As a former athlete, I have had my share of highs and lows. Struggles and success. As athletes we are not given the playbook for finding fulfillment in life after sports. 

We have a fire, a drive and a passion for our sport, but when we are done we often do not know where to put this Athlete Mindset. Thus for many the stress, anxiety and depression turns to abuse of substances, people we love and ourselves. 

I struggled for over a decade with this problem. I had a fire burning so hot inside of me and it was killing me that I did not know where to put this drive and energy into. 

Until I found it. The thing that gave me the same feeling as being an athlete. However I even though I found my HIGH, fulfilling it was another story. One that would take me to the highs and lows of life in the pursuit of finding what would ultimately fulfill me. 

Listen into Episode 31 a Quick Huddle on my story. How I found my HIGH and made it my mission to get out of my struggle and find fulfillment in my life. 

 

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Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

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In our current society where so many are seeking results and success immediately, there are constant reminders that patience will always win out.

Combine patience with consistent action, doing the right thing and being of service for others and good ol' fashions belief....well know you have a recipe for success. 

That recipe is one used by former high school basketball coach and my guest this week, coach Jim Johnson. 

As the former head coach for Greece Athena High School in Rochester, New York, Coach Johnson in his early years was known more for his near misses, than championships. 

His teams were consistently in the state playoffs, yet had never made it to the finals to compete for a championship. 

That all changed on February 15th, 2006 when in the last 4 minutes of "senior night" for his players, Coach Johnson made a decision that would change the trajectory of his basketball program, his coaching career and life of one young man named Jason McElwain. 

We all love a good sports story and there so many that offer inspiration, motivation and touch us in heart warming ways that only sports can. 

This story is all of this feelings and emotions combined. 

To get the maximum benefit from this podcast, I encourage you to watch the story unfold on video first. Then dive into my interview with Coach Johnson and hear how this moment unfolded and the why the outcome of his decision that had he and Jason McElwain, also known as J-Mac) on every major television outlet imaginable.

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From ESPN, The Today Show, Oprah Winfrey Show, to Larry King, Good Morning America and many others. 

You will learn how the decision to focus on human beings first not only inspired others such as President George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Peyton Manning, Oprah Winfrey and countless others to meet with Coach Johnson and J-Mac, but also earned J-Mac the prized ESPY Award given out by ESPN beating out Kobe Bryant's 81 point game. 

Coach Johnson now share his message on leadership and team building with corporate teams through his book A Coach and a Miracle and with his keynote talks. 

Enjoy Episode 30 of The Recovering Athlete Podcast with Coach Jim Johnson. 

Connect with Coach Jim Johnson:

Website

Twitter

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Learn to Master Your Morning!

Discover what one single dad, who owns a successful business, did to dedicate 2 hours each day to improve his mind, body and relationship with his kids, without missing one second of work.

Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

Download the Master Your Morning Cheat Sheet Now!

If you are looking for more tips and support to have success in all areas of life, these resources are for you:

1. The registration for the next Be The Torch Academy opens soon...so jump on the priority list to be the first notified when the doors open. JOIN NOW! https://www.bethetorch.com/academywaitlist

2. For more tips and training, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecletuscoffey

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Marques Ogden was a successful student-athlete at Howard University who followed in the footsteps of his Father and his NFL Hall of Fame Brother and played football in the NFL for six years. 

He always new the football game would end sooner than later which is why he saved all his earnings while playing. 

Listen in to episode 29 as Marques shares his story of how he went from playing in the NFL to owning an 8 figure construction company all before the age of 30, only to lose it all in the span of 90 days. 

This is a story of the rise and fall of a former athlete who found a way out of the ashes to follow his purpose and passion using the lesson he learn through failure. 

Now an accomplished author and speaker, you can learn more about his story and tools in his new book, The Success Cycle.

Want to spend 15 minutes with Marques on the phone? He is offering up a coaching call for all the Recovering Athlete Podcast listeners.

Simply screenshot this podcast and add it your social media feed or stories and tag @cletuscoffey and @marquesogden and I will drop you a DM with a link to schedule time with Marques. 

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Looking for more training to unlock greater purpose, passion, profits and play in your life?

START HERE:

Learn to Master Your Morning!

Discover what one single dad, who owns a successful business, did to dedicate 2 hours each day to improve his mind, body and relationship with his kids, without missing one second of work.

Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

Download the Master Your Morning Cheat Sheet Now!

If you are looking for more tips and support to have success in all areas of life, these resources are for you:

1. The registration for the next Be The Torch Academy opens soon...so jump on the priority list to be the first notified when the doors open. JOIN NOW! https://www.bethetorch.com/academywaitlist

2. For more tips and training, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecletuscoffey

3. Follow Cletus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cletuscoffey

"What's wrong with me?" 

A question I have asked myself more times than I can count since retiring as a competitive athlete. 

I was stuck. Lost. Unsure of my identity and who I really was. 

Can you relate?

After believing I had it all figure out, I crashed and burned emotionally, financially, in my health and my relationships. I painfully learned that I indeed did not have it all figured out. 

But I wanted to. I had a light in me. Actually it was a fire that was smoldering, waiting for a spark and some fuel to bring it to life. 

See, the fire was raging while I played sports. No question I knew where to place that fire, that drive for fulfillment. It was into my athleticism. 

Yet, when sports ended, I had this fire raging with nowhere to direct it. So it slowly became extinguished along with my smile, my passion, and my high for life. 

After years of floundering in my own "victim" mindset, I began the hard and excruciatingly painful process of understand WHO I really was rather than identifying with WHAT I did. 

During this journey, I recognized something profound. I recognized I had been so embarrassed by my failures and my lack of success on the scoreboard of life, I had began to make excuses. 

When I dove deeper into myself, I realized I had been making excuses for my entire life to explain away my failures. 

I did it as an athlete, and I was doing it in my everyday life after sports. 

I was creating alibi's for my perceived failures. They look like this:

If I had started playing football earlier I would have had a chance to play at an NCAA Division I university. 

If I did not get hurt, I would have made it to the NFL.

If people could just understand my business, it would succeed. 

If my boss cared about me, I would have been able to be promoted. 

If I only had money...

If the market didn't crash in 2008...

And on...and on. 

I realized going through this, I was not alone. Once I found it in myself, I traced it back into my past and realized how much I was exposed to this mentality in sports. Not knowing any better, I ultimately made it my own bad habit. 

We are athlete's who have become experts in explaining away their failures through alibi's, to avoid looking like a failure, a loser, weak or unsuccessful. 

This episode is a quick snap shot into the habits that have become our society's favorite pastime, the Athlete Alibi, and how to break free of these habits to begin to find success in all areas of your life. 

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Looking for more training to unlock greater purpose, passion, profits and play in your life?

START HERE:

Learn to Master Your Morning!

Discover what one single dad, who owns a successful business, did to dedicate 2 hours each day to improve his mind, body and relationship with his kids, without missing one second of work.

Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

Download the Master Your Morning Cheat Sheet Now!

If you are looking for more tips and support to have success in all areas of life, these resources are for you:

1. The registration for the next Be The Torch Academy opens soon...so jump on the priority list to be the first notified when the doors open. JOIN NOW! https://www.bethetorch.com/academywaitlist

2. For more tips and training, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecletuscoffey

3. Follow Cletus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cletuscoffey

Jarrod Barnes was the first NCAA Division I football player in history to be enrolled in a Doctorate program at school while on an active football roster. He new football would go only so far. 

However, he still had a dream to make it into the NFL. He did all the right things, attended a Power 5 school, played for top tier coaches, and tried out for all 32 NFL teams. 

The result? He made it into the NFL, however not in the way you may be thinking. His path to reaching the pinnacle in his sport was not linear. 

The struggles of post sports were real. His identity was challenged. However this former athlete was able to get past these difficulties by doing something we all can learn from. 

He said "yes" to opportunities when doors opened for him. By walking through doors he has been able to work at The Ohio State University, Clemson University, started his own leadership company PRIME U, and now as an executive with the Los Angeles Rams in the National Football League. 

Learn the power of walking through open doors even when you have no idea where they may lead you. 

 

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Looking for more training to unlock greater purpose, passion, profits and play in your life?

START HERE:

Learn to Master Your Morning!

Discover what one single dad, who owns a successful business, did to dedicate 2 hours each day to improve his mind, body and relationship with his kids, without missing one second of work.

Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

Download the Master Your Morning Cheat Sheet Now!

If you are looking for more tips and support to have success in all areas of life, these resources are for you:

1. The registration for the next Be The Torch Academy opens soon...so jump on the priority list to be the first notified when the doors open. JOIN NOW! https://www.bethetorch.com/academywaitlist

2. For more tips and training, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecletuscoffey

3. Follow Cletus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cletuscoffey

As an athlete you sought out a challenge, wrote your goals out, found a guide (Coach) to help you plan and take the action necessary to implement and accomplish your goals. 

Where many of us get hung up in life after sports is when we are unsure of what our next challenge is. We loved sports. We know how to complete and feel alive when we are working to accomplish our goals, yet do not know where to channel our athletic drive outside of sport. 

Further more, we often lack the guide (Coach) to help us plan and execute. We are now the Coach and the Athlete, meaning we have to draw up the strategy and execute it at the same time. 

In Episode 26, I talk with Nate Boyer a former US Army Green Beret and NFL football player, turned actor, film maker and philanthropist. 

Nate talks about his transition from the Army to Football and then to his next chapter in life after sports. What you will learn is he has done many of these major things in his life by taking massive action first. 

This includes the action he took to reach out to former NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick after he sat silently on the San Francisco 49ers bench in protest of police brutality on people of color. 

Listen in to Nate share his journey from tours in Iraq and playing football at Texas to channeling his athletic fire into new ventures in life after sports. 

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Looking for more training to unlock greater purpose, passion, profits and play in your life?

START HERE:

Learn to Master Your Morning!

Discover what one single dad, who owns a successful business, did to dedicate 2 hours each day to improve his mind, body and relationship with his kids, without missing one second of work.

Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

Download the Master Your Morning Cheat Sheet Now!

If you are looking for more tips and support to have success in all areas of life, these resources are for you:

1. The registration for the next Be The Torch Academy opens soon...so jump on the priority list to be the first notified when the doors open. JOIN NOW! https://www.bethetorch.com/academywaitlist

2. For more tips and training, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecletuscoffey

3. Follow Cletus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cletuscoffey

Could you imagine giving up your life's dream, something you have worked your entire life for, in order to serve your life's true purpose? 

My guest on Episode 25 is former Major League Baseball player Mike Marjama who abruptly retire from the Seattle Mariners in 2018 in order to make a greater positive impact off the field than he ever could on the field. 

In high school, Mike suffered from an eating disorder that would threaten his health and well-being, and ultimately sideline him from sports for an entire year. 

As a male athlete suffering from from an eating disorder Mike not only had to overcome challenges he had with body image but also the stigma that only women struggle with eating disorders. 

After seeking help, Mike recovered to restart his baseball career; one that he would take him all the way to the major leagues. 

In the episode, Mike get very real about his struggles with mental illness, how he was able to use his challenges as motivation to follow his baseball dream. 

He also opens up about the shocking revelation he had when he finally made it to the Mariners big league roster and his role now as an ambassador for the National Eating Disorders Association.

Listen in to the the decision Mike made that landed him on all the major news shows including Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, ESPN, and UNINTERRUPTED. 

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Looking for more training to unlock greater purpose, passion, profits and play in your life?

START HERE:

Learn to Master Your Morning!

Discover what one single dad, who owns a successful business, did to dedicate 2 hours each day to improve his mind, body and relationship with his kids, without missing one second of work.

Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

Download the Master Your Morning Cheat Sheet Now!

If you are looking for more tips and support to have success in all areas of life, these resources are for you:

1. The registration for the next Be The Torch Academy opens soon...so jump on the priority list to be the first notified when the doors open. JOIN NOW! https://www.bethetorch.com/academywaitlist

2. For more tips and training, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecletuscoffey

3. Follow Cletus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cletuscoffey

Are you a former athlete who struggles with what truly fulfills you in your life after sports? 

Me too!

Jobs, relationships, family, money, material things are common things to have, but fulfillment, meaning and purpose are crazy rare in today's society. 

As an athlete I had a purpose, and I was laser focused on it. I was completely fulfilled and could have been truly satisfied being an athlete for the rest of my life. 

But, like you, my career ended. 

What I didn't realize until later was I had developed an addiction to the "high" I had as an athlete. My identity was so wrapped up in what I did versus who I was, that when my competitive career ended I found myself doing things and making decisions in my life to feel that same high I had as an athlete. 

However, my decisions were not giving me the same high or fulfillment in life. 

Have you struggled in this way? If so, please dive into this longer than normal Quick Huddle to learn about the addiction many of us face and how to work through it. 

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Looking for more training to unlock greater purpose, passion, profits and play in your life?

START HERE:

Learn to Master Your Morning!

Discover what one single dad, who owns a successful business, did to dedicate 2 hours each day to improve his mind, body and relationship with his kids, without missing one second of work.

Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

Download the Master Your Morning Cheat Sheet Now!

If you are looking for more tips and support to have success in all areas of life, these resources are for you:

1. The registration for the next Be The Torch Academy opens soon...so jump on the priority list to be the first notified when the doors open. JOIN NOW! https://www.bethetorch.com/academywaitlist

2. For more tips and training, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecletuscoffey

3. Follow Cletus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cletuscoffey

Breakups are never easy, wouldn't you agree? 

Like me, I am sure you have been through some really tough one's in your day, however as a former athlete have you ever considered breaking up with your sport? 

I had not thought about the need to break up with my sport until my conversation with Chris Smith, the Founder and CEO of Athlete Network, the largest community of current and former athletes. 

Chris is a former NCAA Div I football player who struggled with the transition to life after sports. Want to help others going through the same things, he started Athlete Network to best connect athletes, brands and hiring corporations together. 

On episode 23, I ask Chris about the challenges he went through trying find his way after sports and how he was able to align his passion and purpose with sports to make a powerful impact on athletes across the country. 

Listen in as Chris breaks down some big issues many of us athletes face and how we can best build ourselves up for success in life after sports. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Looking for more training to unlock greater purpose, passion, profits and play in your life?

START HERE:

Learn to Master Your Morning!

Discover what one single dad, who owns a successful business, did to dedicate 2 hours each day to improve his mind, body and relationship with his kids, without missing one second of work.

Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

Download the Master Your Morning Cheat Sheet Now!

If you are looking for more tips and support to have success in all areas of life, these resources are for you:

1. The registration for the next Be The Torch Academy opens soon...so jump on the priority list to be the first notified when the doors open. JOIN NOW! https://www.bethetorch.com/academywaitlist

2. For more tips and training, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecletuscoffey

3. Follow Cletus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cletuscoffey

When on a sports team we are fortunate to have a coaching staff to provide structure, feedback and solutions to challenges. In life, we have to be the athlete and the coach, at the same time. 

Here are four key steps to elite performance and falling in love with the process now that you have your coach AND athlete hat on. 

Use these keys for your own life and for those you lead. Our brains love order and structure so give it to yourself and enjoy the process despite how hard it may seem. 

 

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Looking for more training to unlock greater purpose, passion, profits and play in your life?

START HERE:

Learn to Master Your Morning!

Discover what one single dad, who owns a successful business, did to dedicate 2 hours each day to improve his mind, body and relationship with his kids, without missing one second of work.

Before you can master you life, you have to begin by learning how to master your morning.

Download the Master Your Morning Cheat Sheet Now!

If you are looking for more tips and support to have success in all areas of life, these resources are for you:

1. The registration for the next Be The Torch Academy opens soon...so jump on the priority list to be the first notified when the doors open. JOIN NOW! https://www.bethetorch.com/academywaitlist

2. For more tips and training, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecletuscoffey

3. Follow Cletus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cletuscoffey