Matt Brewer
Contributing Writer
Direct Energy – Success Academy Trainer

The other day I was sitting at lunch, catching up on the previous day’s headlines and I ran across an article discussing Tom Brady and his “crazy” routines. I thought this would be another typical article where the author was trying to get a story and just put some things together to drive more traffic for the site. I was completely wrong!

The article focused on Brady’s famous “games of catch”. This is where he would ask a receiver on the team just to play catch, very similar to the game we play when tailgating. The receivers would jump at the opportunity to get some extra work in with their Quarterback, but would soon find out this wasn’t your typical game of catch.

For those who may not be in familiar with football, Tom Brady is arguably one of the best players to play in the NFL and is nearing the end of his career. He has accomplished almost everything a player could wish for during their career, including 4 Super Bowl wins, multiple MVP awards and All-Pro recognition. So most people would believe that Brady is just going to play out his contract and ride off into the sunset.

In the article, the author mentioned that once the receiver agreed to “play catch” Brady would first focus on his footwork, then his release point. He would have his throwing coach critiquing every aspect of his motion. In the twilight of his career, he is still striving to get better!

After reading this article, I had a moment of reflection on how we can be like Tom Brady. Sure we may never win a Super Bowl or live his lifestyle, but we can make it a point to get better every day, regardless of where we are in our career. That sounds great, but where do we start? It starts with a plan and being vigilant in sticking with that plan.

As I write this article, I remember a challenge that was presented in a class I attended that had everyone take an hour out of their day to focus on what was important to them. This could be spending more time with your family, increasing your knowledge on the business, getting healthier or just taking time to spend on a hobby you enjoy. The challenge was to do this for 90 days and report back the changes you made and the results. I can tell you it made a huge difference in the way I approached my day. I knew that there was a lot of work to accomplish and that hour was valuable, but I wanted to complete this challenge. I chose to learn more about the business and I spent an hour a night researching the companies, reading books on the industry, and critiquing my delivery methods. I could immediately see the difference in my production just from spending a little extra time each night becoming better than I was the day before.

I write this article to challenge everyone who reads this to the 90 day challenge. Spend 1 hour per day for 90 days focusing on one aspect of your life that you want to improve, it doesn’t have to be work related, just anything that you want to improve. Keep track of your progress and you will be amazed at the improvement you can make in a short period of time. Once you have completed the 90 day challenge, start a different challenge. Regardless of where you are in your life, personally or professionally, we can all take a little time to improve ourselves.

Love him or hate him, Tom Brady is a professional who understands that in order to be successful you have to always be striving for improvement. We can all improve personally and professionally, all we need is a little determination and a focus. Once we have those in place we can strive for greatness.

So who wants to play catch?

 

Success Academy Trainer Matt Brewer has over 15 years of experience in training and managing for a Fortune 500 company. During that time he successfully implemented a mass change in coaching tactics to increase productivity for over 800 customer service representatives. When the change was adopted, the company’s productivity increased by 7{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f}, as well as profits.  Matt teaches sales and communication skills through Success Academy to contractors nationwide.