Boring Wins

I can’t think of a more boring athlete to watch than Scottie Scheffler.

He plods around the golf course, round after round, shot after shot, hitting the center of the green and making birdies or two putt pars every time. 

Whether he makes a long birdie putt or misses a rare short par putt, there isn’t much difference in his disposition; he is even keel and fairly emotionless all the way through a tournament.

Even walking up the 18th fairway with a four shot lead on Sunday, Scheffler was gracious enough to take his hat off to acknowledge the crowd at Royal Portrush, but mostly kept his head down and didn’t allow for a smile - until he tapped in his two-footer for par to win the British Open.

It is no coincidence that in winning the Open on Sunday, Scottie Scheffler won his 4th major 1,197 days after his first major championship. It took another guy you may have heard of exactly 1,197 days to do the same; his last name is Woods. I remember countless majors where Tiger demolished the field, creating a Sunday snoozer.

While I much prefer a major that is a a roller coaster of clubhouse roars with numerous lead changes, high-flying birdies, and heart-breaking bogeys and doubles, watching Scheffler’s dominance reminded of a truth in sports - and perhaps business as well: Boring wins.

Consistently executing the right habits on a daily basis - as well in a main event like a major - is usually the key to success in most domains.

Here are the five most boring rituals that I have found when I consistently execute them, I am personally more likely to win the day, week, and month.

RITUAL ONE: Top 3

“How will I measure success today?” That is a question that when I remember to ask it, my days have greater intent. 

One tool that is extremely effective - when I use it consistently - is Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Planner. It provides great prompts for each day not just to do the basics of staying organized - but to provide avenues and cues to align yourself for your best performance.

A prompt on the top of the daily pages is “Today’s Top 3 Goals/Priorities”. What I love about that prompt is that it challenges me to think about what the day requires. Spending a few minutes to identify the Top 3 - and then reorganize my day, if necessary around those priorities - gives me a compass to realign as needed. 

When I don’t do my Top 3: My days are always busy and full. Sometimes I will find that at the end of the day that I feel irritated or incomplete. Something is off, or I feel I need to keep going because I should “keep going.” I have concluded the culprit is that I didn’t properly align in the first place.

This simple, basic exercise gives me a better guide to attack my days.

RITUAL TWO: Breathe

I’m not very good at breathing. 

It sounds silly to say that statement out loud, but the more I examine myself, the more I realize there are things I need to fix. One of those is breathing.

I know that when I get intensely focused on an activity, I don’t tend to breathe. I hold my breath. I hold it a lot. The only reason I become aware of this phenomenon is that I occasionally give an exasperated half-exhale, which makes me realize that I wasn’t really breathing in the first place.

I know there are many people who advocate for breathing, but after seeing two highly successful, athletic people who work with elite performers emphasizing the importance of breathing, I figured I probably should too.

One person is my friend Dr. Coyte Cooper. Coyte was an All-American wrestler who became an author and high-performance coach; his current specialty is working with college wrestlers to lead them to their performance breakthroughs. The second is Mark Divine. As a former Navy SEAL who now works with leaders nationwide on high-performance, someone with that pedigree of elite performance who advocated for breathing got my attention.    

When I remember to center myself a few times a day by doing simple box breathing (the same counts in and out with the same seconds of holding), I find it provides an incredible reset between activities to serve as a transition. In addition, if I can spend the 20 minutes doing a true meditation - a practice I have struggled to consistently maintain - it provides an incredible transition from work to family time, and I operate with a clearer mind with less noise. 

When I don’t breathe: I find myself feeling like my gas tank is empty at the end of the day. I may have gotten a lot done, but when it comes time to be present for the most important people in my life, I am at a sub-optimal level of energy. I also know my brain is simply noisier and I am thinking about what was instead of right now.

RITUAL THREE: Walk

I’ve heard sitting is the new cancer. I’m not a scientist, so I don’t know if that’s true or not. 

What I do know is that when I sit for too long, I get stale.

One of the things I loved about teaching and coaching was that I rarely sat down. In class, I was on my feet 90% of the time. As a coach, I rarely sat down - even in matches and tournaments. I just think better on my feet.

I am a big fan of power blocks in my schedule. Having as many ninety to one hundred twenty minute blocks in my days devoted to one task helps me achieve greater depth when I gain momentum. I love being able to get tunnel vision and get in “go-mode” with no distractions. But at some point, there are diminishing returns. If I go beyond two hours to a third hour, or God forbid, a fourth if I happen to have back-to-back meetings or an exercise where my butt is glued to a chair, I feel stagnant.

For me, getting out and walking a few times a day after those power blocks is a tremendous reset. It’s incredible how many times I get a new idea or a fresh perspective on a fifteen minute walk which reenergizes the work I was just doing. It also gives me inspiration to call and make the occasional connection with a friend or former colleague which, as a solopreneur, I find to be incredibly invigorating on the days I am at home.

When I do this effectively - with a walk before work, a few mid-day jaunts, and one after work, it usually puts me in the 10K step zone. For my mental health - and my overall efficiency - I find walks to be exactly what I need to reenergize.

When I don’t walk: At some point by the late morning or early afternoon, I feel cranky. I get a little claustrophobic, and although I am doing my best to focus on the task at hand, I find myself reacting to minor situations with unnecessary negativity. 

Simply put: I’m just a better guy when I remember to take a walk now and then!   

RITUAL FOUR: Drink Water!

This may be my weakest habit, and I’m working hard to improve it.

Nothing is more boring to drink than water. Yes, it’s refreshing as can be after I wake up or hit the gym, but after my second cup of coffee, I tend to forget about water.

It’s interesting as I write this piece to discover how some of these habits support each other. When I remember to fill up my Stanley a third or fourth time, the difference in my energy is palpable. It also provides me with that reminder to move; first, to take the necessary bio-break, and then, to take that neighborhood loop around the block.

I know colleagues and friends have suggested the MyWater App to track liquids. I haven’t been consistent with this - but it might simply be time to commit to it. 

When I don’t drink enough water: Somewhere around 3:00 or 4:00 PM - a time when my energy is usually lowest - I occasionally will ask myself the question: “Why am I so tired today?” 

Unless there was a specific issue with sleep, I usually come to the same discovery, over and over: not enough water today!

RITUAL FIVE: Track My Learnings

Everyone feels like a hero when they win. They also usually feel like a zero when they don’t.

The challenge is that depending on your job, all days aren’t going to provide you with objective  feedback on your results. As a result, we are left to evaluate for ourselves if the day was “successful” or not. 

The “Top 3” provides a great opening prompt, so simply auditing the end of the day against this priority list is a good start. 

That said, I find that there is a much more powerful exercise that when I do it regularly, it has a compounding effect on my learning and my confidence.

I’ve probably mentioned Dr. Nate Zinsser at least a half dozen times over the past year. I should be this guy’s hype man because I’m such a big fan of his book, The Confident Mind. For me, it provides an incredible operating manual for building greater self-awareness, and in-turn, greater self-confidence. 

I think that one of the most challenging aspects of business, especially when you are in a new role or in an entirely new career, is that you may not always be getting feedback. When you’re a solopreneur, you may never get feedback; if you’re smart enough to invest in a coach, you have that blessing, but it still might only be weekly or monthly. As a result, you need to fill the gap. Books are a great avenue for that.

One of the exercises that Dr. Zinsser talks about as a path to building confidence is to track your learnings every day. At the end of the day, a simple exercise I have taken from the book is this: Ask yourself the question: What are three things I learned or did that made me better today? 

To me this is a powerful exercise. Personally, I am my own worst critic, so I am going to find the one or two things out of a potential dozen that didn’t go as well as I hoped and hyper-focus on those moments. It’s good to be honest with yourself, but as Zinsser notes, it doesn’t build you up; that practice typically cuts you down.

By writing down the three things each day, it allows me to discover moments, skills, and insights about my day that I may have otherwise missed. In addition to making me feel as though I got a little bit better in some way, it also gives me a cue: What do I need to do tomorrow that will help me get even better? This process, when I do it consistently, creates an amazing flywheel that I find accelerates my growth.

When I don’t track my learnings: Business becomes a binary game. I feel great when I solve a major problem or help a client achieve a breakthrough, and on days when I don’t see big wins, I tend to focus on the wrong things and get in my head. 

The reality is that there are small wins and growth every day; the discipline is to take the time to pay attention and document them so I can serve even better tomorrow.

*

Scottie Scheffler walked off Royal Portrush as the Champion Golfer of the Year. With his fourth major championship victory, he is in rarified air.

Seeing his success this weekend was the ultimate reminder that elite performance doesn’t usually come from dramatic moments. Those are fun, but few and far between. 

The battle is won by executing the correct habits that may be mundane and ordinary in the moment, but when done consistently, provide the foundation for what we all want: constant growth to maintain that upward trajectory, taking us where we desire to go. 

In real time we may not see drastic differences by implementing and cultivating winning practices. The truth is, change is happening everyday, and hopefully, it is for the better.

As these dog days of summer take us to the second half of July, here’s to doing the boring things this month that will put us in position to raise our own version of the Claret Jug when the time comes!

#boringwins