Ryan Harris: Mindset for Mastery - An NFL Champion's Guide to Reaching Your Greatness

Transcript

[0:00:22] CH: Author Hour is about answering one question: How can you get the best ideas from great books without spending so much time reading? Every week, we take you behind the scenes with a new author, about the most important points in their book. So if you love to learn while you're on the go, you’re in the right place. All of our book summaries are 100% free and we do more than a hundred episodes every year. So please subscribe to and review Author Hour on iTunes. Today’s episode is with Ryan Harris, author of Mindset for Mastery - An NFL Champion’s Guide to Reaching Your Greatness. There are two voices in your head competing for attention. One says, “I’m worthy, I’m capable, I will succeed,” but the other one says, “I can’t, it’s too hard, the game is rigged against me.” Everything the first voice tells you is true. If you have the courage to believe it. That’s what Superbowl champion Ryan Harris is here to talk to you about. He’s endured nine surgeries over a 10 year career in the NFL. He knows how it feels to doubt yourself in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In this episode, Ryan offers his insights, inspiration and tools to help you overcome uncertainty and accomplish your goals. We cover topics like how do you find the belief in yourself in the face of tremendous self-doubt? How do you accomplish your objectives? How do you respond productively to failure and how do you have fun when your profession is super stressful? In this episode, we’ll show you how. Now, here is our conversation with Ryan Harris.

[0:02:38] Ryan Harris: Yeah, well I’ll take you back to a Sunday afternoon where a little chubby kid with glasses, you know, biracial kid with glasses was sitting watching football and it was the only thing that he had seen where there were big people. The offensive line. And they were on the TV screen, they were being celebrated and high fived by super stars and really, you know, super heroes in my mind and then I finally got the chance to play football. Got my pads at age 14 and everybody, you know, one of my teammates said, “Hey man, let’s go heads up,” and I said, “I can’t,” he’s like, “Why not?” I’m like, “Man you can’t say anything but I don’t know how to hit,” so he roared laughing, you know, immediately became an ex-friend of mine. It was just funny that you know, he ended up telling the rest of the team and he was on the coaches were laughing. Here’s this chubby kid with glasses, finally gets his chance to get his pads and gets laughed at and I didn’t want to come to practice the next day and I did anyways and I put my pads on, knocked the crap out of somebody. Ended up I could play and then I went to high school and I was beat down time and time again by older and bigger linemen until I decided to jump in the front of the line and to beat people in sprints. Then this chubby kid with glasses who didn’t know how to hit, he kind of grew into his high school abilities, got to go to Notre Dame where immediately, I was met with the most physical and dominating opponents I’d ever met in my life before even getting on to the field. I worked my way through choosing my mindset through the practices where I was literally beaten shoeless. One time my cleat fell off and my other cleat was on and I sprawled out on the grass just completely destroyed, emotionally, physically. I mean, literally pain and sounds, I didn’t I could make. And this chubby kid with glasses who made his way through high school and found a way to get through practice got to the NFL and in that journey was released once was told twice that he didn’t have any football left in him, had to overcome three separate back surgeries and finally made it back to the pinnacle which came after I gotten released by the Broncos, the team that drafted me. I experienced great success and I got a new coach and he wanted me to learn a new technique, he wanted me to learn a new way to play. I was unwilling to do that and because of that, I was fired and one of the most brutal moments of my entire life. Here I am, I’d made it out of - you know, the room with being chubby in glasses and being laughed at by coaches and then go in to high school and then go in to Notre Dame and finally on NFL and I’m unwilling to change, I’m unwilling to learn something new. I thought I’d had it. I was just – I’ll never forget that feeling of knowing that I had to drive home and tell my wife and our first year of marriage that I was unemployed because of my unwillingness to work and my arrogance, how do you do that? In that moment –

[0:05:29] CH: Sorry to interrupt. But did you know then that it was arrogance?

[0:05:33] Ryan Harris: I was in complete shock at the time and then yeah, looking back, I even knew what I was doing it that I wasn’t listening to coaches and that I didn’t appreciate every moment of being able to be on the field, you know? Something that even the most elite of the elite players, that’s what you do, you respect every moment, even if it is a practice, you don’t want to be in right? I hadn’t learned that yet. For me, you know, I had tears streaming down my eyes and my hands shaking in disbelief as I drove home and I just decided then, I said, “Listen, I could choose to continue to wallow in my unemployment embarrassment,” or I could choose that this would never ever happen again and I would never lose my job because of my willingness to work. That I would never be ungrateful for the surroundings that I had worked so hard for and that I really love so much and in doing, and changing and creating that moment I spoke the words I can. I can be a good husband without being a Denver Bronco.I can keep working hard, I can make sure this is not the end of my story. I can – next time I get a job, make sure that I bust my tail that I lift my weights that I watch extra film, that I can be grateful for just walking into a stadium, walking into a practice, right? I can stop by Panda Express on my way home and pickup orange chicken to eat my feelings. I mean, these are things that I immediately committed to by changing my mindset with the words I can. The very next morning, I got a call by Gary Kubiak, the head coach of Houston Texas at the time. And he said, “Ryan, I think you can help us win down here, we’d like to get you down here, what do you think?” I said, “I can do that coach.” Got down to Houston, practiced, played hard, asked questions, lifted more, appreciated everything and because of my two years there with Gary Kubiak, I got a call two years later when he was with the Denver Broncos and he said, “Hey Ryan, I need you. I need you to come help us win the championship and I need you to show these young guys how to work.” “I can do that coach.” From there, I turned one of my greatest moment of failure into success because of the mindset I adopted because I refused to be susceptible to the moment, you know, even before getting that call from Gary Kubiak, this chubby kid with glasses, sitting on the floor, watching football, fought his way through high school, college, even into the pros and failure, was so happy to be there, was so happy to have fought through it and that really formed for me, the groundwork I needed to be a champion.I joined that team and I had fun and I shared my mindset with my fellow teammates, specifically my offensive line mates and we went and won a championship. This book came from the exact moment I realized we’d won the champion. Because when you win a championship, everything you believe about yourself comes true for other people and I want people to enjoy that moment in their life. I want people to feel the moment when they know all their hard work pays off and everybody around them can see and say man, that hard work – that sacrifice here, that’s why you know, I didn’t get dinner with Ryan, that’s why I didn’t get dinner with Kate, that’s why Kate left early, that’s why Steve went to work early and that’s why, because those moments matter. The sum is greater than the parts and in that moment of winning a championship, I knew I wanted to share the opportunity that all of us had in failure. Opportunities all of us have to look around us and celebrate the wins we have every day and that’s why I love speaking and I love the fact that I put this book out there so hopefully, one person can find something within their life that they can overcome with some of the tools that I talk about.

[0:09:09] CH: Thank you for sharing that Ryan. Let’s go back a bit to that decision that you made, there was that turning point where you got fired and you knew it was because of your arrogance. What do you think separates you from a typical, it doesn’t even have to be a football player, it can be anybody who is just arrogant in that situation and they hold on to resentment and they say, “Screw them, they made the wrong decision.” Why was your story different? Obviously you chose to have a certain mindset, right? What distinguishes you from a typical person who might not learn from that mistake?

[0:09:57] Ryan Harris: Well, I think for me, you know, football is a great accelerator, I’m 33, black and retired, that doesn’t happen, right? I think for me, when people see a younger male, a middle aged guy and said “Hey, this is work, this is how I got there.” That gives them the idea that hey, there is an end of the road, I think one off the greatest things that holds people back is they want to know, “Hey, I want to know that if I leave this job that I’m going to be okay. I want to know that if I leave this relationship, I’m going to meet somebody new and laugh like I’ve never laughed before.” We just aren’t able to have those answers. I was fortunate where I was in an environment where in football, you have to take a leap, I had to go to Houston, not knowing if it was going to work out. I had to go to Kansas City after Houston without even saying goodbye to my wife because she was working and they called me at 1:00 and said “Hey, you’re on at 3:00 flight.” I’ve had the opportunity to creep to act without knowing and really showing people throughout my story how that is really everyone’s story. We rarely know the answers before we take action and you also mentioned choice. The reason why I’m different from somebody else was in that moment is because I did the tough thing and I chose to find what I could do, what can I do, you know, one of the greatest things when you’re in a game in the NFL, you make a mistake, it’s not about what happened, the play clock for the next play is already rolling, you have to move on and you move on by saying, “I can, what can I do? Okay, I got my hand slapped down, I can lift my hands, I drop the ball, okay, I can look at my hands.” What makes me unique, and really, what makes the difference between being a champion and not is the mindset that we choose. How do we choose failure, you know, what does failure mean? Okay, failure, I got cut from the Broncos. Was my career over? I could have let it be. Did that mean I was bad at football? I could have let it mean that. But I chose my career wasn’t over, I chose that I had more football inside of me and I think when we choose our mindset, we can really create and live our wildest dream.

[0:11:59] CH: Your book talks about these, I think, timeless concepts, these humble practices such as pick up a shovel and dig. Persevere. talk to me about the importance of just getting to work.

[0:12:16] Ryan Harris: Yeah, you know, something that I talk a lot about a lot with entrepreneurs and companies and really, people, you know? Because I get the question often, how do I get started? You know, you got to pick up a shovel and dig. I think it’s so easy to think, “Hey, I took this class so I should be good or I got my MBA, now I should be making more money.” That’s not how it works. There’s over 200 diamonds in the Superbowl 50 ring that each of us were given as a part of the championship team. Not one of those diamonds was laying on the ground, waiting to be picked up and I think especially relating it to common things because everybody knows what a shovel looks like, everybody knows that building that they’re at work in or the train that they’re riding on, or the tone that they go through, somebody dug and dug before they knew it would be a hospital, before they knew it would be the Eiffel tower, before they knew it would be the home of a happy family who’s worked hard and is doing the right things, you know? I really encourage people to dig, do the work, find the work, you know, when I gotten fired, released by the Broncos, who would then eventually bring me back and we’d win a Superbowl together, I had to be a better player in between then. I had to dig. Part of digging too, it gets dark in there, you know I remember being at the Houston Texans. You know, Coach Kubiak got fired from there, I didn’t get picked up, I’m waiting but I’m working out, I’m doing the work so that when the teams called me, I was in physical shape to pass a conditioning test, to outlast the training camp, to earn a starting position. Picking up a shovel and digging is such a huge thing, it’s not enough to just have a mindset, you have to do the work. We didn’t just show up at Superbowl 50 and say, “Hey, we believe we’re world champions,” and just stand there as the clock ran through 60 minutes, no, you got to hype the ball, you got to catch it, you got to throw it, you got to run, you got to make a tackle, you got to work and the perseverance comes because some of that work is going to lead to negative results. One of the hardest things to do in the NFL is to lose a game. Because you worked just as hard to win one as you do to lose one. When your good’s not good enough, being able to still pick up a shovel and dig. Being able to persevere, being able to have the mindset that says you know what? This isn’t the end of my story, this isn’t the end of my journey, this isn’t the end all, be all. One of the things I encourage people to always think about is how many times we’ve lived beyond the moments of embarrassment and failure. Knowing now that you’ll live beyond all those moments, why not build that moment in the future for yourself? You know, why not build after a bad snap in the Superbowl, the fact that I’m going to be great the next play to help us win a championship so I can hold the trophy. Not only do you have to dig but sometimes I think it is a natural feeling to get frustrated with the work you do but you really have to persevere when it doesn’t pay off because hard work does pay off. You just got to keep going.

[0:15:02] CH: How do you do that because – this might sound, I guess, like a naïve question but I am curious, a lot of people let these moments of failure or mistakes or letting others down as the defining moments of their career and they can’t let go. They linger on it in the past, so how do you persevere past them? You just keep moving or what?

[0:15:28] Ryan Harris: You know, one of the things they talk about in the book, are the phrases, I am, I can, I will. I start with I am because it’s important to identify where you’re at, you know? After being released, I am devastated. I’m devastated, I’m embarrassed. I am crying, I’m shaking, I am you know, feeling these things because I think one of the things naturally when we get in those moments is we avoid it, right? My God, I just bombed, I am embarrassed, I am thinking that I am going to get fired but I’m not going to think that, it was great and we start lying to ourselves. No, be honest with where you are, build your identity, right? The night before the Superbowl, I said to myself, I am terrified that my greatest achievement will be my greatest failure if we lose this game. It’s important to recognize and uncover the fears and the feelings you’re feeling and that’s why I use I am. Then we talked about I can but you say the words I can. I am terrified the night before the Superbowl, that my greatest success will be my greatest failure, but you know what? I can wake up tomorrow, I can put on my pads, I will have the best Superbowl game of my life because right now, that’s the only game that matters, I will and that’s where I will, comes for me. You say the words I will, you start visualizing who is there, who is around you. You know? That’s one of the things, when people see their favorite athletes, no matter what the sport, football, baseball, basketball, gymnastics, right? Olympics. You always see this moment from their – your favorite athlete where they just take a breath and breathe it out and then they can answer these questions on seemingly, the greatest moment of their life is because they’ve seen it. They’ve put themselves there, they’ve built through it. I am, I can, I will, really help me and that’s one of the ways in which people can create their beyond and create the moments that they really want. Picking up a shovel, ask questions, you know? Find a mentor. I’ve got a great mentor who taught me how to be financially literate, I didn’t know what to do with money, I didn’t know that I could save money. I didn’t know that I didn’t have to charge money, I didn’t know that I could tell people, I don’t care about - I can’t afford something and I didn’t know that 99% of the people I told that to can’t afford the crap they’re talking about either. Things like that, you know? Not only picking up the shovel but creating your mindset, finding a mentor, asking questions, doing things that keep you moving forward, even when you may not believe it yourself. You know, one of my favorite quotes is Muhammad Ali. He said, “I am the greatest, I called myself that before I knew I was.” Everybody has self-doubt. Everybody has an obstacle to overcome. Choose how you’re going to do that and that’s how you build your mindset.

[0:18:02] CH: I love it and you’ve played at the highest levels. How pervasive are these ideas and this mindset that you are talking about, how common is it among professionals?

[0:18:16] Ryan Harris: It’s so uncommon and that’s why we champion the champions, right? That’s why we love a champion because they often do what we can’t. Now every team in the NFL has talent, every single one of them but where is the belief?

[0:18:32] CH: The mindset is a different story.

[0:18:35] Ryan Harris: Yeah, the belief, you know where is the belief of that team? One of the things I talk about to people often too to different companies be clear about what you want, you know? “Hey, we want to win the Superbowl.” Okay, so what are we going to do, right? When people come to visit me, “Hey you can’t stay with me man. I’ve got practice tomorrow. You can stay at the hotel, you know what? You can stay Sunday after the game, we can hangout Sunday night. Get a New York strip and get some herbal tea, we’ll be fine, right?” But it is so uncommon because one, we get distracted. Two, we feel that if we think something then that’s the reality. Thoughts are not facts and nobody teaches us how to deal with fear. How do you deal with fear? How do you deal with embarrassment? When we talk about fear less than we talk about sex, yet every single day we leave the house, we leave our apartment, we walk into a situation with some level of fear, anxiety and not wanting to be there. So now let’s talk about fear, let’s break it down and the reason why I’m a champion is because I was with other teammates who were fantastic and elite performers but also believed and also overcame their fears and also when mistakes happen they didn’t look back. They didn’t look to blame, they looked forward. They chose a mindset that overcame every obstacle they’ve ever faced whether that be me with my nine different surgeries in 10 years in the NFL. Whether it is an interception or a sack giving up on offense or a big completion on defense, you’ve got to keep going because you are going to live beyond anyways and being able to be around teammates who share that mentality, teammates who are impervious to failure only because of the bonds we’ve built through shared mindset and success. I talk about fun a lot too, this book talks about fun. Hey, let’s have some fun you know. Sometimes I don’t want to practice, so what? You’ve got to have fun, “Hey, wooh! Rock and roll man, we’re here to practice today.” Even if I don’t feel it, even if I don’t think it I am having fun. So that’s how I think.

[0:20:28] CH: Yeah, so let’s talk about this, right? So that was actually one of the chapters that surprised me the most, the chapter heading switches, Success Through Self-Care. This is not always a common thing because especially I’d imagine in the NFL, self-care might be viewed as weakness or waste of time. It might be a softening of your skillset or whatever but tell me what you mean by success through self-care?

[0:21:00] Ryan Harris: You’ve got to take care of yourself man and you hit it on the head Charlie. I mean the NFL, you’ll hear athletes talk about body work, “Well I’ve got body work.” Because we are embarrassed to say, “Hey listen, I get two massages a day,” or you know?

[0:21:13] CH: Right, they call it body work.

[0:21:16] Ryan Harris: And some of it is weird. I don’t know if you’ve ever been, I think it’s Raikou or Roku where they sit you on a chair and they draw your energies in and out. I mean you’ve got guys who are multi-million dollar brands who are sitting on chairs with needles on their toes and someone pulling on their tongue because they feel it gets them ready for the game, right? But when you get to real world, we rarely stop for ourselves. Now whether that is mediation, meditation changed my career. You know six years in, I just chose to be positive and chose to meditate and really feel how I am feeling, get away from things. Maybe it’s three breathes, maybe it is going to me, I get to a pool, we have a nice little pool here in Denver. I’ll go to a pool for five minutes before my radio show. But you’ve got to take care of yourself. You know we’ll stop and fill our car up with gas and send three emails and not take a second to say, “How am I feeling today? Who do I want to talk to today? Who can’t I wait to see tonight? What can I do when I get home with my kids?” I mean give yourself some time and that is really where success is made. Every team in the NFL has a by-week to take care of yourself. Take care of yourself. Do what makes you laugh when no one is looking and do it as much as you can.

[0:22:27] CH: So Ryan I am totally with you on this principle. In fact I think this speaks to me louder than any of the others because it is something that I have struggled with. I wrote a book on how to take care of yourself when you are in a high pressured job and I still struggle with it. So I am curious, what do you do specifically to ensure that you are taking care of yourself? Because I am totally with you. It is great to say you’ve got to ask yourself how you’re feeling today. You’ve got to laugh and all this stuff but a lot of people myself included struggle with this even though we know the dynamic is there.

[0:23:01] Ryan Harris: It is a great question. Number one, do something new. Make sure you are doing something new. I tried a hot ballet bar class in a yoga studio. I’ve never done it before but you know what? I was talking to myself through that thinking what the hell am I doing with my leg this high, I am going to snap in two at the moment, right? I am having with myself, you know I always tell people do something new because I get that a lot. You know people will email me, “Ryan, I am feeling burnt out.” When was the last time you did something new? It can be as easy as going to a new restaurant. It can be easy as walking a new way to work or walking for lunch, you know? So I try to encourage people to do something new and that will really keep you - and it can be something as easy as a friend calling to be like, “Hey why don’t you come to this concert by an artist that you have never heard of. This could be really fun.” “Okay I have never done that before.” So if you do new things that will keep you kind of in that self-care mode and then also one of the things you do and I encourage others to do actually schedule the time. We will make anything happen in our calendar man, you know? But put it in there, “Tuesdays at 2:00 I go and walk around the office.” And here’s the thing, when people ask you at work, “Hey Charlie, can you do this meeting on Tuesday at 2:00?” You say, “No, actually I’ve got another commitment. Can we do 3:30?” Sure, now you’ve got a 3:30 meeting and you got 2:00 on your schedule. So do something new and put the time on your calendar, put it on there.

[0:24:26] CH: Absolutely and I’ll double down on that last point. It’s not almost enough just to have it in the calendar, you have to block off like three hours sometimes, right? If you’ve been living in one hour increments because you have meetings that are an hour and then you have your radio show that’s 60 to 90 minutes, I don’t know.

[0:24:47] Ryan Harris: Three hours, yeah.

[0:24:48] CH: But if you don’t have an extended period for self-care, you feel like you are getting pulled right back into work very easily or you are going to have to go back to the old. So I love doing something new and I love scheduling. That’s great.

[0:25:07] Ryan Harris: Yeah and so wanting to keep you from resenting what you actually want to be enjoying you know?

[0:25:12] CH: Yeah, exactly.

[0:25:13] Ryan Harris: Take some time for yourself between work and seeing your family, all of a sudden you are not tired when your kids are asking you to play. You’re excited to be home and sleep is a big deal with that too. Get your sleep and also with self-care. A lot of times that’s just forgiving yourself. “Hey, I did have a hot yoga bar class and I was going to try on the schedule but you know what? I am going to take a nap right now. You know what? I’m going to stop and see if my wife wants to get lunch.” I mean forgiving yourself can be a big help as well.

[0:25:42] CH: Amen to that point. Now you also talk about, I want to hit the fun ones, celebrating every win, right? So the importance of celebrating every win. Maybe doesn’t always mesh with the mindset of just keep moving forward, be stoic, don’t let things affect you too much just keep moving. Celebrate every win, how do you celebrate?

[0:26:09] Ryan Harris: Yeah, celebrate every win and I’ll tell you, it does go with the mindset of keeping going. You know we had bus three on the Superbowl 50th season and the only rule on bus three was that there were no rookies, right? They ask too many questions. Now, one of your favorite football players of all time is the absolute worst country singer that I’ve ever heard and I know that because every win, he would sing the same lame ass country songs over and over again but you know what? He was having fun. People were laughing, joking, calling friends, facetiming, it doesn’t matter. You have to have fun otherwise you fail to see where you’re at in the journey and it can be something small even in failure right? Like, “Wow, you know what? I did do this right, I’m going to celebrate that you’ve got this right better and then you know what? Yeah we lost this game but we really did better in this area and I’d focused on and worked on.” Now I am celebrating my commitment, now I am recognizing the improvement that I made and just think about too, you know did you have a coffee or something this morning Charlie?

[0:27:10] CH: I did yeah, I had tea.

[0:27:12] Ryan Harris: What did it take for you to have that tea? And I am not just saying that maybe you went to your favorite tea shop, well you had to have money. Well how did you get the money? Okay, well you have a job. How did you get that job? Well I persevered through college, I persevered through some crappy mornings, I actually thought I’d never be a tea drinker and here I am I’ve changed my mind. I’ve grown as a person. You know that cup of tea that you had this morning is not just something that just started you on your day, no. That’s a celebration of your entire life to get to that moment. Now whatever happens after that what can stop you now? You started with a cup of tea that took you years to get to and you got a smile on your face, you’re rolling to the next one. So that is the power of celebrating every win. It builds in gratitude. It builds in the relief. Because I mean, you know when you win the Superbowl, you’re 24 to 25 weeks into the season. If you don’t celebrate along the way, 10 weeks in you are going to say, “What the hell am I doing? I’ve got 50 more weeks to go. This sucked. It didn’t work out.” No, no, no there’s some wins there. “Man you know what? I had a job today” “Wow they got snickers bar on the flight on the way home from flight. I’m going to have one,” right? Find the positives, find the wins around you and you begin to feel how much you can achieve when you realize how much you already have done and how much you’ve already worked for.

[0:28:25] CH: Man that’s beautiful. I love that, I’m never going to drink tea the same again because of that.

[0:28:33] Ryan Harris: Right? Yeah and you shouldn’t because, you’ve earned it brother.

[0:28:37] CH: Yeah, so I mean we can’t cover everything in your book but there’s tons of great stuff in here about mastering your time. A lot of people struggle with that. Mastery in general is a broader topic and becoming a leader, I’m going to save that for the listener who wants to check out Mindset for Mastery. But I want to transition a bit to maybe a couple of stories that you have of not just stories of yourself but people who you have impacted with these principles maybe what is one or two of your favorite success stories of people who’ve taken on this mindset that you talk about?

[0:29:17] Ryan Harris: Yeah, well I mean I’ll start with one of the ones when I spoke to a group about having fun and it is so funny to me because it’s something that we all forget especially as adults. And so one of the adults who I didn’t know and oftentimes I speak to a group I don’t know each and everybody’s issues that they are dealing with but I’ve gotten word back from the person who had me come in that this particular person had been having troubles with his son. They’ve had over a year and a half of issues with their son in terms of behavior and just in terms of connecting and that after talking and being engaged with me during a speech about fun, he realized. He said, “I realized with what Ryan said I wasn’t having fun with my son.” And as a father that is so hard to hear, right? Because I can relate to being carried away or distracted but he said they started having fun and that the year and a half of turmoil changed overnight. You know I talk about with leadership, engaging with other people. You know one company that brought me in and talked to them about engaging and I got an email from someone who said, “I used your tactics and tools to engage and I found out that one of my highest performers would have fallen off greatly had lost her foster child. The day that the mother had come back and taken their child and she had lost who she believed was her child.” And because of being able to talk to each other and talk about engaging and having her use the tools, I just felt that she learned something that made her company better and really impacted the life of somebody who is really going through something, right? And one of my teammates on the day we won the Superbowl, he was going through some things and performance wise and I just told him, “Listen you know we have a choice in how we respond to things. You know recognize the distractions. Label to me three distractions right now in your life.” And he said, “Social media, my family.” He said, “Honestly, my friends too”. I said, “Great, now you know who to get rid off, you can turn on social media after we win the Superbowl, you will see your family when we’re holding that trophy and they are on the field and you’ll see your friends after when you pay for them to drink whatever age appropriate beverage you all want to drink and celebrate the fact that you just won the Superbowl. None of those three scenarios need to happen right now.” So he was able to turn away from the distractions, recognize the distractions and we ended up winning the Superbowl because of his increased performance. Those are three stories that really stick with me and really continue to keep me on this path to serve through speaking, serve to writing the book and encourage people to think about how they’re choosing their mindset.

[0:31:46] CH: I love it and you are going to have many more from people who read the book. I would kick myself if I didn’t ask you what is the most fun story that you had while you were playing in the NFL.

[0:32:04] Ryan Harris: Man, there’s a lot of fun, a lot of characters. I’ll tell you something. Getting to meet Barack Obama at The White House was something that I never, I mean, just, not a chance that any of those aspects, whether it being a champion, being in the White House, being in the White House as a champion. I know what the inside of the Whitehouse looks like, it’s crazy and when Barack Obama came in, you know, he came in like you thought he would. “Hey everybody, good to see you, Payton, who’s going to retire first?” You know what I mean? Just kind of just funny and I was like, holy God, this is, I’m in the White House as a champion and there’s the president and it just – that to me, whether it was playing in London, whether it was as a lineman, you often know there’s going to be a touchdown before the entire crowd does playing with all the greats I’ve played with. I mean, all of it was great but to have football bring me into the White House and meet Barack Obama and shake his hand and that’s something that I will carry with me forever.

[0:33:04] CH: Awesome. I can’t imagine, that sounds amazing.

[0:33:08] Ryan Harris: It was a good time.

[0:33:09] CH: Yeah. I’ve got two more questions for you Ryan. The first one is, what is the best way for our listeners to connect with you, to follow you, maybe listen to your show?

[0:33:22] Ryan Harris: Yeah, well, connect with me via email, ryan@ryanharris68.com. Also, I’ve got a newsletter there at my website, ryanharris68.com. you can search for the Kreckman and Harris show on the iTunes podcast, click to subscribe. I’m also on Twitter, @salaams_from_68, probably easier just search Ryan Harris. But you know, my big thing is interaction, you know? I interact with those who read the book, who have me at speeches, I mean, when I speak to companies and people and groups, I continue the conversations because that’s important to me, you know? It’s not for me to give you tools and, you know, leave. I’m a resource. I want you to have the best moments in your life because of the choices you make and what you work for. I’m so happy to be a part of you know, many journeys that span the nation. ryan@ryanharris68 is my email and you know, find me online at ryanharris68.com.

[0:34:19] CH: Final question is, give our listeners a challenge, what is one thing they can do from your book this week that will have a positive impact?

[0:34:29] Ryan Harris: I want to see if you can smile one more time in a day. I want to see if you can smile at one more person, smile in the face of one more adversity because listen, you overcome all the adversities you’ve come through, you’ve lived beyond every terrible moment, so the next time a person presents you with an opportunity or a situation presents you with an opportunity, I want you to smile. I want you to see about what you can do in that moment and I want you to see if you can remember what it took for you to get there and what you had to overcome to get to be in that moment that you’re smiling in and that you’re faced with another challenge in. Let’s see what you create.

[0:35:03] CH: The book is Mindset for Mastery. Ryan, thank you so much for being on the show.

[0:35:10] Ryan Harris: Thanks Charlie.

[0:35:11] CH: Many thanks to Ryan Harris for being on the show. You can buy his book, Mindset for Mastery, on amazon.com. Thanks for tuning in on today’s show. If you liked what you heard, here is what I want you to do next. Open up the podcast app on your phone or iTunes on your computer and search for “Author Hour with Charlie Hoehn” and then click “ratings and reviews”. Take 10 seconds to rate this show or leave a review. It is a small favor but it’s really the best way to show your support and give me feedback and if you know someone else who’d love Author Hour, take another three seconds to text them a link to this episode. We’ll see you next time.