Chasing Excellence: A Story About Building the World’s Fittest Athletes

by Ben Bergeron

The only thing that works is pounding on your craft, day in and day out, doing the right things over and over and over again.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. —Thomas Edison

training, nutrition, sleep, recovery, and mindset.

Am I committing everything I have to make myself the tiniest percentage better than I am right now, no matter how hard I have to work, no matter what I have to give up, no matter how long it takes?

What is grit, really? It’s a word that’s been used to describe everything under the sun, but it means something specific: when things get hard, you push harder; when you fail, you get back up stronger; when you don’t see results, you don’t get discouraged, but you just continue to pound away day, after day, after day, with relentlessness, consistency, heart, and passion—that’s grit.

It’s about committing to the grind every day.

There’s nothing fun about waking up and doing things you’re bad at, over and over again. It takes an extraordinary amount of grit to commit yourself to that brand of torture.

If you talk about (or worse, complain about) things that are outside of your control, things that could diminish performance, you will see and experience more of those things.

Your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, and your actions dictate your destiny.

But in doing this, you’re going to experience adversity; you’re going to have days that are incredibly challenging, even scary. There are going to be days that cause you to question your motives and ability. It’s important to realize that the toughest days are your best days, because they have the potential to force the most adaptation—mentally, as well as physically.

Confidence doesn’t come from knowing that you control the outcome of a given event or moment. It comes from knowing that you control your response to a given event. Confidence is about your competitive drive, your focus, positivity, perseverance, and grit, and whether you can maintain those characteristics when it matters most. Can you maintain the characteristics of a champion, regardless of what life throws at you? If you can—that’s confidence.

E + R = O Event + Response = Outcome

Successful people focus on the R part of the equation, while unsuccessful people tend to focus too much on the E part.

We are the sum of what we repeatedly do; we’re totally composed of the smallest details in our day.

Every day, week in and week out, these are the things we focus on. Identifying the controllables and owning them in this way takes the mystery out of success. Achievement becomes the result of how committed you are to following the process.

Single-loop learners look to their spouses, partners, bosses, or subordinates for reasons why things aren’t going well; they blame everything on other people. There’s always a reason why problems can be traced back to the other person in the relationship. Double-loop learners, however, take ownership of problems; they think: There must be something I’m doing that’s making my spouse/partner/coworker react this way. They take complete ownership of their situations. They dig deep to figure out where the disconnect is and where they can improve. They shoulder blame and find solutions.

Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

—Japanese Proverb

The only way the process works is through action.

It’s about doing your best at whatever you do, whether it’s studying for a test, working out at CrossFit, loading the dishwasher, or listening to a friend in need. It’s the manner in which you try to achieve your potential that defines you as a champion, not titles, medals, or accolades.

It won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight. You’re not going to be perfect; in fact, you’re going to struggle a lot along the way. But if you can chase perfection every moment of every day, you can catch excellence. But you have to start. Go get to work.