Have you ever caught yourself wondering how successful you’ll be as an athlete?

Where you stare off in a daze, wondering what could or couldn’t be?

Well, I’ve got something for you to help with this…

A couple weeks ago I had an end of season session with an NBA player where he asked me how successful I thought he’d be in the upcoming season (what a question to ask 😂).

So I said to him, “Being completely honest? I think you’ll accomplish about 50% of your goals this upcoming season.”

The look in his eyes was that of shock and bewilderment, almost like he was expecting me to “yes man” him like most did on his personal team (if there’s one thing about me, it’s that I talk to you straight. Not because I’m trying to be rude, but because the only way to truly become successful is by facing the truth, and the truth about the truth is that it’ll first set you off, but then set you free).

With weakness in his voice, he said, “50%?? Why do you say that??”

My Reason for Telling this NBA Player He’d Only Be 50% Successful

I replied to him, “Here’s the truth: your current habits are the best predictor of how successful, or unsuccessful, you’ll be in the future.”

“These include both your physical habits, like showing up and working with purpose and intensity every day, and your mental habits, like how you think about yourself and your situation.”

“And to be completely honest, your current habits reflect someone who’d accomplish about 50% of his goals next season.”

“Your nutrition is only about 50% good, your sleep schedule is only about 50% on time, and your consistency in the work I need you to do is about 50%.”

“If I average all of this out, you can pretty well predict that you’ll get about 50% out of yourself on any given night, which means you’ll most likely only hit about 50% of your goals, if that.”

The look in his eyes once I broke this down changed almost immediately, and he goes, “So basically, if I change my consistency in these habits I should see more consistency in my results?”

As if a lightbulb turned on his mind, I said, “Yes.”

Almost immediately, this player started to drastically change the consistency behind his habits; he was more consistent with his nutrition, more consistent with his purpose and intensity in his work, and more consistent with his sleep.

After about a week, I asked him how it was going, and he said, “The first couple days were a challenge, just because I had to get rid of all my own excuses. But now, I’ve never felt better. And I’m starting to see immediate results in the gym.”

And to this day, he’s been consistent with this.

How To Make This Work For You

If you want to get the same benefits as our NBAer did, then follow these simple steps:

1. Start with a habit audit - ask yourself what your year long target is for the season, then grade your current habits out of 10. A 10 score means you’re extremely consistent, and a 0 means you’re not consistent at all. Do this for: the purpose you have in each training session, the intensity you have in each training session, how frequently you look to find the solution in each situation, how consistent you are with your nutrition, how consistent you are with your sleep and recovery, and how consistent you are with your mental preparation

2. Tally everything up and divide by the total score, then multiply by 100 - this will give you a percentage. For example, if you score a 4, 6, and 8 out of 10, then that would be 18/30 (30 is the total because 3 scores x 10 or the total of each). This gives me a score of 0.6, then if I multiply by 100, then I get 60. That’s the percentage of your consistency

3. Make commitments of what to change - once you get your total, commit to changing anything that you score below an 8 on. Truth be told, you rarely will get a 10/10 simply because we’re humans and we’re imperfect. If you’re hitting your daily habits 80% of the time though, you’ll be good. So, anything that you score below an 8/10 on, commit to changing this

4. Create a habit plan for your new habits - a habit plan is an activity, time, and location - kind of like a checklist for any habit. You want to create this so that you have something to follow. Think, your workouts in the gym work well because you follow a plan. Habits are the same. For example, I will workout (activity) every day at 9:00am (time) in the gym (location) from Monday-Friday

An Important Note on Season Timing

It’s important to note that some themes throughout the season your habits require you to be less strict.

For example, our NBA player that I shared with you took only 1.5 weeks off for summer this year; we got strict right away because that’s what he knew he had to do for his season.

However, there are some players that we have 2 weeks completely off with simply because they need the break to recover.

The key here is to listen to your mind and body, but more importantly to have a plan for this period as well, meaning: if you’re going to take 2 weeks away, then do it.

Don’t wing it - because usually winging it is the thing that sets you up for failure.

Be specific and be intentional, this will let you avoid burnout.

Stay Resilient

There it is - use habits as a predictor for your success!

Now, if you are struggling with your habits, don’t worry - we’ve got you.

Consider applying for our one on one Difference Maker program for athletes - we take on 2 athletes max per month so long as we can help them.

It’s a 12-week fully immersive program where we give you a resilience profile, a customized program, 3 x monthly one on one coaching sessions, your own Molliteum Coach, 16-hour per day access to your Molliteum Coach, the Molliteum Pocket Coach, AND a blueprint for your parents.

If this sounds like something you need, then click here.

Stay resilient,

Matt Caldaroni

Co-founder, Molliteum