From Paralyzed to Productive — Nick Saban’s Secret

Earlier this month, I felt overwhelmed and stuck.

The to-do list felt infinite. I had a webinar to launch. I was rebuilding my online communities. Onboarding several new clients.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, I’m still dealing with contractors and insurance adjusters so I can rebuild my house after it was pummeled by the May 16 tornado here in St. Louis.

Every time I thought about tackling one project, my brain would jump to the others.

The webinar needed a landing page, but the community platform needed configuring, but the contractor needed me to review a bid, but the webinar script wasn’t written, but…

You get the idea.

The mountain felt too big to climb. And I felt paralyzed.

Then I read about Nick Saban in Ryan Holiday’s book “The Obstacle is the Way.”

Saban was the head coach of the University of Alabama football team — the most dominant dynasty in college football history. Multiple national championships. Unprecedented success.

But here’s what I learned in the book: Saban never talked to his players about winning championships.

Instead, he taught something he calls “The Process.”

“Don’t think about winning the SEC Championship,” Saban told his players. “Don’t think about the national championship. Think about what you needed to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment. That’s the process: Let’s think about what we can do today, the task at hand.”

The process is about finishing. Finishing games. Finishing workouts. Finishing drives. Finishing plays. Finishing the smallest task you have right in front of you — and finishing it well.

I closed the book and looked at my screen again.

What was the one task right in front of me? Not the entire webinar. Not the whole community rebuild. Not the entire house renovation.

Just one task.

Write the webinar outline. That’s it.

So I did. Thirty minutes later, it was done.

The next day: Configure the registration page.

The day after that: Record the promotional video.

One task. One day. One step forward.

As Holiday writes, the process is relaxing. Under its influence, we needn’t panic. Even mammoth tasks become just a series of component parts.

Three weeks later, the webinar launched successfully. The community is taking shape. The house is getting rebuilt.

Not because I solved everything at once, but because I stopped trying to.

That’s the power of “The Process” — and it’s one of many insights in “The Obstacle is the Way.”

That’s why Ted Prodromou and I chose this book as this month’s selection for the Mastermind Book Club.

Each month, Ted and I choose a business book that can transform how you approach challenges.

We meet live on Zoom on the fourth Thursday each month to discuss what we’re reading.

Our next live meeting is this Thursday, August 28 at 2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT.

There’s no cost to join the Club and attend the meetings. You don’t even need to read the book to benefit from the discussions.

But you do need to join the Club in advance to receive the Zoom link.

Join now at: MastermindBook.club

Then join us on Thursday as we discuss how to apply “The Process” to your biggest challenges.

Bring your overwhelming projects.

Bring your paralyzing to-do lists.

Bring your impossible mountains.

We’ll break them down, Saban-style.

One task at a time.