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- 🏆 No BCEs: A Championship Mindset
🏆 No BCEs: A Championship Mindset
Blaming, complaining, and making excuses don’t build champions. They create victims.
Greg Berge
March 27, 2025
In partnership with
Good morning, and welcome! Welcome to the 67 new subscribers who joined 14,600+ coaches and leaders this week! Excited to have you on board!
Here's what's coming: Today’s topic: NO BCE’s → Blaming, complaining, and excuses don’t build champions. Learn how to eliminate BCEs and create a winning mindset.
Let’s dive in.
💭 ONE THOUGHT
No BCEs: A Championship Mindset
"Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure."
We all know the athlete who blames the refs after a loss, the coach who complains about talent, or the teammate who always has an excuse.
Like the kid who misses a game-winner, then spends five minutes explaining how the play was drawn up wrong.
Or the coach who blames the officials after every close loss.
Let’s be real; those behaviors don’t build champions.
In my mind, they build victims.
We call them BCEs: Blaming, Complaining, and Excuse Making: Three habits that sabotage greatness.
These three habits don’t just damage a team; they destroy an individual’s personal growth.
BCEs trap you in a cycle of negativity.
They create a victim mindset.
They are the habits of teams that never win.
Since the coach's #1 job is to build culture, coaches have to decide every day whether to allow BCEs to infiltrate their program.
What you allow becomes what your program is all about.
No BCE’s…🚫
Blaming, Complaining, and Excuses are the quickest paths to a victim mindset.
They rob you of power and control over your life.
Stop the cycle - take responsibility - own your actions.
Shift from being a victim to being a VICTOR!
— Greg Berge (@gb1121)
12:11 AM • Aug 21, 2024
The Power of Ownership
Greatness begins when you stop blaming others, start owning your actions, and choose a positive mindset, no matter the circumstances.
🟥 Blaming: Every time you point a finger, you lose control over the situation. Champions focus on what they can control: Effort, attitude, and preparation.
🟧 Complaining: It's easy to complain, but it never changes the outcome. Instead, channel that energy into finding solutions and improving.
🟨 Excuses: Excuses give us an easy way out, but they also rob us of growth. True leaders and winners acknowledge mistakes, learn from them, and come back stronger.
Check out this video of Alan Stein discussing how to develop a Winner’s Mindset by eliminating BCEs.
Reflective Questions
If you want to build a no-excuse culture, start here:
Where in your life or team environment do you see BCE creeping in?
How can you shift the focus from BCE to solutions and growth?
What standard or mantra can your team adopt to hold each other accountable and eliminate BCEs?
Takeaway
Eliminating BCEs isn’t just about improving performance. It’s about creating a winning mindset that impacts every area of life.
Commit to a no-BCE culture where responsibility, resilience, and relentless effort are the standards.
Because at the end of the day, champions don’t make excuses; they make progress.
Stay committed, stay positive, and keep building.
As always, let’s keep working to build great teams and become better leaders.
- Greg
P.S. Want to build a team full of leaders who take ownership and eliminate BCEs?
The Team Leader OS gives you the exact tools to develop player leadership, accountability, and a winning mindset—on and off the field.
🚀 Get started today → Join Hundreds of Coaches Using the Team Leader OS
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📜 TWO QUOTES
"Everyone needs a coach. It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast, or a bridge player."
"A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be."
TEAM LEADER OS
Build the Leaders Your Team Needs to WIN!
“The Team Leader OS has everything needed to improve the leadership of our student/athletes. The systematic way the Video Course is laid out is tremendous, with perfect pacing.”
What is included?
20 Lesson Video-Based Leadership Training Course for Athletes
72-page Leadership Handbook (Training Manual, Player Workbook, and Growth Plan)
Coach the Coaches Leadership Course Included (5 Modules, 31 Lessons, and 140+ Minutes of Video)
30+ Leadership Resources for Coaches to Use with their Team.
20 BONUS Leadership Lessons Based on Videos from College and Professional Athletes and Coaches.
Don’t wait and wish for your team leaders each season → develop them with the Team Leader OS.
𝐗 THREE POSTS FROM OTHERS
The more you do something, the better you get at doing it.
This doesn’t just apply to skills but to everything - focus, working, strategising, systemising, hiring, creating, closing, fulfilling, persisting, showing up, giving your all.
So if you’re not good enough, do more.
— Ross Harkness (@THEROSSHARKNESS)
2:00 PM • Dec 9, 2024
Be careful in falling for the cult of productivity.
Research shows that when we see everything through the lens of being productive, it reduces our enjoyment of leisure or hobbies.
We lose the ability to play, explore, and have fun.
— Steve Magness (@stevemagness)
9:00 PM • Dec 9, 2024
Jim Harbaugh on media praise of the 7-3 Chargers: "When people are giving you accolades and compliments and telling you you've arrived, kick them in the shins. You kick them right in the shins, that's what you do."
"They're trying to make you soft."
— Alex Insdorf (@alexinsdorf99)
8:34 PM • Nov 20, 2024
GREAT TEAMS BETTER LEADERS PRO
🚀 Want to take your coaching to the next level? Inside GTBL PRO this week:
🥇 The Winners Circle (Sunday): Nick Sirianni
⚡️ The EDGE (Tuesday): Small Habits that Build Culture
PRO members get exclusive insights, actionable strategies, and tools to elevate their coaching. Plus, you'll have full access to the GB1 Coaching Swipe Files, a 20% discount on all GB1 products, and more on the way! 👉 Join PRO Today
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📚 BOOKS, COURSES, BUNDLES, & FREE RESOURCES
Find all FREE books, courses, and resources at gberge.gumroad.com.
👀 LOOKING FOR MORE?
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Contact Me: Greg Berge, [email protected]
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