“You know on the inside whether you're successful or not. And it's how you handle everything.

The only failure in life is not getting back up. When you get knocked down, it's staying down, right? Then you're a failure. But - You're never a failure if you get back up. You're back up and you're fighting again, right?

The only person that can make you quit is yourself. Now the world that we’re in, it’s competitive out there. Everybody's happy when there's one less person to compete against, you know? So the competitors want to see you stop. Get disappointed in yourself. Get discouraged.

Persistently. Relentlessly. Just keep fighting.”

--- John Harbaugh

After Duke's Final Four run, Coach K pulled JJ Redick aside and told him the truth that nobody else would.

"We didn't win a National Championship because you weren't worthy of being a champion."

JJ said it was the worst thing and the best thing anyone ever said to him. "That cut me deep. For the rest of my career, I can't let a coach ever tell me I'm not worthy."

Then assistant coach Chris Collins delivered the second gut punch: "You can keep doing what you're doing. You're gonna score 2,000 points at Duke. The sad thing is we'll never know how good you can be."

That summer, they put JJ on a schedule - to the hour, every day. He followed it. That summer transformed him from a pudgy All-American to back-to-back National Player of the Year.

JJ never won a National Championship. He never won an NBA Championship. But here's what he said about it:

"I didn't win a National Championship. I didn't win an NBA championship. But I know what I put into it. I was worthy. It just didn't happen for me."

The outcome didn't happen. The worthiness did.

That's the difference between results and standards. You can't always control results. But you can control whether you earned the right to expect them.

This week's questions: Are you worthy of the results you're chasing? Or are you just hoping they happen?

Source: JJ Redick’s Interview on The Knuckleheads Podcast

A 2025 study published in BMC Psychiatry found something that should concern every leader, coach, and high performer:

Repetitive negative thinking is directly associated with cognitive decline.

Researchers studied 424 adults and measured their levels of RNT - repetitive negative thinking. It's the persistent, looping thoughts of worry, rumination, and self-doubt that play on repeat in your head.

The finding: participants with the highest levels of repetitive negative thinking showed significantly lower cognitive performance - in memory, attention, and executive function - than those with minimal negative thought patterns. Even after controlling for age, education, and other factors.

Here's what makes this relevant for your team: RNT isn't just about feeling bad. It's literally making people worse at thinking, deciding, and performing.

The athlete who can't stop replaying the missed shot. The employee who dwells on last week's mistake. The leader who spirals into worst-case scenarios before every big decision. That mental loop isn't just uncomfortable - it's degrading their ability to perform.

The good news: the researchers noted that RNT is a "modifiable process." It can be trained. It can be interrupted.

As a coach or leader, you're not just building skills. You're shaping thought patterns. And the thought patterns you allow to persist in your culture will either sharpen your team's minds or dull them.

What repetitive negative thoughts are running unchecked in your environment?

You can read the full study here: https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-025-06815-2

Everyone thinks they're humble. Almost nobody is.

Jim Collins spent five years researching what separates good companies from great ones. The answer: "Level 5 Leadership" - humility combined with fierce resolve.

His distinction is simple. Level 4 leaders channel their ambition inward - what they get, how they look, and what they receive. Level 5 leaders channel that same ambition outward - into a cause, a team, something bigger than themselves.

We live in an era that rewards the opposite. Social media rewards self-promotion. The loudest voices get the headlines. And we're surrounded by people who confuse confidence with competence.

Real humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less. It's knowing what you don't know. It's staying curious instead of defensive.

Here's the thing about humility: it's not a box you check once. It comes and goes - just like a growth mindset. You can have it on Monday and lose it by Wednesday. The best leaders don't assume they're humble. They remind themselves to be. Daily.

This week's question: What would change if you led with a little more humility this week?

For coaches and leaders:

For athletes and performers:

All of these posts and more are in the Coaching Vault.

What I am reading and listening to:

📚 Book: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

🎥 Video: Full Court Press - Vanderbilt University Coach Mark Byington

🎧Podcast: Ep. 25 | Dan Hurley | It’s All About The Team

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