line. When the stakes were at their highest, she was able to compete exactly the way she trains in the gym, when there are no stakes at all. She focused on the task, not the outcome; she adapted coolly in the face of adversity; she controlled her own performance and ignored her competitors; and she maintained her signature optimistic confidence that if she did everything she could, it would all work out. It is an exceedingly difficult task. Transferring what you can do in a relaxed atmosphere to a tenser one is not easy; if it were, everyone would be clutch. So, what’s the secret? Why can some people do this and others can’t? You know the answer by now: preparation. If you want to be clutch, you need to strengthen your skills and prepare every day for those high-pressure moments. If you have prepared properly, through training, practice, and ongoing effort, you can rely on that training to help you bring your best. This includes physical training, of course, but just as important is the mental training needed to be great when the stakes are high. The character traits required, the ones that enable my athletes to follow the process, are not developed overnight. For both Mat and Katrín, the gold medals around their necks are the culmination of years of personal development, and only when they approached true mastery did they begin to see results. It’s a lesson everyone can learn from, whether you’re an entrepreneur pitching an idea to investors or a recreational golfer trying to improve your game: You cannot summon what you do not have. The traits you need when the stakes are highest—grit, optimism, focus, adaptability, determination, resilience—must be forged in the crucible of training. Who you are on the competition floor is a reflection of who you are in practice—no more, no less.
*** For the second year in a row, Katrín is the Fittest on Earth. At the sound of her name, she buries her face in her hands in a mix of elation and relief. She collapses to her knees on the tennis court floor and is overcome with emotion. Tia, in a rousing show of sportsmanship, class, and grace, comes over and hugs her shaking shoulders. Dave hauls Kat to her feet, then pulls her out to the middle of the floor. She raises both hands over her head and waves at the crowd, which erupts into a festive Viking clap. It starts slow, then builds until the entire tennis stadium is a massive wall of noise. Icelandic flags, which seem to have been procured from
thin air, wave from every part of the stadium. Katrín looks around, spots me and O’Keefe in the stands, and abruptly jogs over. She jumps up on a curiously wellplaced speaker, and I lean over the railing and give her a hug. I tell her how proud I am of her, how much she deserves it. “Hold on to every minute of this,” I tell her. “This is a special moment in your life. Go make some memories.” Kat looks at me happily and nods. Then she hops off the step-stool speaker and returns to the floor, a champion once again, and soaks it all in.
EPILOGUE Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is a nightmare. J
— APANESE
PROVERB
The end of the CrossFit Games always feels a bit surreal, like Christmas morning after all the presents have been unwrapped. The staff jokingly refer to it as “CrossFit New Year,” the demarcation of the end of a grueling eight-month competition season. A low-key awards ceremony takes place on the floor of the tennis court stadium, during which the Fittest Man, Woman, and Team are presented with medals and giant cardboard checks. A hundred boxes of pizza are also provided, and the athletes leap toward them like prisoners of war. After the ceremony, most of the competitors and staff will head back to the Marriott to let loose at the CrossFit-hosted after-party. Our team is not much for wild parties. Katrín and I skip the after-party in favor of a quiet dinner with our families—we’re joined by my wife, Heather, my daughter, Maya, and Katrín’s mom and grandpa. Too exhausted to venture far, we end up at McCormick & Schmick’s, across the street from the hotel. Predictably, Katrín orders fish and veggies, and she sticks with water. Even in victory, the process reigns. This book is the story of how well-developed character and unwavering commitment to the process can transform talent into champions. Before I started working with her, Katrín was a middle-of-the-pack CrossFit Games athlete who was content with merely qualifying to compete each year. Mat had been close to winning, but came up short two years in a row. When they committed to the process, everything changed. Katrín won two back-to-back championships, and Mat went from finishing second twice to winning by the largest margin in the history of the CrossFit Games. As I write this, they are the defending Fittest Man and Fittest Woman on Earth. The strategy outlined in these pages works for the fittest people in the world, and it can work for you. Despite what we’re led to believe, greatness is not for the elite few. The mindset of a champion is uncommonly rare, but it doesn’t have to be—every one of us is capable of it. Katrín and Mat got to the top of the podium not by virtue of superhuman talent, but through hard work and superior mental qualities. They are living proof that through deep and meaningful practice, anyone can forge and sharpen the mindset of a champion, and use it to improve
everything that is important to them. While writing this book, my athletes, only half-jokingly, implored me not to make it “too good,” to not give away our playbook. I always laughed. The truth is that nothing within these pages constitutes a ground-breaking secret, nor represents a particularly innovative new approach. Reading this book will not make you more competitive any more than being an expert in nutrition will get you a six-pack. The only way the process works is through action. Some academic once asked the great Greek orator Demosthenes what the three most important traits of speechmaking were. His reply says it all: “Action, action, action!” While we all have unique circumstances and problems, many change issues come down to the same thing: the ability—or inability—to translate vision into simple, ordinary, everyday actions. That’s what the process is about—not some big, hairy, audacious goal, but the thing you can and should be doing today, right now, to get there. Katrín and Mat are gifted athletes, but there are many, many gifted athletes. Insofar as there is a secret, this is it: Success is a decision, not a gift. The ideas in this book are only useful insofar as you can decide to apply them to your life, consistently, day in and day out. Jim Afremow, a leading sports psychologist, writes in his book A Champion’s Mind: “There is no golden road to excellence; excellence is the golden road. Until you start down this road, you’ll never have a chance of getting there.” In other words, you don’t become a champion and then start acting like a champion. Whether you’re a professional athlete or a midlevel associate at a law firm, chasing excellence is about living and breathing the behaviors and habits of a champion daily. 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. But a curious thing happens when you start acting like a champion—when you commit everything you have to the process, everything else tends to fall into place. 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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR BEN BERGERON
has been coaching athletics since 1990, and coaching elite CrossFit Games® athletes since 2009. As the owner of CrossFit New England, his sole professional focus is pursuing a standard of competitive excellence in training. A former competitor himself, he has coached five different CrossFit Games® champions and currently coaches top CrossFit athletes Katrín Davíðsdóttir, Mat Fraser, Cole Sager, and Brooke Wells. His other great loves are his wife, Heather, and his children.
