you can’t reach your goals without a plan. It’s important to understand what your tasks are and what needs to be done to execute them. As Herm Edwards, former NFL star, would say, “a goal without a plan is just a wish.” The plan is far more important than the goal.
If all you are concerned with is the endgame with no real process, then more often than not, you will fail. If you’re like the 99 percent of us who walk on the planet who can’t just show up and play, or have great skills without training as much, you must think about the process.
. . .
You already know which of the two lists above you naturally gravitated toward. And, granted, as a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old landing on a college campus for the first time (carrying the weight of an athletic scholarship and the pride of parents, guardians, or an entire “village”), the reason you were recruited as a student-athlete was because of your athletic skill. So, logically, it makes sense to “stick to what got you here.”
But here’s what makes that natural inclination to simplify tricky. Media coverage of student-athletes around you will reveal many starters or prized recruits who believe they will go pro in their sport. Since they believe they will go to the NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, LPGA, PGA, WTA, or the Olympics, their goals rarely go beyond numbers 1–3 in list 1. So their goal-setting is simple. Get noticed, get media coverage, get drafted/selected. And the faster the better.
But here’s the biggest secret of all that we’ll keep repeating in this book: 99 percent of all collegiate student-athletes will never play professionally or represent their country in the Olympic Games.1 Yes, some will . . . and there is nothing wrong with keeping that particular dream alive . . . but if 100 percent believe they will play professionally and 99 percent will fail at that ambition, then a key secret for the 99 percent is to hedge your bet (even just a little) so you have a safety net for the day your ACL tears or the coaching staff starts taking playing time away from you. If trends hold, on average you have a good sixty-ish years to live after you stop playing a high-performance sport.
The idea of a safety net for college athletes is a well-supported idea based on previous research in the area.2
Said another way, college (in general) covers four years. That’s approximately 1,400 days, between the first day and graduation, and 200 weeks. If you are an elite athlete, you may train, practice, or compete in your sport during each of those 45 months. But how much will you put into preparation for week 201? That’s the week after you graduate and realize you aren’t going back to College Station (Texas), Collegeville (Minnesota), or State College (Pennsylvania) that next August.
This is where planning comes in. The building of the safety net. It is the effort you put into everything other than your sport. Sure, there are a lot of hours that will disappear. If you average eight hours of sleep for 1,400 days, you will lose 467 days (almost 16 months) sleeping. That’s right . . . 33 percent of your college career will be spent sleeping. Eating won’t take up another year but it will take up entire days and months when all the hours are added up.
And how about your sport? If you average three hours a day (every day) in pursuit of your goal of more playing time, you will lose another 175 days. The bottom line? There is less time than you imagine available for establishing and actually accomplishing that “other” priority, professional career success.
So how do you create a plan that lets you master this initial secret?
The very first thing to do is to really understand your schedule. Many around you will assume you are not disciplined enough to set a schedule that fits your long-term goals . . . or even the goals of your head coach. That’s why forces beyond your control will set practice times, conditioning times, eating times (Training Table), class times, study times (mandatory Study Hall), injury rehabilitation times, and sometimes even bedtimes.
All of a sudden, one thing missing in your calendar is free time. This is a hard realization for many and it often comes as a surprise to learn that one day you wake up and realize there is no time to hear a guest speaker on campus or to join a campus organization featuring a topic or profession that interests you. The choice has been made for you. Classes, practice, eat, study, sleep. Repeat for seasons on end.
This is not to say that you won’t have any free time at all . . . but free time is often not “free” and it is sometimes the hardest time to spend wisely. So, a part of this first secret is learning how to schedule your free time to plan and accomplish the bigger-picture goals you want to achieve.
One trick is developing lists of things you want to do or see. Lists are also fun because you can throw them away as soon as you make them or you can carry them around for years. Lists can be created in spare time, boring time, while eating or, as some people do, as your day starts. They can be “Must Do” lists or “Dreaming to Do” notations. Here are a few to consider:
• Places I Would Like to Visit on Vacation
• Places Where I Would Like to Live
• Dream Jobs
• Books I Would Like to Read
• People I Would Like to Meet
• Potential Mentors I Should Connect With
• Musical Acts I Want to See before I Am 30
• 10 Celebrities I Would Invite to Dinner
• Cars I Would Like to Fix Up and Own
• Hobbies I Would Like to Have
• Grad Schools I Would Consider Attending
• Meals I Would Eat if the Zombie Apocalypse Was Starting in One Week
• Locations Where I Could Outlast the Walking Dead Zombies
Your “Dream Jobs” consideration may be the last thing most readers would construct, but in reality, should probably be among the first. Instead, responses such as the ones below are something you may catch yourself saying . . .
• I don’t have a dream job. I’ve never thought about that.
• I want to own the Dallas Cowboys or get hired as the general manager of the New York Rangers.
• My dream job is to work for _____ but I know I could never get them to hire me.
• None of my dream job companies recruit at my university.
• What do you mean by dream job? Do you mean like working for someone cool or just doing a task that’s easy?
• What’s the difference between a dream job and a dream company?
• Dream jobs don’t exist. That’s fantasy for people who believe that stuff that if you follow your dreams, you can be happy. Where I come from, there are no dream jobs. Just stupid jobs.
For some, the “Dream Jobs” list would include the following companies:
• Apple or Samsung
• Google or Mozilla Firefox
• Facebook or Twitter
• EA Sports or Activision
• The NFL, WNBA, MMA, WTA, NASCAR, or USOC
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