Nick Saban was asked a question after practice once. His response was 70 seconds of gold on what it takes to be successful in life. Here’s Saban on the Illusion of Choice: “These guys, they all think they have this illusion of choice. Like I can do whatever I want to do. “You have a younger generation now that doesn’t always get told no. They don’t get told this is exactly how you need to do it. So they have this illusion that they have all these choices. “But the fact of the matter is, if you want to be good you don’t really have a lot of choices. It takes what it takes. You have to do what you have to do to be successful. “You have to make the choices and decisions to have the discipline and the focus to the process of what you need to do to accomplish your goals. “All these guys that think they have a lot of choices are sadly mistaken. As we all have done with our own children, they learn these lessons of life as they get older. “Sometimes the best way to learn is from the mistakes you make, even though we all hate to see them have to make them, and we don’t condone it when they do.” – I’ve studied Saban for 12+ years, and the Illusion of Choice is one of the most powerful concepts I’ve come across. Some key takeaways: 1. Excellence has a price. We can complain about that, but it’s a fact of life. 2. Most people don’t want to pay that price. They just haven’t admitted it to themselves. 3. Saying you want to be excellent is easy. Becoming excellent is hard. 4. There may not be one way to become great, but there are very few. And they all have discipline and consistency in common. 5. Every action we take is a choice. We’re choosing to make progress, or we’re not. 6. The formula for becoming successful: Your Daily Choices x Time. It’s simple, but we make it complicated. 7. Sometimes we learn more by making the wrong choices. Reflect on them, pull out the lessons and move on. 8. You have to choose what you do every day. Don’t follow your feelings. Choose to do what will make you better. 9. There are no long-term hacks. It takes what it takes. ||| Hope this is helpful. Follow me @TMitrosilis for more writing. I also write a weekly newsletter on the process of improvement → theprocess.news/subscribe