One of my favorite and most gifted books is Mastery, by Robert Greene. I read this book during a pivotal time in my life when I was searching for a deeper meaning in what I was doing. I remember being engulfed in the book, never wanting to put it down, underlining and writing in the margins trying to retain as much of the information as possible. I think everyone interprets what they read or learn differently, which is why I don’t lend my books to anyone. I don’t want my notes and interpretation to change the perspective of whoever reads it. This is a general overview of how I see myself navigating my way down the path of mastery.

I believe that there are some basics that one needs to know about their craft in order to have a solid foundation. In doing so, you must be able to break things apart and put them back together to fully grasp what it is you are dealing with. Once you have the basics, you begin to learn by doing – discovering new applications, experimenting and failing with different ideas that are derived from those basic building blocks. By cycling through breaking things apart, putting them back together, and experimenting, you then are able to apply this new knowledge and gain a different perspective and insight. I think this is what Mastery is about. Discovering new ways to view the world and apply your knowledge in ways never thought of.

Learn the basics – understanding the fundamental building blocks. Learn by doing – experiment, fail, discover. Gain perspective – apply your knowledge in ways that have never been done before. Sometimes all you need is to see the world just a little bit differently, just by 2 degrees.

To quote Albert Szent-Gyorgi, “Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought.”

My birthday as arrived and with that comes more time for reflection and goal setting as I move forward into this next year/chapter in my life. I have come to realize that my life operates in cycles. I think of these cycles in terms of macro (10 years) and micro (2-3 years) cyclic events. As I look back on my life, every 10 years a major event happens that ends up having a profound change in my life followed by smaller changes every 2-3 years in between.

When I was 10, my family decided to pick up and move to another state which kicked off a chain reaction of moving every 2-3 years thereafter. When I was 20, I decided that I wasn’t happy with my life and made the decision to travel abroad to Thailand to train and compete in Muay Thai Kickboxing. While I was there, I rediscovered my passion for learning and physical and mental training which ultimately led me to return to the state and pursue a career in athletic performance. This new job had me picking up and moving every 2-3 years to climb the ranks in the coaching world. At 30, I was let go from my NFL coaching job and made the decision to invest in myself and become an entrepreneur.

With all the change that happens around us, I think it is important to take note of your own personal cycles and observe how those have shaped your life. I think it is also important to realize that there are “seasons” within each year. Jim Rohn talks about how there are 4 seasons to life and business. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Winter is a time for preparation. You can take stock, evaluate, increase your knowledge and prepare for the following seasons.

Spring is a time to create and take advantage of opportunities. Be creative and experiment, cultivate ideas and act on them in small cycles of experiments to see what works and what doesn’t.

Summer is a time to pay close attention to your projects you’ve been working and more importantly to those projects that show the most promise. Reinforce relationships and build value in what it is you want to accomplish by casting your vision and making it known.

Fall is a time to harvest or see the results from your time spent in Spring and Summer. You have experimented with different ideas and honed in on what will bring you the most return on your investment. You’ve taken some risks, but have learned a lot in the process. It’s a time to acknowledge your accomplishments and take note of what worked and what didn’t so that the next winter you can go back to the drawing board and continue to make improvements.

I encourage you to take some time to acknowledge your own cycles you experience in your life. Are there any patterns you see? Do you find that Jim Rohn’s explanation of seasons relates to you? The ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus noted that “the only constant is change.” At the end of the day, it’s about bringing more awareness to yourself and your life so you can fully take ownership of it.

I have made it back to the states and was greeted by friends and family… damn, sure feels good be home. I’ve been asked how the trip went, was it what I thought it would be, was it worthwhile, all the typical stuff people ask after a trip. My answers so far have been general in a sense because I haven’t had the time to really sit and debrief to really break down the good, the bad, and lessons learned. In thinking about this some more, I realize how important that process is to growth and success. I wonder about my own disconnect I have had between experiences and potential lessons I may have missed because I did not take the time to work through this process. I wanted to share the outline I’m using to help debrief projects I’ve been working on. A majority of the outline is from my Best Self Journal, which I do daily, but I have added a few twists.
What was the main goal/objective?

Was it accomplished?

-If Yes, could it have been done any better?
-If No, why is that?
-What were the smaller tasks/objectives that needed to happen to achieve those goals?

Were these accomplished?
-If Yes, could it have been done any better?
-If No, why is that?

What lessons were learned?

-Professional
-Personal
What were 1-2 things you feel good about or proud of?

Did this experience bring you closer to your overall goals (professional or personal)?

-If Yes, why?
-If No, could you take what you learned from this and pivot?

It is my last morning in Turkey and I’m debating what to write. Do I write about my experience, what I’ve learned, the pros and cons of this trip? Or do I choose another topic that has been on my mind? In thinking about this a little more, I don’t want to confine myself to any set schedule, topic, or theme and just let it happen. Again, I want to allow myself to have some creative freedom to explore more about writing and even more so about myself.

So with that, that leads me into this train of thought about reflection. Can you honestly say you have deeply reflected all aspects of your life? Have you taken the time to really sit down and contemplate where you’ve been, where you are now and the possibility of where you are going? I would guess that a majority of people have not, and wonder why that is? Have we gotten so busy that we have lost sight of who we really are as people? I can only speak for myself but, I have realized that I have a hard time acknowledging my accomplishments or rather acknowledging that I have had accomplishments. It wasn’t until last month when I decided to take a trip to be by myself out in the wilderness that I started to go through this process of reflection and self-observation. That process was profound in a sense of me slowly down enough to take a step back and say… “wow, you’ve actually done a lot in the past 10 years… and goddamn that time has gone by fast.” Even with that experience of being alone, secluded from everyone else I still don’t feel like I got to the core of who I am. I did, however, uncover some new life lessons and reinforce some old ones which I had more or less forgotten or pushed to the back of my mind.

I have been diving deeper into teachings of meditation, philosophy, and breathing techniques to help keep me centered and present, but I wonder how far that can take you if you aren’t able to acknowledge your past which ultimately has brought you to where you are now. I believe that knowing who we are, like really knowing who we are, by asking hard questions about our core values, beliefs, priorities is the only way to bring peace to the past and then allow us to be fully present. I could be searching for clarity, but then again, do we ever really find it? Maybe this is part of the “process” of self-discovery that takes us down the rabbit hole. Not sure, but definitely something to think about.

There’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately – communication as a whole but also language and social interactions. What fascinates me is how complex yet so simple communication is. You are conveying or altering thoughts, opinions, or information through verbal, nonverbal, and visual cues which are simple enough but really have complex layers that play out through our actions.

Paralanguage, the way something is said, rather than what is actually said can have a profound effect on how the conversation is played out. The voice quality, intonation, pitch, stress, emotion, tone, and style of speaking, communicates approval, interest or the lack of it. This along with body language can mean the difference of keeping an audience engage or putting them asleep. I remember being back in college and sitting through lectures that felt like absolute torture. Monotone, dry, and of course novels written within each slide. I can also remember those professors who commanded the room, their presence alone captivated the audience. Pacing back and forth, changing the tone of their voice to reflect important aspects of the lecture. Myself and others would be completely engaged.

I remember being a young coach observing one of my mentors giving a short “presentation” to incoming recruits. He had 1 slide which was actually a single sheet put up on an overhead projector. His presence alone would make you shut up and listen, but he was incredibly soft spoken under normal circumstances. But god damn, he could come to the room with his voice. Kids were hanging on each and every word, flashback to the Braveheart speech, I felt like I was ready to go into battle.

I think the point I’m trying to make is that I feel a majority of people have lost or haven’t developed all forms of communication. There’s a missing link somewhere with the development. Through observation of younger kids growing up in the world today with the rapid advancement of technology, social media platforms, texting, and whatever else that expedites normal processes essentially has people hiding behind screens and losing touch with actual in-person communication skills. People speak in abbreviations, even when they are in person and those who put on a certain bravado when communicating through the computer or phone literally shut down and cower when faced with an actually face to face conversation.

I’m just curious, what is the fate of our language and means of communication as we continue forward?

When I first decided I was going to write a blog, I intended to post something every day. As it turns out, that habit is a bit more difficult for me than I originally thought. I’ve been jumping around, feeling a bit anxious about writing and have to keep reminding myself that this is the reason I am doing this… to push myself out of my comfort zone to learn and grow. As a disclaimer, I know I am not a good writer but hope to work on that as I move forward.
I want to give some context as to why I am in Istanbul before I go any further. For the past 2 years, I was an assistant athletic performance coach in the NFL. With the end of a rough season, the coaching staff changed and most of the entire staff was let go when the new staff came in. Before that, I was an assistant in the collegiate setting for a number of years and had the privilege to work with some great programs in the SEC, Pac-12, and Mountain West. Throughout my journey in athletic performance, for whatever reason, I’ve always viewed the world through a different lens. I read and studied subjects outside of the traditional strength and conditioning realm and ventured into business, psychology, sociology, physics, neurobiology, architecture, history, philosophy, you name it. What’s funny to me is that I don’t feel that I have a very high aptitude for obtaining knowledge, yet my curiosity drove my passion. I didn’t realize how much this how profoundly shaped my view of the world until I listened to Michael Gervais’s podcast Finding Mastery where he interviewed Kriztina Holly, who was curator and host of the first ever TEDx and founder of two university innovation centers. She talks about how she believes to follow your curiosity, not your passions. Your passions will pigeonhole you into one specific area, whereas your curiosity opens you up to so many more opportunities and experiences in life. Instantly, this clicked for me.  Fortunately, for me what I’ve come to realize is that my passions revolve around knowledge and learning. What this has done is open me up to so many new opportunities to see the world and meet new people.

So, I am now in Istanbul consulting for an esports team (professional video gaming), helping them create a high-performance model with structure, systems, and scheduling for success. I have taken what I’ve learned and have repackaged it so it can be used in their specific context – absorb, modify, and apply. Am I passionate about esports? Honestly, no. But… I AM curious. And I know that by putting myself out there and learning about new fields will only help me in the long run. Opportunity is around every corner, you just have to be willing to remove your blinders and see what’s on the periphery or even see things from a different angle, and sometimes that’s just 2 degrees.