HOW I LEARNED ABOUT HABITS
Attending Denison was one of the best decisions of my life. I earned
a spot on the baseball team and, although I was at the bottom of the
roster as a freshman, I was thrilled. Despite the chaos of my high
school years, I had managed to become a college athlete.
I wasn’t going to be starting on the baseball team anytime soon,
so I focused on getting my life in order. While my peers stayed up
late and played video games, I built good sleep habits and went to
bed early each night. In the messy world of a college dorm, I made a
point to keep my room neat and tidy. These improvements were
minor, but they gave me a sense of control over my life. I started to
feel confident again. And this growing belief in myself rippled into
the classroom as I improved my study habits and managed to earn
straight A’s during my first year.
A habit is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and,
in many cases, automatically. As each semester passed, I
accumulated small but consistent habits that ultimately led to
results that were unimaginable to me when I started. For example,
for the first time in my life, I made it a habit to lift weights multiple
times per week, and in the years that followed, my six-foot-four-
inch frame bulked up from a featherweight 170 to a lean 200
pounds.
When my sophomore season arrived, I earned a starting role on
the pitching staff. By my junior year, I was voted team captain and
at the end of the season, I was selected for the all-conference team.
But it was not until my senior season that my sleep habits, study
habits, and strength-training habits really began to pay off.
Six years after I had been hit in the face with a baseball bat, flown
to the hospital, and placed into a coma, I was selected as the top
male athlete at Denison University and named to the ESPN
Academic All-America Team—an honor given to just thirty-three
players across the country. By the time I graduated, I was listed in
the school record books in eight different categories. That same
year, I was awarded the university’s highest academic honor, the
President’s Medal.
I hope you’ll forgive me if this sounds boastful. To be honest,
there was nothing legendary or historic about my athletic career. I
never ended up playing professionally. However, looking back on
those years, I believe I accomplished something just as rare: I
fulfilled my potential. And I believe the concepts in this book can
help you fulfill your potential as well.
We all face challenges in life. This injury was one of mine, and
the experience taught me a critical lesson: changes that seem small
and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if
you’re willing to stick with them for years. We all deal with setbacks
but in the long run, the quality of our lives often depends on the
quality of our habits. With the same habits, you’ll end up with the
same results. But with better habits, anything is possible.
Maybe there are people who can achieve incredible success
overnight. I don’t know any of them, and I’m certainly not one of
them. There wasn’t one defining moment on my journey from
medically induced coma to Academic All-American; there were
many. It was a gradual evolution, a long series of small wins and
tiny breakthroughs. The only way I made progress—the only choice
I had—was to start small. And I employed this same strategy a few
years later when I started my own business and began working on
this book.
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