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Quick Note: Kevin and I are speaking on Saturday at the ITA Coaches Convention in Dallas, TX. If you are a tennis coach who will be there or know a tennis coach at your school who will be there, we encourage all to come to say hello!

What’s in this newsletter?

• 😱 Fear vs. Purpose: Why these two forces are inseparable in performance

• 🎾 Lessons from Andre Agassi on finding purpose

• 💪 How purpose strengthens both and boosts performance

• ⏳ Why purpose-driven motivation lasts

• 🔑 The questions we ask athletes and coaches to help them find their purpose

The Idea: Finding Your Purpose

This is the fourth Newsletter in our series on Maximizing Performance. In it, we will walk you through our work with our athletes. If you’ve missed either of the first two, check them out.

1. Commitment vs Contentment: What Elite Performance Looks Like (Link)

2. The Framework for Evaluating Performance: How do I know how I’m doing? (Link)

3. Addressing Fear: admitting what is causing you to view performance wrongly. (Link)

This week, we take you through the second of our four-step process that we take coaches, athletes, and performers through establishing, maintaining, and maximizing a plan for:

1. Fear

2. Purpose

3. Tilt

4. Confidence

This week, it’s purpose. It is a significant topic that has resonated with coaches and athletes everywhere we’ve shared.

So, what is a purpose, and what questions do we need to ask ourselves to find ours?

Anecdote: “The Punisher”

We like to say that Fear and Purpose are two sides of the same coin. Fear motivates you to move away from certain things, but purpose is what you move towards.

If you pay close attention to the “GOATs,” coaches and athletes nearly all share a similar story. It’s the moment they get to the top and realize it’s not quite what they expected.

Here’s Andre Agassi talking about what that was like for him.

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This clip contains a lot of really great stuff for performers. But we want to highlight the following message.

You hear this sentiment all the time from coaches that win a championship — that reach the accomplishment they’ve built for years to accomplish. They walk away feeling emptier than they thought.

This is a lack of purpose.

Winning was the purpose. So, when you get there, you’ve accomplished it, it’s like, “What’s next?”

Here’s Agassi again later in that clip:

It’s easy to talk about purpose as if it only stops at fulfillment. Yes, it will give you a more fulfilling coaching, leadership, or playing experience. But, what Agassi is saying is that not only did it fulfill him when he found his purpose, it also unlocked a higher level of performance than he was previously capable.

It’s not just about what’s best for you. It’s also what allows you to be your best.

Committed and Content = 100X = Elite Performance.

Research: Understanding Motivation

Purpose and motivation are linked concepts. Although these words are often used interchangeably, we think the nuance between them is important.

Motivation drives us daily. It’s what pushes us to get out the door to go on a run when we don’t feel like it.

It’s what keeps us giving close to 100% effort at the end of a long season.

Purpose is why. It’s bigger than the day-to-day. It’s the fundamental reason you’ve chosen to go on this quest of building a program, becoming the best athlete you can be, or leading whatever you’re leading.

Your purpose should drive your motivation. But it’s not the same thing. And there are mountains and mountains of research on motivation. Here’s what we know:

• This study and this one and this one and this one (get the picture?) all detail how Intrinsic Motivation both enhances performance over the long term and the psychological health of athletes.

• Intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic when it comes to performance. In other words, if you have to rely on things outside of yourself to motivate you, that motivation will likely be temporary, coincidental, and can’t be something you count on. We want to foster intrinsic motivation, motivating ourselves from within.

We would argue it is impossible to build intrinsic motivation, the type that Agassi talks about in that video above, without ever defining your purpose, your “why”.

Putting it all together:

We haven’t said this yet, but here’s the crux of what purpose does for our performance.

Let’s return to our original idea and our picture of peak performance: Commitment vs Contentment.

What purpose does is that it enhances both. It is the key that unlocks our ability to zoom out and remember that this current round of golf, or this game, this recruit that’s on this visit won’t compromise what you’re building. It puts the smaller things in proper perspective and increases are contentment when the “smaller” things don’t go their way. With a clear purpose, we remain focused. It’s harder to get distracted by things that don’t really impact what you’re building.

But it also serves as our daily reminder of what this is all about. It pushes us towards excellence and allows us to make the daily commitment to be the very best we can be.

It gives us a reason to maximize our potential.

It grounds both our commitment and contentment.

So, this week, rather than our five takeaways, we wanted to show you the very questions we ask the PGA Tour Golfers, the All-Americans, the National Championship coaches, and the first-year head coaches to help them find their purpose and do what Agassi did for himself above.

Remember, we discuss all this through the lens of Establish, Maintain, and Maximize.

1. Establish:

This is for the coaches, athletes, administrators, and leaders who’ve never considered this. Maybe you’re new in your career. Or, your job has gone so fast that you haven’t gotten to pause to answer this. Or maybe you’ve thought about it, but never really put pen to paper to start discovering it.

Ask yourself some questions. Note: These are thought questions, not necessarily questions you must answer specifically. They’re designed to get you thinking and writing.

• What’s the good you want to see in the world? Something bigger than you, but you have a heart, passion, and skillset to move towards.

• What is your WHY? The thing that motivates you and gives you a sense of perspective and purpose?

• Another way we help folks think about this that’s a bit unconventional is with a thought exercise.

Close your eyes. Imagine yourself on stage in 10 years. You have been invited to speak at an event on a topic because you are the foremost expert in the world on that topic.

What are you speaking about?

2. Maintain:

To us, maintaining means connecting that purpose to how you operate.

If you have moved in the general direction of a purpose after Establish:

• How should others feel when they walk away from you?

• What are the standards you want to hold for yourself and your work?

• What do you want others to walk away knowing you are about?

3. Maximize

This one is simple. If the rest of this is clear, then you want to move to a 10-ish-word or less statement that is clear, captivating, and compelling.

Tell it to yourself every day. It doesn’t have to be precisely the same every day, but remind yourself of your why in some way each day.

Saying it out loud to yourself does powerful things to your mindset.

If helpful, we’ve included examples below from coaches, athletes, leaders, and companies of a “vision statement” - a message of their purpose.

“To see others have the comfort to be themselves and chase their passion.”

“To help others discover who they were made to be.”

“I exist to maximize potential and courageously lead others to full and meaningful lives.”

“I aim to display the work it takes to be excellent in a way that inspires others to be better.”

Conclusion:

Purpose isn’t just a guiding principle; it’s the engine that powers your commitment and keeps you grounded when challenges arise. As you reflect on your own 'why,' use it to align your daily actions with the impact you want to make. Commit to defining, maintaining, and maximizing your purpose—because when you do, you unlock a level of performance and fulfillment that goes beyond mere results.

Team Talks

One of the significant topics coaches ask us about is messaging.

Chances are, if we see a Head Coach’s name pop up on our phone, and they’re in-season, they want to share where their team is in their season and ask how to craft a message to maximize performance.

We know you’re tired of scrolling through YouTube, Instagram, and X (Twitter), looking for a motivational video that you hope and pray will resonate with your team.

We were asked so much that we created a more permanent solution.

And that’s Team Talks.

What are Team Talks?

Team Talks are short, 10-minute-or-less videos to use with your team, focused on mindset, leadership, and performance. They’re evidence-based ideas with stories to capture your team’s heart. Each video comes with an exercise to make the lesson stick. They are used by state, conference, and national champions. We have Team Talks on:

• Adversity

• Accountability

• Teamwork

• Discipline

• Mindset

• Elite Performance

There are currently 18 (the length of a typical season). We will build the library over the next few months to have thirty-six.

Team Talks set you up with the right message at the right time for your team.

And for a limited time, we’re offering them a 25% discount. Get Team Talks today.

The Culture Playbook + Cohorts

Coaches have access to a lot of coaching content. What they lack are systems.

The Culture Playbook is 10 leadership ideas with the exercises you need to install the ideas and culture into your program. It’s the exact system we use to help coaches build their programs around mindset, leadership, and performance. We’ve used it at schools like Oklahoma, Mississippi State, and Florida State.

Since the Culture Playbook was released almost a year ago, nearly 1,000 coaches have purchased and are using it for their programs.

You can get it for your program today.

Culture Playbook Cohorts

We are offering Culture Playbook Cohorts if you’re interested in exploring the Culture Playbook on a deeper level.

We’ve had a few dozen commitments over the last week and aren’t starting with very many cohorts, so reserve your spot today!

Monthly Calls + Powerful Content + Practical Application + Community = Accelerate Your Growth

If interested, simply DM Seth or Kevin on Twitter.