From the Desk of Calvin Trieu Unexplored Letters What I've Been Reflecting On This past week I was down in Tampa, Florida, working with NFL prospects getting ready for the Combine. I was there as a strength and conditioning coach, embedded in a room full of athletes who are four to five weeks away from the biggest job interview of their lives. And I don’t say that lightly. For these guys, a few seconds on the field can mean everything. Contracts. Financial security. Changing the trajectory of...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Mental Performance Letters Hi friends, When you’re born, you look like your parents.When you die, you look like your decisions. Somewhere between those two points is who you chose to become. At the beginning, you don’t know much. You’re a mirror. You model what you see. You copy the people around you. Your parents, your family, your environment, all of it. That’s not good or bad. That’s just how it works. You’re this blank vessel soaking everything in, trying to make sense of what the world...
3 months ago • 6 min read
Podcast Episode 119: Take Messy Action (Even When It’s Not Perfect) Hi friend, It’s Sunday. 5:18 p.m. I just got back from being out of town with family. Slept four hours. Drove four hours. Filmed, podcasted, worked. And now I’m here, writing this. I’m tired. Mentally drained. Emotionally flat.The kind of tired where your brain starts tripping over words and you keep glancing at the clock. But here’s the thing. I know if I don’t do this right now, I’ll regret it. Because this is the work.This...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Hi friend, I know that you didn't sign up to cry today, but..it's... October 17, 1946 D’Arline, I adore you, sweetheart. I know how much you like to hear that, but I don’t only write it because you like it, I write it because it makes me warm all over inside to write it to you. It is such a terribly long time since I last wrote to you, almost two years, but I know you’ll excuse me because you understand how I am, stubborn and realistic; and I thought there was no sense to writing. But now I...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hi friend, Betrayal cuts the deepest when it comes from someone you trust. And what is worse than being betrayed by someone else? Being betrayed by yourself. That is what micro negotiations are. They feel small. They feel harmless. Hitting snooze.Skipping the walk.Ordering takeout instead of cooking.Leaving the to do list blank for tomorrow.Pretending good enough is good enough. But these are not neutral decisions. Every single time you are training yourself. You are teaching your brain that...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Episode 116: How to bet on yourself more Hi friend, Most people never actually bet on themselves. They settle. They listen to voices that are not even their own, and those voices end up running the show. So pause and ask yourself: who is placing these glass ceilings over you? Who told you that you have to think small, dream small, live small? And when did you start believing them? Because if you go back to when you were a kid, there was no ceiling. You dreamed wildly. You carried this...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Episode 115: How to boost your metabolism (tap the image to listen/watch) Hi friend, We all overthink. And usually when we do, it leans one way. We pedestalize the worst case. We think of every possible reason why it could fall apart, why it will not work for us, why we are not enough, why someone else is more advantaged or more deserving. That becomes the dominant voice in our mind. But what if you flipped it. What if you gave the same energy to overthinking all the reasons why it could...
5 months ago • 2 min read
Episode 114: The Best Diet for Weight Loss, Pre-Workout Meals, Protein Needs, and Carbs Explained Hi friend, I was doing a homework assignment the other day, and the discussion board question was about what’s the most important factor in changing a person’s health. One of my classmates brought up mental resilience because of her experience with bariatric surgery. I wanted to chime in, not because I’ve gone through bariatric surgery myself, but because I spent three years as an exercise...
5 months ago • 2 min read
Episode 113: How to build a 2-3x/week full body workout program (Tap the image to listen) Hi friend, There’s a voice in your head that tells you I can’t do this. That says I’m not this person. I don’t believe in myself. That voice gets louder the more you let it sit in the driver’s seat. The more weight you give it, the more it becomes the default program running in the background of your mind. But here’s the truth: not every thought you have is real. Not every thought is true. And you don’t...
5 months ago • 2 min read