There are moments in life when effort alone no longer seems to explain what’s unfolding. You’ve prepared and done the work. You’re passionate—you’ve taken care of your part. And then, somehow, something else seems to enter the room. Call it faith, trust, God, spirit, the

Daniel Pink wrote: “The way to keep the carrots and sticks coming… is rarely sustainable.” What I appreciate about this quote is that it forces us to ask an uncomfortable question: If we know that external rewards like bonuses, trips, cars, and incentives can actually

Need thwarting—it's a thing. And if it's alive and well within your culture, it's a problem, too. That's because it happens when leadership doesn’t just fail to support people—it actively undermines their sense of agency, capability, or belonging. Imagine yourself sitting in

I once watched an athlete I was coaching achieve a PB by pushing himself so hard that 10 minutes later, I found him facedown in the grass. I knelt beside him. “You okay, Luc-monster?” He moaned, turned his head, and said, “I don’t feel well, Jason.” Here’s the truth: when we

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott I love this quote because it’s both funny and painfully true. So many of the high achievers we work with are running a “never power down” operating system where they’re always

Recovery Is a Skill: How to Train It Like You Train Output. "I'll rest when I'm dead!" Ya, well, carefull what you wish for! Believe me, as someone who embodied the grit and grind MO for many years, not just as an athlete, I can tell you, my thoughts on this one have changed

What better way to spend a Friday afternoon than with a passionate group of high-performers within Athletics Canada? Had a great time at the Eyrie Resort, digging into meaningful and strategic conversations around all things high performance that relate to our human experience of

There was a strange dichotomy in my relationship with compliments—on one hand, I craved praise from my parents. On the other hand, by my early teens, I’d convinced myself that compliments were dangerous. If I heard them… embraced them… savoured them… I might start to believe

Every two years, the Olympics become the world’s most compelling reminder that sport is THE metaphor for life. True, it’s entertainment—edge-of-your-seat drama, national pride, highlight reels, and moments that have you texting your friends. But it’s also something deeper: it’s

Can "Own the Process" be sexy enough for OTP? My guess right outta the gates, "No!" But that doesn't mean we stop there. Straight up, our Nation needs to embrace what produces excellence—solid repeatable process! And, up until now, we haven't. Before I get to the “what do we

Last week at West Island College, we received feedback that stopped us in our tracks: “Learning under Robyn and Jason’s leadership was the best professional development I’ve experienced in my 28 years in education… Their ‘Love First’ framing is far more than a cliché; it gave

“Don’t give your competitors another reason to want to beat you.” I heard this years ago from Neil Campbell, my rowing coach, and it’s stuck with me because, well, it’s true: don’t give your competitors extra fuel. But the deeper message is even better: don’t be an asshole. In

The Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics so far ... I wasn't always a fan of watching the Olympics. Yup, there was a time when I avoided the Games like I avoid the back-end gas of our Pyrenees-Lab—that boy can stop a train! From 1988 to 2000, except for some track and field in

Excited to dive into days 3 & 4 of “The Healthy High Performance Journey” with West Island College. It’s all about supporting “our being” in order to optimize our doing/performance. When we are ideally prepared mentally, physically, and emotionally, we set ourselves up to achieve

Most of us were taught the wrong definition of “tough.” One that’s all about bravado, volume, certainty, and posturing—the appearance of strength. But real strength is none of that—it’s quieter. In this week’s “From Page to Performance,” a group of boys and I are unpacking a

When you make your goals bigger than winning, the winning invariably shows up easier and more often. I learned this the hard way (and the best way) as a rowing coach. Sure—we trained to win races. But my real goal was bigger: transform the lives of the young athletes in front of

How Smart People Talk Themselves Into Bad Ideas. It's called Motivated Reasoning, and it's a thing; when we use reasoning to defend what we already want to believe rather than to discover what’s true. If you read my Substack from last week on DEI, you’ll know that I took a leap

There’s a kind of performance no one trains for: watching your parents decline. There’s no playbook. No Manuel. Just moments. And most of them are difficult. Moments when the quality of care varies by who's on duty that night—how stretched is the system? Moments where a person

“Self-compassion is the antidote for shame.” It’s important to understand that shame is not the same as guilt. Guilt says, “I did something wrong.” Shame says, “There’s something wrong with me.” Big difference! And, no surprise, the moment shame shows up, most of us try to “fix

Agreed, DEI was well-intended. But has it now become DEIE? I heard the Pope share his views on DEI last week and figured that gave me permission to do the same—so, here goes. And believe me, I’m not looking for trouble here. Nor do I want to stir up the proverbial