The Fortitude Chronicle: A Weekly Digest of Athletic Determination

Monday Momentum

For the Relentless Mind

Your Reaction to Imperfect Conditions Reveals Your True Identity

What type of person needs perfect conditions to be happy?

What kind of person needs perfect conditions to perform?

As athletes, we panic when things go outside our perfectly thought-out plan. The refs we don't like. Bad weather. Less warm-up time than usual. Poor sleep the night before. An opponent talking trash.

I hate to break it to you, but as an athlete, nothing ever goes according to plan.

Chaos is inevitable. The question isn't whether chaos will show up. It's: What type of person do you become when it does?

The Conditional Athlete

Most athletes are conditional performers. They perform when conditions are right. When they feel good. When the environment supports them. When everything aligns.

But elite performers? They're undeniable.

They don't need perfect conditions. They perform despite the conditions.

This isn't about toughness. It's about identity. The conditional athlete has attached their performance to external circumstances. The undeniable athlete has built an identity that doesn't need things to go right.

Planning for Chaos

Here's what most athletes miss: You don't hope chaos doesn't happen. You plan for it.

Justin Su’a told me on the podcast that great players prepare for adversity before it arrives. They don't wait for the storm and then try to figure out who they are in it.

They decide in advance.

"When the refs are terrible, I will..."

"When I don't sleep well, I will..."

"When my warm-up gets cut short, I will..."

This isn't positive or negative thinking. This is identity engineering. You're generating a process that brings the person you want to become into the present moment—even when the moment is chaos.

The Real Question

Your reaction to imperfect conditions reveals your real identity.

Not the identity you claim. Not the one you show when things are easy. The one that shows up when everything goes wrong.

Do you need perfect conditions to perform? Then you're not elite. You're conditional. And conditional athletes don't last.

Do you perform anyway? That's earned identity. That's agency. That's the difference between athletes who make it and athletes who almost did.

As I tell my athletes: Champions don't need ideal circumstances. They create them through who they choose to be.

This week:

Write down the three most common "imperfect conditions" that derail your performance. For each one, complete this sentence: "When [condition] happens, the version of who I want to become will [specific action]." Decide now. Then when chaos shows up—and it will—you already know who you are.

Two Quotes

1. "I've learned that we can have different personalities. We can't have different mentalities."— Mike Vrabel

2. “The world will reward you in proportion to your courage, not your intellect.” — Alex Hormozi

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To Building Fortitude.

 Best Regards,

Colin Jonov, Founder & CEO Athletic Fortitude