“We’re going to re-set your baseline today,” a SEAL tells a group of athletes as they embark on a grueling session to test and expand their limits.

Olympians and SEALS are just like the rest of us. They have limits to their ability to endure discomfort, pain and frustration. The difference comes in the way they handle those limits. Their life is a struggle to re-set boundaries.

That’s what brought them to SEALS training, with its freezing water, rolls in the dirt, and heavy loads to lift, as detailed in this article from USA Today.

“We push in our training,” says Zack Railey, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist in sailing, “but this was just a totally different type of physical and mental exhaustion.”

Olympic gold medalist Garrett Weber-Gale went through the training with Michael Phelps and other swimmers in 2009. “I guess what I took away from that was the human body can always achieve more than we believe,” she said. “And that’s controlled purely by our minds.”

You may never play in the Olympics, but you can compete against the most important foe of all — yourself. You can become a SEAL or an Olympian in the way you struggle with the things that are holding you back.

As peak performance expert Dave Cross has written, all the things you want lie outside your comfort zone.

“You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown,” said Denis Waitley.
Don’t wait for a Navy SEAL to re-set your limits. Start doing it yourself today!

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

Few things about Harrison’s life can rival the facts about his death. He served only 32 days, the shortest tenure of any president. He died of pneumonia after making a two-hour inaugural speech in cold and wet weather.

So essentially, a president died because he talked too much and didn’t know enough to come in out of the rain.

Sad to say, a lot of coaches are the same way, at least the part about talking too much. It’s not because they are bad people. In fact, it’s just the opposite. They are eager to share what they know with others. Trouble is, things work exactly the opposite way. The more you talk, the less people learn.

That’s not an opinion, it’s just science. The people at Gold Medal Squared, who present the best coaching clinics I have ever attended, have a catchword for it. The word is LAPI, which means “Limited Ability to Process Information.” That’s not an insult; it’s just the way we’re built.

A smart coach knows this, and instead of talking so much, will use images to make a point. Or they just edit their remarks.

In my work coaching coaches, I watch the athletes when the coach is speaking. Too often, their eyes will glaze over. It even happens in the NBA and in college basketball, where players in the huddle are not paying attention. You can hardly blame them, when the coach blabbers on and on.

By the way, you don’t have to be a coach to talk too much. It happens to lots of us.

“An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind,” said  English businessman and essayist Walter Bagehot.
“Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference,” goes a saying attributed to Mark Twain.
There’s a cure for talking too much. If you truly try to listen to others — not just wait for them to stop speaking so you can start — you will be developing a valuable skill. And cutting down on a weakness.

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TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836. To order a copy of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know,” click here.

Watt intercepted an Andy Dalton pass and returned it for a touchdown, leading the Houston Texans past the Cincinnati Bengals in the first game of the NFL playolffs.

Watt’s, play according to Houston defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, came from hours and hours of the right kind of practice.

“When you do it practice, you’ll do it in the games,” Phillips said, referring to Watt’s exceptional practice habits. “You’d be surprised how many times he’s done the exact same thing in practice. We were probably surprised he hadn’t done it (in a game) before.”

“He does it every day in practice.”

Not so long ago, Watt wasn’t working with the kind of focus that he’s shown recently. His early college career was spotty, and he found himself down in the dumps and delivering pizzas. At a certain point, he regained his motivation and realized he didn’t want to be a pizza guy for the rest of his life.

He won’t. He got his career back in order, was drafted in the first round by the Texans, and practiced with fanatical attention to batting down passes. All the practice added up.

Ed Smith, best-selling author and creator of the One Minute Motivator, says, “Your short-term actions multiplied by time equal your long-term accomplishments.”

That certainly is true in Watt’s case.

Last night we went to a Japanese restaurant, the kind where the chef puts on a show while cooking your dinner right in front of you.

His showmanship was one thing, but what really impressed me was the preparation. Great care had gone into cutting the vegetables and meats, and arranging them for efficiency.

Whenever the chef needed anything, it was right there. After two hours we left, impressed and full.

“There are no secrets to success,” said former Secretary of State Colin Powell. “It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.”

Your work as a leader is just like the chef’s. You set things up long before the event. You make sure that when you need something, it’s there.

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success,” said Alexander Graham Bell.

Justin Bieber’s performance of “Let It Be” in Times Square required hours and hours of practice.

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail,” said coaching legend John Wooden.

Ron Swoboda played for the New York Mets in 1969. He was a below-average outfielder but wanted to improve. Every day he asked a coach to hit him a certain kind of ball — a line drive that required a quick decision.

Sure enough, in Game 4 of the World Series, Brooks Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles hit exactly the kind of ball that Swoboda had been practicing. He judged it immediately, dove, and caught it to save the game!

“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity,” said Oprah Winfrey.

Prepare for your opportunity!

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TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836.

It all begins in the few precious hours before Dick Clark comes on TV and the ball comes down in Times Square. With one fun exercise you can create a year to remember.

Just use the Banquet Technique. It comes in three steps.

First, imagine that this time next year you are a guest at a banquet that celebrates your achievements. Imagine what you would like the speaker to say. Be as specific and vivid as possible. What did you accomplish? Who was with you? How did it feel? How did it look? Enjoy this exercise. Hear the speaker. See the look of admiration from others at the banquet. It’s like goal-setting, except that in your mind it has already happened. So visualize as richly and deeply as you can. There is no cost to dream. For instance, if you’re a college football player, picture yourself in the NFL. If you’re in the NFL, picture yourself headed to the Pro Bowl. If you’re an entertainer, imagine yourself performing with Katy Perry. If you’re an up-and-coming comic like my friend Logan Hobson, see yourself on Comedy Central. Seeing such a dazzling future will motivate you

Second, take stock of where you are right now. How far are you from where you want to be? As peak performance coach Dave Cross likes to say, “The road to improvement begins with an honest self-assessment.” New York Rangers Coach John Tortorella asks his players to assess themselves constantly. There’s no point in fooling yourself. This is a private exercise; there’s no one there to judge you.

Third, develop a strategy that will take you from where you are to where you want to be. Here’s a hint: Success is simple. (Not easy, simple.) Usually you can create a great future by identifying ONE thing that you must do every day, then making sure you DO it. If you want to call it a New Year’s Resolution, OK.

Chose the one thing that suits you. For me, that one thing is blogging. For others it may be diet, regular exercise, daily attendance at AA meetings. Give it some thought. Remember, champions identify what needs to be done and make sure it gets done.

To summarize, see the future you want. Assess where you are now. Develop a plan to get from where you are to where you want to be.

Happy New Year!

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’”

Those words resonate because a friend of mine is going through a hard time right now. Or, to be precise, one of my friends has confided in me about a difficult problem. Who knows what other people are going through?

Someone once said that if everyone else’s problems were up on a clothes line for everyone to see, you would gladly take your own.

So for all of us, at one time or another, it’s a great sign of courage — and an act of faith — to simply say, “I will try again tomorrow.”

“Classic French dish,” she said, “is code for lots and lots of butter.”

Wow! That really made me think. I’ve heard the phrase “classic French dish” many times, but I never attached the same meaning to it that the cook did.

It really made me think about coaching. Do your players know what you’re talking about? Do your words mean the same thing to them as they mean to you?

It reminds me of the Bill Cosby routine where God instructs Noah on building the ark. “Make it 50 cubits long, 10 cubits wide, and 15 cubits high.”

“Just one question,” Noah said. “What’s a cubit?”

There are at least two elements to the words you say. There is the meaning you intend, and the meaning that others receive. If you want to coach correctly, you better make sure those two meanings are as close together as possible.

If you want to improve at instruction, motivation, correction, inspiration, team-building and leading, make your language as precise as possible.

You don’t want to people to be saying, “I thought you meant …” You don’t want to be talking about cubits when others are hearing “classic French dish.”

She relayed one of the best quotes I’ve ever heard.

“If you’re going to build ships, don’t hand out wood and nails, or divide up tasks or give orders. Instead, instill a yearning for the vast and endless sea.”

Wow. In other words, before you do drills and create systems, make it a priority to fill your athletes with love for the task. Great advice for coaches, bosses and teachers.

Thank you, coach.

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Mike Tully speaks to sports, business and educational groups. He also works with coaches, athletes and teams to make their practice time more productive and efficient. He and Gary Pritchard are co-authors of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know.” You can follow Coach Tully on Twitter at coachtully@twitter.com

Just now on TV, hockey expert Stan Fischler did a piece on “Diamonds in the Rough,” a look at the top five players who reached the National Hockey League despite not being drafted.

Each player represents a story that is hard to believe. NHL teams are so hungry for talent, and scout the amateur leagues so thoroughly, you can barely comprehend how any decent player could escape their eye.

And yet it happens. And how do these players zoom past others who are perceived to have more ability?

Mike Schmidt, a Hall of Fame baseball player, once said, “The ability to put everything together is itself an ability.” In other words, some people are better than others at getting better. One thing to keep in mind. The ability to get better, like any ability, is not innate. You can improve your improvement skills.

A noted motivational psychologist, Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson, is author of “Success: How We Can Reach Our Goals.” She says that some people — no matter how smart they may be — are clueless on why they succeed or fail.

In an article titled “9 Things Successful People Do Differently,” Dr. Halvorson tries to take some of the mystery out of that question. My favorite of the nine is: Focus on getting better rather than being good.

This sounds very much like the advice of former LSU baseball coach Skip Bertman, who produced a video called “Winning the Big One.” Bertman says that winning the big one is the result of constant, daily improvement. If you find a way to improve every day, you will gain an edge on your competition.

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Mike Tully speaks to sports, business and educational groups. He also works with coaches, athletes and teams to make their practice time more productive and efficient. He and Gary Pritchard are co-authors of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know.” To see Coach Tully and Coach Pritchard discuss “Seven Ways to Prepare for Adversity,” go here.

Someone gave me that advice years ago, and it comes to mind as the season unfolds for New Jersey Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk.

A high-scoring winger acquired last year, Kovalchuk thrived when his team seemed to be out of contention. Then, with his help, the Devils did what seemed to be impossible — they played themselves back into the playoff picture. But now that things are close, Kovalchuk must prove that he can still score.

It’s not just Kovalchuk. There are a lot of athletes who do just fine when the outcome is clear. Those aren’t the athletes that you want on your team. You want the athletes who thrive when the score is close. The athletes who love to make a difference.

That’s why on big stages — like the NCAA tournament, the World Series, the Stanley Cup playoffs — it’s often the unlikely heroes who emerge. Those players are used to fighting for their lives every night. For them, the stakes are always high and the score is always close.

Ali Farokhmanesh led Northrn Iowa on an unlikely run in last year’s NCAA tournament by hitting shots in the last minute. David Eckstein, who began his college career without a scholarship, wound up being a member of two World Series champions. John Druce emerged from obscurity in 1990 to score 15 playoff goals and lead the Washington Capitals on a long run in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Those are the kind of players you want. They play in the moment because they don’t look ahead or behind. They can’t afford to. They’re too busy.

Kovalchuk has nine game-winning goals this season, an impressive total. But now that the stakes are high and the race is close, the Devils need him more than ever.

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Mike Tully speaks to sports, business and educational groups. He also works with coaches, athletes and teams to make their practice time more productive and efficient. He and Gary Pritchard are co-authors of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know.” To see Coach Tully and Coach Pritchard discuss “Seven Ways to Prepare for Adversity,” go here.