It’s An Inside Job: Olaniyi Sobomehin On How To Maximize Potential In Sport & Life

“Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision.”
Muhammad Ali

We tend to assume the successful are simply gifted. Or perhaps just lucky — at the right place at the right time.
Olaniyi Sobomehin is not one of those people.
But he does have one thing most lack: vision and self-belief.
A middle child with a life long dream to play in the NFL, Niyi lacked the natural gifts required to even earn a college football scholarship. Friends and family repeated the refrain: be realistic. Niyi ignored the advice, invested in himself and walked on the Oregon State program with little to no chance of seeing game time.
But sheer determination, exceptional mental toughness, and an unparalleled ability to out work everyone on the field turned this no name walk on into a running back for The New Orleans Saints, where he finally realized his childhood dream playing alongside NFL greats like Drew Brees.
A voracious reader able to translate wisdom into actionable practices, Niyi understood that the tools he relied upon for athletic success would apply equally to life after football. So upon retirement he turned his professional focus to I’m Not You– a platform to help young athletes develop the habits, strategies, systems and techniques required to maximize potential in sport and life.
Niyi’s approach has little to do with physical training. It’s about overcoming mental limitations. It’s about mindset. Because the relationship one has with one’s self is what ultimately dictates outcomes.
In other words, it’s an inside job.
Today we talk about the strategies Niyi distilled from playing at the highest level of sport and how these tools can be applied to unlock your own inner potential.
Specifics include:

* how to overcome a talent deficit
* developing confidence through facing fear
* techniques for developing a mental edge
* what holds most athletes (and people) back
* the common habits of the most successful athletes
* the benefits of affirmation & visualization techniques
* morning routines to optimize your day
* why he surveys his family weekly; and
* why getting uncomfortable is the key to success

I love this guy’s passion. Niyi’s enthusiasm for life and devotion to service is infectious, buttressed by a perspective germane well beyond the boundaries of sport. So even if you’re not an athlete, this conversation delivers. Chocked with copious gems applicable to every facet of personal and professional development, it’s a natural bookend to echo and complement my preceding conversation with Jesse Itzler and the principles he learned living with Navy SEAL David Goggins.
Question: What Belief About Yourself Is Holding You Back?
I’d love to hear all about it in the comments section below.
I sincerely hope you enjoy this walk in Niyi’s cleats as much as I did.
Peace + Plants,

P.S. – Subsequent to our interview, Niyi launched the Sports Motivation Podcast and already has 10 episodes up. Apologies for not mentioning it in the introduction — check it out!
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