Getting out of "The Drift"
What's going on everyone. My name is Matt Mounier. I am a former athlete and owner of the untold 98% I work with transitioning athletes who are at the college or pro level and work with them on getting ready for their life after sports by being able to capitalize and continue to use their athlete mindset long after the ball stops bouncing.
So there is this thing in society that we like to call the drift and basically what the drift is. If you think of a flow of water like a river, there's basically a motion of where everything is getting carried and that drift is basically normal society and everything and every influence that you think that you should be doing. So going to that normal nine to five, working in corporate America, climbing that ladder, not really standing out, maybe afraid to stand out and go against what everything is pushing you towards.
And during any major transition, you're going to have this type of push to go back into the drift that whatever it was that you were working on or whatever passion or direction that you once had, you're going to lose it. You're going to lose your way. And the easiest way to get back on tracker, so you think is to become part of this drift.
The problem is that once you're in it, just like any type of moving body of water is that you're going to have to be fight your way out. It's much harder to move that wheel the very first time than it is once it finally starts rolling. And so one of the ways that we really work with people, especially men on getting out of the drift, is figuring out where it is that you want to go, what new thing you want to go chase and achieve, because maybe that direction isn't right for you.
That's a very like mainstream direction that's being pushed onto you. And maybe that's not the right fit. So this is something to be conscious of if you are unhappy with what it is that you're doing, if you feel like you're getting pushed in the wrong direction, if you don't have energy, if you feel like your life isn't taking shape the way that you want to, you might be part of this thing that we call the drift.
Let's pretend that you find yourselves maybe part of the drift. Maybe you just had a major life event, a major change transition that you're going through, and suddenly you find yourself in a direction that you're not really happy with. Maybe you started listening to people that are influencing you and maybe have the best heart for you, but it's not your own feelings now your own desires. And so one of the first things that you need to do when getting out of the drift is figuring out your purpose, figuring out what it is that you want to do with your life, what direction you want it to have, and really figuring out an end goal for where you want to go.
Because once you have that, you can start to work your way backwards and reverse engineer the entire process because once you have a destination, you can slowly start to move your way out of the drift because you know exactly where you're going.
So now you have your purpose, you know where it is that you want to go, you need to figure out whatever that destination is. You need to know what type of vehicle it is that you're going to move forward with. So for a lot of athletes that I work with, who is whatever sport that they used to play as the easiest way that I make it understood to them. So for me, I was a basketball player.
For me, my vehicle was basketball and how I was able to fuel it and move it towards where I wanted to go. If you use the same type of approach to whatever purpose you net now have, you need to figure out the vehicle that you're going to jump into.
Obviously like any good vehicle, you need to figure out the best type of fuel to put into it to move forward. My like premium type of fuel that you can put into any type of vehicle is a strong knit, a community of people that have your best interest at heart.
Usually people that have already done it before, people there that are going to walk it with you and the way that I really break this down for everyone is that first you need to have some type of mentors or coaches that have already done it before and are going to be able to guide you and really lay out the action plan for you to get there. The next thing that you need to do is surround yourself with a powerful team. I like to think of it as plus equals and minuses. The pluses are the people that might be two years, three years ahead of you on, on your path and where you want to go.
These people are typically willing to show you the things that they messed up on so that you can kind of miss the mistakes that they made, their shortcomings and be able to avoid those. You need to be able to have equals the people that push you. On a daily basis.
Maybe a frienemy those people that you know, you just want to always compete with them. They bring the best out of you and they make you push yourself on a daily basis. The last thing that you need to have, his minuses, you need to be able to teach what it is that you're learning and that is the ultimate recipe to put fuel into your vehicle to get you to where you want to go. You need to find a purpose. You need to have your vehicle and fuel, usually a team that you have.
And the last thing that you need is to mix in a little bit of discipline. It's easier said than done, but it's one of those simple things. And the best part is that when you truly know what it is that you're doing, when you have your purpose, when you have those people around you, it's so much easier to get up and start doing the difficult work.
The things that, you know, some people wake up and they're like, I just don't want to do it. And they say no. When you have all of those things in line, the discipline just kind of works itself in and as time compounds, you're just going to see incredible results and growth in yourself, and that is how you get out of the drift.
-Matt Mounier