The Secrets to Winning with Dr. Bhrett McCabe

Recently, ESPN and the SEC Network released a documentary titled Hold the Rope, telling the story of my legendary baseball coach at LSU, Skip Bertman, and his quest to turn the LSU baseball program into a perennial power. "Hold the Rope" was a phrase/motto that we and all LSU baseball teams used on a regular basis that encapsulated the trust and unity that Coach Bertman instilled in the teams he coached. In this episode, I want to take a deep dive into what it meant to "Hold the Rope" every day. We didn't always have the most talent, but what we did have was trust in our teammates, coaching staff, and the system, which was ultimately enough to win 5 national championships in the span of 10 years.

People that come to me aren't doing so because everything is awesome. The people I see are frustrated, and they feel like they are stuck in what I call "Suckville" - that dreaded space between our reality and our potential or where we "think" we should be. Suckville can be a tough place to get out of. You're constantly frustrated with your current reality vs. where you think you should be. You feel like you are taking way too long to reach your goals, and you want success RIGHT NOW. I want to help you get out!

This episode has a bit of a different twist to it, but it is one that means a lot to me because of the content matter. It is going to be difficult to talk about so if you are someone who has ever had thoughts of harming or hurting yourself or if you suffer from depression, I want you to know that viewer discretion is advised. Today's guest is Mark Hilinski. Mark is the father of former Washington State quarterback Tyler Hiliniski who tragically took his own life in 2018. Tyler did not show any signs of depression or anything that would lead you to believe he had thoughts of committing suicide. He seemed like he had everything going for him - star quarterback for a Power 5 school and team favorite. Then, one day, he didn't show up for an afternoon offseason training session. What ensued would lead Tyler's parents Mark and Kym to receive the worst phone call of their lives and one no parent should have to receive. In Tyler's honor, the Hilinski's created Hiliniski's Hope, which was founded in order to help colleges and universities across the country eliminate the stigma around mental health and develop full-scale mental wellness programs for student-athletes. Winning is not always about the stat line. Sometimes, winning is about going on a mission to change lives, and that is exactly what the Hiliniski's are doing.

Take stock of your life: Based on your last 30 days of work, would your company rehire you? Would your coach re-recruit you? Would your spouse remarry you? The easy answer is, "Absolutely!" But it's probably not the honest answer. Your life might read like a success story, and your family and friends might even think you have it all figured out, but you have a secret: You've stopped caring about much of anything. You feel out of place in your own life. You'd rather binge-watch Netflix than think about what's next. You're living on autopilot. You have two choices: Experience a slow self-destruction, or commit to a course correction. The good news is, it's never too late to find your drive again. I sat down with popular speaker and success coach Antonio Neves to talk about hard-won lessons and to remind you that you do have a say—that you can reboot your life and find fulfillment right where you are. You don't have to quit your job or move to Bali to follow your passion. You do, however, need to shift your perspective and commit to living courageously, replacing passivity with boldness. This conversation will guide you to confront hard truths about where you are and how you got there, inviting compassion, honesty, and accountability. There's no better time than now to reevaluate your life and lay a stronger foundation for your next 30 days. Step by step, you can become an active player in your own life and rediscover what makes you great.

Recently, several destructive tornadoes ripped through our city causing massive damage. Thankfully, my family and I are fine. However, some families experienced massive damage to their homes or lost them completely. In the aftermath of the storm, one thing stood out to me - the will of the human spirit. In our lives, there will always be tough circumstances & adversity that we face. However, you can endure them and find a way through them. I want to share some things you can do to tap into the will of your human spirit to help clear the debris from your path and create a path forward.

Are expectations good? Many times we hear competitors talk about saying that they expected to win or they expected to do well. Why should you expect to have a good outcome? Because you had a good week of practice, you have more talent than your opponent, or your desire to succeed is unmatched? If that is your thinking, then you are falling into a trap of expectations. When you expect to win or expect to play well, what you are really doing is taking evidence of the past and merging it with a hope for the future, creating a story in your mind that you simply cannot live up to. As a result of not living up to those expectations, you get frustrated earlier, become more judgmental, and lose your grit and resiliency.

People don't change their behavior because they want to. They change because they have to. For you to change the performance trajectory of your life, it requires you to do things differently. There is no greater way to start than changing how you think. In order to understand how you think and how it influences your outcome, you must make these four promises to yourself. These four promises will keep you going when things, inevitably, get hard.

There are so many things that occupy our minds on a regular basis. Some of it is positive, but a lot of it is negative and distracting or what I like to call clutter. When you are competing and focused on a goal, there is going to be clutter and distractions that bombard you on a regular basis. There are going to be things that compete for your attention and rob you of energy and potential for growth. In this podcast, I discuss three huge sources of mental clutter and what you can do to get rid of it and focus on the things that are going to lead to your success.

In my time as a psychologist and in my own personal journey, I've learned that moments of high achievement are often the earmarks by which we define our life. Oftentimes, we see the struggles, trials, and tribulations in our lives as problems that are difficult and frustrating. In reality, the hard is the normal. As a competitor who wants to take the next steps to be able to win, I want you to be prepared for the difficult, not the easy. The difficult is in front of you for a reason. It is to help you understand who you are and to understand the way you do things. When you can adapt and adjust to what you're going through - the difficult times - that's when the success that lies within you will be shown to the world.

In my time working with some of the highest achieving athletes and coaches in their sport, I've noticed that they share some similar characteristics. They aren't all exactly the same, but their process to achieve excellence is almost identical. See, the best of the best don't do anything magical, they just do what they do better than anyone else. They have an unrelenting attention to detail and an unwavering system or process to drive excellence. They get outside their comfort zones and break through any limiting barriers in their way.