Excellence must come from within you, no matter what you're experiencing.

Competition is a constant flow of Events. Just like in life, winning or losing is not because of the Events we experience. It’s because of how we Respond to the Events we experience. The best people and best competitors don’t have better Events. They have better Responses.

5 E+R=O Lessons for Teenagers: You are a son, daughter, parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle. You are a coach or teacher. And if you're none of those things, you know people who are. This is for you. E+R=O was one of the great gifts my dad gave me as a teenager. Because he introduced it to me early, my life lens changed, my learning curve accelerated, and my skill development exploded. Not instantly or magically, but massively and meaningfully. In that spirit, here are 5 E+R=O lessons for teenagers: 1. The quality of your responses, not the quality of your events, determines the quality of your life. Good events don't give you a good life. Bad events don't give you a bad life. How you respond to anything determines the quality of your life. 2. You will engage in disciplined responses that won't accomplish what you want. You will engage in undisciplined responses that will achieve what you want. These exceptions will occasionally happen. Don't let them distract you or plant seeds of doubt that discipline doesn't work or that you can get away with undisciplined responses. Everyone who falls too far into this pattern fails. Everyone. 3. Your responses create events for other people. Pay attention to what events you create for others through your attitude, action, and words. Do your best to create events that help people, even when that means challenging going them. 4. Everything meaningful to your life will require courage. Courage is a muscle. You don't have the option to eliminate fear or escape feelings of doubt. You have the chance now to strengthen the courage in your response. When you face events that scare you or doubt your ability to earn an outcome, you'll need your courage to be stronger than your fear and doubt. 5. People will tell you what you want to hear and sometimes lie or withhold things from you, but E+R=O will always tell you the truth. No matter what. It will explain why you succeed, why you fail, or why you have yet to reach that point. When you want clarity and understanding about why things are happening the way they are, E+R=O will reliably give you caring and unfiltered honesty. All you have to do is use it.

E+R=O is great because it teaches that even though you don’t control events/circumstances, you can create great outcomes/experiences by controlling your attitude/response. E+R=O is how life works. The earlier we understand it, the better chance we have to use it well.