The Hard Truths About Discipline, Details, and Making an NFL Roster- Silas Walters

We sit down with Silas Walters to unpack how faith, discipline, and relentless self-awareness turn an overlooked athlete into a real NFL roster candidate. We dig into delayed gratification, evidence-based confidence, and the mental habits that keep you steady when pressure and doubt spike. 

• faith as a bedrock foundation for contentment and resilience 
• going from walk-on to bigger roles by stacking consistent days 
• falling in love with the process and embracing delayed gratification 
• mentors and parenting that push hard without forcing outcomes 
• details that separate pros including sleep, recovery, film, and nutrition 
• building “mental bank” deposits to fight negative self-talk 
• rational optimism paired with brutal self-awareness 
• reframing imposter syndrome through proof on tape and daily habits 
• preparing for the possibility of getting cut without losing purpose 
• avoiding the hedonic treadmill by looking back with gratitude 
• using support systems, coaches, and questions to get better faster 
• finding flow state through reps and truthful preparation 

Tune in next week. Check us out, athleticfortitude.com. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, download the podcast. Five stars only baby!

Transcript

Faith As A Bedrock Foundation

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Is faith an important part of your life?

SPEAKER_01 0:01

It's huge. It's number one. I mean without a bat without a like a bedrock foundation of Christ in your life and I still struggle with sin as we all do as Christians, but you know, if you can become content with the fact that God has a plan for your life and no matter what happens, whether you think it's good or bad, you know, you believe that God has has a plan to do good things for you, I think it it it makes you content with whatever happens. And you know, again, like I said, i the the timing, the timing may not feel right to you, but in the end it's it's it's the right timing for for what God has for you. And so I carry that mindset every day with me. And it gives me satisfaction and, you know, leaves me content, even though sometimes, you know, the flesh will creep in and anxieties will creep in. But at the end of the day, having a bedrock foundation in crisis is number one in my life.

Walk-On Mindset Under Bigger Expectations

SPEAKER_00 0:56

How has that served you throughout your career? Because, you know, when you evaluate your career, I believe you started as a walk-on, and it was like each year, as your responsibilities grew, you actually performed better. And you actually had your best year, I believe it was your senior year, where you had the highest expectation. And usually you see where guys start at the bottom, it's easy to play with that chip on the mindset or a chip-on-the-shoulder mindset. But when you get to the top, it's a different level of feeling when you actually have expectations to perform.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think my path benefited in shaping how my core mindset works. You know, throughout high school, like I was never, I was I was always a good athlete, but I was never that top recruit that got, you know, a bunch of love from coaches. And I played with a lot of great athletes, and you know, I was always overlooked. And that was something that really started to spark fire in me. And, you know, when I got to college and was a walk-on, I was at the bottom again, right? And nothing new for me. So, like I think growing up, kind of being humbled, you know, your whole adolescent life in sports really helped shape my mindset and really helped develop me as what my core fundamentals are in my life. Like hard work, consistency, discipline, right? Like doing the little things, being uh paying attention to detail. That was something that I had to do because, you know, I'm not the freak 6'5, 230 recruit, four-star, five-star blue chip. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm a 5'11, six foot safety, right? And realizing that and being self-aware, I think is really important because it allows you to focus on your strengths and then your weaknesses. Like I knew that my work was good, and I knew that I would give everything I I I could to whatever I was doing. I've always been that way. So, you know, I I would say, like I said, having faith, you know, being stronger my faith, believing in God's plan for me, and just attacking each day one day at a time with the same mindset. And another thing that I think is really important is falling in love with the process and being in love and okay with delayed gratification. I think that's something, especially in today's world, that is less common where we're seeking, you know, instant gratification. Where, you know, when someone says, I want to be an at all football player, okay, yeah, you do want to be an at all football player. Anyone would say yes to that. But do you really want to put in the work day in and day out to become that? Because all the little things that you do in your life translate to the big picture, you know, in in my case, that's nutrition, that's strength training, that's sleeping, that's recovery, that's film study, right? It's it's everything all in one. So as I developed through college, sort of to pivot onto your question again, I just sort of it was engraved in me at that point, and I just kept that same mindset. Like I wish there was a better way I could describe it to you, but like of course I felt the pressure to perform. Like my role this past year was the biggest it's ever been in college. But I I just approached it the same way that I approached everything. I approached last year the same way I approached being a freshman. So the mental process was not much different for me. It was just it was compounding progress, I would say. And like I said, being consistent and disciplined in everything you do. And if you stack days, like of course you're gonna have good days and you're gonna have bad days, but if you stack days, you know, you get one you everyone always talks about 1% better, but it's true. Like, if you get 1% every better, if you get 1% better every day, in a hundred days, you're gonna be double of what you were 100 days ago. So like that mindset has carried me all through my sports life, and it's been very beneficial for me.

Mentors, Parenting, And Earned Work Ethic

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Much of that behavior is just natural and ingrained to you versus how much of that was learned or developed or inherited from parenting, coaching, or outside influences on you.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

It was definitely a combination of both. Like the access to training nowadays is huge. One of my big mentors growing up, his name is Carlton Gray. He was an All-American corner at UCLA, uh, played in the NFL for 10 years, and he started training me at a really young age. He started training me in basketball when I was in second grade. And he ended up being my defensive coordinator in high school football. And I developed like a really close relationship with him. So having access to guys like that and just kind of learning and seeing subconsciously how they operate as a young kid and then growing into a you know a teenager and a high schooler, I think it's super beneficial. And, you know, Carlton was so hard on me all the time. Like I wanted to make him proud. That was our kind of that was kind of our relationship. And he was so very hard on me. Like he would chew me out all the time, even as a young kid. And you know, I I think, like I said, as a combination of both, my personality, I wanted to do better for him. Like I cared a lot about it. And so um a combination of that allowed me to develop. And then parenting wise, you know, my parents they never pushed me to become something more than I wasn't. You know, I they they were hard on me. They they wanted to be they wanted me to be successful, but they never forced me into anything. And I think part of that kind of gave me some freedom and contentness, I would say, uh, to go out and just make them proud and you know, perform. And a combination of those factors, I think, kind of shaped like how I thought, my thought process of of everything, like being pushed, but not being forced. You know what I'm saying? And I think that's that's kind of where my personality comes into play. Is like I think I was just born to to give it everything that I had. You know, I've always been a high effort kid. My dad would tell you that. Like, ever since I was young, I literally did everything as hard as I could. So yeah, I would say that's that that's it's really a combination of both.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

And I was like joking, but being serious earlier where when I was talking about like Silas Walters, like, how do we get more of him like in the building? And you know, the work that we do at you know, at GP when you know, working with the the collective group of the guys, and I have to be careful in the way that I do it is when I've said to you guys, when you're a professional athlete, like it is a 24-7 job. Like every decision that you do impacts and influences whether or not you're gonna make a roster, whether or not you're even gonna get a chance. For some people, right, that operate on a certain level, that can feel overwhelming, but you have to get comfortable within that space of knowing what you're trying to chase. And like the commitment level that you're articulating it in relative detail is the life of what it means to chase the seemingly impossible. And if you're going to chase the seemingly impossible, you have to be willing to do things that others aren't. And some of that is, you know, we look at like drive and you know, courage and some of these other things, whether it's a learned skill or whether some of it's innate, I think is a super interesting dichotomy in conversation because I do think certain things can be taught or learned, but I do think that there is a natural component to this that draws you to success in whatever domain you're in. But in this lens, football. And so for you, was it always football? Were you always drawn to football? Was it sports in general and football was your best? Or like, what did that look like for you over the evolution of your life?

Competing Early And Obsessing Over Details

SPEAKER_01 8:36

It was always sports. It wasn't always it was always every sport I played, I'd say. Like early in my life, a big the biggest sport in my life was basketball, pretty much all the way up through high school. So it wasn't just football, and I just developed like an innate competitiveness because another thing that I thought my parents did a great job of was putting me in uncomfortable situations competing against really good athletes very early. Like I know youth sports is like you know, it's like whatever. Like youth sports is kind of dumb at its core. But like I was I was in such a competitive spot early on, competing against great athletes, that I I wanted to be better than them naturally. So I competed really hard. And I think that helped me out a lot. And it's just sort of been a natural transition into the higher levels, I'd say, because I was competing against guys that went on and played at higher levels. Like I played youth sports with several guys that are in the NBA right now, in the NFL right now, which I feel like is rare. Like not everyone can say that. So that that kind of was another factor that developed that drive and and competitiveness in me. And then, like I said, just like willing to do things that that other people won't kind of kind of kind of stuck with me. And it I always relate it back to consistency and discipline. Like the things that we talked about at GP, like every every little thing you do is gonna impact your future on making a roster or not, right? Like every every rep that you skip, right? I remember you talking about that. And I feel like a lot of people that just kind of goes in one ear and out the other. But if you're truly bought into the process, you have to take into account all those little details because it's it's the difference between success and failure, especially at the highest levels, right? So I've been a detail-oriented person and I always try to fixate my mind on as many details as possible, right? Because I see the end goal in my head and I think to myself, you know, although this is a little detail, it could impact me in a big way in the future. So that's kind of how my thought processes work.

Mental Bank Accounts And Proof Of Readiness

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yeah, our mind naturally goes to like the negative. And so when we're talking about like skipping reps or all of the things that you don't do for success, when you get in those moments of adversity, of tension, of hey, I need to make a decision, or hey, I need to be able to perform in this moment right now, our mind is naturally going to go to the negative. And so the lit the less evidence that you are unqualified for a moment, you give yourself the better. And you need to flood yourself and flood your behaviors and flood your mindset with proof of concept, proof that you're capable or proof that you can be capable. And so that's why, like, you know, every single one of us are going to make decisions that are anti-who we are, anti-what we want to achieve. It's just mitigating those, you know, withdrawals as much as possible. We want to add as many deposits to our mental bank account, to our, you know, behavioral components that we want to embody that will give us proof and evidence in those strongest moments. And with you, like I always find this part of like athletic and human development really important and pivotal. Because when you expand it out and you look at studies, it is rarely the athletes who were the most talented always growing up that never had to face adversity that end up being the best collegiate or pros. It is usually the people that had that had natural talent, but compared to the substandard that they were trying to compete with, may not be as naturally as gifted. And they had to work and overcome loss and overcome adversity. In that same breath, though, there's a lot of people that operate in that same domain that when they are put against better competition, even at young ages, they fold quit and run away. And so I always find it super fascinating for people who face that adversity early on, don't give up and keep going. Like, what is the difference between like what was their internal dialogue or what was their circumstances that enable them to take some of those lumps on the chin early and be like, okay, I need to get better versus, oh, I took this lump on the chin, I'm not good enough?

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah.

Faith, Motivation, And Staying Optimistic

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Such an interesting question because I just I just remember doing it from as young as I was. And I think part of it, and we've we've discussed a little bit of it, but having a bedrock foundation in Christ. And like I grew up in the church. My grandpa was a pastor, and you know, we did Bible studies all the time. I went to Sunday school, I went to church, and I think hearing God's word, you know, and and hearing his optimism in the Bible, right? You you can name Bible verse after Bible verse, but like, you know, let the Lord be your confidence, you know, and all your ways acknowledge him and he will set your path straight. Like having that spiritual optimism kind of got ingrained in me from a young age. And it it sort of stowed me away from those negative thoughts and behaviors at a young age of like, oh, I don't want that. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't want to get better. I think that was really a huge part of it. And it makes all the difference. Like wanting to get better is the like being motivated will take you as far as you want to go. Like, motivation is so important. And being able to stay strong with your motivation and you know, your consistency, it's super important.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

I'm glad you bring up the point about motivation. A lot of like the dichotomy of like conversation between obsession, discipline, motivation, like motivation is really important. Like, if you are not motivated by some level of degree, you're not going to do something. You can't grit and willpower your way through everything. Yes, those things matter. Willpower and grit matter. They're really important, but it is all part of a larger equation where motivation does matter. I have to be motivated to want to play in the NFL or to play football or to be successful. I have to have a driving force. And then downstream from that is the obsession and discipline that comes once you get certain feedback loops. But I really don't like when we make things super black and white because there's a lot of gray and nuance. And so I'm glad you bring up the point about motivation, because if you weren't motivated at some level, then you would never do it. And then, yes, those other attributes and characteristics are really important as well, maybe more important, but you need at base level something pulling or pushing you to where you want to go.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah, no doubt. And I'm gonna tell you this because this is this is funny in its own sense, because it it's kind of it's a goofy uh analogy when you think about it.

Failing Until You Win The Rep

SPEAKER_01 15:27

But when I was a little kid, I learned how to do all these weird little talents. Like I learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube, I learned how to juggle, I learned how to do crazy yo-yo tricks. I wish you could see them, they're so cool. I still do them sometimes today. But like out the little kid learning how to do these things. I didn't grow up with a phone or an iPod iPad or anything. So I learned how to entertain myself. And as as cheesy as this sounds, learning how to do those things kind of instilled like a fail over and over until you succeed mindset. Like I remember sitting in my room learning how to juggle, and the amount of times that I failed was hundreds, probably thousands, just learning how to throw three balls up in the air and catch them. And like I would practice over my bed so like when the balls dropped, I could just pick them up and start again. And once I eventually succeeded, the same thing with like a Rubik's Cube, like I did like an algorithm by myself, memorizing it finally, or I did a yo-yo trick finally. Like all that sounds cheesy, but it kind of taught me at a young age that if you just keep trying, like failure is the path to success. That's what it taught me as a young age. And it really shaped my brain, and I've continued to actually just naturally carry that mindset throughout my life because you know, life is like that. It it's it is failing over and over again until you succeed, right? And that's that's kind of my primary motivator is even though I fail, I'm gonna get up and try again, right? Because the next time could be the time that I succeed, right? That's anything in life. And, you know, we're talking about motivation, like I just said, like that's that's one of the things that keeps me motivated.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

You talked earlier about how faith also taught you optimism. And I think that plays hand in hand with exactly what you're talking about is as a human, it can be very easy to be a pessimist, but to be an optimist is necessary for success. Because one day, and you never know when that day is coming, things will change. And so you fail juggling all those times, you fail doing a Rubik's Cube or doing the yo-yo all those times until one day, but you don't know when that day comes, you learn how to do it and it clicks and you figure it out, and then you never lose it again. And that is why, even in the hardest of moments, you have to have a form of rational optimism. It is not the, no matter what, I'm gonna be, or yeah, I like to use this example. I believe Morgan House talks about this. It's prisoners of war were the ones who are most likely to live, were not the ones who are saying, Oh, this is gonna be easy, we're gonna be out of here tomorrow. And it also wasn't the pessimist saying, we're never gonna get out of here, we're screwed, we're screwed, we're doomed. It was the prisoners of war who said, Hey, this is gonna be a long time, this is gonna suck, it's gonna be brutal. But if we attack this one day at a time, we will get out of this, we will get to go home and we will get to see our families. And so, like, it's operating in that mindset with whatever you're doing. You don't know when success is gonna come. You don't know when your life is gonna change, you don't know what's gonna be the day where everything flips, but knowing that that day will come. And so operating with that mindset and whatever analogies or experiences that you had that teach you that, even it's as simple as doing a Rubik's Cube, are really important. And actually, I go to like chess. So, like I think chess is like a game that is super important, not just for life skills, but like cognitively. Like you learn how to think forward while acting in the moment as well. How do I make decisions now? They're gonna place me into a better future while acknowledging that that future isn't here yet, but I still need to make a decision right now. So it teaches you to think fast and it teaches you to think long. And so there's infinite numbers of experiences that we have as individuals that give us a greater set of characteristics that we can apply to sport or life or different domain. It's just having the ability to recognize that this is serving you in some capacity and that you can absorb and inherit some of these traits.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Yeah.

Self-Awareness With Confidence And Doubt

SPEAKER_01 19:36

And I and I think it's a combination of, you know, kind of with the prisoner analogy that you just said, it's a combination of being optimistic, but also being self-aware, right? Like you can't be so optimistic to where you're not self-aware of what's happening. You're not aware that, you know, you need to get better at this, you need to get better at that, you know, you need to uh emphasize this strength, right? Like if if you relate it in football terms, like, you know, I'm really good at running this play call, but I struggle with this other one. You can't just be like, oh, I'm gonna get out, you know, I'm gonna go out there and run everything right. You know what I mean? Like, I'm gonna be good, you know, there's nothing that's gonna wrong day because that's just a lie. Like you're gonna make mistakes every practice, every game. Like it's just it's the nature of the beast. So always being self-aware is really essential in in terms of how far you want to go and how how good you want to get at your craft.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

There was this piece I wrote a while ago. It was a former guest I had, Josh, uh Josh Bonnetal. He worked with the Chicago Bulls and now he works in Venture Capital. He talked about the most successful people have irrational confidence and imposter syndrome and operating within that dichotomy. And it's very similar to what you're articulating. It's I have the irrational confidence that I can be the best in the world, but I also have that imposter syndrome and humility to know how far I need to go. And if you can walk that tight rope, you can really bring out the best of yourself because too much of one or the other will cause you to cause you to fall, fail and fall. But to have that tightrope and have the equilibrium between those two will give you the the necessary components of both to keep incrementally improving to the point where you can get to one day the mountaintop and look back and say, look how far I've come, look what I've accomplished.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Yeah. And it's interesting you say imposter syndrome because that's something with I something that I deal with a lot. Like it's just so natural as humans for us to feel that way, I think, especially me personally, my path, you know, coming as a as an unrecruited walk-on out of high school and just now being in the spot that I'm in now, and I'm in a locker room with these freaks, you know, that are that are most of them were Big Ten SEC blue chip recruits. And it's like, holy cow, I'm a walk on from a mid major, and I'm in here. You know what I mean? But it kind of going back to your point about evidence, like That that's what kind of goes into my mind when I start to hear those doubts and those anxieties is like I deserve to be here. Like I have put in the work every day, day in and day out. And there are there's undeniable evidence, you know, that I have succeeded at the level that I've wanted to. And, you know, I have to keep stacking, right? As we as we talk, being self-aware, like I have to keep stacking days. I have to keep getting better because that's the point where I'm at. You know, I'm trying to make an NFL team. But just realizing that, you know, having having confidence because of the evidence that you've put on tape and in your own life is something that kind of helps me deal with the imposter syndrome thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

I love the conversation around imposter syndrome because I think most people don't actually have imposter syndrome. Like to me, imposter syndrome is like when you're pretending to be something you're not. And like that's how I classify it. But in your case, right, basically what you're transitioning to is like from a place of confidence to belief. And so the confidence to do what you've already done, you already have that. The belief is that, hey, now I can take what I've done and I can take it to the NFL, make that roster, be a 10-year NFL veteran. You haven't done it yet, but you have the belief that you can. And so, like where you're operating right now is like in between that space. And so that's why I say trust is the gap between confidence and belief. And so you have all this evidence that you're capable because you've proven it. You you've lived the life, you've done the day-to-day actions, you've you've gone from walk-on to captain, you know, to all Mac. And now it's like, hey, I've proven that someone is willing to sign me and give me a chance to make their roster. Now it's how do I use what I've already done to incrementally get better and become the 10-year NFL version that I want to be. And so you have a process that works, you've been adaptable over time, and now it's figuring out, okay, what's the next step? Because I know I can go from, you know, I I got talk about going from zero to one. So I say now you're going from, you know, one to two when zero to one was a much harder step. And so it's applying those concepts to that next step.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Yeah, no doubt. It's it's being consistent in your craft and and and realizing who you are, right? I mean, we we keep harping on it, but being self-aware and and continuing to get better at things that you know you need to get better at.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

I'm also gonna add this point is if you don't feel that you may not belong in an arena, you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough. Because if you want to keep getting better, you have to put yourself in positions where you may not feel that you belong and put yourself in rooms that you never thought that you could be in. And if you're not feeling that hesitation, I'd actually argue that that's a bad thing. And you want to feel that. That is a good feeling. That is a signal that you're doing something right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Like, think about a time, like you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And I was just about to say, think about a time where you did something that you were uncomfortable doing and then you completed it, and that the satisfaction of that sort of and the reinforcement that you can do it, right? Like anytime there's any sort of doubt, it's like, no, like I've been in this position so many times, right? I've I've I've made myself uncomfortable and I've succeeded, and I know I can do it again. And that's part of it's part of the optimism that we talked about, talk about is like I know what I can do. I'm confident in myself as an athlete, and I'm gonna go out and perform. And it doesn't matter if I'm uncomfortable because I've been in this situation before.

Handling Getting Cut Without Losing Yourself

SPEAKER_00 25:47

How do you handle the possibility of maybe not making it? Like if you get cut, if you don't make the roster, what is your plan for that adversity?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Well, again, it's it's realizing that God has a plan for my life. And knowing that, I'm fully content with whatever happens. I'm gonna give this everything I have. Like I will not work harder, probably ever in my life than right now. Like, I've always worked hard and I'm gonna give it everything I have in this camp. But if it doesn't work out, then that wasn't God's plan for me, right? Like, okay, let's say nothing happens, I get cut, right? It's not gonna feel good. I'm not gonna say I'm gonna be happy, right? But that could open doors and avenues to something entirely different that may have never happened if I made the team, right? So it's just being content with God's plan for your life and at the same time reali realizing how blessed you are to even be in the position that you're in. Like, think about how many kids work to get to you know, point that I'm at, you know, uh being on an NFL team. And like think how many kids would give anything to be in that position. Like God has blessed me immensely. You know, when I was a freshman walk-on in college, I didn't it didn't even cross my mind. Like I was just trying to get on scholarship. Like that, that was like that was going to be my full satisfactory story was if I get to college and get on scholarship and you know, maybe see the field at some point, maybe my last one or two years, you know, maybe on special teams, I'll be happy. And looking back, that was not that was not the case. As soon as I got on scholarship, it's just like at least the way my mind works, you just keep chasing more. Like, what is the next goal? Like, that's that kind of defined my whole college career, and that's what kept me motivated, and that's just how I work is like, all right, you know, I didn't see the field in 2021. 2022, I got on the field on special teams. Like, that's great. Still a walk on, but solid field. It's like, all right, I want to get my own scholarship. Like 2023 spring, I get on scholarship. Felt amazing, right, for three days. And then I'm like, all right, I want to play defense. How can I play defense? Right. And then I got on the rotation on defense and I had a really good year on special teams in 23. And I was like, okay, how can I be a full-time starter on defense? Right? Become a full-time starter. How can I become an all-conference player? And then it was like, okay, how can you be an NFL player? So like things just start to compound one after the other. And I've kind of realized experiencing that college is that I don't think you'll ever, as a flesh, fully be satisfied with what you're doing. You know what I mean? Like you could reach, you know, a higher mountain than than you would ever expect, and you're still not satisfied. Like, I want to make this team so bad. Like, it would totally hurt if I didn't make it. Right. But then I think about, you know, what would my freshman college self think about where I'm at now? Right. And you know, kind of, kind of thinking about that, and and and like I said, God has a plan for you, and he has good plans for you if you hand him your life. And the combination of thinking about those two things is like gives me full satisfaction and happiness with whatever whatever happens with me.

Escaping The Hedonic Treadmill

SPEAKER_00 29:11

How do you keep yourself from falling into that hedonic treadmill where nothing ever feels like it's enough?

SPEAKER_01 29:17

It's an interesting question. I would say kind of like I said, realizing how far you've come. Think about everything that you've achieved. Think about what your past self would think about where you are now. Like that kind of grounds me a little bit. Some you get caught, you get so caught up in what you want to do next. Like you're living in the present moment. I want to do this, I want to do that, you know, whatever the next goal is, whatever it may be. In my in my case, it's obviously making a team. But like just be introspective. You know, be being intr being introspective is super important to me. It's it's kind of my personality. And when I can ground myself and think about the journey that I've had and all the amazing people I've met along the way, like yourself, like it, it it's a blessing. And you know, it it it it doesn't it it satisfies me to know where I've gotten, right? Like and again, like I said, trusting in God. It's just it's a combination of those two that prevents me from just falling down like this pessimistic spiral of like, oh, I'll never be satisfied. You know what I mean? It's like a it's a balance, you know. We've talked about balance of a lot of things here on this podcast, but like it's balancing that unwavering motivation and then being satisfied with how blessed you are. It's like, you know what I mean? It's it's it's it's such an interesting concept to think about, but that's kind of how my mind works and how I balance the two things.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Yeah, high performance is full of attention, is full of tension between virtues. And the reframe I have is you should always want to pursue more. Not for the sake of having more, not letting more get in the way of having enough, where you sacrifice important, you know, really important things, but more so in understanding that you should want to become more. When you realize that you've set a level of achievement, it's like, I can do more, I can accomplish more. Let's see what I can exhaust out of myself in terms of my own capability. And it's it becomes more of a curiosity and a desire than it is egotistical and selfish. It's not about not having enough. It's about, well, how far can I really push myself? What is my human capability that I can exhaust? And that is like the distinction. And so when you're in high performance, you're in football, it's there's always going to be more. You're gonna set a standard and you're gonna be, you're gonna hold yourself to that standard. Then you're gonna set a new standard and hold yourself to that standard. And like you said, it is really important sometimes to take a look back, see how far I've come. What would the younger version of me think right now? And then also understanding like, it's not that this isn't enough. It's that now I've proven what I am capable of and now I want to see even more from myself. And it's that constant tension in that virtue. But when you can shift that perspective and that mindset, it's not about just having more. It's about seeing how far you can take or how far you can exhaust your your own physical and mental limitations.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Yeah. And that's that's a perfect way to put it. You put it perfectly. And like you said, it's not, it's not egotistical, right? It's like, how far can I push myself? Like I've made it this far. I've been talented enough to make it this far. How far can I push myself? And like you said, you constantly just you set a new standard for yourself. And I think your environment's really important too. Like walking into an NFL staff with these coaches and these players, it really skews your perception of what's normal. But it's almost helpful because it pushes you to a new standard, pushes you to new heights. I mean, these coaches push you so hard, and these players are so good, and the margins are so thin, you know, that it's like I want to do this. How how far can I push myself because I believe I can.

Inner Circle Support And Coach Feedback

SPEAKER_00 33:07

How have you done a good job even outside of the building and surrounding yourself with the right people?

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Yeah, I've I think I have a great inner circle of people. Like my support system is really good, and it's really my fan. It's it's my mom, it's my dad, you know, it's my uncle, it's it's my fiance. Like though having those people in my life to talk to is great, and then having good teammates that I can talk to, you know, from from from college and being able to sort of tell them about the experiences that I'm having. You know, I like to be able to talk to people that kind of understand what I'm going through. And yeah, I think that's really important. And then over this past spring, whatever month and a half in May, June, I have been able to develop really good relationships with a few of my coaches, which has been great for me from a mental approach standpoint, because sometimes, you know, you're in these meetings and you know, they're not they're not necessarily good meetings, they're not happy meetings, like you know, they're chewing guys out, like, you know, we we better see more urgency from this group tomorrow, like talking to us rookies, and it makes you feel down because you're you're giving in everything you have, and I don't think everyone in the building is, but you know that you are. And it's like, man, like I'm giving more than these guys are. You know what I mean? And and it it's coming, it's reflecting back on us as a whole. So being able to go up and talk to your coach, which is something that I did a lot over over this uh last month and a half in May and June, it was something that helped me out so much. Like being able to go up there every day, pretty much what I did. It was either the special teams coordinator or my safeties coach, and just sit down with them, watch my film one-on-one, you know, talk to them about where they see me, you know, what they think I need to get better at, what they think I'm doing great at. It was really reassuring. And having the combination of that and my inner circle, it really just gives you like reassuring confidence, you know, in in yourself and you realize that you can do this. And and it kind of, it's another motivator for you, you know, to get up and go to work every day.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

It's actually amazing to me how little people understand the little details that matter. Like just having the awareness to go have a conversation with your coach, to go say, hey, I want to watch film with you to go over my my study and make sure I'm doing the right things and correcting the things that I need to be doing better. It's actually shocking to me how little that you see players with a proactive approach in doing that. And we live in an era where informate, there's an abundance of information. There's never been, it's never been easier to get access to information. And yet I would say behavior has not changed a bit. If anything, it might have gotten a little bit worse with instant gratification. And it it's always a little bit challenging when you're talking to a group versus working with an individual. It's like when you're portraying message to a group, you have a few people in mind where you're it's like you're the ones who need to be listening. And then there's there's people like you who do everything right. The the epitome and the model of this is what it should look like, are the ones who are like either questioning it or being like, I am like giving a lot, I am giving it my all. And it's, you know, like you said earlier, it goes in ear and out the other for some people. And then people like yourself, it's you absorb everything. And it's like, you know, we want to create carb uh, you know, a carbon culture or of you and apply it everywhere else. And that's just from you know, the eight weeks that we had together. It's instantly when we met and had a couple conversations and I watched you train, it was this kid gets it. Like he's gonna figure out. I don't know what how long he'll last the NFL or what it will be, but there's no doubt in my mind that he is gonna exhaust his options and reach the top bandwidth of his potential. And then there's other guys you see where it's like, this guy has no chance. Don't care how talented he is, he will not make it past a week, past whatever you know month that camp is, and he will get cut. And it's like it doesn't take long to figure out who gets it and who doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

Yeah, it it it is really it's pretty easy to see, I think, after after you see it a couple after you just see how people operate a few times, you know. And I don't know, it's so interesting, like kind of how you were saying, like, I'm so the guys that need to hear it, it really does go in one ear and out the other for them sometimes. And then the guys that like myself, like I absorb all the information that you would say, and like what what anyone says, like any mentor coach that says something to me, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I always question myself. I'm always like, am I doing that well enough? Like, you know, how can I improve with this? Am I really, you know, is my process good enough? Like, do I need to get better? Like, yeah, I do. You know, it's always, it's always those thoughts in my head. And it's like, it's another primary motivator for me. It keeps me, it keeps me coming back. And that's that's one of the other reasons that I'm just willing to be uncomfortable with things. I think going back to like talking to your coaches, I think a lot of players are just uncomfortable going up there and sitting in their office and talking to them. As simple as that might sound. I mean, it was a little uncomfortable for me when I went up there the first time. Like it's an NFL coach, and I'm going up there in his office, the undrafted rookie, you know. So, you know, it's just constantly thinking about how I can better myself. And it drives me to keep wanting to do more and it drives me to get uncomfortable. And it's super important to be to be critical of yourself in that manner, you

Questions, Negative Bias, And Flow State

SPEAKER_01 38:53

know.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

A super underspoken part about a performance is question asking. If you can become an elite question asker of yourself, you give yourself a better chance. And it doesn't have to be these super sophisticated questions. It can be as simple as some of the questions that you were just saying. Am I good enough? Am I doing enough? Where do I need to get better? Simple as it does this decision that I'm making increase or decrease the likelihood of success? And when you learn how to ask the right questions, then you get into performance where naturally, you know, you get into a fourth quarter pressure moment, your mind again wants to flood to the negatives. What if this goes wrong? What if I make a mistake? What if I give up a touchdown? To okay, what are my checks and balances? What did I do to prepare for this moment? What happens if everything goes right? And then you learn this ultimate question asking and you can reflect and have better answers for yourself. And again, channel yourself, increase the probability of success with what you do.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Yeah, no doubt. And I always think about like, why, why do we as humans, like, why do we automatically go to the negative consequences? Like, why, why can't we think more of like what happens if this does go right? And I think continuing to build evidence, like we've talked about, and just like repetition and like realizing how much you you've succeeded in similar circumstances per se, like it allows you to think that way more. And like another thing when I'm on the field is instead of thinking about the negative consequences of things, like I'm just too busy operating in basically, I would say, flow state. Like you're just operate you're you're so competent and you're just locked into what you've repped thousands and thousands of times to where like you're not even thinking about an outcome. You're just playing. You know what I mean? And like you're just playing at the top of your game and you're you're you're you're processing things at a high level on the field and and you're reacting instinctively based off of the thousands of reps that you've gotten. You know, you've you've you've done these reps at full speed with with confidence, and it's like here I am now, it's the same thing. And I think that's super important as a player is just being able to drown out all that noise and just go out there and play. Like that's one thing at OTAs this past spring, especially. It's like once you get out on that field, for me at least individually, I feel a lot of pressure pre-game or pre-practice or the night before, or whenever I'm whenever I'm studying or what whatever it may be to prepare. I feel pressure, right? A little nervousness, some anxiousness, which is fine. Like, I'm cool with it. But once you get out on that field, it's like if it just kind of all melts away. It's like we're just out here playing football. Like, I can do this. I've played football my whole life. These guys, like, I've read this a thousand times. Like, I know the call, I know what to do, I know how to get lined up, I see the formation, I'm confident, I'm concise. Like, at the end of the day, just operating that way is gonna help you be successful and being able to sort of take that pressure off yourself because you know, you know, that there's there's tons of evidence that you've got it right.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

And that goes back to your question like why are we attracted to the negative so easily and from like a human evolutionary standpoint, right? Being in threat detection mode has served us and kept us alive for long periods of time. If you go back thousands of years ago, you know, you hear a rustle in the bushes, you are better served to assume that that is a tiger versus thinking it's a bird. Because if it's just a bird, or if excuse me, if it's a tiger and you're assuming it's just a bird, you're dying. But if you assume that it's a tiger and it's just a bird, you're okay. And so you fast forward through, you know, years and years of this, our minds will always be attracted to the things that we feel are the greatest threat to us, and we go into protection mode. Versus where when you learn to talk to yourself instead of listen to yourself, you can present that evidence and you can learn those debate techniques with yourself that you can apply to show yourself, I am ready, I am prepared. I've done this over and over again. But again, in those, and I'm big on this, those affirmations and that internal dialogue has to be rooted in truth, which is in your case, proof and truthful. If you're not doing the right things and you're not living the lifestyle and you're not prepared, you can't you can't trick yourself into thinking that you are. And so that's why it is just this flood of necessary behavior that will get you to that flow state that you so easily are able to transition into.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Yeah. Yeah. And and it's like you said, just preparing. Like it's so important because if you don't, you're gonna get exposed regardless of what you tell yourself and regardless of how you think. So just just yeah, just being as prepared as possible, repping something to where you know you can't get it wrong. And you're so confident about you know the play call per se that you can't get it wrong. Like that's what allows you to play fast and loose and confident and without overthinking anything and not even thinking about, you know, what if this goes wrong? Because at that point, it's just your talent instinct that takes over.

The Mental Edge That Makes Rosters

SPEAKER_00 44:13

Now, all this being said, what's gonna be the difference between you making the roster and you getting cut when you view this in your own mind?

SPEAKER_01 44:19

I think the difference is gonna be how I operate mentally and you know, sort of how smart I can be on the field because I'm plenty athlet athletic enough to play. I'm obviously not the biggest guy on the field, right? I'm not the fastest guy on the field, but I'm plenty athletic to play safety. I think my real superpower is my is my head. And being able to operate at an elite mental level is what's gonna separate me on the field. So I try to buy into that as much as possible. And whether that's film study with the plays or, you know, on special teams, like I said earlier, uh trying to in a personal protector job, right? There's a lot of mental side to that. Not just making the calls, but like like not making the protection calls, but also manipulating the cadence and you know, making adjustments and everything in between. And it's like being confident mentally that you can do that and handle that. And so I think my mind is gonna be so important during this training camp, you know, pop you know, even more important than the physical, because like I said, the margins are are so thin. So like you gotta use your superpowers that you have, you know what I mean? And so I really think that's gonna be the difference, is just how odd in mentally can I get into the

Where To Find Silas And Closing

SPEAKER_01 45:41

system?

SPEAKER_00 45:41

So well, hey, I know you got a tea time, so I want to get you off to your tea time, but uh I appreciate you coming on, brother. You know, it means a lot. It's a fun conversation, you know, fun getting to to work with you and and see you continue to grow. If people want to reach out to you or you know, people want to find you, where can they find you? Please take the you know time to tell us here.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

Yeah. Well, first of all, Chris, you have me on again. It's been awesome learning from you, and it was great being up at Terry's with you for the last or whenever that was. Good brief. Time's flying. What is it, January, February, those two months? So it's awesome being with you. If anyone wants to reach out, just hit me on Instagram at Silas.walters10. I'll be open to any questions. Let me know. I'll be happy to answer. But again, appreciate you having me on here and and great spending an hour with you talking to you. It was great.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Listeners, thank you for tuning in. Tune in next week. Check us out, athleticfortitude.com. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, download the podcast. Five stars on the radio. Appreciate appreciate you, Silas. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

Thank you.