What I'm reading - A great reminder from Peak Performance Sports about how to have effective practices: "Improve confidence with focused practice, not spending more time practicing." Practice is a great tool, but focused practice is more beneficial to your game. What I'm watching - The NFL and the American Cancer Society have teamed up to create the #CrucialCatch campaign this NFL season. The campaign is meant to help more people catch cancer early, promoting prevention and early detection of cancer. Wearing a shirt that read "I PLAY FOR GORDON DOWNING" at his presser last week, Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing reflected on why this campaign hits close to home for him: "Honoring my dad with this shirt is a way to explain to people that it's worth going to get that check up. And it's worth going to the doctor and it's worth letting someone know that you have a minor health issue that you just can't get over, because you never know what it might end up being. In my dad's case, as a lifelong smoker, he probably had a pretty decent idea of what it was [lung cancer]. Sometimes, people just don't want to look truth in the mirror. I want to honor him by saying that maybe there is someone else out there that can avoid the same fate he wound up with, simply by getting a check-up." What I'm learning - I'm learning that life is a series of tradeoffs, and greater results usually require greater tradeoffs. I need to stop asking myself "Do you want to excel at this?" and start asking myself, "What are you willing to give up in order to excel at this?" What I'm writing - Humans are obsessed with focusing so narrowly on the goal that we forget about the process it takes to get there. Why is that? Why do we forget about the steps along the way that lead to success? This is why your current trajectory matters more than your current results. | 
