Pushing Against Perfection | Coach Dar | Athlete CEO #48

As an elite performer you’ve worked hard to get where you’re at. The work to stay at the top comes with immense pressure and a grind to continually improve. Also, success can make it hard to get clear, direct feedback, and it can attract people who don’t have your best interests in mind.

How do you continue to reach for greatness without folding to the pressures of perfectionism? How can you work to build an inner circle of people with your best interests in mind – who can give you direct and candid feedback that will help you get better at what you do?

Today we’re joined by Darleen Santore – also known as Coach Dar. She is a board-certified occupational therapist, business owner, and performance coach for professional athletes and executives.

Coach Dar was recently named a senior fellow at PathNorth, an organization comprised of leaders and CEOs of fortune 100 companies, the WNBA named her the Most Inspiring Woman of 2017, she is the U.S. Ambassador for Pay It Forward Day, and she recently launched her own social platform called Kindli, which puts the focus squarely on kindness and positivity with a goal to generate over a billion acts of kindness around the world.

Coach Dar discusses with Erik and Brandon about how to define greatness, what it means to be a pro, dealing with the pressures of perfection, and surrounding yourself with people who will help you grow.

Episode Highlights

(00:08) More about Coach Dar"The thing about greatness and being great, everyone has the ability to reach greatness within them with the God-given talent they have, but few are willing to truly do what it takes to be that truest and best version of themselves." – Coach Dar(4:22) How to define greatness(5:14) “Being a pro does not mean perfection. It means 1% progress. Every day you’re back – being consistent and disciplined to do what you need to do to be the best.” – Coach Dar(5:49) What holds people back from greatness? (7:36) What are the practical steps to committing to the process and implementing a plan(9:42) Finding the right help(11:49) The science of occupational therapy(18:27) Why aren’t people working with performance coaches?(20:25) How Tom Brady and LeBron James got where they are(21:09) Why working with a peak performance coach doesn’t mean something is wrong with you(24:00) Dealing with the pressure of perfection(26:11) “I'm going to help you find your whypower over willpower. Your willpower is going to give up when you're going through a tough season, right? You can't lean on willpower every day, but I'm going to remind you - why'd you get up?” – Coach Dar(27:27) The importance of reframing(30:06) Getting direct feedback(32:52) Building your trusted inner circle(38:32) Cutting down your circle(41:35) One of the key questions to ask in close relationships