#91 SHOT | An AFL Legend's Shared His #1 Secret To Winning Big

In this short episode, Terry shares a candid conversation he had with one of Australia's most revered champions - and how it shaped the way he thinks about pursuing big ambitious goals. If you're going all in on something, but you're doubting yourself this episode is for you. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Hey, it's Terry here and I want to take you back to about eight years ago. I find myself on a Sunday night getting ready for the week to come, and at the time I was working as a performance coach in elite sport and working for one of the most successful clubs in the AFL. I've just done a bit of a training session and I'm sort of getting my plan together, just kind of getting things set up for the week. And as I'm walking out I noticed one of the athletes from the team is doing some recovery. But this isn't just any athlete. This is probably one of the best ever to play the sport. He's an AFL legend and nobody's ever won as many games as this person. He's won a bunch of premierships, he's been the captain of the club. He's done everything there is to do when it comes to this sport. Everything is touched, has turned to gold and I end up striking up conversation with him, just having a chat. And it's kind of interesting because usually you're sort of having, I guess, like work type conversations and you know what's going on with this person, how's this going to happen, and you're sort of you're in that work mode. But this is different because it's a Sunday night, and so we end up having this sort of a slightly different conversation and for some reason, I just asked him this very different question and I was like hey, mate, I've always wanted to know Nobody's ever won more games than you, nobody's ever had as much success as you. I know it doesn't ever boil down to one thing, because that's just over simplistic and everybody thinks that there is one secret. But the one thing I would really love to know from your perspective is that when you walk out and when you're ready to perform, what is it that gives you the belief that you will win? What is it that you think that separates you in that sense? And I'll never forget his answer.

Speaker 1: 1:54

He looked at me and he said it's a lonely hours. And I said what do you mean? And he explained this concept of lonely hours to me and he says lonely hours is what I'm doing right now. I'm doing extras here right now because I didn't really play the way I wanted to play last weekend and I've been able to train for weeks, and so if I can't train properly and I can't perform on the day, then I'm not actually living up to what I'm capable of. So I'm here on a Sunday night. I want to make sure that I get my body right because I need to be able to train better, to play better. And he said so this is the lonely hours. I've got a bunch of mates that are all catching up right now and they're all at a birthday. He says I probably would really enjoy to be there and it'll be good conversations and that sort of thing, but this is the lonely hours.

Speaker 1: 2:37

This is what I've been doing my whole career, doing all the little things that add up to the big things. And then he looked at me and he said you're doing the lonely hours right now too. I don't see any other coaches here. You're putting in the work when nobody else sees it. And he went on to explain. He said look, I don't believe my level of success comes down to belief.

Speaker 1: 2:57

He says it's what I feel I deserve, and so for me to feel like I deserve to win, it's all about doing these little things, doing all the little things away from what everybody sees all of the time. That's what stacks up for me and that's what helps me realize that in that moment, when I come across somebody who I might be playing against my opponent, I'm thinking do I deserve to beat this opponent? And if I deserve to beat this opponent and I do everything I possibly can to control those controls on the day, then more often than not the outcome will go my way. It doesn't guarantee that it's going to go my way every single time, but that's how it's turned out for me and that is exactly how his career turned out. That's how he played, it's how he led and it's how and why he won.

Speaker 1: 3:39

And so I wanted to share this story, because this concept of the lonely hours, I think, is a really good shorthand for the investments that you need to make to be able to get to where you want to go. They're the little things that you're doing all the time that lead up to those big results that happen later on. And it will be the case that if you are trying to achieve any big, ambitious goal to really change the trajectory of your life whether that be with money, with your career, with anything really what you're gonna have to do is you're gonna have to aggressively invest in yourself, in your portfolio, whatever it is. You're gonna have to make a bunch of these investments that really don't pay off for a long period of time and most people aren't gonna understand. Most people aren't even gonna notice or see that's the work you're doing. So if you can make that part of the process meaningful in and of itself, then you can actually do it for long enough to see those results compound.

Speaker 1: 4:29

And that's why I found it really interesting that he tied that to belief. He says it wasn't about belief, it's about deservedness. And so he had this nice level of detachment. He said look, if I feel like I deserve to win and I do everything in my power on the day and I control all those controllables, then I should win. And sometimes I will, sometimes I won't, but more often than not I'm gonna give myself the very best opportunity, because it's true that in life there's both skill and there's chance, and both those things play a role. And so what I loved about that is he had found a way to create meaning in the journey, understanding that these aggressive investments he was making himself would pay off on performance. But also he was leaving room for luck there as well, and he was leaving room for chance to play a role and just understanding that his job was to give himself every opportunity to succeed.

Speaker 1: 5:19

And that feeling of deservedness. Those aggressive investments and who he became on the journey was actually what he was actually trying to do, and I reckon that's a really good metaphor and it's a fantastic way to think about anything you're trying to accomplish long, long term. You need to be able to fortify yourself and you need to have the faith that you and your future are gonna be worth it. To keep making those aggressive investments, even though other people can't see it, even though other people might be questioning you, even though nobody even understands. Come back to this concept of the lonely hours and remember that it's these aggressive investments that you're making yourself, the stuff that nobody sees. That actually is what stacks up to create that success later on, and I reckon if you can do that, then you'll do it for long enough to have those results compound in the way that it did for this champion, to become the very best version of yourself and actualize who you could be.