147 | The Quiet Power of Consistently Showing Up for Growth

About the Host

Toby Brooks, PhD is the host of the Becoming UnDone® podcast, a speaker, author, performance scientist, and professor. With two decades of experience in the professional and collegiate sports realms, Dr. Brooks specializes in understanding what sets high achievers apart. He serves Baylor University, although the podcast operates independently as an avenue for sharing his research and insights on the mindset necessary for achieving excellence.

Episode Summary

In this rejuvenating episode of Becoming UnDone®, Dr. Toby Brooks delves into the transformative power of consistently showing up, especially when life seems to pull you apart. As the new year brings a wave of resolutions and renewed commitments, Dr. Brooks challenges the notion that personal growth happens naturally. Instead, he emphasizes intentionality in combating entropy and reaching new levels of personal and professional achievement.

Dr. Brooks introduces the concept of Kaizen, the Japanese principle of continuous improvement, illustrating through the legacy of John Wooden how marginal yet consistent efforts lead to monumental outcomes. This episode navigates through themes of persistence, dedication, and incremental progress, particularly in challenging moments when motivation dwindles. With anecdotes from his personal life and professional journey, Toby provides listeners with actionable strategies to nurture a growth mindset, strengthen resilience, and achieve lasting transformation.

Key Takeaways

• Growth Needs Intentionality: Personal development is not passive; it requires deliberate, consistent efforts to counteract disorder and decline.
• Principle of Kaizen: Small, regular steps, as demonstrated by John Wooden's coaching techniques, lead to significant and sustained improvements.
• The Ripple Effect: Your persistence can inspire those around you, creating positive ripple effects in your community and personal circles.
• Holistic Growth: Inspired by Jesus' model of development, balance mental, physical, spiritual, and social growth.
• Resilience as Leadership: Showing up consistently, even when difficult, can provide hope and courage to others. 

Notable Quotes

• "The heart of kaizen is that small steps taken consistently lead to big, lasting change."
• "Every time you choose to show up…you're literally readapting your brain and maintaining your momentum."
• "Your persistence gives someone else hope."
• "Even Jesus showed up to grow…what excuse do we have?"
• "Being Undone isn't the end of your story. It might just be the start of your best chapter yet."

Resources

• Visit scienceofthecomeback.com for the "Becoming Undone Coaching App," aimed at guiding high achievers through their next chapter.
• Follow Toby Brooks, PhD, on social media for additional insights and content surrounding personal development and high achievement.
• Explore past episodes of the podcast, such as the conversation with Brandon McCoy in Episode 146, for more discussions on personal and professional growth.

To delve

Transcript

0:00:09 - (Toby Brooks): It is a new year, new you and all that jazz. But I'm here to tell you something that might surprise you. After a certain point, growth never just happens. You're either just fighting your schedule or your habits or your budget. Sometimes you're just fighting the law of the universe. Entropy, that tendency of everything to drift toward disorder. You leave it to yourself. Your life doesn't evolve. It erodes.

0:00:39 - (Toby Brooks): Progress doesn't happen passively. It happens when you show up intentionally, repeatedly, and especially when you don't feel like it. That's why today's episode is about the quiet, defiant power of showing up, even when everything around you feels like it's pulling you apart. I want to give you three reasons to keep going. One for your mind, one for your people, and one for your soul. Your next level requires a new level of commitment.

0:01:10 - (Toby Brooks): So let's break it down exactly how you're going to get there. Foreign. Welcome to another episode of Becoming Undone, the podcast where we explore how high achievers transform from falling apart to falling into place. I'm your host, Dr. Toby Brooks. I'm a speaker, an author, and a performance scientist, and I've spent the past two decades working in the professional and collegiate sports worlds. And I'm a professor and a learning scientist, doing my best to help prepare others to do the same.

0:01:48 - (Toby Brooks): Over the years, I've grown more and more fascinated with what sets high achievers apart and how setbacks and adversity that none of us would have chosen can oftentimes be exactly the push we needed to find our greatest successes. Usually I bring on a new guest where we discuss the stories of others, but every so often on Word to the Third, right here, it's my turn to reflect and share what I'm learning about my own journey towards success.

0:02:15 - (Toby Brooks): I want to mention that this show is entirely separate from my role at Baylor University, but it's my chance to share what I've learned and what I'm learning about the mindset of high achievers. Have you ever found yourself wondering, what's the point of even showing up today? It's a holiday today. It's MLK Day, and I've struggled to get going today. I planned to have this one recorded sooner, but I struggled.

0:02:39 - (Toby Brooks): And I don't know that I overtly thought about it, but I thought about it like, what's the point? Is anybody really needing this? Would anyone care if I just didn't do it today? Why am I even bothering? If you've wondered that same thing, then this episode is for you. Showing up isn't always glamorous and it's rarely convenient, but it does matter. And today I want to give you three reasons why. One for your mind, one for your heart, and one for your soul.

0:03:07 - (Toby Brooks): So let's start with you. Number one, show up for yourself. There's a Japanese philosophy called kaizen, and it literally means continuous improvement. But it's not just a business productivity hack or a management buzzword. It's a worldview. It's a disciplined, almost sacred belief that excellence isn't just a singular event. It's a daily decision. The heart of kaizen is small steps taken consistently lead to big, lasting change.

0:03:39 - (Toby Brooks): Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden lived this principle out long before most Americans had ever heard of kaizen. His philosophy was simple, and I quote, when you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. Don't look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. And that's the only way it happens. And when it happens, it lasts. Coach Wooden didn't obsess over championships.

0:04:06 - (Toby Brooks): He obsessed over habits and efforts repeated daily. Matter of fact, one of his most famous rituals was teaching players how to properly put on their socks and shoes. Why? Because blisters can derail greatness. Now, that might sound extreme, but it worked. Wooden led UCLA to 10 national championships in 12 years, a record that still stands today. The secret wasn't flashy. It was consistency, intentional repetition, faithful execution of the fundamentals.

0:04:39 - (Toby Brooks): Psychologists call this principle marginal gains. It's that idea that improving just 1% in a few key areas can compound into massive transformation over time. It's how elite athletes train. It's how top performers grow, and it's how you can build a life that doesn't just survive adversity, it thrives in it. Neuroscience also backs this up. Your brain is designed for plasticity. It's wired to adapt, rewire, and evolve in response to repeated efforts.

0:05:09 - (Toby Brooks): Every time you choose to show up, even when motivation's absent and your results are invisible, you are physically reinforcing new neural pathways. You're not just moving forward emotionally or spiritually. You're literally readapting your brain and maintaining your momentum. I've got a book project that I've been working on since March of 2020. I don't know if you recall what was happening during March of 2020, but it was COVID lockdown.

0:05:35 - (Toby Brooks): And I wrote the first five chapters in a week. And I've been revising it and scrapping it and working maniacally on it and shelving it again. Ever since, those five chapters have been completely reworked more times than I can count. When I'm rolling, it's great. When I stop. Each time I try to get going again, I'm faced with one hurdle after another. Where did I save it on the hard drive? What was I talking about when I left off?

0:06:04 - (Toby Brooks): Didn't I share that story already? The truth is, when I'm most effective, I chip away at things rather than working in massive fits and spurts. But that's the power of the growth mindset. It's not wishful thinking. It's biological reality. You're not who you were yesterday. And that's the whole point. You don't owe yesterday's version of you anything, but you owe tomorrow's version a chance. And that chance begins by showing up today.

0:06:30 - (Toby Brooks): Number two, show up for your people. Christy and I recently moved again. This studio space is brand new. It's the third time we moved in a little over a year. We've been packing and unpacking so much that I can barely keep things straight. But just this week, I came across a drawing that my baby boy, when he was 3. He's now 19, but he drew it for me. It's a stick figure of a guy. Gnarly stick fingers held up in a full stop motion.

0:06:58 - (Toby Brooks): And to this dad, it clearly says, no working. You see, at the time, I was working three jobs. I was a full time professor, a part time art director for a magazine, part time covering sports events as an athletic trainer. And I was showing up for myself as best I could, earning as much as I could to help my family get ahead. But I wasn't showing up for the people in my life who mattered the most. My wife, our son, and our daughter.

0:07:26 - (Toby Brooks): At drawing, it wasn't just cute kid art. It was a three year old pleading for presents. Every one of us lives in the ripple effect of other people. Whether you're a parent, a partner, a sibling, friend, a mentor, someone is watching how you move through the world. They're watching not just how you win, but how you endure. Mr. Rogers. Fred Rogers once said, anything that's human is mentionable. And anything that's mentionable can be more manageable.

0:07:58 - (Toby Brooks): When we show up, especially on the hard days, we give other people the courage to face their own battles is probably best seen on great teams. It's the reason we pick workout buddies and accountability partners when we know we are laboring not just for ourselves, but for those that we care about. The challenges of the day get a little sparkle. There was a time in my life when I love nothing more than big time college football to see what it's become.

0:08:28 - (Toby Brooks): Today, more than 30% of all D1 players in the transfer portal. It's tragic to me. Last year I spent 15 episodes exploring the life lessons and legacy of coach Dick Thome, who, among other quotes, is perhaps most famous for this one. Simple as it is, it goes like this. The team, the team, the team. To Coach Thome, nothing was ever more important to any one of us than what was important to all of us.

0:08:57 - (Toby Brooks): From the star quarterback or future NFL draft pick, right down to the freshman student manager. Everyone was part of the team, the team, the team. And as such, everybody had a role to play in our success every damn day. So you showed up. If not for yourself, for your brother. And when you show up, you give permission for others to do the same. When you show up on the hard days, you model resilience for the people who matter most.

0:09:25 - (Toby Brooks): Your consistency creates safety. Your persistence gives someone else hope. This may be the most underrated form of leadership. Just continuing to show up when quitting would be easier. Number three. Show up for your Lord. A few times on this show I've mentioned when I worked for the football team at Liberty University, we gave an award each season called the Luke 252 award to a member of the team who best exemplified Jesus model of whole person development. In Luke 2:52, Luke says then Jesus grew in wisdom, stature, favor with God and man.

0:10:00 - (Toby Brooks): It was considered the most important honor any member of the team could receive because it showed a student athlete who was the total package. They were a stellar student, they got it done in the classroom, they were a beast in the weight room, they were a leader spiritually, and they were a teammate and a friend. Now, I'd probably plowed over that verse at least a dozen times without realizing that it wasn't just just a recount of what was going on in Jesus life or some inconsequential biographical detail.

0:10:28 - (Toby Brooks): It was and is a model for whole person growth. Jesus grew mentally, wisdom, physically, stature, spiritually favor with God and socially favor with man. And if he had to grow, what excuse did we have? Resilience for the Lord means being strategic in purpose and relentless in pursuit of four facets of your life. If you're really serious about your growth this year, then consider not only what you want to do, but rather how you plan to get there.

0:10:56 - (Toby Brooks): Break it down, reverse engineer it. You want to grow in wisdom, set some goals, to assign yourself some tasks. For me, I'm enrolled in two more classes this semester starting tomorrow. If all goes well, I'll be officially halfway done with my third master's degree in May. Fingers crossed. But just saying take two classes isn't specific enough. As soon as I get the syllabi for each class, I enter what I need to do in terms of readings and WR and studying each week.

0:11:22 - (Toby Brooks): Then I relentlessly keep track of my completion percentage. Same thing goes for stature. I have a goal of closing my movement ring every day and either lifting or doing cardio for 30 minutes every day. I'm certainly trying to fuel myself better, and I'm recommitting to tracking my macros again because I know that I'm better when I hold myself accountable. You can also follow that template for spiritual and social growth too, and you'll see that resilience isn't just for you or even for your people.

0:11:47 - (Toby Brooks): It can actually become an act of worship to a creator who himself committed to getting better in all aspects of his life every day. Bit of fair warning here, though. Spiritual discipline doesn't always feel like fire from heaven. Sometimes it's just quiet obedience or one more prayer, one more act of service, one more step toward wholeness. When you keep showing up, you're not earning God's love, you're just responding to it.

0:12:14 - (Toby Brooks): So to wrap this one up, three reasons to keep showing up for yourself because you're still becoming for your people, because your consistency is someone else's hope, and for your Lord, because even Jesus showed up to grow. Whatever's falling apart, whatever feels undone, you're not finished. So show up again. Because that quiet decision, it might be the most powerful thing you do today. Thanks for spending this time with me today. I hope you got a little something out of it. Cool.

0:12:40 - (Toby Brooks): Quick shout out to all of you who've been listening and reviewing the show. We're recently back in the top 10 on Apple Podcasts and Self Improvement are sitting at number 13 in education and that's because of you. Your support helps me reach more people who need to hear that Being undone doesn't mean you're finished. If this episode spoke to you, I hope you'll take a second to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to be reminded of the quiet power of showing up.

0:13:05 - (Toby Brooks): Most recently, I had a conversation with graphic artist Brandon McCoy on episode 146, so if you haven't, be sure to check that one out. He shares his story and how he transitioned from employee to business owner. Next, I'm gearing up for a how to series on what we talked about today, looking at the four components of growth and connecting with world class high achieving examples. For each one, there's some more coming up on Becoming Undone Foreign.

0:13:39 - (Toby Brooks): Today's conversation landed with you. I want to share something with you that can help you take it one step further. You heard me talk about showing up Kaizen and Momentum. Now there's a place where you can practice, track and execute on those things every day. The Becoming Undone coaching app, which you can find@scienceofthecumback.com that's scienceofthecumback all one word.com is built for high achievers who are rebuilding after burnout, loss or major life shift.

0:14:02 - (Toby Brooks): It's not just another motivation app. It's a guided growth system with daily reflections, personalized plans, identity clarifying exercises, and many challenges designed to help you rebuild confidence, rediscover your purpose, and create a blueprint for your next chapter. Inside, I've added a ton of tools. Guided mindset and identity, work purpose and momentum, micro challenges, daily reflection prompts that build psychological strength, even 247 support to keep you moving when life gets messy.

0:14:31 - (Toby Brooks): And best of all, it meets you where you are so you don't have to wait for the perfect moment to start becoming who you've meant to be. So head on over to scienceofthecomeback.com take that short quiz and get your personalized plan. Because growth doesn't happen, you have to show up for it. That wraps up today's episode. You can find more@undonepodcast.com follow me on my socials at Toby Brooks, PhD until next time. Remember, being Undone isn't the end of your story.

0:14:56 - (Toby Brooks): It might just be the start of your best chapter yet. So stay strong, keep growing and I'll catch you next time. Sam.