The Game Is Simple, You Are Complicated | Ruthless Gardeners

Simplicity means knowing what matters and what does not matter. That is what Einstein meant. Quite often, however, pictures tend to complicate their world with their needs, their fears, and their desire to succeed. My express view to them is that the game of baseball is simple. People are complicated. Many of them tend to think that there must be more to the game than executing a pitch. In terms of behavior, there is not. Each singular pitch has a perfect simplicity that is audacious. And that comes from a Harvey Dorfman ABCs of pitching. I love that. I love the line right there where it says baseball is simple. This is a podcast completely surrounding simplicity. The thesis of this podcast, I would say, is to find a simple idea and take it very seriously. That is from Charlie Moeger, one of my favorite minds out there. And then the other idea is again that the game is simple and we are the ones who complicate it. My name is Drake and I am a coach that works with athletes on the mental side of the game. I view myself more as a researcher than I do a coach. To this day, not even five months into the year, I have taken 617 calls. And this platform here is my attempt to document the things that I am observing and the things that I am learning in real time with you guys. So thanks for being here. Let's dive right in. The first thing I want to do here is I want to go a little bit deeper on Harvey Dorfman's breakdown of simplicity. He says everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler, meaning not stupid. Intelligence is often valued in a pitcher, though too often that intelligence is converted into imagination. Matters become complicated not because of information, but rather because of interpretation. Matters are further complicated when significance is given to erelevancies. The greatest truths are the simplest. I believe that to be very true. The greatest things in my life are often the most simple things. I've shared that the morning pages, which is three pages of the stream of consciousness writing, is one of the most effective tools that I've ever used with an athlete. And all you really are doing is listening to yourself. It's a listening process. So once again, the greatest truths are the simplest and so are the greatest pitchers. Not single-minded, but simple in their approach. They think small. They are focused on the task. They do not allow extraneous issues and circumstances to take them out of their game plan, which is simply to attack and execute. Now I was a baseball player, so obviously I reference baseball a lot, but I think it's important to mention that this perspective is applicable to every single sport. Whether it's jujitsu, it's the cross, it's baseball, it's football. The game is simple. You are the one that complicates it. And again, having a small focus is effective in any sport. Matters become complicated in any sport, in any endeavor, not because of the information, but rather because of the interpretation. One thing I love that Harvey Dorfman always says is that the symptoms that you feel of anxiety are exactly that. They are a symptom. And they are a symptom of a poor perspective. When you don't have the right perspective, you obviously start to feel these emotions because you have indulge in a perspective that does not serve you. That is not even real most of the time. Later in this chapter from Harvey Dorfman, he talks about closers. And I just have to preface this with what a closer is for anybody who does not know baseball. A game of baseball is nine innings and college and professional. And at the end of the game, if the game is close, they bring in a pitcher who is the guy that closes the door, ends the game. This is typically a pitcher who throws harder. This is typically a pitcher who is very reliable, throws a lot of strikes, is very competitive. And doesn't give up many hits, doesn't give up many freebies, walks, hit by pitches. This is somebody that is meant to be very reliable. I was a closer at points in my career. And so this next part that I'm going to share with you really hit home for me because it's very applicable to what I experienced. It says, "Inexperienced closers that I have been associated with have often complicated their thoughts with the responsibility of saving another pitcher's runs." So pause. This is when a pitcher, a closer comes into the game after one of the pitchers has led up some runners on base. So there's a runner on first and second and the closer comes into the game to quote unquote "save the game." And the perspective that they have is saving the other pitcher's runs or saving the win for their team. Such thoughts on the mound qualify as irrelevant and therefore distracting. Too big, too complicated. Much of the success of San Diego Closer Trevor Hoffman comes from intelligence and a narrow focus. When I come in, says Hoffman, I know how I feel, what I've got going and how many good pitches I have. I go from there depending on the situation and the hitter. I try to keep it all as simple as possible. I think Harvey Dorfman does a great job speaking to potentially the language of maladjustment, which is another thing I got from Harvey Dorfman. And this is an ineffective way to speak. The needing to save the game is an inappropriate behavior. It's an inappropriate perspective. As a pitcher, your greatest job, shout out Greg Maddox, is to execute one pitch at a time. That is a simple focus. And when you come in and you are trying to save the game or save the win or save this other pitcher, these thoughts are irrelevant and distracting. It's too big and too complicated. Trevor Hoffman says, "Nero focus." That is one pitch at a time, the execution of a pitch. That is all that you can control. You have a five ounce baseball. You throw this five ounce baseball to the desired location. So again, fastball away. The minute that ball leaves your fingers, you have no control. A pitcher's focus simply is to execute this pitch ruthlessly. It is that simple. And again to quote Trevor Hoffman, who is one of the greatest closers ever, I just try to keep it as simple as possible. So now I want to cover three principles that kind of compliment this idea of staying simple. One, let's dance with the girl that we brought to the party. What does that mean? Well, first I want to push you back to Trevor Hoffman talking about the scenario focus and what he's thinking about when he gets into the game. When he comes in, Hoffman says, "I know how I feel, what I've got going, how many good pitches I have. I go from there, depending on the situation and the hitter. I try to keep it all as simple as possible." So let's just full stop here. When he comes into the game, he knows what he has. Some days you just don't have certain pitches. And anybody who plays baseball knows that. Some days you wake up and your slider is not quite there. And so today you're going with your fastball and change up. The way that I interpret that is that when he comes into the game, he knows what state he is in. And he knows what he needs to do to get himself into a state to perform. So if he's really amped up, he knows that maybe he needs to move a little bit slower. That's awareness. He says, "I know what I've got going and how many good pitches I have." So he's aware of what pitches he has and he's going to dance with the girl he brought to the party. So whatever he's got today, he's going with. He's not trying to fix anything. He's focused on the task at hand and he's focused on dancing with what he's got. And then my favorite part of this, as he says, depending on the situation and the hitter, I just keep it as simple as possible. He goes from there. He has these things that he knows, how he's feeling, what pitches he has. And then when it comes time to compete, he lets the game take him where it takes him. He's not forcing anything. Which is my second point exactly. Let the game take you where it takes you. So often as an athlete, when you get an ineffective focus, it's easy for us to try to force things to happen. Dance with the girl you brought to the party. Go with what you got. Be like water and do not force. Let the game come to you. Now I want to reference David Sendra and the Founders podcast. This is one of my favorite sources to consume from. I'm a firm believer that if you want better thoughts, consume from better sources, and this is one of those sources that I do believe helps me think better about the process. David Sendra does a podcast on Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis athletes ever. I've talked about Roger Federer in my podcast. I'm a huge fan of Roger Federer. He quotes Andy Roddick who is talking about Roger Federer early in his career. Andy Roddick was the last American man to win a grand slam. He's a former number one, world number one, and he was Federer's direct contemporary. When he's asked about Roger Federer early on, this is what he said. I think it had progressed past the point of, is this guy going to be really good? I think that was a given. The question was, is he going to be Roger or is he going to be Richard Gasquette, who is someone who is really, really good? I think people are lying to you if they say they can tell the difference at that stage because the difference is inward. I think it was a given that Roger is going to be a top 10 guy, a top five guy. But there's a big difference between that and someone who is number one, who wins a slam and is a relevant result maker for 10 years. David's Center goes on to talk about founders because that's what he studies. He says, I think maybe the most important thing about reading about these tennis players, and it's the same for founders, is how much of their success comes down to what is going on in their mind. David's Center on this podcast goes on to talk about a dinner that he got to have with a great mental performance coach. He says, I had the accidental good luck of having dinner. I think it was probably like two years ago with a mental coach of some of the top players in the world. This is not a coach that has anything to do with the physical aspect of your game. He focuses solely on the inner game of tennis, on what is going on in your mind. The gap between the number four player in the world and the number three player in the world is massive. The number 200th ranked player in the world is closer to number four. The number four is two number three. He said the main driver of that was their mental discipline. Again, I just think that's insane. The gap between four and three is bigger than the gap between 204. What is the difference in that gap? Mental discipline. That's crazy. Then in this podcast, we carry on. David Sendra quotes Roger Federer's own mental performance coach speaking directly about Federer. I think you guys will like this. He says, "When I see Roger today, I always tell him what you do on the court is extraordinary. But how you handle your life to me is out of this world. The game doesn't care where you slept, what you did, how many people you met. The game is pure and he managed over 20 years to come out and play with humility and that same amount of connection it takes to be able to keep winning matches. The way he approached his work, the dignity, the level of concentration to me, he's a role model. I like this because it's talking about how not only he approached his work but also how he approached his life and over 20 years, he played with the same level of humility and connection that it takes to keep winning matches. He approaches work with dignity and a certain level of concentration. I shared this because I think it's a simple approach in many ways. He stayed true to his fundamentals and he stayed true to his values. In a world where you are presented with a lot of distractions when you are having success, it's really easy to abandon the things that got you here. He kept this simple, effective approach that led to a simple, effective behavior that allowed him to be consistent. The next thing I put here is that the difference between good and great lives in the margins and all these calls that I've seen with these athletes, these athletes are some of the best athletes in the world that what they do. The difference between the people that are really really good and the people that are excellent that are great, again, is mental discipline. It's in the margins, it's the little things and the margin is almost always mental once again. What you allow into your garden is what grows and what I have found is that the grates are ruthless gardeners. That's how I would say it. The grates are ruthless gardeners. They protect their garden from outside noise and they pull the weeds. They are the ever guardians of their garden. Now, Federer himself, he says in his own words in a commencement speech, "I've shared this before but it's good for you to hear it again." Perfection is impossible. It's only a point. In the 1,526 single matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches. So again, 1,526 single matches, he won 80% of them. He then goes on to ask you a question. What percentage of points do you think I won in those matches? 34%. So he won 1,526 single matches. He won 80% of those matches. He only won 54% of the points. In other words, even top ranked tennis players win barely more than half the points they play. When you lose every second point on average, you learn not to dwell on every single shot. You teach yourself to say, "Okay, I double fault it. It's only a point." And is that a simple, effective, perspective, a simple, effective behavior? It's only a point. Okay, I came to the net. I got past. Again, it's only a point. Even a great shot in overhead backhand smash that ends up on the top 10 playlists. That too is just a point. Here is why I'm telling you this. When you are playing a point, it has to be the most important thing in the world. And it is. But when it's behind you, it's behind you. This mindset is really crucial because it frees you to fully commit to the next point. And the next point after that with intensity, with clarity, and with focus. The truth is, whatever game you play in life, sometimes you are going to lose a point. Sometimes you are going to lose a match, a season, or a job. It is a roller coaster with many ups and downs. And it's natural when you are down to doubt yourself and to feel sorry for yourself. And by the way, your opponents have self doubt too. Don't you ever forget that. But negative energy is waste and energy. You want to become a master at overcoming hard moments. That is to me the sign of a champion. The best in the world are not the best in the world because they win every point. It's because they know that they will lose again and again and again and have learned how to deal with it. You accept it, cry it out if you need to, and then force a smile. You move on, be relentless, adapt and grow. I just want to take a second to give you a couple examples of what a simple, small focus looks like with my athletes. Number one, a professional lacrosse player that I'm working with. Execute one play at a time, be like water. Another lacrosse player that I'm working with, who is actually in the national championship. Hers is to be steady and make instant decisions. Again, that's behavior focused. Be steady. It's task-oriented. Make instant decisions. It's positive and it's rational. I have a Jiu-Jitsu brown belt who's competing in worlds this upcoming week. He says, "Be here. Make instant decisions and get to my spots." Everything else that follows will take care of itself. He will let the game take him where it takes him. He's going to be present. He's going to make instant decisions and he's going to get to his spots for a baseball pitcher, selection, location, target. When you get on the rubber, you don't shit where you eat. When you are on the rubber, you are focused on three things. First is the selection of the pitch. The next thing is the location and then you pick up the target and you go. That is how we let self-to-take over. Again, selection, curve ball, location, down, pick up my target, go. That is all the pitchers focused on when they're competing. That's positive. It's rational. It's task-oriented. Everything else is the relevancy. It's distractions. I have another pitcher that kind of adjusted that. He said, "Selection, trust." In the middle, that is an unconscious eyes. What does that mean? He selects the pitch he wants. Unconsciously, he's not thinking about this. He directs his eyes to the target. He doesn't need to think. He just needs to see it. Then he says, "Trust." When he says, "Trust, that's his trigger to go." Then I always quote Russell Wilson from Trevor Mowell's book, "It Takes Where It Takes." He says, "Great balance. Great fundamentals being engaged." You can see here. This is an example of positive, rational task-oriented self-talk, a positive, rational task-oriented. You could call it mantra that directs your attention to the task at hand. Sean Casey hit 300 in the big league, shout out Sean Casey. His was, "See the ball? Be easy. Hammer it." If he can see it, he can hit it. If he can be easy, he's not tense. He's like water. Then hammer it is a simple task-oriented directive. My notes here say, "Notice what they all have in common." They are short task-oriented, behavioral, and none of them talk about winning. It's all about behavior. I just want to give you a quick example of the opposite of this, of a not-so-simple approach. There's a story in the ABCs of pitching about a pitcher who is facing Tommy John. I actually have surgery on my elbow. The surgery is called Tommy John. Tommy John is facing this other pitcher. We'll call him Drake. Drake the entire week has been talking to Harvey Dorfman who is his coach. And Harvey and Drake have committed to a simple, small focus. One pitch at a time. Selection. Location. Target. Pitch selection. Location. Where do I want to throw it? Go. I'm not going to throw it. I'm not going to behave appropriately. It's one pitch at a time. That's a moment where we have to redirect their attention to the task at hand. Ultimately, it comes down to them to choose to stay conscious and redirect back to the task at hand when they're mind wanders. Now, I want to talk about three truths that support simplicity in my opinion. I've observed that taking the first thing is a dangerous thing. I took this straight from the artist's way, Julia Cameron. She talks about alcoholics. and alcoholics can't afford to take the first drink. You know what that looks like if they do. And so as a recovering perfectionist, which is what you and I both are, we can't afford to take the first Think. One think turns into 27 thoughts that do not serve us. And while you won't be perfect with that because we are human beings, if we can remain conscious and not let ourselves go there, it puts us in a better position to keep a simple small focus. Research is now showing that repetitive negative thinking. We could call that chronic rumination, looping fears, self-judgment, replaying mistakes, doesn't just hurt your performance emotionally. It may hurt cognitive function itself in 2024, a cross-sectional study of 424 adults over the age of 60. Researchers found that individuals with the highest levels of repetitive negative thinking scored significantly lower on cognitive assessments compared to those with the lowest levels. The study used the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a widely used screening tool for memory, attention, and executive function. So what was the biggest takeaway from this study? Well, it wasn't just feeling bad. The researchers concluded that repetitive negative thinking was negatively associated with cognitive function itself. So in other words, the brain appears to deteriorate under chronic rumination. How crazy is that? Ruminating on negative thoughts is actually bad for your brain. This aligns with broader neuroscience research showing that chronic stress and persistent negative thought loops, one, elevate cortisol, two, they dysregulate your nervous system, three, they impair your focus in memory, four, they increase anxiety and depression and five, they reinforce destructive, neuropath ways. We know that neurons that fire together, wire together. That's the idea of neuroplasticity. The brain wires around repetition. What you repeatedly think, you repeatedly become. You're always practicing something. Now my second truth is that awareness is the entire game. I love this idea and the mental game of recognize, release, refocus. Novak Jokovic talks about how when you are competing you're not going to be present all the time. You're not going to have this simple focus, simple approach, effective behavior all the time and that's okay. He literally says it's okay. Then he talks about how conscious breathing brings him back to the present moment. So what that is is he recognizes that he's not present. He recognizes that maybe he's starting to think big. First step is recognizing he releases it. How? Well his process is just to release it with a releasing breath, a conscious breath. And then he refocuses on the task at hand. That is what it looks like to recognize, release, and refocus. I think it's important to note that thinking about irrelevancies, things that are irrelevant from the task at hand is expensive. There is a tax on your focus. Every unnecessary thought will cost you something, whether that's attention, whether that's presence, whether that's clarity, whether that's your energy, and this is an energy game, or simply just the execution of what you're trying to do. There absolutely is a tax on your focus when you are giving your focus to irrelevancies. A fear when ruminated on it, when you contemplate it, it becomes a scenario. And this scenario that you play in your head becomes rumination. You start to ruminate on it. Rumination becomes emotion. And emotion becomes physiology. And before long you are no longer even responding to reality. The power of now is a phenomenal book and it talks about mind-made projections and how we cannot cope with it. And that is all you are doing when you are taking the first thing is you are ruminating on something that isn't even real. The past and the future are not real. All we really have is the now. All we're trying to do is be here now and say on task. The brain was built to move towards what it repeatedly rehearses. This is complimenting that study that I just referenced. So when you constantly rehearse fear, when you constantly rehearse judgment and security, comparison, worst-case scenarios, and self-doubt, your nervous system starts living there. The greatest performers recommit to the task at hand. They are task positive. I love Ryan Holiday. One of the first books I ever read was "Ego is the enemy." And he talks about this idea of sweeping the floor. If you miss one day of sweeping the floor, it's not too messy. Your thoughts aren't too messy. But when you miss a week, when you miss a month, the floor is filthy. And the same thing is to be said about your ego. When you don't check your ego very quickly, it starts to snowball and it becomes a much bigger issue. It is a reminder for us that we need to sweep the floor of our ego every single day. And by doing that, we get better at not taking that first thought. It's my belief that in order for us to sweep the floor, we have to stay conscious. To stay conscious is to be online. It's to be aware. It's to have thoughts come and you can observe the thought. And you can let the thought pass. It's not to have a thought come and just identify with it unconsciously. So again, you're conscious and you're observing. And so when you stay conscious, you do not let your mind get seduced by irrelevant and distracting thoughts. But on the contrary, when you are unconscious, that's exactly what happens. You have a negative thought. You take that first thought when it's negative and you are seduced and you play into it. This is why we must consciously direct our subconscious. We have to tell ourselves what to focus on. The law of substitution says that we can only focus on one thing at a time. So let's tell ourselves what to focus on. The recovering artist, athlete, entrepreneur or human being learns to observe the first thought without surrendering to it. The work is not eliminating these thoughts forever. You don't have anything to fix. You don't have to eliminate these thoughts. Can we just not indulge in these thoughts? You're not going to be perfect. These thoughts will come. Can you recognize it once it's come and can you release it? Can you refocus? That's the game that we're playing. It's a game of recovery. It's back to the Novak-Jokovic example. It's fine. Can we just recover and get back to the task at hand? We have this real self when we have the performer self. The performer self has a little bit of ego. I've shared with you that with the performer self, I just don't care how you feel. When I talk to these athletes, it is irrelevant how you feel. All that matters is you executing on the task at hand. But when I say things like that, it's easy to just go, well, my emotions don't mean anything. I should never pay attention to my emotions. And I just want to be careful there. Because I do think that we need to allow our real self to process the things we need to process. And there are certain frameworks to use with that. I love the rain framework. Recognize, allow, investigate and nurture. We're not indulging in these thoughts. We're not. We're just observing them. We're shining a spotlight on them. But we're not trying to fix them. We are just letting them pass. It's like inviting this thought or emotion into your home and inviting it to sit at the table. I challenge you to view it as a separate entity. You sit down with it and you pay attention to it and eventually it gets up and it leaves a table. All that wants is to be paid attention to. It's just like a little kid. It just wants attention. And when you shine the light on it, when you make it conscious, eventually it gets up and it walks away. So again, when it comes to the real self, that is a time where I would tell you to process the things you need to process. Breathwork is a great way to process this. Meditation is a great way to process this. I believe that morning pages, which I've talked about before, is a great way to process this. But when we are competing, your job is to behave appropriately. It's to keep a simple focus and it's to stay on task. When you speak to yourself while you're competing, you speak to yourself in a way that is positive, rational, and task-oriented. It does not matter how you feel. It matters how you behave. So to conclude this podcast, I'm going to touch on five tools to keep your focus simple and small. Number one, assess the facts. Non-judgmental awareness, shout out to Inner Game Attendance, talks about how we are not adding or subtracting from the facts. Judgment is nothing more than a personal egoic reaction. Enjudgment removes the ability to be spontaneous. And so remember that emotions are biased. We need to renew our mind with truths. We have to remind ourselves of who we are. What are the facts? This is where a confidence resume could come in. You should write down in your journal all the things that are the facts, the resume of your past. I also think when you are getting ready to go and perform, you ask yourself, what are the facts? And when I talk to this athlete who is pitching against a team he's faced already and lost against what are the facts. It's a brand new day. You are defined in the present moment. All you do is execute one pitch at a time. And so assessing the facts is a great way to keep your focus simple. The second thing is to leverage your morning pages. One of the greatest ways that I've heard Julia Cameron break down the morning pages is their spiritual windshield wipers. They are wiping away the fog of your brain. This ineffective inappropriate way of thinking, it's wiping them away. And when you wipe these away in the morning, three pages stream of consciousness writing, it allows you to see clearly. Again, I think my job as a mental performance coach or as a researcher, whatever you want to call it, is to help these athletes think clearly. And I shared it earlier, but some of the greatest ideas are the simplest ideas. And sitting down every single morning and writing three pages of stream of consciousness writing is a very effective way to renew your mind, to keep your focus simple, and to kind of wash away the stuff that is not serving you. And just a reminder for you, I did an entire episode on morning pages. And so if you have any questions regarding the pages, I would highly recommend that you go listen to that episode. The third tool to keep your focus simple is to have clear intentions in all you do. As I've developed in the mental game, I have realized I've observed the importance of intention. Intention is instructions for your brain. Every single day when you wake up, can you set an intention for who you're going to be? be for what you're trying to do. Intention matters. When you are going into a game you should have a performance journal where you set in intention. What am I trying to accomplish today? You should have a performance journal for practice. What am I trying to accomplish for today? Intention wins. When you tell your brain what to focus on, your brain is going to work for you, not against you. It's going to help you to align your focus with your intention. The fourth tool that I wrote down to keep your focus simple is just to recognize that it's fine. Shout out Novak Djokovic. It's fine when your mind wanders. It's fine when your approach gets gets big and not small. It's fine when it gets overly complicated when you complicate it. It's okay. Have a routine, a conscious breath, to get back to the task. At hand, your sport, your career is not a game of perfect. We are not perfect human beings, but it is a game of present. And how present can you be? How good can you get at recognizing, releasing, and refocusing? Whether that's a conscious breath or whether that's a real routine, it doesn't matter to me. All that I want you to know is that it's fine and the sooner that you can recover, the better. My fifth and final tool to keep your focus simple is to implement a mantra. Harvey Dorfman in the ABC's A Pitching talks about an entire chapter, Montras. These Montras should be positive. They should be rational and they should be task oriented. He says in this chapter about Montras that the chant becomes he who chants it. And so as you say something more, as you have a thought and you own a thought, as you renew your mind with this thought, you learn to own this thought. You learn to become this thought. The chant becomes he who chants it. You actually start to embody it. Greg Maddox in this chapter says that it's scary. How once you start to embody this mantra, you actually start to become it. You start to see it. It's all that you can think about while you're competing. Greg Maddox's mantra was all I do is execute one pitch at a time. Harvey Dorfman in this chapter says that a mantra is a countervailing force against all the fears, anxieties, endowments, all this distracting noise. I love it because I think this mantra helps you to recommit to the signal. And so if we're going to have a simple focus, I do think a mantra is a great tool to help you keep a simple focus. Now because it's easy to get lost in the weeds, I'm going to summarize this episode in five lines. Number one, the present moment is where the magic happens. Number two, the game is simple. You are the one that is complicated. Number three, don't add or subtract from the facts. Number four, let the game take you where it takes you, let it happen. Number five, if you get sped up and get a big focus, get back to your breath, release it and refocus on the task at hand. It is a lot simpler than we think it is. I'm going to leave you with three lines, three quotes here that I love that I think compliment everything we're talking about. Number one, it comes from Alan Watts. It says, "Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the God's made for fun." I created those childlike goodies by the way there's more coming soon and it's exactly that. When you're a kid, this is just a game that you play in the backyard. And as you get older, you suffer only because you take seriously what God has created for fun. Number two, the second quote that I love is comes from James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits. He says that focus is the arts of knowing what to ignore. In a world full of noise, it's important that we can discern what the signal is. And then number three, this comes from Hans Hoffman and it says the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. Referencing back to the Charlie Munger quote, "let's find a simple idea and let's take it very seriously." In this case, simplicity in your sports is this simple idea that we are taking very seriously.