I read a lot of books. Throughout my journey, it has cursed me – I want to apply every learning practically. Over time, I’ve realized that not everything can or should be applied, but some key takeaways have truly resonated with me. To save you time, you might be interested in the biggest learning I’ve taken away from the hours I’ve put in. (I won’t cover everything – Only some key concepts that I related to)

 

Your chicken poop moment

You can’t make chicken salad with chicken poop. 

I’ve read too many self-improvement, self-help garbage. They all preach that you can’t out-do what you view or see yourself – no matter if you’re an individual player, a team, or a business. But, one piece of golden nugget always stood out to me.

As a former player and now coach of a championship team, this quote resonated with me the most. For you aspiring players out there, if you can’t see yourself on the mainstage, seeking gold, the chances are you won’t.

This mindset serves as almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. There’s science that backs this up, too.  It’s a mindset that I’ve had to adopt when entering the league.

From my mentor Matt Fish, “Write down the only opinions you care about and be relentless in chasing your goals”. Sure, you may never get everything you want or dream but, why let anything stop you before you even tried? I sure as hell won’t.

Core point: no matter what it is you’re doing, you need absolute, unwavering belief. “Nothing stops someone with the right mental attitude”.

This is easier said than done but, this book shows you your chicken poop moment.

Related to the CDL, I never really liked the whole Top 4 talk going into the past season (from competitors in the league – not the wider community FYI) and seeing some of their answers in interviews. Top 4 or not, I’m not labeling or self-limiting myself in that way and I’m certainly not actively putting myself on a tier below my competitors. Call it delusion, if you want. It’s uncomfortable but, a self-fulfilling prophecy to an extent.

 

Here’s McGregors chicken poop moment:

 

Desire is key

Desire is the feeling of needing something. Notice how I replaced the word “want” with “need”. It’s cliche but, powerful. When you lose desire, you lose your work ethic. When you lose your need for something, you don’t try as hard. It’s primal, coded in our biology. When we need to survive, we will do anything we can for it.

When you need a basic requirement, you will go above and beyond for this.

That desire is created through what you do every day.

Do you want to win? You need to create that desire. Through effort and daily training. Desire is what launches you to success. You can’t teach desire. You read 1000 sports science books and they tell you that consistency is a large part of winning championships.

Along with discipline, desire aids you to be consistent.

Here are some situations I’ve been in or have done: when you’re in challengers, and you don’t want to turn up to a scrim because you want to go out with your mates. When your teammate is drinking on the morning of a pool play qualifier. When you don’t want to give 110% when you don’t want to respect your teammates’ time. When you want to give up.

Your desire is there to prevent that (along with discipline).

If you want something more than you want to breathe, when you need something so badly, you will put everything else aside. Ego, pride, pettiness, arrogance.

Easier said than done, trust me.

 

Building Desire

Make beating the best your focus. Not records, not numbers, not pro points, not seeding. They all come as a consequence. As part of the process. It’s something that I’ve unfortunately learned after my playing career. Rather than shifting my focus to beat, learn, and compete with the best consistently.

I cared about trivial stuff like my seeding for easier matchups (needing pro points to attend an LCQ is different). I call that a defeatist mentality – Avoid it at all costs.

The book teaches you to be comfortable with winning. This, I never really learned until coaching. Being comfortable talking about winning, being the best, and how to win. Having that mindset that you deserve to win when you put in the work. Goes with the self-fulfilling prophecy.

When I reflect and take a step back, it’s remarkable to see how many people think they don’t deserve to win, that it’s reserved for everyone but themselves, and that it’s some unreachable dream. This also goes with feeling the achievement. Emotions are powerful. You don’t always have to be robotic. If you feel good in practice, you own it. When you allow your emotions into your logic, you create a powerful tool. This is how you can amplify, snowball, and transfer positives. Learning, retaining, applying. The positives stick in your mind more compared to the negatives. This is how you develop that feeling that you’ve won something before you’ve done it.

 

Ability determines your capability, motivation determines what you do, and attitude how well you do it.

It takes ALL personality types to make a team work.

This is a crucial topic that people don’t take into account with esports. Different talents have different personalities. Working with different personalities has different strategies.

Success and talent are NOT reserved for a particular personality – in the same field, or different ones. Someone more introverted than you, if understood right, could have a higher skill ceiling, and skill potential than you.

For clarity, I’m not talking about the baseline for mental skills training.

A personality of Kobe was different to a Jordan, who’s different to a Curry, who’s different to a Muhammad Ali, who’s different to Nadal, who’s different to Djokovic, who’s different to McGregor.

Each individual with talent needs it to be harnessed and expressed in different ways – to reach their talent ceiling. Like how learning techniques are different. Performative techniques are also different. (Challenger players try and understand your teammates on a basic level)

Sure, there are similar foundational traits with each one (the basis of sports science) but, everyone is different.

 

Work Ethic

This one was an obvious take away but, everyone talks about work ethic but, “no one wants to put in the goddamn work”

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”

Having a strong work ethic is usually associated with putting in that extra effort. That extra VOD. Them extra 8s. Obviously.

What was not so obvious was that it included how you treated and worked with others.

The humility you show. The honesty you show. If you’re not practicing all of the above, someone else will. And they will take your position.

With NYSL, one thing I’ll always pride myself on is my work ethic. Anyone can work hard. No matter your height, your weight. Your skin color. It’s an aspect you can control. Through preparation, whether that’s preparing for VOD, scrims, or events. Preparation through the action and repetitive learning. Does not matter how many times you do it, you do it until you do it with ease. Practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent.

I learned this firsthand from boxing and David Brailsford. We all have this expectation of doing something perfectly, 100/100 times. Immediately. If it’s not done immediately, then you re-invent the wheel or you become angry or frustrated.

Such is human biology. I give you 100 talking points in one hour, by tomorrow you will remember 9, and by next week, you will only remember 1. Which 1 you remember will be RNG.

It doesn’t matter how long it takes, for some talented players it will be immediately (HyDra), and for others after the 80th attempt. Without going into the science, repetition, and preparation is how we produce efficient learning. Sure, you can shout. Or rage. But that only prolongs the process. Teaching someone’s learning language is how you make it stick.

You also need a combination of discipline, dedication, and desire (the 3 D’s) to provide optimal work ethic. I think this is self-explanatory.

For me, I try and surround myself with positive, upbeat, optimistic people with the energy to work hard and create luck. I try and avoid those with a negative mindset to a minimal interaction.

Challenger players and esports stars, ask yourself why you are here? What are your goals? Create them, visualize them, and be relentless. Do this with other like-minded individuals. Champions are not born, they are made. Motivation is a daily decision. Start making every day count.

 

If you want to begin your journey, I’d recommend the book here.

 

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