It is Word to the 3rd: my reflections on purpose, life, and growth. I’m Toby Brooks, and I am a speaker, author, professor, and forever student. Each week on Becoming UnDone, I bring you guests who have dared bravely, risked mightily, and grown relentlessly—high achievers who have transformed from falling apart to falling into place. But every third episode, it’s my turn to reflect, refine, and reprocess—on Word to the 3rd.

Great to be back in the studio for another episode of Becoming UnDone! Continuing our reboot of my first foray into podcasting, a fairly short-lived show called “Better Every Week” co-hosted with my daughter Brynnan Brooks, I thought it would be great to dust this episode off, recut it a bit, and reproduce it here for my show. Now--as I was listening to our conversation, I was struck by the notion that it is pretty cool that we discussed the importance of being brave, of viewing failure through the lenses of growth, and the show was a little rough around the edges. Our microphones were pretty sketchy. The refrigerator kicked on mid-conversation. I mumbled into the mic too often. But we did it anyway. The best way to get better at something is to withstand sucking at it for a while. And we did.

But after just four episodes, our good intentions were overtaken by pressures, packed calendars, and in some cases good old-fashioned excuses. But as disappointing as that may seem on the surface, there were victories. I learned how to host and post a show. I discovered some ways NOT to record and how NOT to edit. And while I’m still and forever will remain a work in progress, I got better. I persevered. And now we are closing in on our 50th episode.

The conversation was a good one, too. In this installment, then-University of Oklahoma freshman and now Junior Texas Tech University vocal performance major (and my daughter) Brynnan Brooks leads the way to talk about all the ways that competitive athletes and professional artists are different. And even more so how they are a lot alike. It’s a fun topic that I hope you’ll find informative and thought provoking.  I hope you’ll enjoy episode 39: COMPETE 

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Becoming Undone is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyJBrooks. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.