This past week in one of my coaching sessions I had a game changing session with one of our athletes that I had to share.

This one mindset completely shifted my own paradigm even, where I’m now looking at situations differently (the athlete coaching the coach…? 🤔)!!

I was coaching an athlete through his offseason - he’s a professional hockey player who just started his offseason - we started getting our sights set on next season and what he had to do now in order to get ahead.

We started by talking about his overall vision for next season - getting clear on what he wanted to accomplish by the end of the year and who he wanted to be.

We got clear on why he wanted this and what his current standards were like.

And this was when - he dropped a game changer on me; we went though another exercise to get clear on what it would take to accomplish this all in the upcoming season (what we call raising your standards so you can commit to the reality of your process).

He answered the typical way most athletes do at the start, “I need to build this skill and that skill, and change this belief and that belief, and start this behaviour and that behaviour.”

But then, he did it.

He goes, “Matt, if I’m going to accomplish all of this, then I must be willing to get unreasonable at times this offseason.”

This perked my ears up - “Tell me more…” I said.

He goes, “Well - here’s the truth - if I’m going to take a big step this offseason and make the NHL team out of camp, which I can, then I must be willing to do things differently than I have before.”

“I have to be willing to let some people say that I’m pushing too hard. I have to be willing to say “no” to eating that pizza on a Friday night simply because I said I would. I have to be willing to be unreasonable at times this offseason. Otherwise, nothing will change.”

“It’s for the simple fact that I want to feel like I did absolutely everything in my power to give myself the best chance to win.”

And that’s when it hit me - being unreasonable at times.

So I asked him, “And what do you mean by ‘at times’?”

He goes, “Oh, I mean that I can’t be so strict that I start to burn out, but I need to be locked in 90% of the time. That means some Friday night’s I’ll have to say no to the boys. But others I can say yes.”

“I’m just so serious about making it this year that I don’t want anything to stop me.”

So I walked away from that session learning something myself, and figured I’d apply it to my life and see the changes.

And let me tell you - it’s bee insane!!

Not only do I feel more on top of my stuff, but I feel unstoppable!

And it’s not because I’m doing anything drastically different, other than knowing I’m doing everything in my power to be my best - and that is where the power of this lies.

See, it’s funny - often times we get caught in the weeds of trying to game results.

Meaning: you focus too much on the results and not enough on the process (which really is the only way to try and influence the results).

But when you follow this principle of being willing to be unreasonable, you actually put your focus fully on the process.

It actually starts to get addicting to see where and how you can continue to innovate on a daily basis.

And when you start to do this, funny enough, the results actually start to take care of themselves.

And it wasn’t just happening to me either - it’s been happening to multiple different athletes that me and my coaches work with!

We had an NFL player this past week apply the SAME principle and get moved up to running with the 1’s (first string) in practice!

A youth athlete was able to make his AAA hockey team that he wanted to.

My point is that when you decide to become unreasonable with some things, you stick to what you said you were going to do.

And THAT is how you get results.

If you want to really put this into play, then apply to work with us in a one on one coaching program.

We’ll customize an approach that guarantees you results within your first session, or you don’t pay!

You can apply here: https://www.molliteum.com/stratsession

Until next time - stay resilient!

Your friend,

Matt “I wish I had known this sooner” Caldaroni