Who knew a Netflix series about NFL quarterbacks could impart so much wisdom and clues to living a life of your wildest dreams? When my boyfriend suggested watching the series "Quarterback" on Netflix, admittedly, I was unenthusiastic. I didn't want to devote my precious hours to watching sports replays. But I gave in and agreed to watching just one episode. I was glued to the TV within minutes of starting the show. It wasn't just sports replays and workout regiments, it was three living examples of the level of commitment and intentionality it takes to be successful. I don't know about you, but when you get a glimpse into the daily life of someone living out their full potential, it feels like striking gold. So often we get the highlight reel of someone's life and are left to our own imagination as to how they're so successful. This allows us to make up stories in our minds that justify why we don't have the dream life we yearn for deep down. Stories that say "there must be something special about them", or "they're just naturally gifted". But in this documentary, you get the nitty gritty, day-to-day glimpse into these men's lives and you see that they're not so different than you and me. That might feel a little confrontational to the part of you who hasn't achieved your dream life yet, but if you can set your ego aside and accept it, you'll receive a gift. A little nugget of information that shows you, if they can do it, you can do it too. I'm going to share my major takeaways from this series and how I'm tangibly applying them to my life (and you can too) to embody the greatness and personal integrity of the world class quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota. Heads up, if you haven't watched the documentary there are some spoilers in here!
The first thing that struck me when watching the Netflix series Quarterback was that each of the men lead pretty normal lives, but they have an intentionality at which they design their lives that I haven't personally witnessed in anyone else. Sure, they fly on private jets to get to games, they speak at press conferences, and they have entire rooms in their homes devoted to their trophies, but if you can look past the glitz and glamor, you see that they are just navigating life and balancing work and play like we do. You see Patrick Mahomes at a pumpkin patch with his family, Kirk Cousins reading his son stories before bed, and Marcus Mariota building a crib with his wife in preparation for the birth of their daughter. In fact, they design their lives to be able to get the most time possible with the ones they love. You even see that during the football season, Cousins devotes every single Tuesday to his family and doesn't even visit the football stadium that day. As I reflected on this, I thought to myself: if professional athletes can find time to spend with their friends and family, there's no reason I can't too. In watching these men I can see that they have mastered the art of being present, working hard, and also playing hard. Every single thing they do is a conscious choice that makes up a part of their dream life. I, myself, have been guilty of neglecting relationships and friendships in pursuit of success, thinking "once I was successful then I would have the time". After watching this series, I see even more clearly that I had the equation backwards. Part of my definition of success and vision of a dream life is spending time with the ones I love, so it only makes sense to start fully embodying that as a part of my life this very moment while juggling the pursuit of my dreams. This is one of my actionable items, and I encourage you to think of your own. Achieving balance is going to take giving up some things. If you asked me to rank my loved ones, my dreams, and TV, I would quickly tell you the order but I can't confidently say my current allocation of time reflects that truth. This is the cold hard pain and power of being honest with yourself. You can't make changes until you're radically honest with yourself.
Here are some journal prompts to help you integrate this lesson:
What does success look like to you?
What does your dream life look like?
What does it feel like?
Where in your life are you already embodying your dream life?
Where in your life could you be embodying your dream life but you're telling yourself you can't until you achieve ______ goal?
The next thing that really struck me was the differences between each of the men and how they found success as a quarterback. With each of them playing the same position in the same league, I expected them to have pretty similar routines. To my surprise, there were many differences. You can see that Kirk Cousins has a very strong foundation of faith, he works with a psychologist to focus heavily on mindset, and he places a high importance on recovery. We did see an aspect of each of these in Mahomes' routines, but he seems to place much more emphasis on his mobility and training his body for as many possible scenarios as he can. He uses cutting edge equipment like the Proteus Motion to take his strength and mobility to the next level and it pays dividends when he is able to modify his game to accommodate a sprained ankle and win in several playoff games and lead his team to a Superbowl win. What was interesting to me at first is that they work in an industry that is highly competitive with someone always on the bench waiting to take their starting position, yet they still allowed their lives to be filmed so intimately. As I continued to watch the documentary, you can see they embody so much confidence and assuredness in themselves, that it doesn't matter if we knew every single detail about their training down to the number of calories they ate, no one could recreate their success the way they have because everything they do is unique to their own needs. They confidently approach life in alignment with themselves, and they know that there's no way that could be taken from them. From this lesson, I can see that while we can look to others for clues to what it means to embody success, it must always resonate with us first and foremost. I have had the most success and traction towards achieving my dream life when I stopped outsourcing my decision making to someone else and started trusting that only I knew what was best for me. The lesson here is to look to yourself for the answers. Instead of copying exactly what someone else is doing, recognize that you have your own unique needs and wants and desires. Whatever your heart is calling you to do, do it. Only you know deep down what is best for you, but the challenge most of us have is trusting that voice and blazing our own trail. The unknown is scary, sure, but I don't know about you - the thought of getting to the end of your life and not giving it all you had is even scarier.
Some journal prompts to help you integrate this lesson:
Where in your life are you arbitrarily doing what someone else is doing because you think it will give you the success they have?
Take a moment and run each one of those things through your own internal system to see if it resonates with you. A key thing to pay attention to when you're considering each thing is to notice how you feel about it. Does it make you stressed, anxious, create a tightness in your chest? Or does it make you feel light and energized and motivated? Our body holds so much wisdom if we slow down and listen.
Think of a time in your life when you tried to recreate success by exactly following someone else's way. How did it go?
Talk about a time when you went against the grain and you were successful and fulfilled because of it. Make a list of these examples when you're wanting to follow someone else's way and need to remember that the only "right way" is your way.
The final thing that struck me most about the men was how important their mindset was to their success. The level of mental toughness observed in these men was unparalleled. You see Patrick Mahomes tell himself for weeks that he isn't in pain despite having a sprained ankle, and what most would justify as reason to take a break from playing. His level of commitment to his dream paired with the power of his mindset allowed him to push past the pain, neglect any possible excuses he could have made, and show up when his team needed him the most. Kirk Cousins was able to bring his team back from a 0-33 half time score to win a game and pull off the biggest comeback in NFL history. It was his ability to take it one play at a time without getting discouraged at how much work was ahead of them to be able to win that allowed him to execute beautifully and lead his team to victory. In my opinion, this was the biggest defining factor in each of the men's success - the ability to keep going when the majority of people would have justifiably given up. The power of the mind is the most underrated power we have, and if you think about it, it's one of the only things that cannot be taken from us. Having a strong mindset to support your visions is crucial in achieving whatever you want in life. When we grow up, we acquire a set of beliefs and thoughts through our caretakers, the people around us, and our experiences. With time, if we're lucky enough, we recognize that although we've been programmed with certain thoughts, we have the power to recondition our minds and consciously choose new thoughts and beliefs that will support the life of our dreams.
Some journal prompts to help integrate this lesson:
What beliefs do you currently hold about success and your ability to be successful?
What beliefs do you currently hold about other people's success? Hopefully this blog has debunked some of your myths to help you to start rewriting your beliefs to know that whatever level of success you desire for yourself you can achieve.
Would these be your beliefs if you already achieved your dream life?
Are your current beliefs and thoughts mostly positive or mostly negative?
What beliefs need some modification?
How can you start to hold new beliefs that support your future vision?
If you don't know the answer to any of these questions, start to be the conscious observer of your thoughts. A great way to do this is in meditation or when mind chatter is at an all
time high right about the time when you're trying to fall asleep. Just be unattached and listen to the thoughts playing in your head. What are they saying? This is going on all day long and most of the time we don't even know it. Awareness is the first step in being able to rewrite your brain and cultivate a mindset of success. If you want to dive even deeper into this, I highly recommend reading the book, Untethered Soul by Michael Singer.
It's time to start calibrating to the greatness you witnessed in these men. Now that we see that there's nothing particularly special about them as humans other than the way they approach life, we can start to do the same. Many people say "knowledge is power", but I prefer Dale Carnegie's edited version: "Knowledge is not power until it's applied". I urge you to reflect on some of the questions I listed and give yourself action items to start integrating the lessons right away. My guess is if you've read this far, there's a feeling stirred up inside you that is telling you that you're capable of so much more if you will have the courage to take the first step, and the next one after that, and the next one after that. It's available to you, like it's available to me, like it's available to these world class quarterbacks. Live and breathe that truth and let it fuel you. Once you define your version of success, tune into yourself to figure out what you need to do to get there, and have an unwavering commitment to your dream life every single day. We only have this one beautiful life to live (that we know of) so make the most of it and live with no regrets. I promise, your future self will thank you!
Until next time loves!
-Mel
p/s: If you're in the market for a journal to work through these journal prompts and questions, check out "The Conscious Journal" created by yours truly. It's designed specifically to deepen your journaling practice and support your self discovery journey so you can bring that ultimate vision for your life to fruition!
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