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105 - What Got You Here Won’t Keep You There
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You made the team. You earned the spot. You hit the goal.
Now what?
In this episode, we break down one of the hardest truths in sports—and in life: the habits, effort, and mindset that got you here are now just the baseline. If you don’t evolve, you get passed.
We dive into why athletes lose motivation after reaching big goals, the difference between outcome goals and process goals, and how elite competitors shift from a “rookie” mindset to a “pro” mindset the moment they level up.
This is a conversation about identity.
Because success isn’t a finish line—it’s a new standard.
If you’re a captain, coach, or athlete who wants to keep growing after the win, this episode will give you the framework—and the language—to lead yourself and your team forward.
Key Takeaways:
- Why outcome goals can stall your growth
- How process goals build consistency and confidence
- The Rookie vs Pro mindset shift
- Simple leadership reps to reset the standard after success
You didn’t make it.
You qualified.
Now the real work begins.
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Transcript
Introduction to Redefining Success in Sports
00:00:00
Speaker
Action. Success comes from knowing you did your best to become the best that you're capable of becoming. John Wooten. Welcome to the Captains and Coaches podcast. We explore the art and science of leadership through the lens of athletics and beyond.
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm your host, Tex McQuilkin, and today we're talking about defining success for the teenage athlete, the concrete thinker, and aiming to break through and help them understand what it means to be successful and the ups and the downs, the step two steps forward and one step back that is progress. Most athletes think success is the finish line. Real competitors know it's just the entry ticket.
00:00:43
Speaker
Let me explain. You make varsity. You win a starting spot. You get recruited. And for a second, it feels like you made it. But then something weird happens. You get passed. You struggle.
00:00:56
Speaker
You don't start the next game. You go there, and you're not starting immediately as promised. And you feel like you're behind again. And you're thinking, wait, I thought already proved myself.
00:01:08
Speaker
And I hear teenagers say all different kinds of things at this point. The reality is is no. You proved you belonged in the room and you have to continue to prove every single day that you belong there.
00:01:25
Speaker
Let's redefine
Outcome vs Process Goals: A New Focus
00:01:26
Speaker
success for those teenagers, help them understand their concrete way of thinking, help give them a vision that's not right in front of their face, and help them understand the value of goals and how to create different types of goals that then keep you in the room and keep you progressing and keep you succeeding.
00:01:46
Speaker
High schoolers, that they're caught in this fair or unfair way of thinking, and the reality is sports are not fair. You can do everything perfect, but sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way or the call doesn't go your way.
00:01:59
Speaker
You can play perfect defense against a freak athlete, and then they just out-athlete you, and that's okay. How do you feel about yourself the next time, the next play, the next opportunity?
00:02:12
Speaker
So we're to begin with defining outcome goals and making it clear the difference between outcome goals and what's coming next, process goals. Outcome goals.
00:02:23
Speaker
These are results based. You win the game. You make varsity. You start. But here's the truth. You don't fully control the outcomes. Especially in sports, sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way. Sometimes the ref makes the the the wrong call, not against you. They didn't see something and they got swayed by the sideline and then call it the other way.
00:02:43
Speaker
Well, that's not fair. Okay,
Identity Through Process Goals
00:02:45
Speaker
next play. So you can do absolutely everything right and still lose. Now, this is where we as coaches aim to introduce process goals.
00:02:57
Speaker
These are behaviors. You show up early, extra reps after practice. You watch film outside of the scheduled film time for your team. You over communicate.
00:03:09
Speaker
where you are, where you're going to be on the field. You over-communicate outside of practice. Hey, I'm going to get there early. Hey, coach, I'm going to be there late. This is outside of my control.
00:03:20
Speaker
So we are aiming to create behaviors that then are going to lead to success. And we attack every single drill, every single conditioning rep with the intensity in 10 cities, with purpose that's going to lead us to success.
00:03:38
Speaker
So process, we want it to be understood how controllable this is. If we have process goals, we are in control. To quote Jim Davis, then we can analyze if our behaviors match our goals.
00:03:53
Speaker
And this as coaches, now we get the opportunity to help them hold up the mirror on all the steps and the actions that they're taking. The key to understand the difference between this, outcomes are moments where process becomes your identity. And I'm huge on identity.
00:04:09
Speaker
Winning happens sometimes. But how do you show up? That's who you are. And that's something we can control no matter the the practice, no matter the game, no matter the day.
00:04:21
Speaker
How are we showing
Gaming Analogies in Sports Strategies
00:04:22
Speaker
up? I love to use video games as analogies when working with teenagers. and thinking And I want you to think about a video game now. You beat a level.
00:04:32
Speaker
And do you celebrate that forever? No. You advance. Also, what happens when you advance? The game speeds up, the opponents get bigger, they get better, the strategy gets harder.
00:04:45
Speaker
Even on the simplest Nintendo video games, think about the speed that Super Mario 1 took up as you progressed through each level. Well, that's a great analogy because the kids are playing different video games. Think about experience points. Think about the skill. Think about the awareness.
00:05:04
Speaker
Unfortunately, you've think about the time invested it takes to get good at the old Fortnites, if that's still a thing. so video games are an opportunity for us to bridge
Rookie vs Pro Mindset for Continuous Improvement
00:05:15
Speaker
and connect to help them understand process goals when you get to that level now it's a minimum requirement for that speed and that skill and that understanding it's the same way in sports going from junior varsity to var going from college or excuse me varsity sports to college sports what got you there is now just a minimum requirement it's it's not even acknowledged because
00:05:41
Speaker
The expectation is you show up and you do that. And this is where athletes start to get exposed when they level up and their behaviors are not prepared, did not prepare them to have success at the next level.
00:05:55
Speaker
Maybe their athletic ability or their skill ability allowed them to be that big fish in a little pond. But when they jump to the level pond, what do their behaviors say about them?
00:06:06
Speaker
They try to play to the next level at the last level's habits. And it doesn't work. This is where I want to introduce a rookie versus a pro mindset.
00:06:18
Speaker
So continuing with my lessons for my team captains, now we're introducing this concept of mindset. And I feel junior, senior captains, this is a good time to introduce this because they have little brothers on the team or they remembered what it was to be on that freshman or that junior varsity team.
00:06:38
Speaker
And the the silliness and the the behaviors, those are rookie behaviors. They remember those. It's still fresh. Well, now we're introducing a pro mindset to them on how we approach the game, how we approach to practice, what is professional.
00:06:55
Speaker
So at every new level, there are two types of athletes. There's the rookie. person that, I made it. I deserve this. They relax. they're They celebrate too long. They expect results to continue automatically.
00:07:09
Speaker
Maybe they hit puberty early. Develop this mindset of where sports is easy for them against others. But then everybody else catches up and surpasses because they put behaviors in place to accelerate beyond them.
00:07:25
Speaker
So that rookie mindset, working with these varsity captains, they still see what it's like. Maybe they remember it for themselves, or hopefully they're not blind to how they once acted, but they can certainly see that with how the freshmen are acting towards them now. That's that's rookie mode.
00:07:44
Speaker
So I want to help them understand how to take on a pro mindset, a la Steven Pressfield, and then help their their teammates, their their junior varsity, the future leaders of their program, understand this pro mindset as well.
00:07:59
Speaker
When I turn pro, when I level up, now the real work begins. And we need athletes to understand something deeper. Success didn't crown them.
00:08:10
Speaker
It challenged them.
Overcoming Challenges: Personal Stories
00:08:12
Speaker
We need them to ask themselves, what do I need to improve now? What habits got me here? What habits need to involve? What habits, decisions, behaviors are going to hold me back from where I want to go?
00:08:29
Speaker
The moment you make it, air quotes, you're a beginner again. Once you level up, you are beginner again. That's the shift. That's maturity. That's leadership. Realizing that you have more to learn. It's not sitting in that self-doubt.
00:08:45
Speaker
It's becoming more aware, more situationally aware that there's more work to be done. So again, I see this from leveling up from JV to VAR. Kids call it VAR now instead of varsity.
00:08:59
Speaker
I guess they're too busy. Coaching at college, I've seen it when players level up from that big fish in that little pond. I recruited them, and now they're on my collegiate team, and all of a sudden they're scared or nervous.
00:09:12
Speaker
There was two types of freshmen that I saw sitting in the the coach's office from the kids that recruit, the ones that are worried and scared about making the team, And then the dudes that show up with the swagger, that their expectation is to start right away.
00:09:27
Speaker
So they're they're battling that confidence. The kids that are scared, okay, they're too worried about their behaviors. The kids that have the swagger, well, they're anchored in process. They know, okay, I've got the habits, I've got the skills to get them there.
00:09:43
Speaker
And they have a spark and an intent with their movements. So that's that's the aim of the mindset, the pro. Okay, I'm going to do everything it takes to make that team.
00:09:54
Speaker
Man, i when I stepped up to as a college athlete, I was that scared, nervous person. But then I had behaviors in place to do everything I could to make sure I had an impact.
00:10:05
Speaker
I joined the cross-country team at my university one semester. I may or may not have finished last in the one competition that I ran in as a 185-pound, basically linebacker with a stick running cross-country.
00:10:18
Speaker
But that was behavior, a behaviorary decision I made to do everything in my power to then make sure i was successful within my spring sport. So there
Leadership Lessons for Team Captains
00:10:29
Speaker
was nervousness, but then I leaned into behaviors to make sure i was doing everything in my power to become the best that I believed I could become.
00:10:38
Speaker
John Rube. Okay, so captain application. Again, this is part of the lecture series that I'm presenting to my team captains. I want everything at the end of our lessons to be actionable. So I give them reps in the form of daily, weekly, and just behaviors to take on.
00:10:56
Speaker
So the first one, and if you're a captain, feel free to steal these or hand them off to your team. I don't want you to celebrate success. I want a reset, the standard after success. You level up and now it's the expectation.
00:11:13
Speaker
I made an amazing play. Well, now that's the expectation. So here's the the first rep, process conversation. I want teammates to have conversations with each other. Ask two teammates this week, what daily habit will help you improve the most right now?
00:11:31
Speaker
Not, what do you want to achieve? It's too loose. And the kids don't know what they want to achieve. Switch it to what will you do? What behaviors? The expectation, okay, you have this many goals.
00:11:43
Speaker
Well, how many shots do you need a game to get there? Well, how many shots do we need to take before practice to get the confidence to take the shots in game to reach your number of goals? So we're aiming to connect that to process and behaviors.
00:11:59
Speaker
Rep two, micro goal leadership. Help them take a big goal. Ask them what they want to do. If they do present something, then shrink it down for them.
00:12:10
Speaker
So if the outcomes make varsity. Okay. Well, win the first rep every drill. Practice with varsity and show up. Go against varsity.
00:12:22
Speaker
Ask to be on scout team so you're lined up against the number one player on the highest level team at your school. Now you're getting reps. You're pushing them to get better. You're getting better yourself because you're going against the best, not the player that's currently on your level.
00:12:38
Speaker
so Clarity will create that confidence. Instead of a loose goal, now we're getting very specific and you as a captain are helping pull them along so they're prepared. They're going to push you.
00:12:53
Speaker
You're going to push them and everybody on the team is going to get better. all right, rep three, this is the rookie to the pro language, the belief and the mindset. When somebody is celebrating too long or they make one good play and they're getting too big for their britches, start to clean up their language.
00:13:13
Speaker
that' That's the entry ticket. Now the work begins. Awesome play, next rep. So I still want them to celebrate, but at the same time, focused on the next place. We're establishing an expectation.
00:13:26
Speaker
Let's level up. We're just getting started. Those would be forms of language that we're we're acknowledging the success, but we're also looking forward.
00:13:37
Speaker
And last but not least, again, I encourage self-leadership. I want a personal upgrade for the captains every single week. So here, i encourage them to pick one.
00:13:47
Speaker
More film study. You can drag people into it, or you can break down and analyze and have questions prepared for coaches or help you teach your teammates what's up.
00:13:59
Speaker
Effort, more effort and conditioning can condo after practice, pulling people into it and getting extra effort, extra reps in there. And eventually that just becomes part of the culture.
00:14:13
Speaker
Over-communicate, communication. Communication is the expectation on the field, but it's going to take reps outside of the field. Over-communicate. Expectations. Hey, when are you showing up?
00:14:25
Speaker
Who's going to get XYZ prepared for this? Who's making the playlist before the game this week? Those would be examples we're over communicating and not assuming our team knows everything.
00:14:38
Speaker
And last but not least
Final Thoughts on Success and Habits
00:14:39
Speaker
is recovery. Stretching after practice. ah Making sure that hydration is key. The proper kind of hydration is key in this. So different recovery steps and inviting people along within that.
00:14:54
Speaker
We don't have to upgrade everything right away. It's just taken one behavior this week and then one new behavior the next week and eventually we just create a whole bunch of habits that eventually lead to success.
00:15:09
Speaker
So upgrade one behavior and own it. Turn pro there, making everything else easier. Okay, so we'll bring it back. Most athletes think success equals achievement.
00:15:22
Speaker
But real competitors know that success now sets a new standard. Winning a level doesn't make you a champion. Leveling up your habits does.
00:15:33
Speaker
Final question for you, and I want you to ask yourself and be honest, are you celebrating the last level or preparing for the next one? Thank you for tuning in to the Captains & Coaches podcast. If you want these notes from this show, I encourage you sign up for a newsletter. Every single week that I do this show, hand off those notes as well as a weekly roundup huddle from past episodes, blogs that I'm writing, and fuzz and stuff along the way. To sign up for that, head to newsletter.captainsandcoaches.com.
00:16:03
Speaker
Thank you again for tuning in. Be sure like, subscribe, rate, review, all that good stuff. Thank you to our sponsors, Train Heroic. for helping me raise the game.
00:16:13
Speaker
And that's it.