This week was… a battle.
Not the inspirational Rocky IV Hearts on Fire-training-montage kind of battle.
More like the “mouth breathing, NyQuil-fogged, box-of-Kleenex on the nightstand, wondering if this is how it all ends” kind of battle.
Monday and Tuesday I got introduced to what can only be described as a head cold sent directly from Hades.
You know the one. Truly, Down with the Sickness, Disturbed Style… Oh wah ah ah ah…
Your head feels like it’s filled with wet cement, right behind your eye balls.
Your throat feels like you swallowed a cheese grater every time you sneeze, talk, mouth breathe, or swallow. And every time you stand up you briefly wonder if gravity has been turned up to level 10.
Monday’s lift?
Let’s just say it was less “strength training” and more stretching with a weak man holding weights, taking way too much time between sets.
Tuesday’s step count?
If my fitness watch could talk it would have said:
“Are we even trying today?”
I even took a sick day from work on Tuesday; that never happens unless one of my kids had been sick and I stay home with them.
Which, if you’re a leader reading this, you know feels less like resting and more like sitting at home anxiously wondering what fires are burning without you back at school.
But here’s the thing about a week like this.
When life knocks you down early in the week…
You get a choice.
Stay down.
Or get stubborn.
I chose stubborn. Even Building Mike told me to take it easy and rest on Tuesday. I took Coach’s advice, but was ready to conquer by Thursday, but intelligently I eased back into it and by Friday morning’s lift, I felt incredible.
The Annual Tradition of Freezing Yourself on Purpose
By the end of the week I was upright again.
Not 100%.
Maybe 79% with a lingering cough and questionable decision-making ability.
Which is the exact physical condition you want to be in when participating in the Special Olympics Polar Plunge, right?
For those unfamiliar with the event, let me explain.
It’s a gathering where otherwise rational adults willingly remove their shirts in the middle of winter and jump into a river that feels like it was recently part of a glacier.
Why?
Great question.
Honestly, if an alien landed on earth and witnessed it, they’d immediately report back:
“Humans appear to fundraise by freezing themselves Baywatch sprinting off a beach head, some in costumes, others (me) shirtless roaring like Scotsman charging the English Lord’s troops.”
But the truth is, the Polar Plunge is one of those events that always reminds me what matters. It’s about supporting incredible Special Olympics athletes. It’s about community. Teams of educators, police officers, healthcare teams, all raise funds, line up for the culminating Saturday morning beach sprint into the wintry unwelcoming river, emphatically chanting, yelling, and engaging in other shenanigans for a great cause. It’s about doing something that is bigger than yourself.
It’s also about standing shirtless in 30-degree weather with a group of men who all pretend they aren’t nervous while quietly wondering if hypothermia is covered by insurance.
And then you jump.
Submerge yourself in water that instantly makes your entire nervous system scream “THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA.”
But something funny happens when you come back up. Your chest opens. Your head clears. Every ounce of that lingering brain fog disappears. Cold plunge therapy has always had a profound effect on my body. And Saturday morning was no different. Either that… Or my body was simply trying to survive.
Coaching Brain Rot Boys (The Ultimate Leadership Lab)
Then Sunday arrived. First travel basketball practice of the Spring Season. My son’s 13U Ambush team. Now, I’ve coached kids for more than 21 years. Mostly softball, but some football and basketball sprinkled in there in my younger days. If you want to study human behavior, confidence, body language, leadership, and emotional regulation… Just spend two plus hours in a gym with 13-year-old boys who think they should make every single shot, never turn the ball over, are embarrassed to set a hard screen on each other, but will act like morons if something good happens. You tube has ruined this generation with highlight videos and viral 1:1 basketball shorts. But coaching is always memorable… In fact, it’s incredible. Titles, winning games, managing competitive situations is always adrenaline fueled fun, but practices in a gym are often some of my favorite parts of coaching, no matter the sport. One kid hits two shots in a row and suddenly he’s Steph Curry. Another misses a layup and looks like his basketball career ended five seconds ago. The swings are so dramatic. Which makes practice such a powerful teaching environment. Because the real lessons aren’t about basketball.
They’re about: Confidence, Self-talk, Discipline, Handling adversity, Supporting teammates, Learning how to reset when things go sideways…
All habits I’m still building myself. Under pressure.
Now I’ll admit…
At one point during practice I demonstrated a move or two. You know. Flexed on my own son in the low post. Just to show the boys how it’s done, for educational purposes of course. A little shimmy. A little shake. Make his damn Earth quake. A quick step-through. The patented Stecken Euro Step into a floater, it’s unguardable. And yes… For about six glorious seconds I dominated a group of 13-year-olds. But that’s the beauty of coaching. You demonstrate. You laugh. You compete. Then you build them up. Because the real goal isn’t proving you can still move a little. The goal is helping them build the habits that will carry them through life and it helps to get the feedback that you still got it… a little bit, but at 45+ your body is in better shape than it was years ago.
Progress Doesn’t Care About Perfect Weeks
It was far from a perfect week, but I’ve come to self-talk in a much better way to myself. I lost 0.2 pounds from last week, but overall in March am up a little bit, still down over 15 pounds in 2026 overall. I improved my nutrition this week, even if the scale didn’t move as much as I’d like, but here’s the truth about weeks like this: They’re messy. You get sick. Schedules explode. Weekends are busier than weekdays. Life throws roadblocks everywhere. And suddenly that perfect plan you had on Monday morning looks like it got run over by a truck by Tuesday afternoon. But progress was never meant to happen on perfect weeks, it was meant to be built under pressure. Progress happens when imperfect weeks show up… And you keep moving anyway. Maybe the lift wasn’t perfect. Maybe the steps were lower. Maybe the schedule got chaotic. But the mission stays the same. Show up. Do what you can. Keep building. Because leaders don’t grow when conditions are perfect. And, importantly for this guy, don’t beat yourself up because the scale has slowed to a snails pace; you’re still putting in the work, still improving each week on nutrition and habit formation. Growth happens when you don’t give up on your progress, when you don’t throw the towel in, and when you don’t let that inner voice of a little bitch control your self-talk. You grow under pressure.
If your week felt heavy… If sickness knocked you down… If commitments stacked up… If your schedule felt like a circus act gone wrong… You’re not alone. Life doesn’t pause just because we’re trying to improve. But the leaders who continue to grow are the ones who keep showing up anyway. Not perfectly. Just consistently. So if your week looked a little messy… Good. Mine did too! You’re in the arena. Take a breath. Reset. Then get back to work. Because the work you’re doing right now? It’s building the leader you’re becoming. And the truth is… The best leaders I know? They weren’t built during perfect weeks. They were built under pressure.
Week 11 on the Scoreboard:
5 lifts, 4 runs, 2 rucks, but key misses- only hit 12,000+ daily steps twice… did hit 180g protein three times implementing my morning whey protein smoothies back into the work day repertoire, all 5 workday mornings… those two metrics are more important than the lifts or the runs and the continued focus for next week.
Monthly Weight Loss:
January: -11.6 LBS, 261.8 to 250.2
February: -4.0 LBS, 250.2 to 246.2
March (in progress): +0.4 lbs… 246.2 to 246.6, still down 15+ pounds overall, but chasing sub 240, and eventually sub 230 in 2026!
Get to getting better soon