“Matt, I swear that I did everything right this week, but I’m still with the substitutes…”, said one of my athletes.

“Really? Walk me through it.” I said.

“Well, I trained hard and ate well…”, he said.

“Training hard and eating well tells me nothing. Were you focused on your strengths? Did you do your mental reps? Did you visualize those strengths? Tell me!” I was starting to get a bit heated…

“Well, no,” he said, “I’ve just been training hard.”

I said, “NAME (for the sake of not disclosing who this was 😂), general low quality decisions will always hold you back. So, here’s what we’re going to do - let’s get back to your 3 strengths, visualize them before your game, and when you warm up I want you working on them intently, okay?”

“Got it,” he said.

After the game I got this text: “Man, I did well today. Scored the game winner, played well with the starting 11, and took my opportunity”.

Immediate results by a professional soccer player I work with!

But why’d this happen?

On the surface it looks like he:

1. Got clear on his strengths

2. Visualized them

3. Practiced them

4. Focused on them

And, for the most part, he did do that.

But on a deeper level, there was one thing that really got this athlete to be better.

Do you know what it was?

Simple: he made higher quality decisions.

Let me explain.

Instead of just “working hard,” this athlete optimized for what brought him success.

Instead of just “practicing,” he mentally and physically practiced with intent.

Instead of just going to play, he focused with intent.

Quality decisions are what changed the performance of this athlete.

And the truth is that most athletes don’t make enough quality decisions on a daily basis.

“They let things slide,” and get “let things slide” results.

See, we have power to drastically change the results we get when we take the time to make high quality, conscious, decisions.

But that only happens if you take the time to ask yourself, “Will this decisions take me closer to the person that I want to be?”

See, at the end of the day the name of the game isn’t to “play better” - that’s simply a byproduct of the quality of your habits.

But those quality habits come from quality decisions.

And quality decisions are ones that reflect the person you want to be.

So get clear on who that is - the “what” comes as a byproduct.

So long as you focus on this, then the rest will take care of itself - promise.

Now, if you want to really put this into play, then apply to work with us in a one on one coaching program.

We’ll customize an approach that guarantees you results within your first session, or you don’t pay!

You can apply here: https://www.molliteum.com/stratsession.

Until next time - stay resilient!

Your friend,

Matt “Make Better Decisions” Caldaroni