Written By: Kevin Cann
This is the most important question that anyone could ask you. When I ask this question, I am not asking your name, but instead asking who you are at the deepest of levels. You can’t be great, unless you truly know who you are.
This disconnect with who you are can cause some issues as well. Often who we say we are does not align with our truer self. This is where cognitive dissonance lies. However, oftentimes we really do not know our true self and this can bring about a lot of frustration.
I went through this process of answering this question. It took quite a bit of time to see the answers. I thought of how I loved to compete and my times playing sports through college and after. What I realized was that my true competitive success did not happen on the playing field.
I grew up with an alcoholic abusive father, who was diagnosed later in life with bipolar. I still excelled in school and in sports. I slept on a folded blanket in a room with holes that littered the walls, but it did not matter. I set a goal to get out of there and worked my ass off for it.
My father wasn’t sending in the tuition money for school, which I found out when I was not allowed to register for classes. I was kicked out until the bills got paid. I immediately took a personal training job to make some money.
Eventually, I was put on house arrest, fired from my job, and had a child in a 3 month period of time. The cards were definitely not stacked in my favor here. With this extra free time at home, I thought it be great if I could finish my degree.
I talked to a bunch of loan companies and found a way to rollover my owed money into new loans and I started taking online classes to finish my degree. I set a goal to get a master’s degree, and that is exactly what I did.
I used this time to really make a business plan and grow my personal training business. I came out of this situation in a better spot than I went into it. This is probably my greatest accomplishment in life.
The hard work and the discipline only got stronger from this point. I decided that I didn’t need more student loans to learn, but I can read books and learn for myself. This has been ongoing now for well over 10 years.
I got fired from TPS, and immediately grew my team and my business. The pandemic hit, changing things quite a bit, but I took the time to really discover who I am and lay the foundations of what PPS is really all about.
I came up with our Pyramid of Greatness and have greatly increased the value of what we are doing. We aren’t just a program. While all of the other coaches are arguing about what methods are best, or what science is the best, we will be working on the traits that have been scientifically shown to produce high performance.
The direction of PPS now aligns with my vision and who I am as a person. Sports gave me the traits to overcome a lot of adversity in my life. These are the same gifts that I want to give to each member of the group.
In order for this to happen, they too need to self-reflect, be honest with themselves, and truly answer the question of who they are. This is not an easy task to perform. Oftentimes we are not honest with ourselves.
Only once this question has been answered can we truly identify our strengths and our weaknesses. Once we know ourselves, then we can set a vision to guide our journey. These are not external outcomes that we are looking for, but instead something with deeper meaning to us personally.
This builds a purpose, passion, and perseverance, three necessities to surviving the long journey to greatness. Without these pieces it does not matter what program you do. There are foundational mindset pieces that are prerequisites for this journey. These can be found at the base of our pyramid.
This self-reflection has allowed me to see things more clearly and to focus harder. I have never felt more powerful in my life than I do now. I have always been confident, but this is the next step. It has taken me over 30 years to get here, and it was not easy, but it put me where I am today.
Every other coach has to compete with me. That excites me but should make them nervous. I have been competing in sport and life forever. I get up at 7am everyday to read or write programs every single day. I think about lifting and performance non-stop. I compare everything I see to performance.
I am relentless in my pursuit to constantly get better. This is a fundamental principle of PPS.