Ben Bergeron Quotes

But talent without grit is just potential. Talent plus grit is unstoppable.

Positivity, by contrast, is directly linked to improved performance.

Today I will do what others won’t so tomorrow I can do what others can’t.

Success is a decision, not a gift.

People successful in life, in business, and in relationships are living into a process that leads to excellence; these are the people who get up early to work out, who say no to crappy food, who carve out time for learning and mindfulness.

Like everything else, excellence is a habit.

What is grit, really? It's a word that's been used to describe everything under the sun, but it means something specific: when things get hard, you push harder; when you fail, you get back up stronger; when you don't see results, you don't get discouraged, but you just continue to pound away day, after day, after day, with relentlessness, consistency, heart, and passion -- that's grit.

At the end of the week, she wants to be able to look herself in the eye and have no regrets. Regardless of where she ends up on the leaderboard, she’ll walk away happy if she knows she was able to give everything she had, every minute of every event.

According to physics, bumblebees can’t fly, but nobody ever explained physics to bumblebees, so they fly around anyway.

As an elite athlete, there are only five things that you can truly control -- your training, nutrition, sleep, recovery, and mindset. If it doesn't fall into one of those categories, I tell my athletes, forget about it. Control the things you can control, and ignore everything else.

It’s the days when you have to do things that scare you, when you have to take risks, when you have to push against challenge and difficulty—those are the days that make you stronger, faster, and better overall.

was giving full effort in every single moment of every single day, and becoming the best we could possibly be.

One of my favorite TED Talks is a lecture by Simon Sinek called “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.

The athletes at the highest level of our sport commit themselves to a life of discipline, hardship, sacrifice, and suffering.

It’s not a question of how much work it will take, how much suffering will be involved, or how fast the results will come. It’s about committing to the grind every day.

Never whine. Never complain. Never make excuses.

Successful people use adversity to grow and thrive.

The only difference is how they’ve chosen to perceive it; where one woman sees adversity and difficulty , Katrín sees advantage and opportunity.

She’d transformed from an athlete who sat in her own suffering to an athlete who decided that facing her fears with a “just start” mindset was a more productive approach.

In no competitive or life scenario will focusing on negative uncontrollable factors improve your performance or stress levels.

Do what has to be done, as well as it can be done. Then do it that way all the time.

It's the not-so-hidden secret to extraordinary success: clarify what you really want, then work as hard as you can for as long as it takes.

Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.

discipline, commitment, passion, confidence, persistence, resiliency, competitiveness, coachability, growth-mindedness, humility, hunger, dedication, tenacity, and grit.

Am I committing everything I have to make myself the tiniest percentage better than I am right now, no matter how hard I have to work, no matter what I have to give up, no matter how long it takes?

Psychologists call this adversarial growth. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is not a cliché but a fact. It’s a classic example of the way successful people use adversity to grow and thrive.

Elite athletes know something that most people don’t—adversity is the best thing that can happen to you. The competitors here at the Games know that humans only improve through adversity by embracing short-term pain.

Understanding that you only have control over the present moment is the key to being able to turn the page. Reliving the past is a recipe for unnecessary depression, and fearing the future is a surefire way to anxiety. Learning to live in the present moment is vital, because it’s the only thing you have any control over. The only thing you can do to rectify the past or influence the future is to take action now, in the present moment.

What people don’t see is that behind most every talented person who has become a massive success is a daily schedule of grind, hours of suck, and a whole string of difficult, lonely moments working on the tiny details that will get them where they want to go.

If you tell yourself, as Katrín does, that no amount of adversity can throw you off your game, you’re far more likely to be resilient and thus successful in the long run. Your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, and your actions dictate your destiny.

No one loves doing rowing intervals, max-effort squats, or studying for ten hours at a time. As Mat would say, That shit hurts. There’s nothing fun about waking up and doing things you’re bad at, over and over again. It takes an extraordinary amount of grit to commit yourself to that brand of torture.

We fear adversity and do everything we can to avoid it, even though it is a guaranteed part of life for every species on planet Earth. It’s not a matter of if we will encounter it, but only a matter of when. And when we do face it, the form the adversity takes is far less important than how we respond to it.

Racehorses aren’t biologically capable of understanding what their competitors are doing. They’re completely focused on themselves. That’s where I want my athletes. If an athlete’s goal is to beat their competitor, then, by definition, they’re not reaching their full potential—they’re simply clearing the bar of the next guy’s potential.

You’re going to experience adversity; you’re going to have days that are incredibly challenging, even scary. There are going to be days that cause you to question your motives and ability. It’s important to realize that the toughest days are your best days, because they have the potential to force the most adaptation—mentally, as well as physically.

I try to prepare my athletes for how fast time flies in competition. I tell them that it’s going to be over in a flash, with the hope that they’ll take the time to appreciate moments along the way. Like a parent sending kids off to college, I implore them to cherish every single moment and make memories. It doesn’t stop the competition from flying by, but they enjoy it more.

Moments like this are what we train for year-round. It’s why we spend so much time developing character traits like commitment, grit, optimism, and humility. It’s the reason we practice embracing adversity and learning to regard it as a competitive advantage. Events like this are the reason behind our all-consuming focus on the process—why we learn to control the things we can and let the rest go.

Success to me is giving full effort knowing that was the best I was capable of. That said, full effort means nothing if day-to-day preparation was not all I had. Success to me is giving everything I have into each and every day, each and every moment; training, recovery, family, friends, giving back, inspiring, loving what I do. Then, come game time, give full effort, knowing I am the best I am capable of becoming.

like on a bathroom mirror or on their fridge. Here’s Katrín’s definition of success: Success to me is giving full effort knowing that was the best I was capable of. That said, full effort means nothing if day-to-day preparation was not all I had. Success to me is giving everything I have into each and every day, each and every moment; training, recovery, family, friends, giving back, inspiring, loving what I do. Then, come game time, give full effort, knowing I am the best I am capable of becoming.

Elite athletes know something that most people don’t—adversity is the best thing that can happen to you. The competitors here at the Games know that humans only improve through adversity by embracing short-term pain. Ensuring there is no struggle, no challenge, and staying in your wheelhouse is a recipe for spinning your wheels without improving. It’s the days when you have to do things that scare you, when you have to take risks, when you have to push against challenge and difficulty—those are the days that make you stronger, faster, and better overall.

We don’t look at the whole beach; we focus on one grain of sand. We only see one grain at a time,

gratitude, humility, dedication, positivity, poise, focus, resilience, and an eagerness to continuously grow

CrossFit Games athletes are renowned for their ability to suffer, but this event tested everyone’s limits of endurance, stamina, fortitude, and pain tolerance.

Relaxing is about taking a few minutes out of your day to wind down and take a breather. Resting is about stopping for a significant period of time during the day, typically the evening to escape work and stress, and to completely unwind. Sleep speaks for itself.

Just rest until you feel like you’re ready.

We fear adversity and do everything we can to avoid it, even though it is a guaranteed part of life for every species on planet Earth. It’s not a matter of if we will encounter it, but only a matter of when.

She agreed that this was completely within her ability, and her confidence began to be restored. Within a few minutes she was smiling, laughing, and excited about the challenge ahead.

The competitors here at the Games know that humans only improve through adversity by embracing short-term pain.

Look at all three levels: relaxing, resting and sleeping, and keep a diary for one week to check on how much time you are allowing for each on a daily basis.

In fact, one of the most important components of building my athletes’ mindsets is coming up with a definition of success that is not tied to the result they’re after.

Staying positive is difficult for humans because our DNA is hardwired to hold on to negative experiences over positive ones, for sheer survival. Way back when our species was in survival mode, it was far more important to know and remember that the big furry animal with claws and teeth would kill you than it was to know and remember that the butterfly was pretty. It was more important to remember which berries would kill you than which ones were tastiest. We developed a survival instinct that is ingrained in a negative mindset.

Double-loop learners, however, take ownership of problems; they think: There must be something I’m doing that’s making my spouse/partner/coworker react this

maintaining your composure when everything seems to be working against you is far more impressive,

As an elite athlete, there are only five things that you can truly control—your training, nutrition, sleep, recovery, and mindset. If it doesn’t fall into one of those categories, I tell my athletes, forget about it. Control the things you can control, and ignore everything else.