You Decide

I just have one lesson I hope you’ll truly embrace because it can not only transform your business, but it will also change your life:

You Decide.

We each are granted a finite number of years to do with what we want, but all too often we let fear or a lack of confidence or even naysayers prevent us from pursuing what we want.

Well, I’m here to tell you that if you want something and you’re willing to do the things it takes to have it…in more cases than you can probably imagine, you’ll succeed.

Yes, if you’re 5’8” you’re probably not going to play in the NBA or if you’re reading this now and thinking ‘well I always wanted to be President’…the odds are not in your favor…but with so many things, your success simply boils down to you deciding to go get it.

It’s now been 20 years, but it’s as fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday.

The Head Baseball Coaching position came open at my alma mater, where I’d been an assistant coach the previous season.  It was a relatively new program that had only employed 2 previous coaches, and in spite of each having great resumes neither coach had ever enjoyed any success there…not a single winning season.

So when I wanted to apply for the job, few if any thought I had a chance to get it and the number of people who thought I’d succeed once I did get the job (I was the youngest college coach in the country for 2 years)…I could count them on 1 hand.

If those other guys…a former Major League All-Star and a Hall of Fame Coach couldn’t win, how could I?  I heard it from literally dozens, if not hundreds of people…people essentially looking me in the eye and saying ‘you’re going to fail’.

We had a winning record the first season and won every season thereafter…becoming a nationally successful program and even finishing 5th at the Worlds Series…the best finish from any team in our conference’s history.

Now were those people just being mean? Were they intentionally trying to undermine my confidence?

Nah. They had their own opinions, experiences and fears…and they were projecting them on to me.

But they each get to Decide what they want to do with their lives (or not do)…and so do we.

And their failures, fears or missed opportunities should never hold me or you back from what we want to achieve.

When I wanted to own my own business, I heard it all again…

You’re a coach.  You should be coaching baseball.  That’s what you were meant to do.

(Ironically, many of the people who were telling me I was going to suck as a baseball coach previously were actually saying this.)

But they’ve never owned or succeeded in business.  They saw their world from their view…not mine.

Then I heard it one more time when we decided to move away from an offline business as the core of what we did to an online one being the core business.

Most people didn’t understand it so they immediately tried to start shooting it down.

Again – not being mean or malicious…they were viewing things from their perspective.

But by that point I knew that I Decide.

I even saw it with the 13 year old baseball team I coach.

For  2 years I was an assistant coach for Tyler’s baseball team. This season our coaching staff decided that we would start another team to create opportunities for kids who wouldn’t have made that team.

I volunteered to take the ‘B’ team. So when tryouts happened, the ‘A’ team chose their roster (minus Tyler) and I took what was left over. Well, our ‘B’ team played the ‘A’ team twice.

We won both times.

Those kids decided that they were not going to let someone else tell them they weren’t as good as the other players.

Now I know…all of this sounds cliché.  It’s all stuff you’ve heard before.

But in the role I play with now thousands of fitness professionals, you wouldn’t believe the cool success stories I get to see.  They’re often really amazing.

And in so many of those cases, the person achieving such great things simply decided to go make their dreams or goals happen…in spite of long odds or naysayers or even personal fears.

They wanted to do something BIG.  Something significant. And they did.

Really, that’s one of those things that has driven me at times. Not wanting the ordinary.

I remember after leaving coaching I was offered a couple jobs in pharmaceutical sales. They each paid about twice what I’d been making as a coach.

But I asked myself this: When I retire, will I really be satisfied looking back and saying that’s what I did with my professional life?  Will I be proud?  Will I have something extraordinary to share with my grandkids? Or will I have just settled because that’s what 99% of society does?

I decided: No settling.  Ever.

Even though turning that baseball program around was a relatively small achievement in the scheme of things…it allowed me to know that if you’re willing to do what most won’t…you can accomplish a lot of things they – and maybe even you – don’t think are possible.

You just have to Decide.

So decide what you want and go get it.