#75 - Endure When Others Quit (And 5 Books Every Tactical Athlete Should Read)

Most training programs are building only half the athlete. The physical half.

The reason most tactical athletes quit is because they are not building the mental half. 

In this episode: 5 techniques. 5 books. All field-tested. All applicable before your next hard event.

This one's for the tactical athletes who want to be ready before they need to be. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to the Everyday Responder podcast. And we have a fun one today. It's going to be a little bit different of a structure, I guess you could say. Um, but what we're gonna get after is how we can endure when average or when the others quit, right? So we're going to separate that elite mentality from the average, and we're gonna make that that uh that differentiation. Now, when it comes to the way that this is gonna be a little bit structured, what I'm gonna do is go over five different tips and then also provide a book recommendation for each tip on how you can directly improve that. Now, I will say right now, with uh reading especially, I think it's extremely important, but I think it's more important to actually apply what you are reading. So it's not about the uh volume game and just trying to get books done and reading a book a week or uh multiple, you know, X amount of books per year and different things like that. Um, what we want to do is actually learn and apply these things. So um a little pro tip here that that I use, and you don't have to do this, um, but something if if something's a real if if I have a really good book and really enjoyed it reading it, I'll also get the audiobook so I can kind of get it from two different angles and and figure out. Um, you know, I'll learn new things each listen or each read. So that's one thing. And I honestly will also reread a bunch of books. So I've reread a ton of these ones that I'm gonna give. Um, and it's it's been super helpful. So uh I would say at minimum um for these ones that I'm about to give you, uh, two times, two times through and some three or four times through. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but that is how you can hone in these lessons and actually make sure that you are applying what you're reading and you are not just you know reading to get numbers, because I think that's what it it turns into for a lot of people. Um, it's like, yeah, I'm gonna read four chapters a day instead of just reading for 10 minutes, and then we read that couple chapters for a couple days, and then we're like, all right, this sucks. I can't do it. This is too long, yada, yada, yada. So we're gonna get into some of the tactics. And first I wanted to kind of set the stage because um, you know, whenever there's that differentiation between elite and average, I think there's always that perception. Um, and it's often you'll be able to tell which side it's from, but there's that per se or the perceptions of like must be nice, uh, like that type of mentality, or um, this person was an overnight success, or they were born with those gifts and they they have certain traits that make them successful, and yada yada yada, all the all the BS there. So I definitely want to, you know, combat those things. And I'm trying to here give you the blueprint. So those things don't exist because number one, you're you're pretty much just hating on people just to hate on people. Um, if that is you. I hope it's not you if you're listening to this. Um, but uh another thing is like we don't see the work, and that's something that I storied the other day with uh with social media, especially. Like it's the majority of the time it's a highlight reel with the hard parts edited out, right? So we're not seeing the hard parts, we're not seeing the the early mornings, the late nights, the the hard work, the the needle to the grindstone, right? So um I want to kind of break that mentality and make sure that we're doing these things going forward. Now, with kind of forging that mindset going forward, uh, I want to be clear, and this is something that I genuinely enjoy with the uh the tactical athletes that I'm teaming up with now. It's you know, the idea of the training program is only half the athlete. And I would argue it might even be less, right? I think so much of us obsess about the X's nose, and it's like, should I do eight reps or 10 reps? Should I do this split or that split? Should I run for 30 minutes or 35 minutes, right? And and those things, they do have some weight, right? And the X's nose 100% matter, but that's only the the physical portion. So a lot of what we do is is working on the mental capacity and understanding that like words matter and the words that you use to describe certain things, and making sure that we are forging a resilient mental capacity that's coming up with the fit physical capacity. So they're they're inseparable, right? You can't have one without the other. And I think the majority of people think it's going to be, you know, a PDF program and then everything's gonna be fixed if you just execute. And it's like, yeah, yeah, maybe from a physical capacity, but we also need to build you up from a mental capacity for anything to work or for anything to be sustained, right? So that's where we're gonna break down a lot of these things. Um, so five different ways here, and we'll get right into it. And again, with the books, just a friendly reminder. If you these are phenomenal in my eyes, right? So they they're life-changing for me. Um, but again, you need to listen and actually apply them. So, tip number one is build self-efficacy through small commitments. So, this is the foundation. It's number one for a reason. And again, this is something that sounds very simple, but these are those small commitments that a lot of people just brush over, right? And and honestly, it's it's the uh it's your belief in your own ability to execute, right? If you say you are going to do something and then you don't do it or you don't have any momentum, that is absolutely going to shoot down your confidence. So people will ask, like, what is the best way to build confidence, or um, what is the best way to uh increase my presence as a leader or certain things like that? And I will tell you right now, it has everything to do with the little things that that you say you're going to execute on a on a day-to-day basis, right? Those things that seem, you know, uh minuscule or seem like they don't have an impact, 1000% compound over time. So those will either build you up or essentially destroy what you are trying to do. Right. I'm gonna give some examples here, but uh you will see these are not massive decisions, right? Like these are not uh massive decisions or even like on a on a lower level. They're not, it's not about you know split times or uh splits that you run or what conditioning modalities and should I do this or should I do that? They're even smaller than that, right? So we're talking about the ones that where you're gonna either keep your word to yourself or not. So this in my eyes is that competitive integrity aspect. So again, it's stuff that can't necessarily be, I mean, it can be tracked in like a non-negotiable um point of view, but it's only stuff that you will know and you will see. So, for example, if you have three sets of push-ups with one to two reps in reserve, like are you actually bringing it to one to two reps in reserve? Right? Are you actually um hitting 30 minutes instead of the 2950? Are you hitting snooze? You told yourself you were getting up at 5 a.m. Um, are you hitting snooze and getting up at 5 30? Right? These are all aspects. If uh, you know, if you said you were gonna read 10 minutes a day, are you actually doing that? Um 8,000 steps. Are you hitting that or are you stopping at 7800 and saying, ah, good enough, we're we're close enough, right? Because that mentality, it like again, in the in the grand scheme of things, like at the tactical level, those don't seem like a big deal, but that's what will compound over time. And it's whether you are you you let that atropy drift kick in and then kind of drift out of control, right? Once we drift out of control, we just kind of go numb to it, and that's when we get to that ugly realization of in the mirror, and it's like, damn, how the hell did I get here? Right. So we obviously want to avoid that. Now, when I say that, I also understand, know and understand that the biggest problem with tactical athletes is uh, and I'm putting myself in this camp, so I'm not pointing the finger here. Um, you know, we don't like easy or simple. So usually, and this this is like me uh way back in the day, a hundred percent. Um, usually we overcommit and just beat the beat the shit out of ourselves, right? It's like, okay, six days a week, seven days a week, I'm gonna do these 25 habits, I'm gonna read a book a week, those types of things. And then we overcommit and then we fall short, and then we we essentially are like, okay, well, I failed. Like I'm no good at that, or I suck at this, or uh maybe I'm not you know strong enough, maybe I'm not motivated enough, maybe I'm not disciplined enough, right? And then we just keep going through that cycle. Now, if we are continuously going through that cycle, imagine if you are in a moment or a barrier moment or something where you need to mentally endure. What do you think your internal dialogue is going to be when it gets tough? Right. It's probably not gonna be the best because you haven't committed and you haven't been giving uh or keeping your word with everything. Right. So the fix here, hey, let's start too easy and never stop, right? And then from there we can add add with compliance. So it's the same mentality that I take with the minimum effective dose of training. Like, hey, what's the least amount of the what's the least amount of work we can do to absolutely crush? And then from there we can start adding with with compliance. So I would ask you with non-negotiables or different standards or habits that you want to maintain, what can you crush consistently on your worst week? Right. Not after a Sunday, say on Sunday, you eat like a child, and now all of a sudden you're like, all right, Sunday night, you're gonna watch some videos, look at your saved Instagram post and be like, okay, this is what I am executing. Um, we are going all in. I'm gonna lock in for eight weeks and see kind of where I can take this thing. Then a couple weeks in, we're like, okay, this is is no no bueno. Like we gotta, we gotta start over, or we're injured, or something like that. So again, we're preparing for your absolute worst week and starting too easy, right? Um, it'd be like in the book that I'm gonna give you an example of it, he talks about like a penny compounding, like a penny doubling every single day. Now, in the beginning, it is it is brutal. It's like, damn, this is not paying off. This is not making a dent. I am not moving in the right direction. But if you look at somebody doing that over 365 or somebody training 365, like three to four days per week for 365, and then you have somebody who's up and down where they're like good for they're locked in for six days, six days a week for a couple of weeks, then we completely fall off the map, then we start back with three, and it's not if they feel like it's not enough for them. So then they go back, then they add four, and it's just a nightmare. We're all over the place with compliance, and we're not really getting anywhere, right? So, again, what I would say is hey, three non-negotiables, what can you crush every single day? Um, you know, regardless of what your schedule looks like, regardless of how fatigued you are, regardless of what you got going on, you got to get these done. Pick three and then just execute on a day-to-day, uh day-to-day basis, right? No excuses. And I promise you that will increase your confidence. Or if we we say you're gonna do them and you don't do it, it's just we're not we're not keeping our word and we're gonna kill the confidence. So, with all that said, the book that uh I'd kind of point you to here for this specific tip is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. So at least I recently listened to this. Um, I I honestly haven't read it yet, but I've listened to it um and I think it's a pretty solid read. And big takeaway from that, if you are interested in it, it talks through a bunch of you know, the the the power of small daily discipline, which will equal elite performance. But again, having that long-term plan or that long-term vision with what we are doing, right? So, again, initially it might not seem like a big deal, or it might not seem like the needle is moving in the first couple of weeks, and maybe even depending on how big the goal is, maybe even the first year. But again, that is how you actually have staying power with what you are doing on a day-to-day basis or where you want to go. So the book breaks it down pretty good where it talks about, you know, health, uh, nutrition, lifestyle, finances, all those different types of things. But it's a great, great kind of principle or philosophy to bring to everyday life, especially if you want to that uh that staying power with elite performance. So getting into tip number two. So segment big targets and shrink the moment. So this one is is kind of more so like how you actually execute, right? So, what I've always done and um what a lot of other tactical athletes have done in that uh, especially from the the research that I recently did. Um, by the way, that there's gonna be a lot of content um coming out about that. I think it's extremely important. And I've already talked about how most only worry about the physical capacity, we also want to develop the mental capacity with it. So kind of a little tangent there. But um essentially here, what we want to do is segment the the really big targets and shrink the task. So I just talked about that long-term planning and short-term execution, right? So that long-term planning is all about giving you direction, right? It's making sure that you are actually facing in the right way, depending on where you want to go, right? And now we can start reverse engineering that and short have short-term execution with small steps, with daily disciplines that we just talked about, right? And that could be from a training perspective, from a nutrition perspective, whatever that may be, overall performance perspective, right? But I where I see people go wrong is we fixate on the full distance or the end goal, and usually we burn ourselves out, right? Because nine times out of 10, we will start catastrophizing and be like, oh, uh, there's no way I can maintain this, or I don't know how I'm gonna last, you know, two weeks of this, or 180, 185, uh, you know, 185 pounds body weight is just so far away and the scale is not moving fast enough and and so on and so forth. But all those, all that kind of like thought process that I just gave you, they they just beat you down and it it becomes overwhelming, right? So, what I wanted to to give you is the uh my mind always with something like this goes to the uh the 50k example, right? Like I was absolutely in the hurt locker, uh Achilles was absolutely shot with say I think it was like 10 miles to go, but 10 miles became uh separate miles, became 800s, became 400s, became, hey, let's complete this hill, became hey, let's just keep forward momentum. Like I'm absolutely smoked, right? So instead of just looking at it as like, oh, 10 miles, or if you're running 45 minutes or 60 minutes, and it's like, oh, that's so far from here. Now all of a sudden we can break it down and chop it down into uh 30-minute increments to 15 to 10 to 5 to like I said, telephone pole to telephone pole, like whatever you need to do to make sure we're keeping that forward momentum. But throughout that entire process, you are stacking wins. And before you know it, it's just like holy crap, like I'm already, I'm already through it. Like I didn't realize that that we were rolling or we were going so fast or or whatever that may be. So another way to kind of take a different angle to to think about it is uh we're we're talking a lot about books here. Think of like a book, right? You look at the book and you flip to the table of contents, and then like I would say nobody really reads the book start to finish in one in one sitting. Usually it's it's broken up into uh, hey, let's figure out like let's read this chapter. How long until this chapter's over? Okay, let's stick with this chapter. Oh, we finished this chapter. Oh, we finished another one. Now we finish this section, right? Now we can go into the next session section. And it's the same thing with authors writing books, I would imagine, right? I can't say that for certain because I've never written a book, but it's the same kind of premise where it's like, okay, here's the bigger picture. Why, aka the title. Let's think about a table of contents. How can I organize this? Okay, maybe these can be broken up into sections and then so on and so forth. Let's start writing. Oh, there's a paragraph done that'll go here and and and just keep it rolling. But I think that's the that's the exact way we need to think about big tasks. So if it is a uh weight loss goal, it's like, okay, let's just make sure we we have forward momentum, or just focus on the inputs that we can actually control. So the outputs are, yeah, it can get ugly with the scale. Like the your weight's gonna fluctuate. Um, there's gonna be ups and downs depending on your sleep, your uh sodium intake, carb intake, um, stress management. There's a ton of different variables. But what you can control is your nutrition, your overall nutrition, stay sticking with your uh your overall caloric allotment, sticking with sleep, sticking with those things and controlling the inputs there. And then we try to let the outputs take care of themselves. So, big thing with this one, you need to figure out how to segment certain things and then just keep that forward momentum. The forward momentum doesn't care how small you perceive it is, if you are moving forward closer to your goal and you have that long-term vision, you're gonna be good to go, right? That is how you're gonna, that's how you're gonna essentially get through um different valleys and and see another peak if you just keep going and you don't stop, right? So um one the the book here that I love and I've talked about this book with a lot of different people is the gap in the gain. So I can't think of off the top of my head who that is by. I forget. Uh actually, I think it's Benjamin Hardy, might be off there, but the gap in the gain is phenomenal. And this is what I a lot of what I talk about with some of the philosophy um that I use with coaching. So this whole thing talks about, or my big takeaway from it, I should say, is we need to figure out how to measure backwards, right? And I think this is very important. So we measure against your starting point instead of always looking in the horizon line, like looking so far ahead at big goals. So that I think uh the there was an analogy used where it's like that would be like being in the desert trying to touch the horizon line, right? We set these unrealistic standards and we're like, okay, we're we're gonna just keep running and touch that horizon line. Like we're never gonna touch it. So what we need to do every once in a while is gather data. So we always talk about readiness evaluations and kind of figure out our actual starting point with strength, with lifestyle standards, with conditioning, with all these things. We're gonna identify our starting point. That is data. Again, I don't give a shit about what you used to be able to do or how far we need to go. It's like this is the starting point. Now, when we put in work, we keep showing up. Now we measure against that same starting point. So again, that is figuring out that is uh focusing on not only the gap, but focusing on the gain throughout the process. So every once in a while, it is okay to be like, all right, uh, I'm I'm kind of in the suck right now. I I feel like I'm I'm working really hard. Maybe, you know, we're we're uh a couple pounds short from the target or something like that. Instead of just being like, damn, I fell short. I'm still two pounds down or two pounds away or whatever that may be. We can start looking backwards and being like, holy shit, I I lost 15 pounds to get here, or I dropped, you know, three minutes on my three mile to get here. I'm I'm still not at the target, which we're gonna keep pressing. But at the end of the day, we can start looking backwards for the fuel to keep going. So um, again, just for that, I feel like all of us, you know, a lot of the times, and I'm guilty of this, we either fall short for unrealistic ex under unrealistic standards or expectations. And then instead of doing that, we a lot of the time just keep pushing forward. So what we need to do is start looking backwards to to kind of wrap that up there. Now, tip number three surround yourself with savages. Like this is the this is probably one of my favorite ones, and it's super important. Um, because I I truly believe that you know your environment is either training you or limiting you, right? There's no real neutral. And honestly, like this one is one of the biggest reasons why um my wife and I packed up everything and moved, uh, moved down south, right? I think it's very important to change the environment if you want to make a big change in your life. And now I'm not saying like you need to move, like, don't please don't take it as that. But sometimes we need to create a new environment and always surround ourselves with new people. So, what we want to do is find the people on the same mission, the ones who are not making excuses, the ones who are in the suck with you, who are in the ring, the ones who consistently show up, right? Those types of people that that are chasing something bigger than than just staying comfortable, right? Because if you're chasing big things, I will tell you right now from experience, from lived experience, uh, probably currently, is uh there's gonna be some lonely chapters, right? When you are grinding, when you are getting after it, there will be some times where there's lonely chapters. And as humans, we can't have that. So at the end of the day, you need to continuously surround yourself with people who are gonna elevate your standards and also you can help elevate theirs, right? So that that same kind of premise of like, yeah, you don't want to be the the smartest person in the room or something on that line, but um, you want to make sure that that you're not just like leeching off people too. So making sure that with that said, like when you when you do start elevating the the people around you, you are naturally gonna elevate or you're gonna get left behind. So I think that's very important to understand that yes, there's going to be sacrifices with big goals depending on your targets. Um and you might outgrow your your current environment and it's super uncomfortable. And sometimes it's not um it's not super fun in the moment. But if you have that long-term vision and you're why and it means enough to you, that will be the driving force, right? So uh again, I I want to reiterate there is that lonely chapter, and you may have to go through it. And Chris, uh Chris Williamson, um one of my favorite podcasters, has a uh phenomenal video going over that. Um, so if you're interested, I would definitely type that out uh or look that up. Just type in Chris Williamson, um, the lonely chapter or something like that. It should come up. But very, very powerful, uh powerful watch there. Um, and then like even, you know, uh even for me, you know, always having somebody in your corner and just figuring it out um with with somebody that holds a standard. So I've always had different coaches around me. I'm obviously a coach myself, but I still every coach needs a coach. I don't care how much you know at certain at some point, you definitely should experience a coach for sure. So even with that, like surrounding myself with with different people, I'm currently I've been in a a coaching mentorship for uh probably well over a year now. And we have uh multiple calls per week and we all like kind of brainstorm and we bounce ideas and and different things like that. And it's freaking phenomenal. And I know that there's some absolute savages in there that we bounce ideas off of and say like hey like this this is working really well for me or hey I tried this for a conditioning modality and and it worked really well. My clients are doing really well with this like what does everybody think on this or just kind of spitballing and throw uh throwing ideas off each other but also learning how to be a better coach. Again talked about the 50k I had a strength conditioning coach for that um kind of offboarded some of that thinking because I've never coached or I've never ran a 50K and I've never coached for a 50k so it's like okay why don't I gain wisdom and try to outsource some of this so I can actually learn um learn throughout the process. Another thing here even with the podcast like I've had so many super grateful for all the people that I've met on Instagram. I've had some really cool guests on the podcast and it's just networking with them. And it is not for me it's not just having them on the podcast and then being like all right see you later. Thanks um we yeah I try to maintain communication as much as possible. Everybody's busy but again like staying in people's corner bouncing ideas off each other. It's super super important. So the book here is Tribe by Sebastian Junger I think it is younger junger um but this is all about like I think this should be a mandatory read especially for for tactical athletes and even more um for for military especially it does a it does a great job talking a lot about um military and different trauma and how like the uh how you know tight knit groups have like that shared purpose and shared hardship um it makes them better for it and it's all about you know human belonging so really solid read um and uh I think it's I think it's great for for tactical athletes especially with that team mentality and it doesn't really matter necessarily if you're in law enforcement fire you know military everybody kind of speaks the same language so it's all about that team cohesion and super super important. I think it'll change the uh it'll change how you think about the the people around you for sure. So tip number four go find your quit and this was a I for I don't have who said this in the survey but um you know if for some reason or if if you're listening to this I appreciate uh whoever put that in there um but I I had a question in there uh uh on the survey about you know you have 60 minutes to teach someone to to endure or 60 seconds 60 seconds to teach someone how to endure a a barrier what do you tell them and I I I'm paraphrasing here they said more than this um but somebody said go find your quit and I was like wow like that's that's really good and I I really sat with it and thought about it and this is about finding it in your own terms and it's not saying like go do a uh crazy burner or just go absolutely smoke yourself what I'm interpreting interpreting this as is like hey this is on your terms and I would call this like uh strategic overwhelm right so we're going to strategically overwhelm ourselves a couple times per year maybe once a quarter whatever that whatever that kind of equals out to you to make sure we get you to your target um but bottom line like you should be doing shit regularly that that scares the shit out of you right that should be the goal and it's not about being reckless or you know uh just being kind of an idiot with it it's like hey how can we deliberately do this and sometimes it might mean taking a stepping stone approach where um if you want to run a marathon maybe it's like 5K 10k half and so on and so forth if you want to uh do you want to run a seminar you're not really good at public speaking it's something that you want to get into maybe it's like hey you know go to um toastmasters get on a podcast um run a free training and now all of a sudden we're taking a stepping stone approach and now you now you're you're running a seminar right um so I think it's all about you know uh the idea uh or understanding that chaos is on the calendar and we just don't have the date for it. So the more that we stress test in training or stress test our performance, the better that we're gonna be for it. So I would always say that like yeah you don't have the date but you can also create it right you can be active and this is about that the difference between people who are like and I know you've you've heard somebody say like oh yeah maybe one day I'll do that or maybe when the the schedule opens up a little bit and maybe you know once I uh you know get uh in a better position to do it and it's like okay well we know you're never gonna do it right but the idea here is like discipline with a deadline put something on the schedule reverse engineer it and and figure it out right and it just needs to be relatively hard but I think big picture here the more that you do those things the more that you repeatedly put some pressure on yourself and be strategic with it right you need to be in the right season for it but that is how you train yourself to actually respond when things get hard then you just repeat that process you refine you build in a muscle memory and you just keep going right you don't stop um because I think where where people go wrong is they think like they still got it where it's like uh oh you know I'll just be able to turn it on or I used to be able to do this back when I played you know college football or whatever I didn't play college football but I'm just saying like as an example I used to do this back in the day or I used to be able to get fired up like on demand and different things like that. That doesn't exist right we need to make sure that we are doing it and we are practicing it and we were refining our craft with whatever that may be. And then from there we can we can keep improving and refining that process. So again it's super important to stress test before it counts. Now this is probably my favorite book probably I I might say top three of all time is uh Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter. Um this is probably like I said top three I might even say you know number one I'd need to like actually think about it. But the whole premise here is you know modern life with what we have where you know overfed underchallenged all these different types of aspects and the and the like modern life kind of made us um pretty comfortable right you know AC, all these different aspects. But the the idea here is hey let's deliberately seek this comfort and that's one of the most important things that we can do for our performance and mental health right so always kind of getting out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself choosing something relatively hard and it's all individualized to the person that like there's no one size fits all. It could be you know I had a client go skydiving or you know if you are uncomfortable like sitting with yourself journal like there's a ton of different things um there's no really rules the only rule I would say is it it needs to be relatively hard. So tip number five here very very important and it is you can't outsource mental capacity. So kind of like wrapping all this and tying everything together here this is something like I said you can't outsource it where you can outsource a lot of different things whether it's like meal services um you know uh training there's there's so many things you can outsource but all the things that we've talked about you you can't outsource it right it needs to be you know trial and error and figuring out what works for you understanding your why those different visions um because that is what's going to be able to to make the ability to actually endure tough things right so again no program no course no coach right they can they can provide the left and right bounds and and and push you push you to to be like to hold your standards and do certain things but at the end of the day like you still need to execute right I I mean this is my opinion but a great coach is not going to like their job isn't to hold your hand and get you through everything right because at the end of the day if you are in the field or you are at school or you are at a selection or you are going through a life event that coach isn't going to be able to hold your hand and talk you through every single thing. So that that coach can give you a system and provide the framework say hey this is how we are going to endure this is the the path that we need to take and kind of empower you and give you that perspective but again the the idea here is to provide wisdom to people and make sure that they can actually endure right that is in my opinion setting people up for success instead of saying hey I'm going to micromanage the shit out of you do everything I say um and you will be good. It's like no that doesn't teach anything that doesn't provide any wisdom for when that moment does come. So that's just my opinion there but these things need to be done uh with trial trial and error uh trial and error experience and you actually getting in the ring. So uh again that is earned through reps failure showing back up and like my uh my other mentor always said courage comes before confidence right so it's about just doing hard things getting uncomfortable there. So the book recommendation here is Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield now this is uh probably again I would say top five maybe top three um this is tough but I would yeah definitely say top five um but short read it's you know you can do this you can honestly and I know I talked about numbers and different things like that but seriously you can read this in a weekend um I've done it and I am not a speed speed reader by any means um but you could do this and like I said in a weekend and this is a phenomenal book because it really draws the line between an amateur and a professional and then it teaches you how to do the latter right so it's like okay these are the the traits of an amateur these are the traits of the professional now it's up to you to execute which path you want to be on. So I think it's very impactful and again that's like I said top five for sure. So let's kind of uh let's bring it home here again this is the the way this is the path in my opinion um obviously there is some nuance here there's uh definitely more things that I could add on to this but I wanted to keep it to my top five and really kind of form that foundation again you know people always ask like the the specific tactics of what I should do for training nutrition um different things like that which again are extremely important but you could have the best X's and O's of programming and then if you don't have these in line yeah it might look you might look good on paper but when life punches you in the face or you get a curveball you might not be able to respond if you don't bring up your mental capacity and have it match your physical capacity. Remember these things are the these things are inseparable and I think a lot of people go wrong with only working on the physical capacity. So wrapping up you know one build self-efficacy through small commitments two segment big targets and shrink the moment three surround yourself with savages bottom line four go find your quit in training or in overall performance five you can't outsource mental capacity it's all about the pre-work beforehand so the the big finding that I would say after doing that research and figuring out things it wasn't like breaking news it wasn't insurmountable but it made me happy because it's very simple and it's understanding elite performance isn't a gift it's built and it's built well before the demand demands it right so that's something that that I really want uh want to resonate with you. Again if you like this episode or uh you found it helpful please don't hesitate to share and definitely leave a review if you could but I appreciate you and again there will be more coming out with a lot of the uh the finding that I did on my recent research but I appreciate you give those books a try and actually apply them um and let me know if they uh if they hit the mark I will say I have a really good really good shooting percentages with uh percentage with books that I recommend so um I don't think these will let you down but again uh let me know if you if you take that leap and you don't like it but uh I am uh I'm almost certain you will so again I appreciate you hopefully you are uh crushing it this week and uh until next time