How to Manage Your Life
Life Management is Time Management.
If you’re having trouble with your life or you want even more out of your day, take a look at your schedule - IN DEPTH.
Take a look at what drives you - IN DEPTH.
Take a look at what you’re doing on a daily basis - IN DEPTH.
This article will help you become a better version of yourself and I can promise you this, these strategies will work, if you work them.
Let’s begin.
An Interview, Maybe THE Interview
Recently, I sat down with a head baseball coach. We broke down the mental game and some of the strategies that come along with it. His name is Andy Harris and he is the head baseball coach at Quincy High School out in Quincy, Washington. He came in and flipped the program around in just 2 years. He credits it mainly to his implementation of the mental game and having a system.
What is the “Mental Game”?
A lot of coaches, athletes, and workout enthusiasts talk about the mental game and mental toughness, but what is the mental game?
Andy put it like this, “The mental game is building in a process for our kids and really teaching them what a process looks like. We talk process over outcome, but then we ask, “Now what really is the process? What is that exactly?” We try to build in systems like the MVP process to teach them what a process really is or build out 168 plans that we teach our kids. So, for me, the mental game is the process over the outcome. You want results - you have to get results for sure - but I think one of the big things is building a process and the results will come.”
Andy dropped a few different strategies in his answer that he uses to help build a process, but that’s what he came back to over and over again, having a process that you can go back to.
One of those strategies he mentioned is having a 168.
What is a 168?
A 168 is a detailed schedule for the week. There are 168 hours in a week and knowing what you’re doing every hour of every day is essential to elite performance. The bigger your goals, the tighter your schedule has to be.
Andy uses a 168 with himself and his athletes. Each week, he has them fill it out, so they know exactly what they’re doing. “[The kids are] seeing that they can get more out of their day. Kids stress about homework, stress about tests, stress about life, but when they have a 168 plan, they know when things are going to get done and they know when things are due. One thing that I never did in high school was I never knew when stuff was due. One thing that I’ve seen - in positive results - is that kids are getting stuff done because they know when things are due and know when they have to get it done.”
Andy isn’t the only one that has his athletes do this. University of Maine Softball’s head coach, Mike Coutts, also has his athletes fill out their 168 on a weekly basis. Here’s a short video of one of the Maine Softball girls talking about why they use a 168.
Start Your Own 168
Click here to get a sample 168 and start taking your time management and organizational skills to the next level.
No Time? Then Use The Mental Minute
Andy also brought up the mental minute. The mental minute is one minute dedicated to the mental game every day before practice. For Andy, this means having one of his athletes read a page from the Daily Stoic or the Daily Dominator (both one-page-a-day reads). Then, they break down what they read at the beginning of practice. They also do some quick mental imagery and hop into practice.
No Time for the Mental Game?
Coaches’ number one complaint about the mental game is that they don’t have time. If you’re too busy to practice the mental game, then you’re too busy. One minute a day of teaching mindset and providing strategies to help cope with failure will lead to better behavior out of yourself and your athletes.
According to the Performance Pathway, a leadership model created by Tim and Brian Kight, better behavior leads to better results.
Do you have a losing record? Well then you have losing behavior.
Do you want better results? Take a step back and teach better behavior, not just skills, but mindset, time management, visualization, and a system for culture like the MVP Process.
MVP Process
The MVP process is the cornerstone of culture. When you have your culture written in the dirt, you can nurture it and grow it. When it’s up in the clouds, you are subject to change with the winds. Having your culture written down allows everyone to be on the same page and get better every day. The MVP process answers the question, “Who do we want to be?”
MVP stands for Mission, Vision, and Principles.
Your mission, or your team’s mission, is never ending. An example might be, “Creating athletes of character on and off the field.”
The vision is composed of more outcome goals that work together in a stepwise fashion. For instance:
National Champions (Top Step)
Conference Champions
Tournament Champions
Make The Tournament
Win 35+ Games
Dominate This Moment (Bottom Step)
Principles are what you’re going to use to get there. Weak minds live out of preference, champions live out of principle. Principles of a program might be Selfless, Energy, and Excellence (like at Texas Christian University Baseball) or they might be personal – Energy, Kompassion, and Grit (those are mine). These values are what you’re going to live by to achieve your goals and live your mission either personally or with the team you coach.
If you’re interested in changing your personal culture or team culture, give me a call. 847-922-1371
The Wrap-Up
These three strategies alone can help take your team (or you personally) to the next level.
They are time tested and proven methods that work to help you enhance the mental game. They helped Andy flip his career, team, and life around and they can help you as well. They only work if you work it though. So, get to work.
As always, feel free to reach out to me at Tyler@PazikPerformanceGroup.com or give me a call at 847-922-1371. I’d love to help take you from where you are to where you want to be.
As always, breathe and live present,
Tyler
