MarioC_bcds

Formula 1 and NY Jets fan, Physics Fanatic, and a whole lot more. Remember: “Don’t Stop Believing”

[Steve Gelbs @SteveGelbs]

What. A. Game.

[Brian Costello @BrianCoz]

Even Jeopardy is taking its digs

[Dan Bartels @DanBartels2]

I’m most thankful for this Mets moment

[History Calendar @HistoryCalendar]

Jimmy Carter is now too old to play with Legos 🧱

[The 7 Line @The7Line]

What a freaking game

[Anthony Bonato @Anthony_Bonato]

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is gaining ground in key swing states as the Democratic National Convention begins tonight. So here is a thread of her as functions

y = -x

[Comité Olímpico Mexicano @COM_Mexico]

¡Entrega y pasión! 🇲🇽

Nuestros atletas mexicanos durante su recorrido por el Río Sena en la #CeremoniaDeApertura ¡Así comienza el sueño olímpico!

#TodosSomosOlímpicos

[University of Michigan @UMich]

Out of office: @EASportsCollege just dropped 🎮

#CFB25 x #GoBlue

[McDonald's @McDonalds]

can we get a grimace chant going @Mets

[Charlie DiSturco @charliedisturco]

We are going to tell our kids about how Grimace saved the Mets season.

5-0.

[MarioC_bcds @MarioC_bcds]

Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary

[Brian Costello @BrianCoz]

The dream of a Costello, Hughes, Cimini White House press corps is dead

[Zoo krueger @Zookrueger]

The 2009 #Jets were special 🥲

[Zach @JetsPrime]

Just had a 10+ hour delay at JFK.

Now I understand why it took so long. It’s a fuckin’ Jets plane😂😂😂

[Michael Fliegelman @MFliegelman]

Nothing in sports is worse than being a Jets/Mets fan. I don’t care who you root for or what you’ve been through. Nobody suffers more as part of their fandom than we do and it isn’t even close.

[NASA's Glenn Research Center @NASAglenn]

Congratulations @josh_dobbs1 on yesterday’s big win! Looks like you rock(et) on and off the field. We heard you’ve even got a new nickname, the "Passtronaut." If the suit fits, wear it.🚀

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

After his second year at Michigan, Tom Brady wanted to transfer.

He wasn't playing in games, and he was so low on the depth chart that he only got 2 reps in practice.

Brady met with his coach to express his frustration, “The other quarterbacks get all the reps.”

Coach replied,

“Brady, I want you to stop worrying about what all the other players on our team are doing. All you do is worry about what the starter is doing, what the second guy is doing, what everyone else is doing. You don't worry about what you're doing.”

Coach reminded him, “You came here to be the best. If you're going to be the best, you have to beat out the best.”

And then he recommended that Brady start meeting with Greg Harden, a sports psychologist who worked in Michigan's athletic department.

Brady went to Harden's office and whined, “I'm never going to get my chance. They're only giving me 2 reps.”

Harden simply replied, “Just go out there and focus on doing the best you can with those 2 reps. Make them as perfect as you possibly can.”

“So that's what I did,” Brady said. “They'd put me in for those 2 reps, man, I'd sprint out there like it was Super Bowl 39. 'Let's go boys! Here we go! What play we got?'”

“And I started to do really well with those 2 reps. Because I brought enthusiasm, I brought energy.”

Soon, it went from getting 2 reps to getting 4 reps. Then from 4 to 10, “and before you knew it,” Brady said, with this new mindset that Greg instilled in me—to focus on what you can control, to focus on what you're getting, not what anyone else is getting, to treat every rep like it's the Super Bowl—eventually, I became the starter.”

Takeaway 1:

Greg Harden telling Brady to just focus on being great during his 2 reps reminded me of a piece of advice from the entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

“People come to me all the time and tell me they're stuck,” Cuban explained. “They're stuck in a job they don't like. They're stuck working for a boss they don't like. They're stuck on a team they don't like.”

“I just tell them, 'Be great.'”

“The reality of life is that you can't just always quit your job. You can't just always go to your boss and say, 'Give me the promotion, or I'm out of here.'” You can't just always go to your coach and say, 'Give me more reps, or I'm transferring.'

“So when you're stuck, you've gotta find it within yourself to say, 'Ok, this is where I am. And if I'm going to be here, I'm going to be great.'

Because if you're great at your job, typically other people and companies find out, so it creates opportunities.”

Takeaway 2:

I've written before about “lead measures”—the actions and behaviors that predictably drive success.

The core characteristic of a lead measure, the authors of The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) write, is that “a lead measure is influenceable; it can be directly influenced by you.”

To achieve your goals, they recommend (echoing what the Michigan Coach told Brady), apply a disproportionate energy to the things that are in your control.

Starting at Michigan and for the rest of his career, that’s what Brady did, that’s what drove his success.

In his first media call after he was selected by the New England Patriots with the 199th pick in the 2000 draft, Brady was asked: “Are you aware that [along with starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe] there’s another quarterback here that they drafted last year?”

Brady said he was aware of that. “And I know he’s a heck of a player,” Brady said. “But I’ve always really concerned myself just with the things I can control. I don’t put a lot of thinking into the other guys because I know I’m not at my best when I’m not just thinking about playing as well as I possibly can.”

- - -

“I never once in my life ever said I wanted to be the best of all time. Ever. I wanted to be the best I could be, period. I learned that in college. It didn’t matter what the other guys were doing. It mattered what I was doing.” — Tom Brady

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Jake Asman @JakeAsman]

It still hurts so damn much 15 days later. Cruel. #Jets

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

Aaron Rodgers’ torn Achilles might be the most devastating injury to a team and fan base in NFL history. There never has been a player who received more off-season hype, who raised another team’s expectations more, who had his season end 4 plays in without ever completing a pass.