High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 388: Developing a Winner’s Mindset with Matt Birk, Super Bowl Champion, Author & Speaker

Episode Date: November 21, 2020

 Super Bowl champion Matt Birk is a 15-year veteran of the National Football League. Since retiring from football in 2013, Matt has held a number of roles inside the NFL League Office. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Matt was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 1998 and was a key off-season acquisition of the Baltimore Ravens in 2009. A six-time NFL Pro Bowl Selection and two-time All Pro, Matt proved to be an undisputed leader on the field and was named the sixth smartest athlete by Sporting News.   More importantly, he has established a legacy of community service that will last far beyond his years of football.  A graduate of Harvard University with a degree in economics, Matt is the founder and CEO of Matt Birk and Company, LLC. He was the recipient of the 2011 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award for his excellence on and off the field, including his commitment to emphasizing the importance of education through his H.I.K.E. Foundation.   He speaks to organizations across the country about the value of true inspiration, lasting leadership principles, the dynamics of teamwork, and fulfilling potential. Clients such as 3M, Coca Cola, Northwestern Mutual Life, and Walmart have benefited from the programs Matt has presented to their teams.  Matt is the author of All Pro Wisdom: The Seven Choices that Lead to Greatness, and resides in Mendota Heights, Minnesota. Matt and his wife, Adrianna, are the proud parents of eight children. In this episode, Matt and Cindra talk about: How he has mastered a focus on the process over outcome Why “living radcially in the present” is his life’s motto How went from Harvard to become a 6-time Pro-Bowler Why failure it not the same thing as losing How to make specific goals focused on the process And, why “appropriate fear” is helpful HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/388 HOW TO ENTER THE PODCAST GIVEAWAY TO WIN $500 CASH: www.drcindra.com/giveaway FB COMMUNITY FOR THE HPM PODCAST: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2599776723457390/ FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/ FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong VISIT MATT’S WEBSITE: https://www.mattbirkandcompany.com/ Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901

Hey, my name is Cindra Campoff and I'm a small-town Minnesota gal, Minnesota nice as we like to say it, who followed her big dreams. I spent the last four years working as a mental coach for the Minnesota Vikings, working one-on-one with the players. I wrote a best-selling book about the mindset of the world's best and I'm a keynote speaker and national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. And I am obsessed with showing you exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best so you can accomplish all your goals and dreams. So I'm over here following my big dreams and I'm here to inspire you and practically show you how to do the same. And you know, when I'm not working, you'll find me playing Ms. Pac-Man.

Yes, the 1980s game Ms. Pac-Man. So take your notepad out, buckle up, and let's go. This is the High Performance Mindset. Welcome to episode 388 with Super Bowl champion Matt Burke. This is your host, Dr. Sindra Kampoff, and thank you so much for joining us here today on the podcast. If you know that mindset is essential to your success, then you are in the right place. Because each and every week,

we talk about everything you can think of related to mindset. And today, we're talking about how to develop a winner's mindset with Super Bowl champion Matt Burke. Now, let me describe a little bit about Matt's background so you can get a picture of this as you're listening to this episode. He is a native of St. Paul, Minnesota and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 1998 and then played for the Baltimore Ravens in 2009. Matt is a six-time NFL Pro Bowl selection and a two-time All-Pro, and he was also named as

the sixth smartest athlete by the Sporting News, which you'll be able to tell in this podcast interview. But most importantly, he's established a legacy of community service that will last far beyond his years of football, which we talk about in this episode. He's a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in economics and the founder and CEO of Matt Burke and Company. He's also the recipient of the 2011 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for his excellence on and off the field, including emphasizing the importance of education through his H foundation. He now speaks across the country on the value of true inspiration, lasting leadership, the dynamics of teamwork, and

fulfilling your potential. Some of his clients include 3M, Coca-Cola, Northwestern Mutual, and Walmart. He's also the author of a book called All Pro Wisdom, The Seven Choices That Lead to Greatness, and he resides in my home state, Minnesota. He's also the proud parents of eight children with his wife, Adriana. And in this episode, Matt and I talk about what it means to develop this winner's mindset. And he talks about key principles related to high performance that are essential for all of us to develop, no matter what our area is in. First, he talks about the importance of focusing on the process over the outcome and how that leads to success in sport and in business.

He describes why living radically in the present is his life's motto. And then he describes how he went from Harvard to becoming a six-time pro bowler, even despite when he got to the Vikings after Harvard, he wasn't sure if he was going to make it. So I really appreciated his vulnerability there and just describing what it was like to make that transition. We also talk about why failure is not the same thing as losing, so good,

and how to make specific goals focused on the process. And then we talk a little bit about why appropriate fear is helpful. Now you can get the full show notes and the transcription to this podcast interview over at cindracampoff.com slash 388. And Matt and I would love to hear from you related to this podcast. Please let us know what you enjoyed. Tag a friend. Take a picture what you enjoyed. Tag a friend. Take a picture of the podcast.

Tag a friend. You can find both Matt and I anywhere on social media. I am at mentally underscore strong on Twitter and send your camp off everywhere else. Would love to hear what you thought about this podcast and your favorite part. And make sure you share it with a friend. As you're listening,

think about who could use this message today. All right, without further ado, let's bring on Matt Burt. Thank you so much for joining us, Matt. I'm really looking forward to talking with you today. And tell us just how your day's been going to get us started. Day's been good. You know, Fridays, you gotta, you gotta wrap everything up. And my days, you know, my days end when the kids get out of school, it's like my life turns into a pumpkin. So, which is good, because I have just a window that I need to get stuff done. And when kids get out of school, they get out of school. So it's a great way to end my week. Well, I'm looking forward to talking to you about the mindset of just what it's like

to play in the NFL at such a high level. And then now transitioning to your speaking business and all the other things that you have going on. I also think about your just the work that you do in the community. So I'm really looking forward to highlighting that. So maybe just to get us started, tell us a little bit about what you're passionate about right now and tell us what you're what you're doing right now. Yeah, well, I'm passionate about right now and tell us what you're what you're doing right now yeah well yeah probably passionate about too too many things but um you're going back to even my my playing days one of the great things about playing in the NFL is is you do have a platform and not talking about the platform like social media because back when I played it didn't

it didn't exist but you know you I remember the first uh i was just i was just thrilled as a rookie to make the team to make the the vikings team and the first week of the season we had practice on monday and uh denny green said look for the guys that are new here uh tuesdays we call it community tuesday make sure you get out there and do something and uh so i went to our community relations director brad mattson and i hey, do you have anything for me to do tomorrow? He said, yeah, I'm going to send you to this school. And I went to a school and, you know, nobody knew who I was, but they knew I played for the Vikings. And so all these kids were all fired up.

And, you know, my message was and still is about education. Yeah, I wasn't a great, great, great football player. I didn't have a chance to go play big time college football, but because I was a good football player and a good student, I got to continue that being a good student helped me continue my football career in college. I got to go to a great university. Yeah. And I never thought that I'd end up sticking around NFL for 15 years. So I thought sooner, sooner rather than later, that education was going to come into use. And so I thought that, you know, I was like a, an appropriate messenger for, to tell the kids that, to tell them about, you know, how important it is to try hard in school and do your

best. And it was just that, that experience really touched something in me. I was like, wow, you know, people actually listen. Kids, I love kids. I have a lot of kids. It was just, it was really life-giving for me to be out there. And a few years later, my wife and I started our own foundation, the Hike Foundation, which was centered around education, helping kids get through those key transitional points in their academic careers. And, you know, just really proud of the work that we were able to do. Certainly couldn't have done it without a great team, without great corporate partners in the community to fund it. And able to do some pretty big things. My last year in Baltimore, we had over 100,000 kids in our reading programs. And I guess post-football, that work has continued.

I helped co-found a Catholic high school in Burnsville called Unity High School. This is year two where we've tweaked the education model a little bit to make it a little more relevant to the times that we're living in. And, you know, it's just something that I'm super passionate about because I was fortunate in my life to have parents that cared and had teachers that cared. And, you know, they saw me through. They encouraged me. They taught me about hard work and discipline. And, you know, I think that there isn't a kid out there that can't benefit from from getting a great education. Well, I you know, I just think about the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. I think that's the year that you won it, right? I mean, what a prestigious honor and all the work that you're doing in the community is incredible. Matt, so I wanted to ask you to start just about the power of mindset and what led you to, you know, Minnesota to Harvard and just tell us a bit about your journey then to the Vikings and what that experience was like for you.

Yeah, well, I mean, I would consider myself overall sort of a low talent guy. I mean, I wasn't, you know, I don't think I was naturally super smart, certainly wasn't super talented in athletics. But, you know, one of the things that my dad always told us, I shouldn't say always told us, it wasn't like he was sitting us down talking to us every day. It wasn't that kind of thing, but he had a thing that stuck with me. It was always just best effort always. Okay. And you know, that was just, he never cared about how we played or what grades we got. It was just, are you putting the effort? And you know, he's, he's, he's not a, he's not a mindset guru coach or anything like that.

He's kind of an old school, common sense kind of guy, but there's a lot of wisdom in that. When you just focus on effort and not worry about results, that's a lot of the talk today around this is about process, right? Yeah, exactly. When you're not concerned about getting a certain result, you don't have any anxiety or stress about it.

You're just really focused on the moment and what you can do to get better or to get closer to, to your goal. And that was just kind of how I approached school and football and everything. Yeah. I know, obviously I never thought I'd play in the NFL. I just played football because it was fun and something to do and, and, um, just kind of fell in love with the process of football. I love, I love lifting weights. I love eating food that those things bode well, if you're going to be an offensive lineman and never, never specifically set a goal, like, Hey, I'm going to play in the NFL. It was just like, I'm just going to get as good as I can get because we'll see how good I can get. And that ended up that I ended up in the NFL

because of that. But that was kind of my mantra throughout my entire football career. And, and, and it's, it's really my mantra for my life is just best effort. Always. That's all you can control. That's all you can do is, is what, you know, what, what you can do today, what you can do right now in the moment. And so I guess I was really fortunate to kind of, you know, what you can do today, what you can do right now in the moment. And so I guess I was really fortunate to kind of, you know, be conditioned to think like that at a very young age. I think so many kids are results focused and you're right, that leads to worry and anxiety. And what a great message right away from your father, just like best effort always. When did you sort of have the realization that

maybe playing in the NFL was possible? And did you ever find your kind of attention shifting more to the outcome versus just this process? And then what happened if it did? Yeah, it was about halfway through my senior year in college. Obviously, it's not like Harvard sending guys to the NFL every year. Back then was never anybody going and there was a scout that came by about halfway through the season and I was like really I was like I just asked him I said you think I could play in the NFL and he's like yeah I think you got a chance and I was like wow okay so um yeah just wanted to make it's going to be an opportunity that was available to me that I did everything I could to, to exhaust that. Yeah. I guess I'm also big into not having any regrets. And I think you,

if you give everything you have, then, then you can't have any regrets. And when I did get drafted, sure. My mind went to those places where it was going to be like, yeah, geez, NFL, this is best of the best. I'm going to be famous and make millions of dollars and play for 10 years and, and all these things about, about the results. And, uh, I found out pretty quickly, the NFL doesn't really work like that. Uh, I was, uh, I knew day one that, uh,

after one practice and trying to block John Randall that I was, I was in for the fight of my life. In fact, I kind of felt like, wow, there's, there's no way I'm going to be able to do this. Like these, this is just, this is too, this is too much. These guys are too good. Um, so like, what was I going to do? I wasn't going to quit. You're not going to quit. And I, and I just went back to that. I said, well, I just better make sure that I'm, I'm at every meeting on time. I'm at every workout. I'm studying my playbook, you know, all those things that I can control. Um, I'm going to, I'm going to do it and I'm at every meeting on time. I'm at every workout. I'm studying my playbook. You know, all those things that I can control, I'm going to do it. And I'm going to be great at all the things that don't require talent.

Because really, this is kind of how I thought that like, they're going to cut me. And, you know, but I'm gonna be able to say, hey, I gave it everything I had. Because that was all I was going to be able to have when I left. So, you know, a lot of people talk people like envision you know the the end in mind and yeah yourself being successful I was like no they're gonna cut me because I can't block that Randall so so it really made me just make everything really small and and really did kind of force me to just live live in the moment and and and let go of those results. And as it turns out, that's, that's a pretty healthy approach, uh, when, when, when you're trying to, to accomplish something.

Um, so it's, it's as simple as it sounds and that's simple, doesn't mean easy, obviously, but, um, as simple as it sounds, it was, it was just a way that I could, I could wake up every day and, and, uh, and, and do something, you know, move forward. And so it worked. Well, Matt, you know, that is a secret I see in the, at least the guys I work with who are consistently really good and who can last a long time in the NFL. And I think for you to just have experienced that, that you didn't feel like that you were so great at the beginning and you might get cut, you know,

but then you focus just on the process, which you could get could control. And that's what I see that the best of the best do. They aren't focused on the outcome. They, they're really not even dreaming to the next year, five years away, just because, you know, it's, it's, it feels like it's can be so fragile, you know, in terms of how long you stay there. It's, it's funny, you know, it's sort of funny, the things you remember, when I was a senior in high school, that summer, before I went to college, somebody gave me as a graduation gift, a certificate to go to the to the Stephen Covey workshop, you know, the seven habits. And I don't remember anything from that workshop except one thing.

You know, they had us do a goal setting exercise. And I remember it was so the goal I wrote down was I want to be able to bench 300 pounds. And so you write down the goal and then it was like, okay, that's great, but that doesn't mean anything. So it's like now write down the steps, the things that you need to do to accomplish that goal and, um, and focus on those things. And so I remember I wrote down about, you know, not missing any workouts and eating this much protein a day, those things, just breaking it, breaking that goal, that result down into small actionable steps, things that I could do every single day. And, you know, for some reason that, that stuck

with me. And that's kind of, that's kind of how I approach it. Are there times where I sometimes do think about the result? Do things not happen as quickly as I want to, you know, the great thing about football is it's like every week there's a test, you know, you study, you prepare. And on Sunday, it's like, you're either successful or you failed. You know what I mean? That's, that's it. Real life business is not like that, right? I mean, a lot of times you're, you're working on projects or you try to start new businesses or new initiatives. There's, there's a million different pieces and there's, there's really no clear cut scoreboard um progress sometimes is slow or sometimes it doesn't sometimes you take steps back um there's a lot

of ups and downs and and so it even becomes more important i think that um that you become process focused and and really only um really only focus on those things because there's there's a lot of days that it's it's's, it's a grind. You feel like you're kind of walking in quicksand or a, or a swamp. And I think you can get, you can become almost, almost defeated if you, if you keep worrying about, you know, what, what the, what the result is. Absolutely. Matt, I have this rule, I call it, and it's just my theory working with some of the best of the best. And, you know, your mind can be in three places, past, present, or future. And I call the 99% rule because literally I think that the best players are 99% focused in the present you know once in a while they might drift their attention and maybe visualize the next game but they're not too far in the future and not too long and they're not necessarily focused on stats or you know where they are in the season it's like okay what do I got to do right now to grind absolutely I think you know again I kind of footballize everything and I think it's a great metaphor for life.

It's pretty easy to understand. But, you know, you have a saying that like after you watch the film, it's over. We have to move on. And you do because you need every second of the week to get ready for the next opponent. You always feel like there's not quite enough time. So I think you do have to develop that skill of, okay, the past is the past. You take what you can from it, you know. Okay, that mistake or whatever it is. Okay. I learned, I'm not going to do that again. But you, you don't have that emotion, like that, that regret you just, you have to learn to move

on from that. And it's even, you know, in a game, you know, play to play, you see it all the time in sports. Somebody has a bad play that you know, they're still thinking about and they have another bad play and another bad play. And you just have to be able to just, just move on next play. One of my coaches, my head coach in Baltimore, John Harbaugh had a great kind of little thing. He'd say, you know, bad play, you know, whatever he goes, you just brush it off. And you just go like this, you just brush it off and, and you're onto the next one. And, and, and, and,

and I use that in football and I use it in life as well. So being present and then, yeah, just always being, you know, I guess, mindful of the, of the ultimate goal that should help, you know, kind of direct what you're doing in the present. So, you know, once in a while reminding yourself of the goal and you could also, I guess, at times maybe provide some, some motivation when you're saying, you know, why am I, you know, why do I have 500 pounds on the bar? Why am I squatting? You know, or why am I, you know, making 20, um, 20 lead calls today? Um, just kind of to, to provide some, some, some motivation and inspiration, but yeah,

for majority of time needs to be, needs to be in the present moment. I have this, I have this little saying I came across it needs to be in the present moment. I have this, I have this little saying I came across it's live radically in the present moment. Awesome. And that's, that's something I go back to a lot. Well, I can hear that was one of the reasons you were successful. So I kind of go back to that moment when you first played, we started playing for the Vikings and you weren't sure, you know, if you were going to make it or not. And then to become a six time pro bowler, when did you sort of feel like, okay, I got this. Uh, you know, honestly, I would say, I would say never. I mean, I, you know, started at the bottom

and then got to the top pretty, I mean, relatively quickly. But in the NFL, it's always like, okay, you see, you know, can I do this? Okay, you can. And now that you're here, the challenge is, well, how long can I do it for? You know, it's almost like as a young player, I mean, I remember looking at the old players saying, man, they've been here six, seven, eight years, they must, this must be easy for them. And then once I got to be a couple years in, I was like, it's never easy. I mean, you're like, it's never easy. You're either fighting to prove yourself or you're fighting to prove that you can, that you can keep doing it. You know, once you are a starter,

once you do, you know, if you're named to the pro bowl, the guy you're playing against, he knows that he knows, well, I'm going to make a name for myself. Cause I'm going to, I'm going to have a better game than, than, than this pro bowl guy. I'm going to make a name for myself. And so it's never like, oh, I've arrived. I'm there. In the NFL, it's just so competitive that every single day you have to bring it. The Navy SEALs have a saying that the only easy day was yesterday.

And that's a good one. And in the NFL, and I think in, in life and business, it doesn't matter if you've done it a thousand times before. The only thing that matters is that you're doing it again today. And so, you know, my career, whether it was early trying to prove myself or trying to, trying to stay at the, at the highest level, or even at the end, you're just trying to prove that, Hey, I can still do this. You know, he's, he's old. He's, he's, he's lost a step. You're, you're, you're trying to prove it to them and to yourself that I can, that I can still do this at a good enough level. Even if, even if I am at a, at an older age, there's always, there's always

something to prove to yourself. Um, and always something to prove to everybody else. So I think about what you just said about, you know, it's never easy and it's always competitive. And at least what I see working in pro sport, it's like, man, it can seem like people are just cut like that. Something that I kind of, I had to really get used to. And so how did you handle the pressure of that? Because I could imagine that if you let that, if you overthink that, or if that's in your

awareness too long, that it wouldn't have helped you perform very well. So how'd you handle the pressure of just the being able to perform on demand always? Yeah. Well, I think, I think you just have to accept that that's, that's reality, whether you like it or not. It's just, that's just the way it is and you can't do anything about it. you know we're talking about if you're talking about the NFL I mean you're talking about the top one percent of the one percent so it's super competitive you know there's a reason why you make millions of dollars because it's really hard to hard to do um so you just you just you just accept that and and again go back to the process but I'd also say too it's I mean that's for that's

for teammates are so so valuable um you know you're gonna have good days and bad days uh teammates teammates are there to you know pat you on the back and and also pick you up off the ground after a tough day also you know just watching them work as as hard as as you are is is inspiring and so you know I don't think anybody goes it alone. I think, I think you're foolish if you try to try to think that you can, or that you try to do it that way. You know, life is a, it's a team game and you should, you should, you should be a good teammate to others because that's, that's the right thing to do. But you should also realize that, that you can, that you can learn and draw from from

other people as well and there's certainly no shame in that it's actually I think smart to realize that and do that and you know for for you and for the other individual but then also for the team right I mean football is a team sport our ultimate goal here is to win the Super Bowl I mean I've been on teams where we went five and eleven or six and ten and and i made the pro bowl but it wasn't uh i wouldn't say it was a ton of fun it's not a ton of fun to lose and um you know fortunate enough to be at the top of the mountain one time to win a to win a super bowl and that's that's a way better feeling than than being in hawaii by yourself at the pro bowl but being able to celebrate something like that with, with, with all your teammates, that's something that is just, it's, it's, it's more worthwhile.

And it's, it's something that, that everybody, everybody remembers, you know, in sports there, there is, I mean, there is a, there is the aspect you are on the biggest stage, right? And so it's, it's, it's nice to, to, to have won a Super Bowl and to sort of have that on your resume, if you will, because I think people remember that and respect that more than anything you do individually. Whether it's business or football, I mean, after a while, nobody really cares how good you were. I mean, I grew up watching Jerry Rice. I think he's the greatest football player ever. My kids don't know who Jerry Rice is. They don't care. So as a football player, it's like, Hey, Hey, when you, when you're done playing,

nobody really cares how good you were. So like, like let's do something that we can all, you know, I mean, create a, create a memory here together that we can all take with us and, and something special. And so I guess, I mean, my point is that a team success is much more gratifying than individual success. So I'm thinking about, Matt, what it's like to play in the Super Bowl. What did you learn while you were playing in the Super Bowl or, you know, with the honor of playing the Super Bowl, what did you learn? And I'm thinking about people who are listening who are maybe experiencing a

pressure-packed moment. You know, maybe it's not the actual Super Bowl, but it might be the Super Bowl in their mind. And I'm just curious, you know, how you performed well in that environment and what you learned. You know, because I didn't look at it like I was playing in the Super Bowl. If I'd have thought it like that way, I'd have probably wouldn't have been able to make it out of locker room. I'd have been so nervous. Right. I think I just broke it down into, Hey, this is, this is just football and it always goes back to fundamentals. I mean, we practice every single day and we do, we practice the same drills, the same fundamentals every single day. So I just looked at it as I broke it

down into really small. I just made it super small. And I said, I'm just going to go out there and try to execute the fundamentals that I practiced every single day for 15 years. That was that, that, that in my mind, that's how I was looking at it. I didn't think about how big the moment was or trying wasn't to think about that. Just trying to focus on, on, on the little things, you know my my steps and my hands and coming off the ball and and those kinds of things and and I think that's um right like I think that's what that's what high performers do and and you are going to have those moments we're all going to have the Super Bowl moments those those big those big spots where we

need to perform and uh it doesn't do any good to to hope that you're going to perform well, to think you might perform well. You just prepare as hard as you can prepare and then go out there and execute those fundamentals. And you'll see if your best is good enough or not. I think you also just have to be aware and accept that losing is always a possibility. There's two outcomes, you win or you lose. And, you know, losing is not a sin. It's not, not necessarily the desired outcome that you might want, but but it's a possibility. And I think you're kind of, I think you can kind of fool yourself if you don't recognize that, you know, I'm, I'm not, I'm not not a fan of positive thinking. But you know, by just by just hoping not, I'm not not a fan of positive thinking, but you know,

by just by just hoping and keep saying that it's going to happen doesn't doesn't do anything. And I think you kind of lose that. It's not real. And you kind of lose that edge that, hey, things might not work out. I mean, understanding that you might lose is also helpful. And it, it, it makes you keep you sharp. Make sure it creates a little bit of, I'd say, healthy, healthy stress. What is, I think, is it a Greg Popovich from the San Antonio Spurs? He calls it appropriate fear, an appropriate fear where you're making sure you're doing everything that you, that you should do. And and and then some but not not fearful to the point where it's paralyzing yeah and i think about just always thinking positive you know that doesn't always help us prepare or motivate us or you know and i think that's just realistic

yeah or or i'd say deal with you know things that come up deal with challenges you know if you're not doing something well if you're and you just say, it's going to be okay. No, it's not like you need to, you need to go fix that problem. You need to understand this is a problem. I need to get better here. I need to go attack that versus saying, wow, it's, it's, it's going to be okay. Well, and one thing that I heard Matt, when you were describing the Superbowl is you went back to your process, you know, like it could have been really easy in that moment to get focused on the outcome or the distractions of all the people watching. Right. But it's like, you just went back to the fundamentals and the process. Yeah. Again, I kind of use the,

well, okay. If we, if we do lose, right. I don't want to, I don't want to come out of this saying, well, we lost. And, but I really had a good time that week in New Orleans and I really soaked in the the Super Bowl experience I don't want to say that I just I want to be able to say we lost but and I you know I knew everything I needed to know and I my body felt good and and and I played hard I mean I want to be able to say that I gave it my best shot and you know it's uh I've it's funny because the one of the pieces of advice that we got from you know coaches or guys that came back to talk to us who'd played in the Super Bowl or guys on the team that played the Super Bowl before was

make sure you enjoy it make sure you enjoy it and I was like I don't think I'm here to really enjoy myself right I mean I knew what they were saying was like, maybe take a second and, and, and be grateful for the opportunity. Yeah. But I didn't want to walk away saying, yeah, we lost, but I really had a good time. That's, that's not, that was not what I was looking for. So tell us in general, Matt, what role do you think mindset played in terms of going from Minnesota to Harvard to the Vikings and then the Ravens? What role do you think mindset played in all that? I think it's everything. I really do because I look at the NFL, you know, what's the differentiator? Because there's plenty of guys who are big enough and strong enough. You know, talent is not an issue. Finding enough talented guys, everybody has

talent, but the guys are able to take their talent and then able to perform at a level where they can play in the NFL you know stick around play play for a long time be one of the best ever it's it's it's all about mindset and I got to play a lot of great players the all-time greats Chris Carter, Adrian Peterson, Randy Moss, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed. You know, those guys, they were, they were so into the process. I mean, Wednesday for them was that they were putting max effort into Wednesdays, just like they were on Sundays. And so they took the process seriously. It wasn't like, hey, just kind of hang out during the week and rest up and then go out

there and make it happen on Sundays. Their mindset really was, you know, every single day it was like, how do I get better? And I would be even a little more specific with that is everyone says, well, I just want to get better today. Okay. You know, or want to get 1% better. I'd say, you know, what, what 10 things can I get just a little bit better at today? Just, you know, a 10th of a percent better at five things or 10 things. And then the next day, same thing over and over. And I think if you, it's the law of compounding interest, right? If you just keep just a little bit every single day, you keep stacking day after day, after day, after day on those, you can get pretty good.

And if everybody on your team is doing the same thing then over over a period of time you guys you guys can get really really good um and so yeah that was that was just that was the mindset is really of course you want to get better but then just try to try to get i mean even if it's like you know i'm at a workout like this tomorrow's workout i'm gonna do five pounds more than i did last workout um i'm gonna'm going to make sure that my, you know, this, I know the world of an offensive lineman, isn't that interesting, but it was like today in practice, I'm going to make sure that my left hand gets inside every single time. When I, when I punch a guy in pass pro just getting, I mean, really digging down into the, into the, uh, minutiae, uh, I think is, is, is a way to make progress. Sometimes we just think that I'm just gonna

go out there and get better. And you're going to be 20% better than you were yesterday. You know, that doesn't happen. And it doesn't, you're not going to get better if you don't try to get really specific with your goals. So being specific with how you want to get better, I think also just setting that intention helps you focus on that, right? Because if it's like, I'm just going to get better, what does that even mean? Matt, can you tell us about a time where you think mindset really was important to you while you were playing? Maybe a time where it played a role besides always? Yeah, I just say, yeah, always.

I think, I mean, I'll go back to my rookie year. I can remember being in Mankato sharing a dorm room in Gage Hall with Corey Withrow. He was undrafted. I was a late round and we were beginning to can't, we were almost crying ourselves to sleep at night. Cause we were like, this is, this is so hard. We're so bad. You know, we, you know we were used i mean you're used to being like the you know one of the best players on your team right in high school and college and then it's

like oh my gosh we're we're terrible like if we ever played football before um but i just kind of remember it's like boy we're gonna be here for three or four weeks whatever it was and every day we're gonna wake up and we're gonna get our we going to get our lunches handed to us and practice by these guys. I remember then it was like, I'm not even going to look at the calendar. I'm not going to count the days. You know, it's like, I'm just going to wake up and we actually broke the days into half days. Cause we had two practices back then. So there's a morning practice and afternoon practice.

So we'd wake up in the morning. It's like, okay, what do we got to do today? It was just like breakfast, meetings, practice. Like that was it. We'd like get through that. And then after lunch, it was like, all right, what do we get? Oh, all we have left today. We kind of break it even the days into two days to try to just make it as small as possible. And I think that's the thing.

Just make everything as small as you possibly can. I think that helps you focus in the present. And also doesn't, you know, this huge task of going through training camp and making the Vikings and these things, that's a daunting task, right? Like that can be, that can discourage you from the start. And so, yeah, again, I mean, all the things we've talked about, you know, being present in the present moment, making the goals really small. I think that rookie year, I think kind of learned it just in order to survive, honestly. It was almost like a survival technique

because I was like, you just got to try to get out of here. I mean, I want to be able to leave Mankato. It was like staying at the base of Mount Everest. I was like, I don't think I can do this yeah I appreciate the just realness and just describing how it wasn't like when you got there it was perfect or you know that you had some questions and doubts as well and I was wondering if um maybe the time that you were injured and you had to have you had to leave the game and you had surgery if that was a time where you felt like just getting back. I'm just thinking about the psychology of injury and how

it can be really discouraging when athletes no longer can play. And I was curious about that experience for you and the role that you think mindset played there. It's a great question. I forgot about that. Yeah. I mean, I had four surgeries over 11 months and, uh, and I didn't like, I would wake up every day and I didn't feel good. Um, I mean, every day I'd wake up and be like, maybe today's the day I'm going to put my foot on the floor, getting out of bed and I'm going to feel good I had these hernias and it's just this like debilitating injury and um and every day I'd wake up and I didn't feel good and you as an

athlete like that's right your body is how you make your living and physical pain can affect you emotionally and psychologically too and I'm thinking geez I was like in the prime of my career and I didn't know if I'd ever play again. And that was super stressful also too, because you're wired a little bit as a football player to be like, well, I can, I can play through anything. You know, pain is not a, it's not a factor. This was an injury that I couldn't, I couldn't play through. And it was, I was like, well, I don't know. I said, I don't know if I'll ever feel good again. After a few months, you forget what it's like to feel good. You almost can't envision yourself being out on the field again, paying free plan. And so I said, well, all I can do is go to the

facility, do all the rehab they tell me to do. I mean, to a T, that's all I can do. And so I just kind of made it, that was my, that was like my mission every single day was they had the list of stuff and I would just check it off as we went. And, you know, that, that, when I went home, I just kind of, I tried to stop, stop trying to assess myself, which physically, but I mean, I think that's valuable in, in life too, in your, in your work is, you know, stop, stop, like, stop, stop trying to assess yourself, stop, stop looking at the scoreboard every two seconds to see how you're doing. And just what's that? What's that list? How can I go down the list and just check off all the things and then when I left when you leave work, it's like, okay, I did it today. I did everything

I said I was going to do. And you can, you know, we do need to feel good. We need to feel good about what we're doing about the process. But that was that was hard to let go. And, and I don't have any problem saying this is that it, you know, it's a it's a spiritual journey as well. I mean, let's not fool ourselves. I mean, we're all spiritual beings. And so I had to also accept that and and do a lot of a lot of searching and come to grips with it. That like, maybe this is how it's supposed to end for me. And I'm going to need to accept that. And so, yeah, that was a tough time.

The other thing, too, I would say made it tough. I think at that point in my life, prime of, prime of my career and had everything that I ever wanted professionally. But I would say that my identity as human beings have the tendency, we can get too prideful. And I see it a lot of times with, with, with men and women who, you know, worked 40 years in an industry and they're 65 years old and they retire and they have this really hard time with, with retirement because they don't really know who they are because their identity was wrapped up in, in, in what they did. And so it's, if you want to have a, I think if you want to have a great life, you better you better not tie your identity to to to what you do. Oh, that's such a powerful statement right there. And do you feel like because we can over identify with what we do and I'm thinking about just as an athlete, you can like over identify as an athlete as a football player. Do you think your injury helped you understand your identity and your athletic identity better? Or was this kind of something you just realized maybe after you were

done playing? No, I think it did it at that point because I said, wow, it might be over. Like again, I couldn't just keep saying, I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. I kept having surgeries and a couple of months later, I wasn't fine. And so I'm like, well, maybe I'm not going to be fine. And so again, you kind of have to stare that fail, not failure, but losing in the, in the face and say, this is, this is a possibility. And so, you know, I had to, I had to come to, I had to come to grips with that. Fortunately, I guess, fortunately it wasn't, it wasn't the end of my career, but yeah, that was, that was a process process there was some some humility that that went on there there were some there were some tough times like i remember every time because i get the facility first and to get my rehab done so i could go to the meetings and stuff and you're driving to

work and it's dark and you just have just just you alone in the car um you kind of some some some tough conversations with yourself and some tough conversations with God, really trying to figure it out. Yeah, that's powerful. And I'm also hearing like throughout that, you know, comes back to your theme of like living radically in the present, right? That's how you were able to get through it, especially when you're describing at the beginning. So you said the word failure, Matt, and I wanted to ask you, what do you think failure is? And tell us about a time that you failed and what you learned from it. And the reason I'm asking that question is because I asked that question to almost every guest I have, like, what is failure? And it's really

interesting that everyone has a different definition. And then I'm thinking, you know, why don't we just decide how we define failure? So what do you think it means? Seriously, one of the best questions I've probably ever been asked. Well, I'll tell you my definition of success is. Okay, perfect. It's doing the best you can with what you have. Yeah. And so I guess failure is the opposite of that yeah i mean best you can yeah not doing the best you can with what you have i guess i mean i to kind of put it in the terms we've been talking is maybe you know looking back and saying well i mean listen i mean i'm in business now so there are times where oh i didn't didn't see that coming. I didn't know that. I didn't see that potential power.

Is that failing? I don't know. I guess it is if five people told me it was a possibility. I just said, no, you're wrong. Everything's going to be okay. But sometimes you're just not going to be smart enough or your product's not going to be good enough or whatever it is. But I think failure is looking back and saying essentially that I could have

worked a little harder. Sure. I could have worked a little harder. To me, that's what failure is. If you look back, I could have, I could have put a little more into it. I mean, we're always going to want to play, play better, perform better. I mean, I years after I watched, I didn't watch the Superbowl that we played in. That was my last game. I didn't watch it until years after, because I kind of felt like once I watch it, then

my career is definitely over. Like, at least I have one more thing, but I haven't watched the film yet. So, but I, I mean, I've watched the game and there's a couple of plays. I'm like, oh man, cause it's just like the worst when you, you watch film and you, your guy makes the play when you get beat. But I, you know, so of course I was, well, I wish I would have, I wish I would've gotten beat. Yeah. You're going to say that, but I know looking, looking back on my career,

I was kind of always in, in my mind was when it's all over, when they, when they ripped the Jersey off your back and they say, you can't play anymore, make sure you look back and say, well, I did everything I could. I, you know, I made every workout. Whenever meeting watched all the film did, I did everything I could. I, you know, I made every workout whenever meeting, watched all the film, did everything that I could have done. I squeezed every ounce out of it that I, that I could, to me, that's, that's success. And so again, it, it, it goes back to the process.

It has nothing to do for me. Failure has nothing to do with the, with the results. It's really about, it's really about the process. Well, and I think it goes back to what your dad taught you really early on, like give your best effort always. And if you're not giving your best effort, that equals failure to you. But I, what I also really appreciate what you just said is that failure isn't tied to an outcome. And if you think about how most people define failure, it's all all right we lost or something related to the outcome that we really ultimately can't control yeah i think i think losing and failure are two different things i mean you can lose yeah you can absolutely lose uh that's i've probably lost more

than i've won when when it then the final score in the final tally sheet i probably lost more than i've won um But failure is different. And yeah, I definitely subscribe to that. Great point. So tell us a little bit about your transition then out of the NFL and starting your own business and your speaker. And you do all this great work in the community. Just give us a little insight on what that was like then after retirement and into kind

of the world outside of the NFL yeah so I would say probably didn't handle retirement the best from the standpoint of right I guess for 15 years you're playing football and the night the nice thing about playing football one of the things is you look back every day you say well I got a lot done today we got a lot done I mean it got a lot done. I mean, it's, you know, every, the team, everybody knows the goal. You get to work the whole day's laid out. And there's, I mean, you're doing stuff. You're boom, boom, boom, boom. You're, you've got a long to-do list and you're checking it all off. And then all of a sudden you wake up one day and it's like, I can do whatever I want. I don't, I don't necessarily have a clearly defined goal. That was not a good feeling for me. And so I, if I look, if I look back, I would have done it differently. I would just

taken six months and done nothing and just sat there and kind of been still. And I would have thought and just taught, I mean, I wouldn't have done anything, but I didn't, I wrote a book. I was like, I got to write a book and I got to do this and that. There's no clearly defined plan, which I'm a little, I think planning is a little bit overrated. You know, there's, you always have a plan, but then there's what happens, which is nothing like the plan. I've kind of lived my life a little bit to sort of just kind of take, take things as they come and, and figure it out on it out on the fly a little bit. But yes, I do have a business where I do a fair amount of speaking to all sorts of organizations.

I'm involved in a couple of startup businesses, sort of nothing, no in particular sector. But and the way I've kind of gotten involved in those is not, I mean, I'm a fan of business. I was an econ major, if that means anything, but it's by people. Just fortunate to met a lot of people when I played to meet a lot of people now. And I like people, obviously, I like being part of a team. And so when I meet people that get me excited and then inspire me and that I look up to in certain ways, and it's like, let's bring this product to market. That's exciting.

I like the challenge, but I also like the idea of getting in the trenches with people that I respect and that I look up to and trying to do something really hard, which is entrepreneurship. And so there is some, you know, as a football player, you have to learn to kind of like pain. You have to kind of like how you started in some weird way, perverse way, like taking a beating. And so I look up, I look at entrepreneurship as kind of like that. That's just kind of how I'm wired, I think. And so, yeah, that's, that's what I, that's, that's what I do during the day when I'm not helping my wife take care of our eight

children. That could just be a full-time job right there. It is a full-time job. Luckily, I've been blessed. I have a lot of energy. I don't require a lot of sleep, but also too, I feed off other people and fortunate to have, I do think one thing that, I mean, we could go for hours about things I don't do well. But one thing I think I do well is I do surround myself with, with good people, you know, high energy, high integrity. I'm just,

I'm drawn to those people. And so I think they help, they help pull the best out of me as well. Well, I appreciate what you just said about entrepreneurship. I know those people who are entrepreneurs agree. I agree that sometimes it feels like you got to be ready to take a beating and, you know, one step back to take, you know, or two steps back to take one step forward or, you know, just adjusting and pivoting. And I think especially with COVID. Yeah.

Tell us a little bit about what you speak on, Matt. And I know there's so many different ways we could go into that, but maybe just generally tell us about what you speak on. Yeah. Leadership, teamwork, performance, those types of things, right? And those are applicable to all walks of life. We're all part of a team, whether it's at work, whether it's at home, whether it's a church, whether it's our community. I mean, I really think, I mean, how you get along with other people, not just how you get along, but how you function and how you as a group come

together to whether it's achieving the goal of, you know, selling a hundred million widgets or whether it's, how do we raise, you know, how do we raise these children into healthy adults? Right. It's I mean, that's, that's, that's, that's really life. And, you know, NFL is a great case study. It's, it's, there's a, I think football is easy to understand. That's why it's so popular. But also it's it's it's, it's fun. And it's also like the NFL, right. It's all, it's all about parody. So, you know, everything's the same, right?

But essentially talent is the same on every team because everybody's got the same amount of money to spend on talent and the same number of coaches and all those things. But there are those teams that seem to year after year are at the top of the league and fortunate to play a long time was on some good teams was on a lot of bad teams too. And so I think I learned a lot and have some have some have some somewhat unique insights on on those topics and um it's it's everything's

kind of footballized so I think it tends to be somewhat entertaining versus maybe uh a drier more more more more corporate approach to those topics and And you also have a Pursuit Academy that you have been working on to develop some curriculum for fourth graders. Tell us a little bit about that. I think that's a really unique thing you're doing in the community among all the other things that you're doing. Yeah. Well, thank you. Yes. We have a couple of curriculum that are in schools across the country. And we set this one called Pursuit Academy, which I did not invent the content, but it came across and it's fantastic. We actually have it at Unity High School in Burnsville. And so I said, you know, it'd be great as fourth grade is kind of the first key

education transitional point for kids. It's also the point now where kids start to kind of like, you know, develop clicks, where kids really start to interact of like develop clicks, where kids really start to interact and where things can get kind of negative socially for kids. And so we said, hey, what can we do? And this Pursuits Academy really teaches kids how to be ethical entrepreneurs of their own lives, right? We're all entrepreneurs of our own lives.

We might not be entrepreneurs in business, but we're entrepreneurs of our own lives. Like we have to, you know, we've got to set our trajectory and we're going to have to, to pivot and duck and figure out this thing, this thing called life. And, you know, why do we wait until kids are in high school? There's a lot of, I don't want to say damage done, but there's a lot that happens before high school. And so we've, we're taking this, this pursuit academy curriculum and breaking it down to a fourth grade level and teaching kids these, these skills that I think that they need in order for them to thrive and to have a successful life, but also to, to, to bring others with them. You know, like, like one of our skills is teach kids the value of opposing peer pressure.

We tell kids, well, don't give in to peer pressure, peer pressure. Well, first of all, if you just don't do it, that doesn't, there's no value proposition there. So we would say, show them the value of opposing peer pressure, but then also of the, like, like be, be a source of good peer pressure. Don't, don't try to force others to conform to how you think or how you want them to be, right? Accept people for their differences. And I don't see any reason why we can't start teaching fourth graders that. I think the earlier, the better.

And fourth grade, again, it's kind of one of those key points where kids start to, they start reading on their own a little bit. They're thinking, you know, they're not in nursery school anymore and so super exciting project again just working on it with some amazing people and uh excited to get the the product done because the way that we're going to approach it uh is we are going to obviously this is for educators and which is not a strict curriculum you have to do it this way teachers are the experts and so we give a lot of latitude into how they want where they want to take it after we kind of just give them the the bones of the of the subject matter

but I think too and what we're going to do is reach out to the business community and see if they will help bring it to market. Because I think sometimes good ideas come outside of industries. I'm not a professional educator. Working with some people who are in education, but creating a product and then let's have the private sector and the business community come together

and bring this product to market and offer it to our students. So really excited about that. Hoping that launches in 2021. students. So really excited about that, hoping that launches in 2021. Awesome. So great and so powerful. So Matt, I am so grateful to spend some time with you today. I love this honest, real conversation. And I'm going to do my best to summarize some of the high points that we talked about, because I think you provided so much value for everyone listening today. I really, when we started, we talked about what your dad taught you, just like your best effort always. And then that connects to what we were talking about related to

failure, that failure is different than losing, right? But your definition of failure is I could have worked harder. I loved this focus of like process instead of outcome. And I thought that was really powerful in this conversation and just your idea of this, like live radically in the present. And I'm hearing how, you know, just how both of those helped you really stay in the NFL for a long period of time and perform really well. And just, I really am grateful about your, the conversation and the stories at the beginning of when you were talking about getting to the NFL and how it wasn't, it wasn't something like you had just arrived and it never felt like you really arrived that it was,

it wasn't really easy. So I'm just grateful for the time we spent in this idea of like these small specific goals. I think it's really helpful, everything that you shared today. So thanks so much for joining us. Absolutely. My pleasure, Sandra. Thanks for having me. Tell us how people can reach out to you or find more about your speaking or just follow along with what you got going on, Matt. Yeah. MattBurkeandCompany.com is our website. And if you want a good chuckle and maybe become irritated once in a while, you can follow me on Twitter. You're a good follow on Twitter. I'm glad you

think so. Do you have any final advice for people? Uh, something that I haven't, something that I haven't said already. Uh, I would say this. Um, I think that wherever you are, you're exactly where you're supposed to be right now. I think we need also need to remember that we always want to maybe fast forward to the end and have like the success or whatever it is, but you're exactly where you're supposed to be right now. Awesome. Thank you so much. I'm so grateful for your time, Matt. My pleasure, Sandra. Thank you. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to

Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindhra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.