You don’t need a perfect year. You don’t need massive change all at once. You need intentional days stacked on top of each other. So as this new year begins, don’t ask: “What do I want to achieve this year?” Ask: “Who do I need to be today?”

We say it all the time: Winning isn’t the goal. Becoming a winner is. Because winning without a system is luck. But when you train your mindset, your routines, your breath, your identity... you’re no longer hoping things go your way. You’re building the kind of person who creates success no matter the situation.

George Washington had a favorite saying: “Many mickles make a muckle.” It’s an old Scottish proverb that means small things add up to something great. A little bit each day compounds into something powerful over time.

Mastery is not about the perfect swing, flawless stat line, or ideal conditions. It is about the choice to control what you can control, especially when emotions try to take over. At MLM we call this the mental gym—training your inner game with the same discipline you bring to the weight room or to practice.

In Major League Mindset, we teach that bias is the enemy of growth. Especially when that bias comes from thinking you’ve arrived. You haven’t. And that’s good news, because it means there’s still room to evolve, still levels to hit, still greatness to claim.

I’m fired up to share this one with you. I just dropped a new MLM podcast episode with Grady Emerson — the projected #1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. What impresses me most about him isn’t his physical talent… it’s the work he put in during the 8-week MLM training program to develop his MINDSET.

There are stories that move us. And then there are stories that reshape us. Parker Byrd's story is the kind that grabs you by the heart and demands reflection. It reminds you that no matter how broken the body may be, the spirit can still run.

Be disciplined to be disciplined. Like and embrace the boring. The mundane. That’s not just a powerful quote from a young coach. It’s a call to arms for every athlete, coach, parent, executive, and leader who wants to play the long game.

With Game 3 of the 2025 World Series tonight, I wanted to share a story from my own World Series experience—and the mindset that made all the difference. On November 2, 2016, under the lights of Progressive Field, I stepped into one of the most pressure-filled moments in baseball history—Game 7 of the World Series. Bottom of the 8th. Two outs. One on. Down 6–3. Aroldis Chapman on the mound, throwing over 100 mph.

Sure, the home run is impressive — 100mph off the bat, 381 feet. But that’s not the moment that stood out to me. The moment that mattered was what happened after the strikeout the next day. No frustration. No downward spiral. No self-pity. He reset. He flushed it. He led. That’s not a fluke. That’s trained.

The other coach actually asked the umpire to check our pitcher’s hat. Said he thought the kid was hiding a foreign substance. I mean…A 10-year-old? With an illegal substance under his cap? Really? Turns out, our pitcher wasn’t hiding anything. He was tapping his reset button.

Confidence is rented. And rent is due in the unseen hours. Every extra rep, every intentional breath, every small step you take when no one is around… it all compounds.

Athletics—and life—aren't about being perfect. They're about bouncing back. They're about having a short memory for the bad and a long memory for the lessons.

Years ago I learned that before the Dalai Lama addresses thousands, he always imagines he is speaking to one person. When asked how he handles an arena full of people, he said that he speaks the same to one person or to thousands. I adopted that mindset long ago: when I travel to speak, I imagine there is at least one person in the room who needs to hear what I’m sharing. If I can help just one person, then the trip was a success.

Too often, athletes and people treat scars as signs of weakness. They believe mistakes disqualify them, or that struggles mean they are failing. At Major League Mindset, we teach the opposite. Scars are not shame. They are receipts. They prove you have been in the arena. They prove you did not back down. They prove you chose the fight over the excuse.

The truth is simple: everyone wants greatness until they see the invoice. The rent is discipline. The rent is growth. The rent is showing up, again and again, no matter what yesterday looked like.

Time management is super important, but I believe that time alone is not the real differentiator. Energy is. Because how you spend your energy is how you spend your day. And how you spend your days is how you spend your life. This is not just a truth for life—it is the same principle that drives performance in sports and business.

Real transformation happens in the quiet of your bedroom, when you write down a reflection no one else will read. It happens when you rehearse your breathing routine while teammates laugh or when you commit to visualization in a world that would rather scroll.

Every athlete trains their body. Fewer train their mind. Almost none train their inner voice. But it’s your inner voice that shows up when you fail. It’s the one that talks to you before the biggest at-bat of your life. It’s the one that whispers to you after a missed shot, a bad inning, or a game you’d rather forget.

Real talk. If you're crushing it right now—raking at the plate, getting recruited, putting up numbers—I'm fired up for you. But I need you to hear this: Winning isn’t the goal. Becoming a winner is.

Too many athletes think a good weekend or season means they’ve arrived. That they’ve got it figured out. But here’s the hard truth: If you don’t know how you won, you should be worried.