The first Monday after I took the jersey off felt weird.
Same alarm.
Different silence.
I grabbed my old duffel out of habit.
No practice.
No bus.
No teammates waiting.
I missed the scoreboard.
I missed knowing if today counted.
So I tried something simple.
I wrote one line on a sticky note: Build a life I’m proud of.
Vision.
Flag in the future.
Then I printed a 4-week practice contract.
One focus.
Same time daily.
One consequence if I miss.
Taped it above the desk like a schedule.
I set a pre-game ritual for deep work.
90 seconds of breath.
Headphones on.
One song.
25-minute timer.
Ten minutes in, I wanted to bail.
I gave myself a 10-minute no-quit window.
When the timer hit, I kept going.
Momentum showed up late, like an old teammate.
By noon, I did one rep I couldn’t dodge for my craft.
Not perfect.
Real.
In the afternoon I did something most people avoid.
I asked for hard feedback.
“What would make this cleaner?”
Not fun.
Very useful.
At night I opened a notebook.
Three tiny boxes: Body / Craft / Relationships.
Pen marks only.
Streaks I can’t cheat.
It wasn’t a miracle day.
It was a practice day.
And I slept like I’d earned something.
Run this play today
Point your work ethic at your life
Vision / Flag: one sentence about the life you’re building. Put it where you’ll see it.
4-Week Practice Contract: one focus, same time daily, clear consequence. Tape it up.
Pre-Game Ritual: 90 sec breath → headphones → one song → 25-min timer.
10-Minute No-Quit: start for 10. If it clicks, extend to 25.
Standards beat talent
Be early to your own blocks.
Ask hard feedback once a week.
Show receipts (what shipped).
Serve a teammate with one action.
Build a new scoreboard
One skill.
One rep you can’t dodge before noon.
Pen-and-paper streaks you can’t fake.
Weekly Hard Set (RPE 8): pitch, cold outreach, tough convo—log it.
Quarterly Combine: deep-work hours, shipped pieces, sleep %, 5K time. Test every 13 weeks.
Small isn’t soft.
Small is how we stack proof.
Point your work ethic at your life and the results start to look like purpose again.
Master Your Next Season.