Your effort means nothing if it's not "Brady Effort"

Tom Brady: Alien life form, or just insanely determined?

Obviously, Tom Brady is not an alien.  Although it's arguable he possesses superpowers unlike any found in 99.99% of all humanity.  But let's assume for a moment that Tom's DNA is no different than your DNA, or mine.  What makes Brady so great?  Forget if you will, Giselle (just for a moment, OK). Don't ponder the past with Bridget either.  Let's focus on Brady and football.  How does Tom Brady and football relate to me, you may wonder? Chances are you are not Tom Brady.  Chances also are that you are not even an professional NFL quarterback.  There is a much higher probability that you are working IT for some software company, a Internet person at some startup, into finance, a writer, travel industry, whatever.  I'm assuming for the purpose of this post that you have either a) a job, or b) a passion.  

If we convert Tom Brady into a mere mortal and make him, Tom Brady the accountant and not Tom Brady the football player, I am willing to bet that Tom Brady would still be a star accountant.  Why would that be?

You hear these sound bites from Brady (and others) often on ESPN or whatever sports program you might be watching:  "I work hard." "I believe in my team and coaches."  "Blah, blah, blah."

I'm suggesting where Brady is concerned, that these are more than just sound bites.  When Tom says he works hard, I'm willing to bet that he works harder than EVERYBODY ELSE.  When Tom says he has to earn respect from his teammates and coaches, not expect it, I'm willing to bet that he tries harder than EVERYBODY ELSE to earn it.

With that in mind, here are some tips I'm offering to help "Brady" yourself.  Note: I don't necessarily follow these tips because I'm not Tom Brady, but if I were to follow them, I might just experience more success on and off the "field o' life".  

Daniel's 3 Tips to "Bradying" Yourself:

1. Don't expect anything.  Earn it.

I used to get frustrated a work when my ideas weren't being pushed to the head of the queue.  I would blame everybody else for not seeing "the genius" that is me!  Then one day I decided to change my point of view. I said to myself, "look if the idea isn't taking shape it's not their fault, it's mine."  Either I haven't earned enough respect to get the idea pushed through, or I wasn't being effective in communicating it.  When I got rejected (20+ times for my fiction) I didn't blame the publishing industry for my failings.  I blamed myself and pushed harder to overcome their objections with higher quality output, eventually landing a publishing deal.  So respect isn't a right, it's a privilege and Brady knows that well.

2. Do your best.

This I know is pretty dang trite.  But it's one of those easy to say, harder to do mantras.  At the end of a day, I strive to feel physically and emotionally spent.  I want to experience that fatigue because it means I pushed myself to my limit.  I recently started working out with a trainer.  He's helping me with strength and conditioning.  After my work sets, he'll ask me to do pushups.  When I couldn't do even one pushup, he smiled and said simply--good.  He was testing to see if I had pushed myself as hard as I could push.  For Brady that sort of effort is a reflex, like our breathing air.  He's practiced living with a do your best philosophy for so long, it's natural for him to do every minute of every day.  For most of us, it takes a conscious effort to do until instinct eventually kicks in.

3. Failure is good.

Tom goes out expecting to win.  He believes he'll help his team win every game.  But when he loses, it doesn't shake his core belief in Tom.  He reflects on it.  He feels the sting of disappointment mightily.  He uses that hurt to push himself to new levels.  So Tom isn't afraid of losing.  He's more afraid of not caring deeply enough about losing to push himself to new heights.  Everybody runs the risk of failing at something.  But if you face those fears and turn it into a force for personal change--now that's the Brady way.  The subtlety of the Brady way is in knowing the difference between the fear of failure as a motivating factor and fearing failure as an inhibiting one.  

Now, I don't know Tom Brady personally.  But just watching him play football tells me enough about the man to believe that yes, he's quite possibly an alien life form, with a sick work ethic, who's not afraid to fail (even though he fears failure) and who believes nothing is guaranteed except your personal commitment to yourself.  Preachy I know.  But inspiring nonetheless.

What's your take on success at work and life and the Brady Way?  Would love to read your thoughts.