Why Talent Won't Get You Success

In this episode, Ronnie delves into the importance of daily routines over talent for achieving success. Listen as he shares personal insights and experiences, explaining how a consistent routine can provide greater confidence, mental clarity, and discipline. The episode outlines practical tips for establishing a daily routine, highlights the significance of intentionality in workouts, and gives a detailed breakdown of Ronnie's own routines from college to professional life. Listeners are encouraged to track and evaluate their routines to align with their goals, with an emphasis on the mental aspect and long-term commitment required for elite performance.

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Transcript

Ronnie Baker 0:00

What if the key to success as an athlete, isn't your talent. But the routines you follow every day. Or could your inconsistent results be assigned that your routines need an overhaul? In this episode, I'm going to walk you guys through my daily routine as an Olympic athlete. And I'm going to tell you why, even though I wasn't the fastest athlete, my routines helped me outpace my peers and my competition and allow me to become a professional athlete at the highest level. But guys, we're going to jump right in. We're going to talk about routine and why if you want to be an elite athlete, you need to have routine in your life. And this just doesn't go for elite athlete, but just if you want to be a top performer in life in anything, I am going to talk about being an elite performer because everybody wants to know how they're going to be an elite athlete. And I will tell you this, that It comes down to the details. It comes down to routine. So in the first part of what we're doing, we're going to talk about basically establishing a routine and then making it your own. Everyone's routine is different, but it's in the routine and the details that really makes the difference in honestly becoming an elite person in any, aspect. I'm going to give you guys a quote about routine, It says you'll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of success is found in your daily routine. The secret of success is found in your daily routine. I can't stress that enough, It's what you do each and every day. That's going to determine whether you succeed or not. And ultimately you get to choose the path. You get to choose exactly what you want to do. what you're going to do each day to make sure that you're going to get to the next level. And if you're not taking the steps that you've written down that you know you need to do, then really you're kidding yourself. If you're going to make it far in life, if you're going to be an elite athlete, if you're going to perform to the best of your ability and bring out the potential in you. So it really does come down to executing a routine. I really want to talk about that, but I also want to talk about just why Routine is important. There's a lot of different reasons of why routine is important, but some of the main ones that I've written down that have been really key to my life and helping me be a professional athlete for over eight years in track and field space is that one, it prepares you systematically. And what that does is it gives you a greater confidence when you go into something. So for me, because I've done This same things over and over. And I've had a routine in my life for the last eight years as a professional athlete, it's given me greater confidence in everything I do. For instance, when I show up to practice, I've done the same drills. I've, practice the same things and it gives me confidence. to know that my mechanics are going to be on point when I go to sprint or, when I get to a competition, I do the same competition warmups, right? It gives me confidence knowing that I'm executing the right things. So when I get there, I don't have to think about it. It's just automatic, So it prepares you systematically. One of the, And the other cool things that it does is it creates predictability and clarity of mind. if you have a routine, you have a predictable day on like the tasks that you have to get done for the day. And so one, you're not going to be scatterbrained and overwhelmed because you're going to have predictability in your life. You're going to know exactly, Hey, I wake up, I go to the gym, I have my breakfast I stretch I do my re my rehab, I go to practice, whatever it is. You're going to be creating predictability. And what that's going to do is It's going to give you a clear mind when you go to execute on the things that you're going to do. So it creates predictability and clarity of mind. Number three is it creates mental discipline and. This is one of the many overlooked things as far as being at an elite level is the mental aspect. I feel like even at the professional level, until you have been beaten a bunch of times until you've taken a lot of L's, I don't think that you realize how much the mental aspect comes into being a champion. The mental aspect is so big and mental discipline is so huge. And I'm actually going to talk a little bit more about that. But the third thing of why routine is so important is mental discipline. Because it trains the mind to stay committed. Even when motivation fades the reality of, track and field training guys is that we train for a whole year. We train from like October all the way through August, September of the next year. You're competing for a very, long time for any of you guys that are in high school you start in. August, and you're competing all the way through July through summer, doing summer track and all those things. So the motivation that's going to happen at the beginning of the season is going to fade. It's going to fade and it's going to fade because it's such a long grind, And most of the time, even for me, like I have to train almost for 12, 13, 14 weeks before I even get on the track to compete. what the routine does is it trains your mind to stay committed. to your task, to your goals, even when your motivation fades, because you're going to be in a routine. you're going to basically turn off your brain and let your body do the work. So that's why the routine is so important and why having one that makes sense for you and your plan is super important. I've, highlighted the routine that if you have a routine, it's really the secret to success. Something that you do daily every single day. I've talked about already how it's going to prepare you systematically. It's going to create predictability and mental clarity, and it's going to give you some mental discipline and in this segment, this next segment of the show, we're talking about The drive phase and in the race. If you guys follow 100 meter racing, you've got a block start, you come out of the blocks. That's like the foundation of the show, the drive phase is really where you're pushing. You're setting your race up. And so how do you set yourself up to put your, to put yourself in a winning position when it comes to routine? So one of the big things I want to talk about is the differences in my journey when I was in college and the guys that I competed against and also the guys I trained with, because the thing is everybody wants to be a professional athlete. Everybody wants to know the secrets to being elite and everybody that follows me, most people that follow me, they think it's their training. Everyone says, I need training. I need a strength coach. What, specific exercises do you do? Trust me. Training is a big part of being. The problem is that most of you guys think that's all it is. It's not just the training. If you think about a collegiate system, when I was in college at TCU, there was a ton of other guys that sprinted. We had a big sprint team because TCU was predominantly sprints, All of us did the same work. We came to track practice. We ran the same reps. We lifted the same weights. We did the same movements. We stretched the same. We did everything the same, So what was the difference between me and my teammates? That's what it comes down to. It's all the small details. It's what does that typically boil down to? What are those things that Ronnie was doing that maybe his teammates weren't doing? And a big part of that, there's a lot of different things, but a big part of that is routine. So again, it's not just a training. It's more than that. It's deeper than that because typically even looking at myself as a professional athlete There's probably not much different that like me and Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman and Fred Curley we're probably all doing some of what similar training, right? There's not too much different in what we're doing. Like probably all doing squats or probably all doing deadlifts all those things. Actually, I don't do any Olympic lifts. But anyway, we're doing somewhat Similar things. Okay. And the difference is really in the small, fine details. So I want you to understand that while you're pushing into, let's find a routine, let's actually get something in place to where we can make our life simpler, had clarity to what we're doing. And really take our track and field training, track and field competition, track and field our, performances to the next level. A routine is so crucial. It's so crucial because it really is a separator between the goods and the greats. Okay. this next part, I was talking about getting into full on action with this. I want to give you guys some practical tips. I'll give you some practical general tips and then I'll give you my daily schedule, daily routine. People always want to know what my daily routine is. So I'll give you guys what I do on a daily basis, walk you through the week of how I prep. For practice, how I prep for training and then how I prep for meets, how I recover, sleep, everything. So some generalized tips. If you want to create a routine, I think the first thing you do, you have to start your routine. You have to start your day. So the first thing I do is, waking up at the same time every day, So basically you're going to get up, you're going to get up at the same time, no matter what you have to do. If that's. Like for me on Mondays, I get up, I go to weights on Mondays. On Tuesdays, I don't go to weights, but I get up at the same time, It just keeps me in the same rhythm. It keeps me, my, my internal clock at the same time, rhythm, everything at the same pace. So getting up at the same time every single day, that's number one. Number two is having a pre practice routine. When, I was in college, I had a pre practice routine. I would get up early I would get up early too because I typically had eight AMs. So if I had a, if I had an eight AM, I'd get up at six o'clock. I would go eat breakfast. I would go to my eight o'clock after my eight o'clock. I would go to the training room. We had a place where there was massage guns, foam rollers, ice bath, cold tub, hot tub, trainers, rehab, all the kinds of stuff that you need to be successful in any sporting arena. So I would go and I would, After my class, I would go to the training room. I would foam roll. I would do rehab. I would work on things that I needed strengthening. For instance, if I had like weak hip flexors, I would work on that. If I needed strengthening my glutes or something, I would work on those. I would do the hamstring prehab so I didn't injure my, injure myself at practice. All those things, that was after class. Then I would probably go to another class after that. Go eat lunch, have lunch, then head to practice, And even before practice. So I, would get into the training room two times before I even went to practice. So now I'm in the training room an hour before I even get. to the track. I'm doing even more things to prep myself before I get to training, sometimes you got to do the warmup before the warmup, So I did all that stuff even an hour before. So now I'm in the training room again, two times before I even get to the track. Then I head to the track. I do my warmup, do my workout. After that, I'm back in the training room. So for you guys that are talking about, you want to be elite, you want to be great, I want to be a professional athlete. I want to win a state title. I want to run at the collegiate level. Do you understand that it takes more commitment than probably what you're doing right now? It's going to take more. The routine, the things that I'm talking to you guys about, it's going to take more. I was in that I went to the training room almost three to four times a day to stay healthy so that I can compete at a high level so that I can win NCAA championship so that when I got to the place where I was going to You know, try to make NCAA finals and when I could actually put myself in a position to do that. I'm, around college kids and a lot of them don't do that. A lot of them don't, take it seriously enough. So even after I finished training, I'm back in the training room. Guess what I'm doing. cold plunges. massage therapy. I'm stretching. I'm doing normal tech boots. I'm doing the things that are required to be at a high level. So that was my daily routine when I was in college. And that is the, those are the pre practice. So that was the second thing. The number three thing, the kind of general tip for developing routine. One was waking up at the same time every day. Two is having a pre practice routine. Number three is, approaching every workout with intentionality. So what does that mean? That means going in and having a clarity of mind and saying okay, when I get to practice, even though I'm tired, I'm going to give my best effort, I'm not going to slack in the warmup. I'm not going to slack in the workout. When I get tired on that second rep after that second rep and I have another one, I'm going to push myself. Even when I'm tired, even when I don't want to go do it. That's what really coming in with intentionality and really thinking about everything as you do it. So in practice is the time where you really have to think about things. For instance, when I'm doing block starts with a hundred prepping myself to actually execute this in a race. I'm doing more, I'm doing more thinking in practice than I am when I get to the meet so I think about the things that I need to do, pushing out aggressively and covering ground. My first step, making my second step quick out of the blocks. Those are the things, getting the right angles coming out of the blocks. Those are the things that I'm really focused on. When I think about those and have intentionality with them in practice, they translate into the competition. But if I'm just in at practice doing it look whimsically and not thinking about it and just going through the motions, guess what? When you get to the meat, what do you think is going to happen? You're going to get to the meat and you're going to go through the motions. Even when you're trying to put your brain in a place where it's trying to be competitive, if you're not competitive and you're not putting yourself in a position to win in practice, it's not going to translate. to game time situations is not going to translate, especially in a 60 meter, a hundred meter race where everything is so quick and so fast. If you're not sharp, it's going to be a really rough day for you. So that was the third thing, being intentional with every workout, every rep, thinking about how is this going to make me better? What am I going to do now to make me better so that when I get to the meet, I don't even have to think about it. That's what routine is all about, Conditioning your brain, conditioning your mind. to be able to be in a space where when you get to the meet, you don't even have to think it just automatically happens. Okay. So what is my daily routine as a professional athlete? What is Ronnie Baker's daily routine? It's, been modified. It's changed. I have a child now, so things are. Very, different. But I guess I can give you, I gave you a little bit of the TCU college routine. Now I'll give you some of the professional athlete routine. on Monday. This is my longer day, right? So I wake up on Monday at 5am alarm goes off at 5am. I'm, up before 5. 30. Every day, okay? I'm up. I get up at the same time every day. Every day, like clockwork. Every day. Every day. Every day. No matter how tired I am, every day I get up at the same time. So five o'clock I'm up, I'm brushing my teeth, washing my face waking myself up. I swear if you just put water on your face when you wake up, you'll be alive. You'll feel a lot better. So that's what I do. And then from there I make, typically I make some kind of intra workout shake. That intra workout shake looks like eight ounces of cherry juice, one scoop of whey protein, a scoop of taurine. One tablespoon of MCT oil and some creatine. I just gave you guys free game right there. Literally free nutritional gain right there You drink that during your workout. It's gonna help you go longer in the workout. All right, so get the gains That's exactly what I do. I make that I head to the gym. I do my workouts typically last about an hour and a half Sometimes a little bit over depending on how much weight I'm moving and how much rest I need in between. Okay. So an hour and a half, two hours in the gym, Then after that I head home. I have to get up early because my wife goes to the gym as well. We have a child. So when I get home, I watched my baby Maya and play with her for a couple of hours while my wife goes to the gym. And in that time I have to be intentional. I just talked about intentionality being intentional, not only with my practices, but being intentional with my child, So I'm very intentional with my child. I play with my child. Make sure I give her all the attention and love she needs, right? That's for about two hours. My wife comes home probably around 1030, 11. At that time, Maya goes to sleep, takes a nap. I sometimes will take a nap at 11 o'clock. Either I'm taking a nap. Or I'm doing some work in the office. Like I'm in my office right now. And then I head over to practice. Sometimes I will go and do the boots before practice. Norma tech boots. If any of you guys know that basically help you recover, help your legs recover. Or I'll go into the training room and stretch. I'll get loose. I'll do something to prepare myself for practice. I get to practice. I do my warmup. I do my drills. We hit the workout at I get there. I get to the track at 1230 at one o'clock. I start the warmup. I am ready to sprint at two o'clock. My coach comes, we hit the workout usually done by three or three 30. After that, I go back to the training room again, so two times in the training room already, and I either do a cold, plunge, ice tub, whatever you want to call it, either that with some hot tub, like contrast therapy or I'm doing again. I'm doing some stretching, foam rolling, whatever it is. Then I go home and basically from then on, I'm a family man. I come and I do a live with you guys at 6 PM. That is my day. I have lunch before I go to practice. Typically that's really light. I'll do some chicken, some rice or chicken and potatoes. Something that's not super heavy, but that, meal is typically like two hours before. So if you're going to eat potatoes, that's a little bit heavier. So you want to put that a little bit further away from your workout. Either way. I get a good protein to get a good carb, And then have dinner. Typically I try to get in bed because my child goes to bed around seven. I try to get in bed around, 9 30 10. Tuesday, same thing. I wake up at 5 AM. I don't have a gym workout that day. So typically I'm in the office doing work or I'm doing some kind of recovery, stretching, getting ready for the day. Just getting some stuff knocked out before the baby gets up. Cause when the baby gets up, it's like full attention. So these are the things that I do. That's my typical daily routine. And what, that daily routine has done it's, allowed me to have predictability in my day. The predictability allows me to have clarity of mind. I'm not overwhelmed, just not overwhelmed, not thinking about what's coming next. I am already prepared for what's coming next cause I know what's coming next. I know what I'm doing to be able to prepare myself to one train at a high level. Because if you train at a high level, you perform at a high level. You cannot train at a piss poor level. And compete at a high level. So if you're not going into practice with intentionality, it's not going to work out for you when it comes to me day. Okay. So routine is so important and having a solid one is it's so crucial. If you just want to be good, don't implement the routine. If you want to be great, it's going to require that you put some daily things that you're doing tasks that you're doing each and every day. That's going to allow you to have some predictability and clarity, not just around the track, but in your everyday life as well. just to, recap on what we went over, because, We went over and covered a lot of information in a really short time, in about 20 minutes. the, quote that I gave you guys about routine, it says, You'll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of success is found in your daily routine. So I would encourage you guys right now to look at your routine. Literally write down what you do on a day to day basis. Write down how much everything you do. to what you're doing to prepare for practice, how you go about your day. Literally track your day, and then when you track your day, after you do that, look back on it at night and say, what are the things in here that are helping me to become a better athlete? if they're not in alignment with your goals, then that means you need to change your routine. why is it so important? Because it prepares you systematically. It gives you greater confidence as you go into competitions. It creates predictability and clarity of mind. And it sharpens your mental discipline. Having a routine sharpens your mental discipline. it trains your mind so that when the monotony of training sets in, when the motivation dies from what you are doing, when the motivation fades, because the motivation will fade and whatever you're doing, especially if you're trying to be the best in something, it's not going to happen overnight. So You have to have the mental discipline to be able to keep going and a routine allows you to stay committed even after the motivation fades. It's so crucial that you have this into your plan and you have a routine and what you're doing and and you have clarity about it. Because the clarity about it is going to allow you to make sure that you're doing the right things to get to your goal. Cause sometimes you could have a routine that's not getting you to the desired outcome. That you want which is better performance, which is a state title, which is a collegiate championship, which is running at the next level, whatever it is. If you're, you have to assess your routines that you know it's getting you and pushing you in the right direction. And quite frankly, if it's not, that means that you need to just make some changes. It's okay. But now you're aware of it. I would, encourage you guys to track your day, see exactly what you're doing and ask yourself, is this getting me closer to what I want to accomplish, With that, I really hope that this helped you guys, just with, I told you guys and shared with you my routine, I gave you some nutrition tips, too, which is A little cherry on top for y'all. So implement these strategies to help you build a routine, build a solid routine. One that's going to help you achieve your goals. And when you do that, I think that you're going to achieve at a higher level. You're going to be a better person and ultimately you're going to get to your goals a lot faster. And even if they don't come fast, you're going to have the mental discipline to stay. Stay in it and continue to do the things that matter that are going to help you be the best version of yourself. I love you guys. And thanks for hanging out with me. If you're watching on YouTube, make sure you hit that subscribe button so you can be notified whenever there's a new video that I drop. If you're listening to this on the podcast platform or on Spotify, just share it with a friend. If it helped you today. Remember that defeat is optional is not just a saying it's a way of life. And it's a choice that you get to make each and every day to make your life better. All right. I will catch you guys in the next episode.