#108 - Roadblocks to Success with Jason Belmonte

In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with Jason Belmonte about his morning routine, bowling, doing things you love, tips for getting out of a funk, success roadblocks and much more. 

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Announcer 

Welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast with Ryan Cote, where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.

Ryan 

Hey, Jason, welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast. How's it going?

Jason 

Good. It's good to join you.

Ryan 

Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you. Let's introduce you to my audience of Morning Upgraders. Tell everyone who you are, what you do for a living, and then give us a big win happening in your life right now.

Jason

So my name is Jason Belmonte. I'm from Australia. I am currently a professional champion bowler. I bowl for a living. And I have been doing that, since I was 16. That's how I've been able to provide for myself. And in the world of ballin, probably the big one that I've had this. So most recently is I was able to win my seventh Player of the Year and in 10 years. So to be ranked number one is a huge accomplishment to be the best bowler in the world is what I wake up in the morning and strive for, it's what I am passionate about. It's why I spend late nights training to get that number one ranking. So to get the reward at the end of a long season, definitely makes it worthwhile all those sacrifices in the air keep you hungry to keep going and to keep striving for number one. I think the answer to that has changed over my career. And as I've as I've gotten older and more mature. And I think you know, when you're a teenage kid, and you get that, that check in the mail or check in your hand, and you look at all the zeros, you think, Wow, this is amazing. This is why I'm going to do this because I can buy myself cool shoes and new gadgets and stuff like that. And then as you get a little older and more mature, you realize that obviously money is important. You need it to survive. In my experience. If it is the sole purpose for me personally, others are obviously wired a little different. But if money is the sole reason that I'm doing something, then I feel like it's just not all of me, giving what I need to give to do it. So it's really now become a passion. It's become a love, and then it become a drive to be the best that's ever done this. And if I can reach that goal, then I don't know what will drive me after that. This particular excuse to do what I do and to put in the work that seems unimaginable. But that's what I'm looking at. That's what I want. So that's what's gonna push me.

Ryan 

Do you have an idea of retirement like, Have you thought about that? Like, what age? Do you want to stop bowling and try something else? And I know do other things besides bowling. But have you thought about an age?

Jason  

Bowling is a unique sport where age doesn't hit you like it does other sports, it does still hit you. But for example, it's very unlikely to see a 43 year old world tennis champion, right? It's unlikely because they're just requires so much more physical toll on the body. For us in bowling, there is repetition and you do get injured. You have you know, incredibly sore shoulders, knees, wrists, and other parts of your body. It's not because I'm taking a whack and it's not because I'm, you know, pushing myself to the brink, physically, so becomes more of an emotional thing becomes more your headspace. How long can you do something before you're just absolutely fried out. And you just you can't do this anymore, because it just doesn't make you happy. So bowling gives us that little bit more on the physical side. But because we can last a little longer physically, I think it then takes a huge toll mentally on you, you know, like I traveled for six months of the year. So for for how long of my life? Am I prepared to do that? I don't know the answer yet. Because today I wake up. And I'm looking at the flight schedule. And I'm like, I'm still excited to go and compete at that tournament. And I think for me, it'll be a moment when I look at that flight schedule and go Don't leave. I'm not doing that anymore, then I'll know. It's just not in me anymore. And I'm not going to give my best. So why why go and spend time away from my family and friends if if it's not all of me competing?

Ryan  

Yeah, it makes sense. It sounds like it's it's like one of those things like you know, when you know, I didn't think about that, like the less less physical, but the mental side and the wear and tear from traveling. Didn't think of that whole side of it. It is really brutal. Does your family travel with you?

Jason

No, they don't. So my family is probably busier than me with all their activities, and all of their jobs and everything that they have going on in their lives. I know that sounds like I'm joking. I'm actually not I'm really serious every single day. There are multiple things that my children are doing, my wife is doing. So to pull them out of that and to just be essentially cheerleaders for me A when I'm on tour doesn't make a whole lot of sense, there is the occasional trip that we will plan together. Once every few years, I'll make a big plan and say, Alright guys, come and join me on tour because it gets a little lonely out there. And I'd like to have that little bump of morale and support while I'm there, and we'll plan a trip for a month, and they'll come with me for a month. But it's also not super fun to spend your days in a bowling center for a month cheering for me when I know, there are beautiful parts of the US that they would probably prefer to be in and be be tourists. So it's a bit of a juggle, but we make it work. Which means that being busy like every night, I'll ask my wife for a day, for the night, like what's the schedule, because with three kids and kabillion activities, it's like I turned into a professional driver at night, you know, just carting them around with my wife. So I know, I know, I'm actually thinking about just putting not not to actually join, but just to put the Uber sign on my, on my car. Just to make a funny point that this is this is me now, at the end of at the end of the workday, I'm switching the Uber light off, I'm done for you.

Ryan  

Let's move away from Bowling for a minute; we'll come back and have some questions around mindset. And then some other stuff, maybe speaking to like the young athletes that are listening, or early on early stage athletes and just giving them advice, but we'll come back to that. Let's talk about your morning routine. Do you have one? What does it look like?

Jason  

Yeah, again, it's definitely changed over the years. But as it is today, with four children in the house, the usual morning routine is making sure that everything is ready to go for them. And I would never say that. I'm a completely selfless person. But I try my best to be as least selfish as possible. But once you have kids, it's like this automatic switch just pops into your body. And it's like, well, before you start your stuff, make sure their stuff is ready to go. And so that's typically the morning routine for them is just making sure that they're ready for school or their activities for the you know, later in the day. Once all that done, then I can, you know, obviously focus more on me and it typically is, you know, I really, really not healthy breakfast. I tried to work out in the morning, but the school drop off. And then I usually go to the lane to train for a little bit. And then after that I'm focused on more scheduling out the rest of my day for some business calls. And then getting ready for the afternoon onslaught of activities for for kids.

Ryan  

How many hours you do you practice for bowling? What does that look like?

Jason  

Practice can vary on on how I'm feeling if if I go to the lanes and I rolled it, you know, the first 20-30 minutes, and it just feels great. Now I'm not working on anything specific. I just, I just want to, you know, roll the ball down the lane and it can be as quick as 20 or 30 minutes of a session. Other times if you turn up and that feels a little off. I spend hours trying to make sure I leave the lanes feeling like at least I know what's going on? Why does it not feel great? Why is my time in off? Why is my accuracy down today. And you know, I'll stay until I feel like I've achieved what I've wanted to achieve for that session. If I'm working on something super specific, then usually it's a little bit more specific in time. I don't like to learn new things and take hours and hours learning them because I feel like it can. It can really frustrate you when you're not achieving them quickly. So I tried to give myself a one hour session what I'm learning something here. And if I've been able to feel like I've incorporated that in my game in that hour, fantastic. If not, then I'll add another hour to the next session that I do.

Ryan

How do you get yourself out of out of funks when when things aren't going your way you're having a bad game or whatever. How do you draw yourself out?

Jason  

The first thing that I think about is I've got to have this moment of realization that it's okay. It's totally okay to be in this funk. You are a human being. And every single day that you're walking, this earth will not be perfect. There are going to be days that are better than others there are going to be days that are a lot worse. And when you're in those funks as soon as you just take a moment and just be like Kai it'll be alright, you know like this is this is normal, then it allows you to refocus on on the solution to getting out of that funk. Sometimes I think the biggest problem in my career Early on, was just not accepting that this is normal and creating way too much weight on the problem. Like I can't believe this is happening. You know what if I never get out of this funk? What What Why am I in it to start with what did I do? And you just put so much pressure on yourself to be perfect all the time that It just creates an even bigger hole for you to have to climb out of. So just give yourself that realization that it's normal, it's okay that you're human that it's going to happen is the very first thing after that, I'm pretty self aware. So when things are not going well, I have a sense of why. And I do focus on on being able to find a solution to that particular problem. So I do I put a lot of effort into if it is, for example, bowling, I'll know if my swing is out of place, or the timing or if the way my, I'm letting go the release point, if it's all out of whack. And it's been like that for a while, I just really, really focused on right, let's go back to your basics that start building that foundation from the ground up again, and allowing yourself a little time. The only other way that I get out of things like that is I actually take a break, sometimes, it's not uncommon for me to take a one month or even a two month break and throw the ball down the lane and just say you know what, maybe you've been bowling so much, you're in a bit of a funk, the more that you try to fight your way out of this hole, the deeper you feel like you're getting. So let's just, let's take a few weeks off, and recharges the batteries. And between those two things. Any font that I've felt like that I've been in, I've been able to work my way out of them.

Ryan 

That's great advice. I don't bowl, but I can resonate with that. Because like in business, I could feel folks coming on almost like burnout, where my attitude is not the same, you know, and I just don't have the motivation like I normally do. And so I don't take weeks off, but I will shut down earlier than normal, or just kind of veg out my kids at night and just try to recharge the battery. So I think that's really good. Yeah.

Jason 

I think it was important when you go through that phase to not allow a feeling of guilt to come in. And and that's something that you know, probably I haven't shared before, because I haven't really thought to share about it. But those moments we take those breaks, you sometimes can feel like, why am I taking a break I'm supposed to be providing I'm supposed to be praying that I'm supposed to be building something, I'm supposed to be doing all these things, and taking time off. I'm not doing that anymore. And you can get mad at yourself and guilty for not doing what you think you're supposed to be doing. I think again, it's really important to allow yourself to accept that you are human, you are not a robot, you have to have a recharge phase, and be okay with having that you have to be okay to put the pen down. Because the computer for a while to not pick up the bowling ball to allow yourself to get more out of you in performance after you finish your recharge.

Ryan 

That's fantastic advice. So let's talk to I think when combined to two questions, though, two questions are kind of similar. My one question I was gonna ask you was about when you're competing against other bowlers, and they're all great, right? You're all you're all professionals, and everyone's very skilled. So why are you at the top? And some others are? Is it work ethic work ethic or not work ethic, but they put more people who are practicing? Is it mindset, is it something else? And then I want to ask you about like for any one listening, that is thinking about becoming a professional athlete? Or maybe they're younger, maybe they're older, doesn't really matter. But they're thinking about becoming a professional athlete, like what advice do you have to, for them to become great?

Jason 

I think you need to have a conversation with yourself before it all. And you have to ask yourself some pretty tough questions. And usually, the ones that don't make it, there's a moment or two, where the juice is not worth the squeeze, right? It's, it's like, I want to do this, but man, it is really hard. And I don't think I'm going to do this anymore. Because it's super difficult. And you need to have that conversation with yourself. And you have to keep yourself accountable to the answer of that compensation. And that that question is, are you prepared to make the sacrifices? Are you prepared to work harder than everybody else? Are you prepared to learn more than everybody else? And if the answers to those questions, yes, early, then you've got to hold yourself to that. And you have to reassess yourself to be able to refocus on on why you answered yes, in the first place. Right? Is it to make money? Sure. It might be to start with or maybe it didn't forever, because that's that's how you're wired? Is it to achieve great things? Because you have aspirations of achieving those things, whatever the answers are, and the the reasons for saying yes. You have to keep yourself accountable to those you have to remind yourself. Yeah, it's hard. Of course, it's hard. If it wasn't, then everyone else would be doing it too. So here you are an opportunity to do it. Are you going to get out of bed today? And are you going to are you going to motivate yourself? To hold yourself up? Hannibal, to the to the answer of the question that you started with. And for me, that's exactly what it is. Yeah, it's not easy to live in Australia and have to travel to the US and spend months and months away on the road. But that was what I said to myself, are you prepared to do this to be great? Because this is a part of it. I hold myself accountable for that answer every day.

Ryan  

Yeah, I feel like a common theme here in this conversation is being self aware. And, and having talked to yourself, you know, just like communicating with yourself in terms of what you want. And then being being self aware about how you're feeling and, and taking action. So Jason, I've got one last question for you. Okay. And then we're gonna wrap up with you telling everyone how they can connect with you. They want to learn more and follow you. So you're, you're 39 years old, right? You're 39? Right?

Jason

I'm 39.

Ryan 

Okay, so in the 39 years that you've been alive, so through the lens of Jason, that 39 years you've been alive? In your personal opinion, what is the meaning of life?

Jason 

Well, when you said you had one last final question, I didn't realize it was going to be a philosophical walk bending, mind altering question,

Ryan 

You can answer quickly. It does have to be a long answer. 

Jason

And you want me to answer it quickly. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I think, I think for me, obviously, I feel like the meaning of your own personal life is to find your own happiness. Like if you can go through your existence, and feel like when it's all said and done, at the very end, you look back and go, You know what, I was happy for the majority of this. And because of the decisions, I made, the things that I wanted to do and did the achievement that I was able to collect along the way. I think if you can find whatever that is for you. And it doesn't have to be the same as someone else, like someone else's version of happiness doesn't have to be the best in the world at something, right? It can be something a lot simpler, it can be something that's more meaningful to them. But finding whatever that is, and just doing that and being able to make those necessary sacrifices to just be happy with what you want. Don't be happy for someone else. Be happy for yourself. And whatever that is. That's my answer.

Ryan  

Good answer. Good answer. Go ahead in the podcast. Thanks, Jason. Great job. If someone wants to connect with you or follow you, where should we send them?

Jason  

I'm all over social media. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok. Even my kids have convinced me that Tik Tok is super important. So here I am on Tik Tok, and you can find me at either @JBelmonte, or just my name Jason Belmonte. If you search for that in the app, you'll find me, and you can say hi. You can visit my website, which is Jasonbelmonte.com. And you can catch up on what I'm doing and find out information about me for that resource as well. Or yeah, just listen to Ryan's podcast every now and then I might be on the show. So catch me there as well.

Ryan 

Sounds good. All right. Well, thanks again.

Jason  

No worries at all, man. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Announcer  

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