Mat Fraser's Secret To Winning | With Brent Fikowski

I love to think about the mental aspect of it especially low expectation high standards because if you have high standards you are guaranteed to improve what I have found though is with these hyper winners they do have high expectations and it kind of kills them a little bit it eats at them that high expectations high standards works if you are already capable or very close to capable of like actually winning and in this case like being a world champion but you know let's say you take female or male at the games that came 30th this last year that's 24 years old like if you try to instill that type of mindset in them would it work I do want to talk about mad a little bit because I I got to hang out with them this past weekend and I met him over waterpalooza and now he's someone who oddly enough I can consider my friend you know and um I know that you you've known him quite a while have you gotten to experience like firsthand what it is that makes Matt Fraser who he is like do you is there anything off you know because I can think of some just this past weekend that I saw um I think it's a bunch of things I mean I think you know like anyone who's had like repeated success in the sport it's probably that like that sweet spot like a like a Phelps type where it's like you know they have the the body for it or the genetics or the training background whatever and then the mindset to match right it's sort of those it's that sweet spot between the two um you know Kobe Bryant or whatever right um where if they're repeatedly success I know this isn't me being like you know crossfits is important as basketball Olympics or something but you know he's had a similar level of success in this sport as those athletes sort of had in those Sports and yeah I think you're gonna find you know it's gonna be that sweet spot whereas other athletes that maybe have good careers but not like great great all time they might have one or the other where they're really talented maybe not the same like mindset or coaching or whatever or they're like super driven mindset everything's dialed in and then you know there's something about them genetically or their training history where it's like uh you know a couple injuries where they didn't have like the the longevity or that like that really Pinnacle um yeah would be like my that's kind of like a general answer but yeah yeah no I I I think you're you're spot on especially with the mental aspect of it which I'm like obsessed with I I love to think about the mental aspect of it especially after seeing you know the the Last Dance the documentary on Jordan and the and the Bulls the 90s Bulls I made a video after that basically talking about that Winner's mindset and one of the things that like I kind of alluded to but I wish I had mentioned more was I have this quote that I love and it's um low expectation high standards because if you have high standards you are guaranteed to improve as long as you kind of meet those standards that's it and if and whoever can improve the longest is going to be champion at some point like you can't just keep going up and not passing people what I have found though is with these hyper winners they do have high expectations and it kind of kills them a little bit it eats at them and you can see when they don't do what they think they could do they get really mad at themselves and there's a very select few people who can do that have high expectations and have high standards so that means when they don't meet the expectations they go a little bit crazy there's a very select few of those people that actually end up being winners do you know what I mean by that yeah and so I think let me put it to you this way in in my opinion like I think that um high expectations high standards works if you are already capable or very close to capable of like actually winning and in this case like being a world champion but you know let's say you take female or male at the games that came 30th this last year that's 24 years old like if you try to instill that type of mindset in them would it work because they would just wear themselves it's like yeah the argument is it it might not right because I don't well that would be my opinion is I'm like what it's kind of like Bulgarian weightlifting it's good for the country bad for the weightlifter where um if you put if you instilled that sort of mindset into let's say a thousand uh you know swimmers like you're gonna win the Olympics or you're a loser kind of like you have like high expectations high standards high it's like you're yeah like one of them is gonna win the Olympics probably and it's like see it works and then the other 999 they're not gonna win because only one wins and then would they have done as well and they're they're going to probably burn out because they're like I gotta win I gotta win then they don't win and then they're like well I'll win next time and that other person just wins again and do they you know are they able to like continue to keep going like if that mindset is is truly like what it takes I don't think they would because it's like there's just so much data in their face saying like well you came 800 like two years in a row even though you did get better because there's another 999 people that are also getting better and you're you know you're kind of like staying in that 800th range so but maybe they would have gotten better if they were like high standards low expectations yeah yeah you know but then with that first place person you know would that first place person have remained first if they had if they had taken on the you know surrender the outcome like high high standards low expectations would they still would have won or would have someone with that high standards high expectations would beat them it's look yeah I mean the thing is there's so many different routes and I think a lot of people romanticize and myself included the people like Michael Jordan who are just like outwardly Petty and vindictive and and they used that to their advantage and I think I will not speak for Matt but given like the amount of pressure that he would put on himself to compete is definitely unhealthy and I think he'd be the first person to tell you that that it was unhealthy but it ended up working for him and I get this sense now I'm not entirely sure but I get this sense that once he was out it was like you know oh like that I can take that pressure that I put on myself off maybe for an athlete like you you could be as successful at least you know Podium or winning the games in it through a different route I think there's a lot to be said about that I don't think that we should just be like well you got to be like Matt you got to be like Jordan you know you got to be this Cutthroat [ __ ] type I mean Matt's not an [ __ ] you know what I mean yeah yeah but I know what you mean yeah yeah um I think you can find examples of people like I don't you know I don't think Tim Duncan was like that yeah I don't you know and like I don't think Steph Curry's like that yeah and yeah they're not Michael Jordan but as far as like winning resumes they're pretty close like you know what I mean like Steph Curry is the culture of the Warriors he is a however many times MVP blah blah four-time Champion scoring three you know like he's you know yeah like is he like the thing with someone like Michael Jordan is there's a lot of like timing that goes into like that oh six championships you know Grace of all time like there's there's a certain amount of luck and timing that goes into that but there's definitely like generational you know like every decade let's so let's say in like the NBA and it's like you know Tim Duncan Steph Curry LeBron and you know I don't think either any of those three are particularly that same and let me put you this way if someone's listening to this and they're trying to apply this in their own life I think you need to do what works for you and I think it makes sense to try a bit of everything whether that's for a week or a month or a competition and try to implement those things and you know even from a mindset perspective like I don't enter a one or at Max with the same type of head spaces I do a 5K run right you know you know I try to enter each competition from a general sense the same way um and you know there's days like man there was two days ago where in the afternoon I was so tired I was like just exhausted and I was crying and I still trained you know like there's every part of my being was telling me not to train because I was just man I'm so tired like I can't focus I'm just feeling really emotional I don't feel I I just can't you know I'm like I don't know what it is I just maybe I need a nap and I really like I started warming up and I was like I still don't feel like training like this is stupid this isn't and I'm like no Brent you have to train and I finish my training session you know so even even though I'm like a surrender the outcome kind of guy like I'm you know still willing to get that sort of stuff twice okay I think there are caveats I think there are caveats to both sides and and maybe we can agree on what these caveats are but so like let's say you know the surrender the outcome okay yeah to a certain extent because you can start to use surrendering the outcome as a cop-out I don't oh yeah hell yeah you can yeah if you're not careful I can be like dude I'm totally a stoic trainings I don't feel like you know training is bad like I have to have this huge no Brent's like [ __ ] that I'm gonna do it okay like every once in a while you need to put yourself in that position of like no I'm you need to be a like a a Matt Fraser or or a Michael Jordan and I think maybe on the other side somebody who uh again we're just using that as examples um but somebody who is high expectation high standard every once in a while it would be okay if they could lower their expectations you know um or and you want and you watch the last dance and like before one of the big playoff games like Michael Jordan went golfing for nine holes or 18 holes yeah he doesn't just golf he gambles oh he gambles he's gambling hard he's but he was still like you know and and it's the same with you know it's not like every moment he's shooting a basketball and just like staring at the ceiling doing that you know what I mean it'd be the same with any High performer like yeah there's a lot of you know so I think sometimes that that energy can be um romanticized in like a documentary for example and you're like yeah but you know there still are moments where you know Michael Jordan was probably playing with his kids for 30 minutes right you know on a Tuesday afternoon you know like those things are still happening just like they're still happening for me like you know I'm still just reading a book in the evening you know or whatever and just like I'm sure Matt Frazier did you know yeah um and but there were still moments in competition where I would like chase people down you know when I felt like my heart was going to explode like you know those things are still happening um I'm not like you know what I need to conserve my energy whatever whatever I can give is enough and just jog to the thing you know like so I think I think there's like there's there's a ebb and flow and um certain things people will gravitate towards certain things as maybe like their primary but you're gonna still have you know there still has to be an element of joy and fun and some of your training and in some of the competition and I think um yeah for for anyone listening or anyone who either romanticizes either side I think it's fun to experiment with certain assets just like you would experiment with certain training Styles experimenting with some crazy mindsets and just being like yeah that didn't work for me or maybe I'll revisit it or things like that I think I think are really cool [Music]