A Cooler is never in a situation where he has to be “clutch.”
A Closer is “clutch” in high-pressure situations.
A Cleaner is always “clutch.”
Closers are called Closers for a reason: they show up at the end. They can deliver in a pressure situation because they step up when something is on the line.
For Cleaners, every moment is a pressure situation, and everything is always on the line
Honestly, if I were you, I’d be insulted if someone said I had a clutch gene. It’s not a compliment when people say you step up for the big games. Where were you all the other games? Why weren’t you that solid and aggressive and effective all the time?
being relentless means constantly working for that result, not just when drama is on the line. Clutch is about the last minute. Relentless is about every minute.
if you’re content to wait until that last minute, you are way too safe the rest of the time, taking it easy, coasting along in your comfort zone. A lot of guys won’t take that last shot, not because they’re afraid they’ll miss, but because if they make it, they have to keep making it. Look at Jeremy Lin: he exploded out of nowhere to play at such a high level for the Knicks, and everyone expected him to stay at that level, which just wasn’t going to happen. When you start that high, you have a lot farther to fall and you hit the ground a lot harder from that height. For a lot of guys, it’s easier to stay in the comfort zone, close to the ground. Minimal expectations, minimal pressure . . . minimal rewards. But you’re safe.
Cleaners crave that height, along with the pressure of staying up there and going higher and higher. As soon as they start relaxing for just a moment, they instantly feel as if they’re slacking. If you’re a Cleaner, you know that intense rush of needing to control something, attack something, right now. Never, ever, do you go through a day thinking, “That was relaxing.” To a Cleaner, relaxing is something weaker people do because they can’t handle pressure. Put him in a situation where he’s supposed to be relaxed—such as a vacation he didn’t really want to take, or a day he doesn’t have to work out—and he’ll actually become more stressed thinking about what he should have been doing. He’d rather deal with a challenge than put the effort into “unwinding.” He likes being wound.
When a Cleaner wants a break from the pressure he puts on himself, he escapes to the dark side. Something else for him to control, a temporary fix that maintains the pressure but allows him to shift his focus from one addiction to another for a while. Instead of working, he reaches for sex. Instead of competing, he goes for the bottle. Instead of obsessing about his finances, he goes to the gym to obsess about his body. Still all about pressure, performance, and pushing the edge of his comfort zone back farther and farther, just to test his own limits. Assuming he has any.
A Cleaner controls the pressure he feels, and he never looks to anyone else to help him control it.
A Cleaner doesn’t respond to external pressure, he puts the pressure back on the guy trying to get under his skin by refusing to acknowledge him. Remember, you don’t compete with anyone, you make them compete with you. You can control what you put on yourself; you can’t control what the other guy puts on you. So you focus only on the internal pressure that drives you. Run to it, embrace it, feel it, so no one else can throw more at you than you’ve already put on yourself.
Everyone can handle pressure. Most people choose not to because it’s easier to stay safe in the comfort zone. But if you want to be successful, to have that place in the sun, then you have to leave the shade. It’s not easy to leave the shade; it’s cool and comfortable, compared to the hot discomfort of the sun. But you can’t be relentless if you can’t take discomfort, and you can’t be unstoppable if you only deal with pressure when you have no choice.
Pressure can bust pipes, but it can also make diamonds. If you take the negative view, it will crush you; now you’re in an “I can’t do this” frame of mind. But the positive view is that pressure is a challenge that will define you; it gives you the opportunity to see how much you can take, how hard you can go. Everyone wants to cut back on stress, because stress kills. I say bullshit. Stress is what brings you to life. Let it motivate you, make you work harder. Use it, don’t run from it. When it makes you uncomfortable, so what? The payoff is worth it. Work through the discomfort, you’ll survive. And then go back for more.
Of course, you have to be able to recognize the difference between stress that can bring great results, and stress you create yourself that just causes chaos. Showing up unprepared, not putting in the work, blowing off commitments and obligations . . . that’s the stuff that creates pointless stress.
The leaders don’t have the luxury of checking out. It’s one thing when you’re in an individual sport—if you quit, you quit on yourself. With a team sport, you have a lot of other people relying on you, and you know that every day someone is mentally taking the day off, so you’re going to have to cover for him. But you don’t know who it’s going to be—who’s showing up to play, who’s not really showing up at all—until you’re right there in the middle of the situation. So there’s even more pressure to figure out what you’re working with.
It’s not enough to get to the top. You have to stay there. Feel that pressure, and fight to stay there. You have to work for that. It’s not owed to you.
“Just because I don’t doesn’t mean I can’t.”
When you deal with stress all the time, it becomes second nature. It’s still not easy or effortless, but you handle things without panicking because you have experience in accepting the rigors of complex challenges. When you never have to take on anything harder than your daily routine, when you shy away from anything that rocks your sense of safety and control, you’re much more likely to fall apart at the first twinge of pressure.
Cleaners never feel external pressure; they only believe what’s inside them. You can criticize, analyze, demonize a Cleaner, but he’s still only going to feel pressure from within. He knows what he’s doing right, and what he’s doing wrong. He does not care what you think. He steps out of his comfort zone and challenges himself to get to the next level.
It all goes back to confidence. When you’re challenged, do you bring the pressure, or do you let the other guy push you into a corner? Do you feel trapped like a rat or do you attack first? Do you pull back, afraid of the fight, or do you make the other guy get in the mud with you? Wounds heal, scars don’t; those are your combat medals. In the MJ days, we’d say, “Go get some on ya.” Go get dirty.
A Closer is “clutch” in high-pressure situations.
A Cleaner is always “clutch.”
Closers are called Closers for a reason: they show up at the end. They can deliver in a pressure situation because they step up when something is on the line.
For Cleaners, every moment is a pressure situation, and everything is always on the line
Honestly, if I were you, I’d be insulted if someone said I had a clutch gene. It’s not a compliment when people say you step up for the big games. Where were you all the other games? Why weren’t you that solid and aggressive and effective all the time?
being relentless means constantly working for that result, not just when drama is on the line. Clutch is about the last minute. Relentless is about every minute.
if you’re content to wait until that last minute, you are way too safe the rest of the time, taking it easy, coasting along in your comfort zone. A lot of guys won’t take that last shot, not because they’re afraid they’ll miss, but because if they make it, they have to keep making it. Look at Jeremy Lin: he exploded out of nowhere to play at such a high level for the Knicks, and everyone expected him to stay at that level, which just wasn’t going to happen. When you start that high, you have a lot farther to fall and you hit the ground a lot harder from that height. For a lot of guys, it’s easier to stay in the comfort zone, close to the ground. Minimal expectations, minimal pressure . . . minimal rewards. But you’re safe.
Cleaners crave that height, along with the pressure of staying up there and going higher and higher. As soon as they start relaxing for just a moment, they instantly feel as if they’re slacking. If you’re a Cleaner, you know that intense rush of needing to control something, attack something, right now. Never, ever, do you go through a day thinking, “That was relaxing.” To a Cleaner, relaxing is something weaker people do because they can’t handle pressure. Put him in a situation where he’s supposed to be relaxed—such as a vacation he didn’t really want to take, or a day he doesn’t have to work out—and he’ll actually become more stressed thinking about what he should have been doing. He’d rather deal with a challenge than put the effort into “unwinding.” He likes being wound.
When a Cleaner wants a break from the pressure he puts on himself, he escapes to the dark side. Something else for him to control, a temporary fix that maintains the pressure but allows him to shift his focus from one addiction to another for a while. Instead of working, he reaches for sex. Instead of competing, he goes for the bottle. Instead of obsessing about his finances, he goes to the gym to obsess about his body. Still all about pressure, performance, and pushing the edge of his comfort zone back farther and farther, just to test his own limits. Assuming he has any.
A Cleaner controls the pressure he feels, and he never looks to anyone else to help him control it.
A Cleaner doesn’t respond to external pressure, he puts the pressure back on the guy trying to get under his skin by refusing to acknowledge him. Remember, you don’t compete with anyone, you make them compete with you. You can control what you put on yourself; you can’t control what the other guy puts on you. So you focus only on the internal pressure that drives you. Run to it, embrace it, feel it, so no one else can throw more at you than you’ve already put on yourself.
Everyone can handle pressure. Most people choose not to because it’s easier to stay safe in the comfort zone. But if you want to be successful, to have that place in the sun, then you have to leave the shade. It’s not easy to leave the shade; it’s cool and comfortable, compared to the hot discomfort of the sun. But you can’t be relentless if you can’t take discomfort, and you can’t be unstoppable if you only deal with pressure when you have no choice.
Pressure can bust pipes, but it can also make diamonds. If you take the negative view, it will crush you; now you’re in an “I can’t do this” frame of mind. But the positive view is that pressure is a challenge that will define you; it gives you the opportunity to see how much you can take, how hard you can go. Everyone wants to cut back on stress, because stress kills. I say bullshit. Stress is what brings you to life. Let it motivate you, make you work harder. Use it, don’t run from it. When it makes you uncomfortable, so what? The payoff is worth it. Work through the discomfort, you’ll survive. And then go back for more.
Of course, you have to be able to recognize the difference between stress that can bring great results, and stress you create yourself that just causes chaos. Showing up unprepared, not putting in the work, blowing off commitments and obligations . . . that’s the stuff that creates pointless stress.
The leaders don’t have the luxury of checking out. It’s one thing when you’re in an individual sport—if you quit, you quit on yourself. With a team sport, you have a lot of other people relying on you, and you know that every day someone is mentally taking the day off, so you’re going to have to cover for him. But you don’t know who it’s going to be—who’s showing up to play, who’s not really showing up at all—until you’re right there in the middle of the situation. So there’s even more pressure to figure out what you’re working with.
It’s not enough to get to the top. You have to stay there. Feel that pressure, and fight to stay there. You have to work for that. It’s not owed to you.
“Just because I don’t doesn’t mean I can’t.”
When you deal with stress all the time, it becomes second nature. It’s still not easy or effortless, but you handle things without panicking because you have experience in accepting the rigors of complex challenges. When you never have to take on anything harder than your daily routine, when you shy away from anything that rocks your sense of safety and control, you’re much more likely to fall apart at the first twinge of pressure.
Cleaners never feel external pressure; they only believe what’s inside them. You can criticize, analyze, demonize a Cleaner, but he’s still only going to feel pressure from within. He knows what he’s doing right, and what he’s doing wrong. He does not care what you think. He steps out of his comfort zone and challenges himself to get to the next level.
It all goes back to confidence. When you’re challenged, do you bring the pressure, or do you let the other guy push you into a corner? Do you feel trapped like a rat or do you attack first? Do you pull back, afraid of the fight, or do you make the other guy get in the mud with you? Wounds heal, scars don’t; those are your combat medals. In the MJ days, we’d say, “Go get some on ya.” Go get dirty.
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