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170. Seek to Be Your Best, Not the Best
41 Plays5 days ago
In this week's Especially for Athletes podcast, Shad Martin and Dustin Smith explore one of the foundational principles of Especially for Athletes: Seek to Be Your Best, Not the Best. Through the story of Polish sprinter Ewa Swoboda's emotional celebration after a personal record and Kobe Bryant's powerful perspective on becoming an "overachiever," they discuss why comparison steals joy and how athletes can find lasting fulfillment through growth, effort, and personal improvement. This episode is a powerful reminder that true success comes from maximizing your own potential—not from measuring yourself against everyone else.
Key Takeaways
1. Comparison Is the Thief of Joy
Social media has made it easier than ever for athletes to compare themselves to others instead of focusing on their own growth.
2. Personal Progress Deserves Celebration
Athletes should celebrate personal bests and growth, even when they don't finish first.
3. Greatness Is About Becoming
The greatest athletes focus on maximizing their potential rather than protecting a reputation.
4. Kobe Bryant Was an Overachiever
Kobe wanted to be remembered not just as talented, but as someone who maximized every gift he was given.
5. Compete Against Yesterday's Version of Yourself
The healthiest comparison is comparing who you are today with who you were yesterday.
6. Fill the Tank, Then Empty the Tank
Success comes from fully preparing and then giving everything you have when the opportunity arrives.
7. Appreciation Matters More Than Recognition
People need to know they are valued for who they are and the effort they give—not just the results they produce.
00:32:17 - Introduction
00:33:17 - Why Comparison Is More Dangerous Than Ever
00:36:17 - The Difference Between Being the Best and Being Your Best
00:39:47 - The Story of Polish Sprinter Ewa Swoboda
00:42:32 - Why Athletes Must Celebrate Progress
00:44:17 - How to Avoid Complacency and Discouragement
00:46:47 - Ralph Waldo Emerson and Learning From Others
00:50:17 - Kobe Bryant's Final Interview
00:53:17 - Becoming an Overachiever
00:56:47 - Progress Over Outcomes
00:59:17 - Coaching Athletes to Celebrate Growth
01:03:17 - Appreciation vs Recognition
01:07:17 - Fill the Tank, Then Empty the Tank
01:09:47 - Final Thoughts
01:10:17 - Eyes Up, Do the Work
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Join the conversation using #E4APodcast
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Credits: Hosted by Dustin Smith
Produced by E4A and IMAGINATE STUDIO
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Transcript
Empowering Athletes Through 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.
00:00:15
Speaker
Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Especially for Athletes podcast. Shad Martin here with Dustin Smith again. How are you, Dustin? you Doing great, Chad. Excited to talk about this topic today. You gave me a little bit of a heads up on ah what you were thinking and and sent me a video and I love it. This is to be fun.
00:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I really think this is something foundational to some of the things that we teach athletes. It was in our first book. In fact, in our first book, we donated a whole chapter to to this topic of seeking to be your best, not
The Trap of Comparison Among Athletes
00:00:50
Speaker
the best. But there's some things that have happened recently. Yeah.
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm going to talk about it. something that can completely change the way athletes compete the way they learn and honestly the way all of us live and it's that principle simple Don't seek to be the best.
00:01:16
Speaker
Seek to be your best. Because if your identity depends on being better than everyone else, you'll constantly live comparing, fearing, proving, protecting.
00:01:28
Speaker
But when your focus becomes on growth and effort and improvement and becoming, then every day becomes meaningful. And so today we're going to we're going to look at a powerful video from a Polish sprinter, Swoboda.
00:01:43
Speaker
And a quote from Kobe Bryant that's become one of our favorites since it was mentioned on on one of our ah episodes here. but But let me just start with this, Dustin, because you've spoken a little bit about it And then we'll get to that that video of that Polish sprinter.
00:01:59
Speaker
Why do you think that comparison is such a trap for athletes today?
00:02:07
Speaker
it's It's a bigger trap than ever because of social media. There's way more opportunities to compare yourself. um sometimes I mean, I know kids compare themselves just on amount of likes they get on a video compared to somebody else's video. And then...
00:02:22
Speaker
that that can spiral their thought process into, well, then I must not, I'm not as good or people don't think I'm as good. and and And it becomes more and more focused on what people think about me because we're always comparing and wanting to know what other people, you know, ah their opinion of me or somebody else's is how I justify or or or determine whether or not I'm good at something or not. And, you know, whether that's sports or just life in general, if you're if you're comparing yourself to others, right, the quote that comparison is the thief of joy,
00:02:51
Speaker
that, you know, the more we're we're focusing on what we're not, um there's some, I mean, sure, we should be self-aware of areas we need to get better. But if we want to go around and look to find other people that might be better than us at something and then kick ourselves because of that, we're probably going to find a lot of things, right? I mean, everything, i would be a hundred percent confident to say probably every single thing that I do and
Striving for Personal Bests vs. External Validation
00:03:20
Speaker
everything area of my life, that there's somebody else that does it better.
00:03:24
Speaker
And right. And that could eat me up forever. If I was constantly beating myself up because I wasn't, you know, as good as that person or as rich as that person or white whatever it is, right. In youth, in high school and as in adulthood. um And, you know, to your point, Shad earlier, when you brought us in the intro, there is that the,
00:03:44
Speaker
you know when we say this, you and I both cringe a little bit because we don't want people to think we're not saying it's a bad thing to not to be the best. Like, of course, if you could be the very, if you could be the Michael Jordan or the, you know, the, the, the, the very, but you know, the best ever, that's great. But we the reason we emphasize that becoming your best is that you may be labeled the best at something.
00:04:11
Speaker
But if that was the ceiling, if that was where you stopped, as soon as somebody else, this goes back to other people getting their praise, it's their opinion, and they say, hey, you are the very best at this, and you were to stop,
00:04:25
Speaker
What if you had more? What if you could have been that plus so much more? What if you could have raised that bar, or that ceiling even further up, but you stopped at somebody told me I'm the MVP or I made the team? Or I mean, you could start with, I just want to make the team and then the work ethic stops because they made it. Or I just want to start, then the work ethic stops because they're starting. Well, I want to win. I want to get a scholarship. i want to it's some ah It might be that the most talented athletes in pick the sport.
00:04:54
Speaker
the most talented athlete in that sport may have never reached the highest levels because somewhere along the way, somebody told them they were the best and they shifted into cruise control because, hey, I've done it. And they never became They could have been maybe the very best to ever do it, but they never tapped out at their own ah their own abilities because they let somebody else tell them, hey, you've done enough. And that the the danger of being ah oh get that phrase, I've done enough,
00:05:26
Speaker
and is a very, very dangerous trap to fall into. And everybody's doing it more so now than ever. And there's there's athletes, the very best, Kobe Bryant's, the Michael Jordan's, the you know the very best to ever do it. They seem to always have a goal of whether I won or not, how did I play and did I do my very best? And that's why I always tell athletes, I promise you
Celebrating Personal Achievements in Sports
00:05:50
Speaker
that Steph Curry, who's the best shooter to ever play basketball,
00:05:54
Speaker
I guarantee you, i bet all I own on it, that when he goes to shoot during the offseason, that he still works on free throws. And the reason is because he's yet to have a year where he's made every single free throw he's ever shot. He's been the best free throw shooter in the in the league.
00:06:12
Speaker
He's been an all-time great three-point and free throw shooter. But until he makes every single one that he shoots, he believes he still hasn't reached his very best because at his very best in his mind is I shouldn't miss, right? And so in the process of doing that, he became the best, but his focus was being the best he could become. The byproduct of is, hey, by the way, we think you're the best ever do it.
00:06:36
Speaker
He didn't just motor down and say, okay, I'll stay there. He actually gets better and better and better. Because until he makes every game shot he shoots in a season, I bet you he's going to feel like, yeah, I could have done a little bit better.
00:06:48
Speaker
And that's that's what the greats have. Yeah, absolutely. It's either limiting if we're on that top end of where we're at, or it's discouraging if we feel like we're on a team with someone who's always better than us, or you know but we can never beat that person in region that's running the 100-yard dash, and they're always beating us. and we They have been since we were 11. And so that's why this this video, Dustin, I want to show it to you.
00:07:20
Speaker
It's actually not even of the race. It's Iwaswimboda. Have you ever heard that name before? Probably no one ever has. It doesn't sound Polish to me. wouldn't have guessed it forward with that name. yeah Yeah, no one's ever heard that name because I probably pronounced it like no one's ever pronounced it. But um but it's really cool. This this is her reaction.
00:07:43
Speaker
And those who saw it probably probably are a little confused, but there's actually a powerful lesson behind it. So I want to play it and I'm going to describe it because I know a lot of our people are listening. yeah So you don't even see her finish the race, but this is after the race and you can kind of hear her emotion here.
00:08:06
Speaker
She's jumping up and down, running around, screaming, like literally collapsing, right? Hugging your coach. Going up, taking a bow to the crowd.
00:08:18
Speaker
Super cool, right?
Preventing Complacency with Continuous Growth
00:08:20
Speaker
Now, watching that, you would think that she had just won the race, but she had finished third place.
00:08:29
Speaker
Yeah. Right? So what was really cool about it, though, she she finished right? But it was her best time ever. And it was the first time in her life that she had ran a sub 11 second 100 meters, which is flying for anybody, right? um That was her goal.
00:08:50
Speaker
And the powerful lesson is, is that if your goal is to be the best, eventually you'll either get discouraged or complacent. But when your goal is to be your best, you're always growing, always improving, always becoming.
00:09:05
Speaker
Don't just chase being the best, chase becoming your best. And so one of the saddest things in sports is when athletes cannot celebrate growth because they're too busy comparing themselves to someone else. And a kid improves dramatically, but still feels like a failure because someone else scored more points or an athlete breaks their own personal record.
00:09:28
Speaker
but they can't enjoy it because they didn't finish first. That mindset, as you said, Dustin, it's the thief of joy in sports. And honestly, it's, it steals motivation as well. So yeah what what would you say to athletes about, about walking that fine line of not becoming complacent, but also not becoming discouraged and celebrating progression in their life?
00:09:58
Speaker
I think the key to that is setting you know realistic, I mean, hard to reach, but realistic goals that you're honest with yourself about, but that are stretches, right? That do stretch it.
00:10:11
Speaker
Understanding before you get into it that this isn't going to be either easy or guaranteed, but every step I take closer to it, it's me against me. And every morning, that's the deal, right? it's We've talked about before the snooze button and how you know we call it the lose button, that it's a battle against you against you. Are you going to get out of bed and get to work or not? And if you beat you every day, if you get better than the the version of you that didn't want to work every day and you you stay after that, that's really the where the success should come from. Did i sharpen my tool set as sharp as possible? And if my tool set
00:10:49
Speaker
It doesn't have as many tools as somebody else does. Okay. But I sharpen mine and and eventually finding where your thing is. Everybody's got, that I think, their thing that they're, you know, Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of my favorite quotes. I've said it. It's been a ah year or so that since we, I last shared it on this podcast, but to everybody, I am the lesser in something. And to that, I learn of him.
00:11:13
Speaker
right? Everybody has something they do or know or understand better than than I do. And I'm the lesser in that than them. but i want But you want to learn from those people, but you don't judge what you know your your worth on being better than everybody at everything. what Find your thing, because you're gonna have everyone's going to have something that they're better at than somebody else. And then it's okay to be proud of that and excited to be good at that thing and and to be pushing yourself to be better at other things, but not comparing yourself
The Philosophy of Continuous Self-Improvement
00:11:40
Speaker
to anything other than your version of you yesterday. That's where you should compare yourself to.
00:11:45
Speaker
And if i didn't if I'm not a better person today than I was yesterday, well, then how come? Why am I stuck in you know in in just neutral here, not going anywhere?
00:11:56
Speaker
um Because the longer you stay in that position, you'll eventually start to go back, right? that You don't just magically get better. You actually will get worse. And and that's that way in every area of life, I think.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, and this leads into the Kobe Bryant quote that I just, okay, so a lot of us here in Utah will remember this game because it's his last ever game. He came back from an Achilles injury.
00:12:19
Speaker
Against Utah. Yep. And against Utah in l la and he dropped 60 in his last mba game. And by the way, Chad, if you watch that game, here's another kind of,
00:12:31
Speaker
that you might not even know, a little tidbit to that game. If you go back and look at images of Kobe's last game, you'll see that a lot of the images he's shooting over Gordon Hayward and on Gordon Hayward's wrist is an eyes up, do the work wristband. So we were somewhat and a part of that Kobe Bryant history making because one of our wristbands was getting torched by Kobe at that game. Yeah. What an honor. What an honor. Yeah, yeah right. um but But he was approached after the game and he said something in relation to this that we're talking about, seeking to be your best.
00:13:08
Speaker
He was asked, what do you want to be remembered for? And listen listen to his answer. I think this explains Kobe Bryant right here. I said a long time ago, now when I was 15 years old, I made a promise to myself and said, at the end of my career,
00:13:27
Speaker
I want people to think of me as a talented overachiever. that was blasker tally that I but that worked as if I had none. And if I could remember be remembered that way, that would be pretty good.
00:13:41
Speaker
Love it. What do you love about it? Yeah, I love it. that his the the The overachiever. he Kobe, and he's maybe just more vocal about or people are morec more vocal about it too, but he ah he seemed to me to never be yeah Talk about a guy who looked himself in the mirror and said,
00:14:03
Speaker
i I can be better than that version of me and tomorrow I'm going to be. And it, cause every story you read of him, if you watch documentaries, watch the documentary of the, the redeem team, the team that came back to win the gold after America had lost it. And what Kobe Bryant's present on that team meant his work ethic, the the guys talking about coming home from the club at four in the morning, getting on the elevator and Kobe was getting off of the elevator to go work out. They were just getting back.
00:14:31
Speaker
right And just the the shots after games that he'd missed. going he just His goal was, I am going to be overachieve what everybody, including maybe himself, and until he absolutely tapped out and said, this is all I got. And he was able to retire feeling that way. that he'd He'd done his very best. And that's what a satisfying feeling to be able to be done and say, I'm out of gas.
00:14:56
Speaker
like I burned every bit of it. And he was able to do that.
Valuing Effort Over Winning in Sports
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah. right I love what he said. Someone who had incredible gifts, but then overachieved. Like he's not, he's not pretending that he was some, someone without any gifts at all. Right.
00:15:12
Speaker
But I just, i love that idea. that he was relentless in becoming the best that Kobe Bryant could be. He wanted to be an overachiever, which I don't think that people would, unless he put those words to it, no one would ever look at Kobe Bryant and say, how would you describe Kobe Bryant? Oh, he's just an overachiever.
00:15:37
Speaker
But I do think that speaks to something that there are some in the league who probably played with Kobe that didn't achieve everything that they could have, if they would have been a talented overachiever, maybe they, we'd be talking about them. Like people talk about Kobe right now.
00:15:57
Speaker
Right. And so I just love it. I love this idea of being obsessed with being better yesterday than we were today.
00:16:09
Speaker
and I think if we concentrate on being the best, then we either become complacent or discouraged. And we've, we've taught about that you for a long time, Dustin, you know, you know that, but, um, but I just feel like there's a greater danger of comparison than ever, as you've already mentioned, and that athletes, it would be good for them to take a step back and,
00:16:35
Speaker
And to be like that Polish runner, even if you don't win, celebrate progression. And then if right now you are on the top of the heap, the top of the mountain, to be a Kobe Bryant type person who says, i want to overachieve compared to the talents and gifts that I've been given. And if you have an attitude, it doesn't matter whether you're the Polish runner or Kobe Bryant.
00:17:00
Speaker
you're going to you're going to become everything that you're supposed to become. And more importantly, i think it will fill playing sports with joy when you're concentrated more on progression then than outcomes or or where you fall in the ladders of success athletically.
00:17:20
Speaker
so And I think is as parents and coaches, so adults listening to this podcast, that we need to be obviously doing this in our own life is in in other areas, but also in the kids that we coach, um making sure that we're celebrating those small victories for them as well. And not just celebrating the winner loss, right? The, the, the, the score on the scoreboard at the end of it, that if, if that person we're coaching,
00:17:47
Speaker
went above and beyond their maybe abilities yesterday. They got better. They improved. They did something for a first time or they showed improvement in some area that we celebrate that and not just say it's win or lose. it And that's all that matters is, is that we win or did we lose the game? Because feeding those small successes,
00:18:05
Speaker
acknowledging and recognizing those small successes keeps people excited to come back and and do more and hopefully want to feel that more and more and therefore getting better and better. And when the focus is just on, well, did you win or did you lose?
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah, that can become deflating for somebody who feels like, look, I gave all I had. In fact, I played the very best I thought I was capable of and it still wasn't enough for you. You know, that can take a lot of the joy out of of the sport. Sure, you don't want to lose, but, you know, like you said, the focus on the progress, knowing that, hey, eventually I'm going to break through. And if a couple of my teammates can do it as well, and we can all break through at the right time, man, we might be really, really good. Yeah, we lost today and we're not happy about that, but we're getting better in these areas. We still need to get better in this area. But you know what?
00:18:49
Speaker
You wait, we're goingnna we're going to be there when playoffs get here next year or whatever. Like we're getting there and and having some patience and not just pulling the plug or getting angry and frustrated because it's not, and you're not going to have it every single time, right? You're going to have moments when you've put in all the work and you still don't go out and perform to your you know to your liking.
00:19:08
Speaker
But that's the grind and the good thing about sports is it teaches you to start over the next day. And every day is a new thing. game It's a new chance to become you better at something. you know we all have As adults, it's the same thing in the adult life.
00:19:22
Speaker
Yeah, i I totally agree. i just I love that quote. And i when I saw that video of that Polish runner, I just thought, how how cool is that if yeah we could be that way?
00:19:34
Speaker
but She was so happy, Chad. I don't know if you noticed this and people that aren't watching it, you know, you could look it up. It's it's a cool video. um but you know But first person she hugs is a photographer.
00:19:47
Speaker
don't know if you noticed that, but it she just wanted to hug somebody. She was so excited. She wanted to celebrate with somebody. And the person that was kneeling there had a shirt on that said, you know photo on the back.
00:19:58
Speaker
And she went over and gave that person a hug because I'm guessing that person's face saw the excitement in her eyes and probably felt some excitement for her because... the photographer realized, wow, she's done something. She's really excited. Probably thinking she was super excited because she won the the bronze medal. And maybe that was part of it. But to your point earlier, the main part was that she had conquered something she'd been trying so hard to do And she knew i gave, that was the very best I had. You know what? It was third. It's better than fourth. I get, it at least I get a medal, but that wasn't her real excitement. It was because she had set a goal with her coach and been working her tail off and no one knows how hard she'd been working, only her and her coach.
00:20:44
Speaker
And the fans didn't know that, but for her to reach that, And anybody that set out to do something really hard and then actually done it, whether you won or lost, you know you did it. Man, that that's a pretty satisfying feeling.
00:20:56
Speaker
And she got to do it in front of a lot of people, so good for And I bet as a coach, it applies to teams too, right? Have you ever stood in front of your team and been insanely proud of them? Oh, yeah. though they lost the game?
00:21:12
Speaker
Yeah, a lot, including my last... a state championship game that was a historic, um know a bunch of records were set in it, a historic game, depending on what side you were on, it was the greatest comeback or the greatest you know maybe choke job, but I happened to be on the the losing end of that, and but I couldn't be any more prouder of of of the boys. man Multiple times as a coach, I've had games where you know I've said, i I have nothing to say, but i can't I'm so lucky to coach you guys. I can't wait to get back at it Monday.
00:21:47
Speaker
We just got beat. you know and and That's the thing I used to always tell my players was, we're not promised a win, we're promised a chance to fight. and You at least get that. and You could go in the crowd and not even have the fight if you wanted to. You could, because it's hard and you might get banged up and you might be. But if you're that type of person that wants the challenge, you're promised the challenge.
00:22:11
Speaker
You're not promised this is going to end. It might end awful for you. It might end with you and heaped over on your knees in tears and just destroyed. um But at least you got a chance to fight. And the people who are fighters, that's in them.
00:22:27
Speaker
they are willing to get the bruised and the bloodied and the beat up a little bit just for the shot that maybe they might cut one of these days, you know, come out on top. And they just thrive off of that. And Kobe Bryant was one that, one another famous quote of his is he had no time for underachievers or for mediocrity, mediocre people. He just said, I couldn't be around you if you were like that. And, you know, and whether I win or lose, I want to be with people who fight. And I would tell the boys I coached,
00:22:56
Speaker
I only got mad one time at ah in a halftime that in the 70-something games I was a head coach, only one time at a halftime or after a game was I really upset. It was one halftime in particular. But other than that, I would simply say, you guys know if you left it all out there or not.
00:23:13
Speaker
I may think some of you did, but you in your heart know you didn't. But only you know. And that's the thing. We only know if we gave all we had. No one really knows. That goes back to what you said, Chad, about the...
00:23:26
Speaker
you know about comparing ourselves and things or being okay with people telling us that you're really good is I may come to you and Shad, you and I played college baseball together. I may come to you and say, Shad, that's the best I've ever seen you play after a game.
00:23:39
Speaker
And but you might, you like that. Like that sounds good to hear, but you in your head might say, you know what? Yes, but I could be better. I actually hit that ball.
00:23:51
Speaker
I could have hit that ball a little bit harder. i could have, I could have filtered that ball a little cleaner. If I'd have taken the right first step, I was a late getting there. Yes, I got the guy out, but the great ones say, thank you. I appreciate that. But they look back and say, you know what? I was 99% today, but I wasn't a hundred.
00:24:09
Speaker
I could have got that ball over a little faster. And so i'm going to go back and work on it. They don't become okay with just, the win or the somebody else's opinion of them, they have a an expectation of themselves.
00:24:23
Speaker
And until they maximize that, they're always hungry. Yeah, I love that thought. And to be passionate about growth. weve We've talked about this before that if you're chasing growth instead of accomplishments, you'll have more accomplishments.
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah. like Like, don't measure yourself by how many accomplishments you have. They're There are teams that, man, they get so much better and so good and they did so much good stuff.
00:24:55
Speaker
They accomplished so much relative to the talent that they had on that team. And if they measure themselves by growth from where they were in football, for example, in August versus, you know, the end of November, it's you can take a lot of satisfaction and growth from And it doesn't always have to be recognized by others, but you need to know it.
00:25:19
Speaker
And if you know you've grown, that's awesome. and And it's more joyful. I have one final thing, Shad. And we could actually, it's probably a topic for another podcast, but I'll just end on this.
00:25:32
Speaker
Being appreciated versus being recognized. We've talked about this before. i i listened to a whole TED Talk on this once and it was really cool. But that being appreciated is is greater than being recognized. And so when we recognize an athlete for their well-played game or for their victory,
00:25:52
Speaker
that's a That's a short-term recognition, a pin on your chest. Congratulations, you did it. Showing, telling them you appreciate the time and effort that they put into working so that they could have this moment and you appreciate how hard they played and, you know, the example that they set for others with their work ethic.
00:26:13
Speaker
And then, and that's why they're being recognized, but you show appreciation for them. Appreciation is more of a, who you are as a person where recognition is more of something you did. Right. So I think as coaches and parents, it would be wise on our end,
00:26:28
Speaker
to make sure that our the kids we coach or the kids you our own children we're raising know that we appreciate the effort they've put into it, whether they win or not, whether they won or not, whether they played great or not. We appreciate the effort they're putting into it. And then when they have successes, you know recognizing that they had success, but making sure that they know The reason they had that set that success was because of all of the work and and sacrifice they made. And we appreciate the fact that they made those sacrifices because we know that's going to carry with them after sports.
00:27:01
Speaker
And as a parent or as a coach, you growing and pushing yourself and trying to improve is what I appreciate. Not that you won the game because you could win or lose a game. One of those games I just told you about.
00:27:13
Speaker
You know, there's there's some very clear, and that you can do this in a lot of games, find a reason to say, well, we should have won, right? A ref made a call or a something. And all that matters is, did you lay it did you leave it all out there? And then sometimes you lose because, you you know, a call is goes another way or a fluky play or something. But did you try and you give all you had?
00:27:34
Speaker
And did you, not just at the game, but in your preparation for the game? Well, you might wear yourself out in the game, say, coach, I gave it all I had. But yes, but... The last you know six months, you didn't. So all you had wasn't enough today. The real satisfaction comes from all you had in preparation and then all you have in actual execution. And if those two match, the result is what it is. You can live with it. But if one of those two are off, you either didn't prepare hard enough or you didn't play hard enough at the moment.
00:28:03
Speaker
If one of those two are off, that's a hard thing to live with, I think, the rest of your life as a fighter. If you're an athlete or a fighter, that that'll eat you up. Yeah, that's really cool. In fact, it's almost like right now, as a matter of fact, there's young people all over. We're going into summer.
00:28:20
Speaker
They're filling their gas tank right now, right? How much gas they have to give. In large measure, right now, they're putting that gas in the tank. So there's two questions to feel really good about stuff. Did I fill myself with all the fuel that I had so I had a ton to give?
00:28:38
Speaker
And then did I give it all? And if you've done those two things, awesome. I've emptied the tank and I spent... months in preparation filling that tank. yeah and yeah yeah That's, that's a good feeling. It's a good way to, it's a good way to describe that to you. You, you're each responsible to fill your tank to its max capacity and everybody's got a different gallon level, right?
00:29:03
Speaker
And if you're a gallon, if you can, if you can hold 30 more gallons than somebody else, then your job, but you got to fill that. The guy that only has five gallons, not as good, right Maybe they're not as strong, not as fast, whatever. They just got to fill their five and they got to spend their five.
00:29:19
Speaker
But the better ones, the captains, you better athletes, you know you got you got to fill more and you got to burn more. And that's on you. That's an individual thing to say, dear look yourself in the mirror and say,
00:29:31
Speaker
I don't think I could have filled it anymore. I'm full. im I put it in. I'm good. and Now just go burn that sucker, right? Like let it loose and don't end with anything in the tank.
00:29:41
Speaker
um and That's how you become great. And then, you know, you hopefully became the best version of version of yourself. in the process and in the execution and in the learning to handle the result, winner win or lose. Those three areas will be what you take into the next area of your life, the real world, yeah and hopefully you know leads to successes or the ability to manage failures.
00:30:07
Speaker
Awesome. Great stuff. Thank you, Dustin. Thank you everyone for joining the Especially for Athletes podcast. Eyes up, do the work. Thank you for joining the Especially for Athletes podcast.
00:30:17
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.