea that's made. And then later,
00:01:04
Speaker
We get talking afterwards, you and I, and we're like, man, there was a lot to that. We could have probably, you know, gone really deep into that. And so, you know, one of the things we've been talking about doing is going back over the past 150 or 60 or whatever episodes we've done.
00:01:20
Speaker
And kind of trying to find those ah little little gold nuggets that we felt like, man, that was that one really kind of stuck with me. And then dive a little deeper into that. So you know I guess to that end, if there was something that you, know you the listener,
00:01:35
Speaker
if there was ah a guest we had on or a point or a story or something that was made in the past that you felt like, you know, we didn't give it enough attention or you'd like us to talk more about it. Or if you have ideas or thoughts on things that we might be able to discuss or find guests to bring on and discuss, um that would be awesome. And we'd we'd welcome that feedback and feedback.
00:01:55
Speaker
and help
Eric Weddle's Career Highlights
00:01:56
Speaker
there. So and the one we wanted to do today was from a podcast episode that we did over a year ago, might've been a year and a half ago. um It was with retired NFL football player, Eric Weddle. Now, just a real quick background on Eric. If you, if you grew up in California ah where Eric went to high school, or if you live in Utah where Eric went to college, um or if you lived in Baltimore or were a Los Angeles Rams fan,
00:02:24
Speaker
um Baltimore Ravens or a Rams fan, you know who Eric Weddle is. Eric was probably the best defensive safety, might be the best defensive football player, honestly, to come out of the University of Utah.
00:02:38
Speaker
um He went to Utah, not a highly recruited athlete out of high school, not really big for that position. And not only did he end up dominating in college, but he went on to play 10 plus years in the NFL, was a multi-year all pro.
00:02:55
Speaker
And eventually in his final year, actually after this podcast was recorded, he unretired and went back in and played one more year for the l LA Rams. and won a Super Bowl. So this this episode what we that we did with Eric was prior to that Super Bowl that he won with the Rams. It was during his retirement from the ah out in Baltimore where he spent his career.
00:03:17
Speaker
And he made a point during that episode, Shad, that you you emailed me the other day and said, hey man, listen to this. I think there's some good stuff in this. And I agreed with you. And so let's play it for everybody here. And then ah let's let's dive into talking a little bit more about it.
What Sets Great Athletes Apart?
00:03:33
Speaker
The fine line of of great and good is it is a lot, but it isn't. It's that, it's that guy that's willing to sacrifice, uh, an hour sleep of waking up earlier to get his work in than the other guy that sleeps in and and goes off to school.
00:03:54
Speaker
It's the guy that instead of playing video games till midnight, he's going to bed at 10 o'clock. It's the guy that's not going to be in junk food in the middle of the night and is is going to eat a healthy snack.
00:04:07
Speaker
It's the guy that is willing to do whatever it takes to reach his goal. that's ah There's a lot to that, Shad. You sent me a question on that that I wanted to kind of actually throw back at you. um So you had shot me a question where you said,
00:04:25
Speaker
Hey, Dustin, why do you think athletes often seem to romanticize greatness? um Dive into that. Why do you think that is? I want to hear your thoughts first on that because that was interesting.
00:04:40
Speaker
I think that when we romanticize greatness, it's something that happens to us or something we're blessed with instead of something we take responsibility to develop.
00:04:51
Speaker
okay Does that make sense? like yeah um It's easier to believe that someone's gifted than that someone's disciplined. yeah It's easy for me and you to look at Eric Weddle, who, quite frankly, you and I are about the same you know the same height in our...
00:05:09
Speaker
athletic you know prime, we were probably about the same height and weight as Eric Weddle. ah think yeah and And we look at that and it's easier to look and just say, oh, Eric Weddle, he's just different from us. It's not work. It's not our own discipline.
00:05:26
Speaker
It is that he was just born different. And I think that creates this distance in us. that allows us to give this excuse for why we aren't achieving the dreams that we hope to achieve.
00:05:40
Speaker
But I'm curious, what do you think about that? I mean, I just, I notice it happening a lot. We just love to attach greatness or God-given talent too quickly as the reason why people are the way that they are.
00:05:55
Speaker
Well, I wonder what that, what is that? When you first asked me that question or sent me that question, i my first thought was, Man, that is a really fine line because what people decide to to either just have this, um ah hate's a strong word, but it's it's this this strong negative feeling. Maybe it's hate towards somebody who's successful or absolutely idolize the person.
00:06:24
Speaker
it it What is the, like, what is that that? What's the tipping point that makes me say, ooh, I can't stand Tom Brady. I hope he never, right? Because there's people that cannot stand him.
00:06:35
Speaker
And and i and i I've asked some of them in in the quarterback world, well, why? And really what it comes down to is they don't, they're I think they're they're jealous of the success.
Capitalizing on Opportunities
00:06:45
Speaker
It's because he wins all the time, right? But then on the other side, there are people that they can't get enough of Tom Brady because because he's been so successful.
00:06:53
Speaker
Everything he does and everything he says is just like, it's gold, right? Oh my gosh, did you hear what Tom Brady said about what he eats for breakfast and what time he goes to sleep and what books he likes to read? I better do, and and then what do we do? we We follow the example of these people who are great.
00:07:09
Speaker
because we want to be great. But at the same time, so many of us want to see those great people fail And I don't know what it is. I don't know why, you know, i was watching an NBA basketball game the other day and I, there was a basketball player on there and I was talking about how much I liked him. And my son was talking about how much he didn't. And we couldn't really come to, I i didn't really understand why. And he didn't understand why I thought he was so great. And I don't know the guy, like I have no idea what what kind of kid he is. He's some 20 year old, you know, basketball player. um
00:07:40
Speaker
But I do feel like more times than not, Chad, with, especially with, I think with people that we may know that we're closer to, like a teammate that makes it and we don't, that I just think that the bailout is to say, yeah, but i it's not because they're better than us. It's because, and then we list all the things that were out of our control, I think as a defense mechanism to make us feel like,
00:08:11
Speaker
we couldn't have gotten there anyway. Instead, because we don't want to look at the, nobody really, not nobody, but most people, most of us don't really want to look in the mirror and say, well, actually, I might've been able to have that, but I didn't want to you know, do what was required.
00:08:29
Speaker
And so it's easier to just say, well, they had it handed to him or given to him or, or God just, you know, gave him a taller body or, and some of that help. Sure. Like that's part of it. I mean, for yeahric Eric Weddle is a freak of an athlete and he, but, but he, he did, there are a lot of athletes just as athletic as Eric Weddle.
00:08:47
Speaker
They didn't go and play, you know, a dozen years in the NFL. I mean, hundreds of them. So there was clearly something that he did. Now, Sometimes it's circumstance, it's situation. You walk into the right you know situation. and And we talked about that on a podcast recently with Fernando Mendoza that I had a workout. I actually had him at a workout that I did three years ago down in Arizona with a bunch of other college kids that I was. And I didn't know Fernando. There were three or four guys there that had come with this other guy.
00:09:19
Speaker
he He was just another quarterback there to me, like good quarterback. But I did by no means that I look at him and think, holy cow, this guy's going to be the top pick in the draft. And he's going to be right. Like he's going to win a national championship and make unbelievable amounts of money in three years time. He's going to be the greatest thing ever. He was just a guy. And they were all. yeah You guessed that one too. no Yeah, exactly. I had no idea. i was good Yeah, exactly. right Yeah. At the time he was at Cal and yeah, no, no way in the world that I think it'd be at Indiana.
00:09:49
Speaker
But my point is just that in his case, but, but again, this is a guy who, he had to have continued to get better because he was good, but he wasn't like big time NFL good. And when I saw him and he continued to work and he had some situations and some things fall, I think his way, right? I mean, he he got into a good program at the right time with the right coach, had the right teammates around him. And in in a sport like football, you have to have some of those things. And then he capitalized on it, but the capitalizing on it's the key. Eric Weddle,
00:10:24
Speaker
capitalized on his opportunity at the University of Utah, right? Where other guys who make maybe hits you know would make excuses, the excuses really needs to be, yes, you know he he's gifted and he has some qualities about him, but he had to capitalize on his opportunity or he wouldn't have made it.
00:10:43
Speaker
He would have been just another football player to come through and and he would have been a backup at University of Utah like so many others who have come through at six feet, you know, 210 like he is and just been on the team.
00:10:55
Speaker
But he capitalized on it. Well, how do you capitalize on something? You
The Power of Daily Victories
00:10:59
Speaker
have to be prepared. And how are you prepared? You have to put in the work. And that's what most people don't want to, I think, accept is that that person who made it,
00:11:07
Speaker
capitalized on their moment and they were prepared for that moment because they made sacrifices and did things that you didn't want to do. Therefore, you didn't capitalize. And sometimes player A and and player a the same player, different person, same skill set.
00:11:24
Speaker
One makes it and one doesn't. it's It's capitalizing, which came from proper preparation. Yeah, I had the thought that most greatness is accumulated, not inherited.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah. It's just every day, you know, and it greatness often looks, I think um it looks boring long before it looks great because like you're talking about that Tom Brady stuff, you know, so careful about what he puts in his body.
00:11:58
Speaker
Yeah. So careful about what kind of work that he does. And it's this day by day accumulation But that's harder. I mean, consistency is one of the hardest things for people to maintain, me included. I'm sure there's some things in your life that you include, you know, that yeah consistency is one of the greatest attributes that people can have. and And it in interviewing all these people that we've interviewed over the last 160 plus episodes, I really do think that
00:12:34
Speaker
This is a common characteristic is that of consistency. And it usually started long before people ever noticed them. You know, it was quiet gyms during teenage years or whatever.
00:12:49
Speaker
But I just think it's the, you know, that that just this first segment here, it's just so easy to look at someone and say, well, they were just born that way because it takes any responsibility away from us.
00:13:00
Speaker
Yeah. As you've talked about. And so, so I think the lesson of it, and I love what Eric Weddle said is, you know, it's not the difference between great and good is usually small choices.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah. It's just small choices that people make consistently. and so one One of the things I tell ah football players that I coach, um especially the quarterbacks that I work with,
00:13:31
Speaker
is I tell them that they'll never go broke taking a profit. and And what I'm referring to in that is that you take the small victories on a play. If if a team's going to give you five yards, they're going to give you a four yards, three yards, you take it. um Sometimes you try we try so they try so hard to hit the 40-yarder and then throw in in throw a couple interceptions or or get caught in a third down and 10.
00:13:55
Speaker
And now they're playing from way behind the sticks and it's it's really hard to pick up a first down if it's third and 10. um where if you were third and four because you had taken a couple small victories on first and second down, you could run any play in your playbook on you know third and three or third and four, where third and ten, you're really limited on what you can run if if you're going to pick up the first down.
00:14:16
Speaker
And the defense knows that. So they're better prepared because they know you're trying to most likely pick up 10 yards. So they kind of have the, you know, the better hand in that moment. So you take the small victories and if you'll never go broke, take in small profits. And I tell them, look, if you can get three and a half yards of play, you'll score 70 points a game. You'll win most likely every football game you ever play. If you could guarantee yourself three and a half yards, every single play, you're going to be in the end zone every drive.
00:14:43
Speaker
So I think it's the same thing to your point, Chad, is that Every day, if you're just in the in the and in the case of you know working at whatever that thing is, whether that's a literal business trying to make a profit or you know a goal that you have, whatever area of life, it's the small profits every day and you won't go broke.
00:15:04
Speaker
But if if if you get you know ah too crazy or too out of sorts or too... you know, too lazy maybe to do the small things every day and you try to do the big thing once a week.
00:15:16
Speaker
um It just doesn't, work most things don't work that way. it's It's just little things done regularly every single day that eventually become greatness. And most people don't have the patience for that because we want it now and we want to see the reward of it now. And the small little profits doesn't make you rich after a couple of weeks or a couple of months. It takes a long time.
00:15:37
Speaker
And people want to be rich now, right? And so we want to be great now. And kids kids, athletes, parents, we do it in our goals in our lives. We give it a week or two.
00:15:47
Speaker
And then now we don't see that immediate result. And we move on to the next thing. And then when people that did make it make it, to your point, well, it's because they were they were gifted something, right? They they didn't.
00:16:00
Speaker
It couldn't have been because they were actually consistent every day for a long time. because Right? That's true. Yeah, absolutely. In fact, you've talked a lot, Dustin, about the difference between consistency and motivation.
00:16:14
Speaker
um In your mind, I mean, you you know you've worked and trained with some of the best quarterbacks, not only in the state, but that have gone on and done incredible things in college and in the ah NFL. Yeah.
Consistency vs. Motivation
00:16:27
Speaker
why Why you often repeat that? It's almost like, not that you have a dislike for the word motivation, but but why as a coach, as a trainer, is the word consistency a lot more correlated with greatness than motivation in your mind?
00:16:47
Speaker
I just think that motivation is water. We use that word. We use it so much. And i I don't believe in other people motivating us. I believe in other people inspiring us to do short things really you know focused for a minute.
00:17:05
Speaker
um but motivation to me is a self-intrinsic, we're self-motivated or we're not. We either want to be great and and and you find out when you want to be great when it's hard, when it's early in the morning or when it's you know it's late at night or when you you have to make a sacrifice. And that has to be a self-motivated. Nobody can motivate you to do that because motivation is a long-term, in my mind, it's inspiration or short bursts right You could hear a podcast that inspires you to do something.
00:17:37
Speaker
But after four or five days of trying this new thing out that you were inspired to do, you don't, what now, what you have to then have drawn your own self motivation to keep doing it.
00:17:49
Speaker
You have to have a why and ah something that drives you to continue to do it. Um, or you just listen to the same podcast, I guess, over and over and over for a year and hope that it, right. that it And it has the same reaction, you know, the same reaction, the 35th time that it had the first time. But, you know, yeah so, you know, I think that,
00:18:10
Speaker
consistency to me correlates more with self motivation, um, and not other people inspiring or other people motivating me. Because if I'm consistent at something, it's because I have the patience to understand that I'm going to get there and I'm not a negotiat i'm not going to negotiate with myself on this. I am going to get there or die trying, but I don't need to have somebody else, you know, motivate me. I'm motivated. I might lean on other people to inspire me from time to time.
00:18:43
Speaker
There might be a song that I like that inspires me or a book that I'm reading or a a poem or, I mean, I have, I have some stuff right here over my shoulder that inspire me. You know, that, that, that blind horse in that, in that cave right there. That's that, the quote behind that about one more step that's called is motivates me that, that word hustle right there over my shoulder to every day when I just keep hustling, just keep trying the man in the arena quote, that's over my left shoulder there. Like those are, but those just up on a wall, like those mean nothing to me and will do nothing for me.
00:19:16
Speaker
If I'm not a self-motivated, if I don't do something with those things consistently. Right. And so to me, Finding inspiration, finding motivation, whatever. If you want to say they're the same thing. Okay.
00:19:28
Speaker
That's easy. You can five seconds look on your phone and go to YouTube and find some motivational speaker, some song that's motivating. Again, I would call it inspiring. But but consistency, you can't find that on YouTube.
00:19:43
Speaker
You can't find that on your phone. You can't find that in a book. You got to roll up your sleeves and do the work. And that's just you against you. And I think most people we give into our...
00:19:56
Speaker
you know, the, the lesser version of ourselves. i always, you know, talk about the two dogs inside of us and, and because the consistency dog loses out to the one that just wants to, you know, have somebody else motivate them constantly to have to work hard. And as soon as that person doesn't have a gun to their head saying, do it or else, then they take that week off.
00:20:17
Speaker
And that's not consistency. You can't become great that way. Yeah. Nope. Nobody's become great that way. I don't think. Yeah. I love he says this, you know, going back to the Eric Weddle quote, it's just this one little line. it The difference between average and good is the guy that's willing to sacrifice.
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah. And so one thing I've learned in my life, Dustin, is I like I've had seasons of of productivity. I've had seasons of um where I look back and it it wasn't as productive I don't know that there was ever a season where I didn't want to be moving toward my goals. Right. Like I have never had a season of complete just.
00:21:02
Speaker
And I know some people go through this, but I haven't where it's just like, no, I don't care anymore. Right. I don't I don't want that anymore. But one of the things that I think is really important and maybe what brought this clip to mind as we start going into summer is that if you if you have a tactical plan, you know you have a goal.
Building Consistent Habits
00:21:28
Speaker
i want to start next year on my high school football team or volleyball team or whatever. i have a goal, but that goal can always be procrastinated, right?
00:21:41
Speaker
But when you get it down to to tactical plans, and there's a few points about this that I want to ask you about, but The point I want to make to those listening is if you're feeling a lack of motivation and you want to you feel motivated, you want to get to your goal, but you're having a hard time getting going.
00:22:04
Speaker
Coming up with a plan and what I'm going to do every day, what I'm going to do every week and then executing that plan. It's way easier to be consistent with a plan.
00:22:17
Speaker
that has been broken down to daily tasks than it is just to have a ah goal out there that we always intend to get to.
00:22:28
Speaker
yeah And so I feel like some people get frozen with, I just don't know where to start and that it would be good right now going into summer If you have an imperfect plan, who cares?
00:22:42
Speaker
Just have a plan for what you're going to do each day to get where you're going to get. And I think that's important here that it helps people be consistent. If they can look and say, okay, i just need to sacrifice and do that and I can get toward my goal.
00:23:00
Speaker
We've often talked about why Humility is really important when creating that plan. yeah And it might be one of the differences between someone who becomes great and someone who stays average.
00:23:17
Speaker
yeah What would you say about the importance? i I would say to people listening to this, if you want to get somewhere, develop a plan, a daily, like this is what I'm going to do and start to click things off.
00:23:29
Speaker
That is so helpful to get people going. What would you say about humility in regard to creating that plan? Yeah, and and I remember us doing a whole thing. we We kind of hit this hard, gosh, over a year ago. It felt like every podcast we were talking about something along the lines of having the humility to go and talk to somebody who's already doing that thing well or who has done it well, who's good at it.
00:23:58
Speaker
and ask them to help give you those lists of things to get started with. Because I think we can get bogged down by, but I don't even know what's the first step. Like I'm willing to start doing a couple of small steps, but where, like which one, you know, where, where do I start? And so that sort of fear of,
00:24:16
Speaker
I don't even know if it's the right step or should that forget it. Right. And we move on. Well, who's good at that? Who's done that thing? Who's somebody who's already been successful in that world? Go to them and say, I want to start doing whatever you're good at that.
00:24:32
Speaker
if you were me starting over, what would you do? What would be the first couple of things? What could I do? I've got an hour a day that I can give to this. Be realistic with yourself. I think that's important, right? Like if you want to, if if your goal is to become, you know, go to the gym and, and, and become a, ah you know, a bodybuilder, well, you know, you're not going to be realistic with how much time you can give to that. Cause if you can't give ah four five, six hours a day to that goal, you're never going to become that. And, and, you know in the in In the case of the greatest you know athletes or bodybuilders in the world, I think some kids in sports, maybe they can't give the necessary time to the sport. And it it just is what it is. It's unfortunate. But sports nowadays requires an unbelievable amount of time that I think most, not even the kids, I think most parents aren't real willing to recognize and give time.
00:25:25
Speaker
the amount of time to their kid. and And I'm not saying that's wrong. I think we overdo it. And and there's other areas in life that are, you know, they that deserve our time. It doesn't, it shouldn't always be the sport. Absolutely. But it is what it is. the word It's just getting more competitive.
00:25:40
Speaker
Kids are getting bigger, faster, stronger. They're not getting, you know, less strong and and slower. So you do have to find time. And that means you got to make sacrifices and something that maybe mom and dad used to do with their life when they were that kid's age.
00:25:57
Speaker
their Their son has a different goal than they did. And so they're not going to be able to do that thing that you did when you were 16 or 15 because their goals are to be great at this sport.
00:26:08
Speaker
And they they're going to have to put in four more hours a day than you ever did. And that's where you're going to find that time. Well, Eric talked about it. it might be before you go to school. It might be turning off the video game. It might be, you know, not going out with friends as much. It might be having to, you know, do stuff on a Saturday when you don't want to or in the evenings when you're home and and you got to, you know what, I didn't get a full schedule. film session in or a full workout in or a full run in. I've got to go back out and do it before I go to sleep, but there's no negotiating with yourself. Right. And so if I were starting over and I do, I've done this before.
00:26:44
Speaker
If I want to ever start something new, Before I'll go and look up online how to do it or you know YouTube it and things, I try to think of who do I know that does this well?
00:26:56
Speaker
And I just call and ask them. And i didn't for a lot of years because i and I think that's the humility piece, but I was humbled by the fact that every other time I tried to do those things my own way, I never got anywhere close. That for me, it was much better to suck up my pride a little bit, call a person and say,
00:27:18
Speaker
I'm not as good as this that you are. I'd like to be. And you know what's the beauty about that? Those was when you do that, the other person feels that it's a compliment to the other person. When if somebody calls you and says, hey, you're really good at this thing. I'm not. I want to be better at it. Could you help me?
00:27:35
Speaker
Like you feel a desire to want to help them because they saw that in you and that's flattering, right? So you're going to feel this sense of really wanting to help them. And you're going to give that person 10 times more than YouTube was ever going to, because you're emotionally invested in this person now because they're seeking your help, you know? So to me, it's...
00:27:55
Speaker
You have to be humble to do that, but man, it seems like a way more effective way to get to doing things you know the ah efficiently than to stumble around trying to figure it out, reading books and you know Google and stuff.
00:28:09
Speaker
Just call somebody who does it well. Yeah. And I would just say to close you know this, Dustin, and then maybe you could close it up here, but I just feel like...
00:28:21
Speaker
um
00:28:24
Speaker
the The fine line, i just love what he says. There's a fine line between being average and good and and being great.
Final Thoughts on Achieving Greatness
00:28:34
Speaker
And a lot of those are our decisions.
00:28:37
Speaker
and um And it's consistency. It's humility. it It's attributes that that lead to this. But I feel like it's important that that that we have a routine. If we want an outcome of greatness, we have a routine of greatness. Yeah. Our actions have to match our goals.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah. And that that consistency, you could even listen to this and it's motivation. And I'm going into a summer, or my kid or my team is going into the summer. And when we feel motivated, maybe one of the best things to do is to sit down and to say, okay, where do I want to get?
00:29:16
Speaker
Who's there? How did they get there? And what do I have to do every day? And then just be consistent. Just be consistent. Just never like never say no to yourself. I remember when we had Brendan Schooler on and he talked about the most important competition he wins every day is the one with himself.
00:29:41
Speaker
And you know this New England Patriot, he's a yeah that was a fun episode if anyone wants to go back and listen to that one. yeah But remember he talked about being in bed and every now and then he would, that alarm would go off.
00:29:56
Speaker
And he said, I can't even say on here what I need to say to myself sometimes to get myself out of bed. But he would yell at himself, not even out loud, like you, you know, yeah that's where he stopped right there. yeah Get out of bed. Like don't let sleep win. Right. And And it's that consistency and those people who are willing to overcome that, that passive lazy wolf within us yeah and, and feed that one that's going to fight for the goal. And so yeah I just think that what he said there with Eric Weddle, it just really caught my eye that yeah no matter what it is in life, in work, in, in parenting, in sports,
00:30:47
Speaker
Usually the difference between greatness and average, it's just it's just small decisions. yeah It's not a big thing.
00:30:57
Speaker
It's not God-given. all the time. There's definitely some things, but not all the time. And I think the more that we unromanticize greatness and stop acting like it was just given to people and take responsibility for where we want to get and then be consistent that we can we can accomplish more than we are.
00:31:17
Speaker
Yep. People are given talents, but people develop skills and skill sets are developed by you know, who who outworks the other. and And, you know, of course, if you have more talent than somebody else, it might be a little bit easier to develop that skillset. But at the end of the day, it seems like the most successful people are often the ones who, yes, they had some talent, but they, that talent only got them so far. They had the the patience and the consistency to sharpen a skillset in such a way that they became that talent, you
00:31:52
Speaker
you know, was able to be ah ah exempt are are underlined more by the skill sets that were hours and hours and hours of developing. And most people don't want to develop the skill set. They just want to rely on how far talent gets them.
00:32:08
Speaker
That only gets you so far. And then the people who have the skill set, you know, seem to go on and do the rest. So and they they're the ones who are the consistent ones. So, well, everybody, thanks for joining us. Keep your eyes up.
00:32:19
Speaker
Do the work. Thank you for joining the Especially for Athletes podcast. To learn more about Especially for Athletes organization, get a copy of our book, The Sport Light, or to bring our program to your team, school, business, or organization, visit us at especiallyforathletes.org.