Diamyn Hall
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
My why is to continue to become and continue to hunt down the next best version of myself so that when this is all said and done, I've got a legacy that I can leave behind for generations to come.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Next I, you know, I put football aside. I was like, okay, I'm going to all in with basketball. So a year later, Very similar situation happened with basketball. Dove hit first for the basketball and then went head on with somebody, temporarily paralyzed, knew what was going on this time around. Doctors didn't clear me to play anymore. Same story. And then I came across the game of baseball.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And baseball is such a different game. It's much more of a mental game than any other sport that I've ever come across. And when I started playing baseball, I was one of the best athletes. I was one of the strongest, one of the fastest, et cetera, et cetera. But the skill acquisition piece, the skill piece was the hardest. and the adversity that you face in the game of baseball.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Like when you have an at-bat and you strike out your first at-bat, you've got to wait 40 minutes until your next at-bat. So you have to be able to have a conversation with you and yourself. And you've got to be able to win those conversations between you and yourself before that next at-bat comes up. So one of my good friends, Ryan Barnett, it's a different Ryan.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
He, after a practice, he was like, man, Diamond, I know you're playing catch up. I know you're one of the hardest workers out here. You're one of the best athletes out here. If you study this book, if you study this from cover to cover, It's going to change the game for you. And I looked down and it's a book called Heads Up Baseball by Dr. Ken Reviza and Tom Hanson.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And what it was, was a book on mental skills, the skills of the mind specifically for the game of baseball. And so I started studying this book and this is when the bookshelf starts to grow. And then I came across, I think it was like two days later, came across John Maxwell's 360 degree leader. So this was like, for me, the birth of professional, personal and self-improvement.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I've got a leadership book in one hand and then I've got a mental skills book and mental performance book in the other. And I've got leadership and I've got mindset. And so after I read these two books, I became obsessed with learning, specifically in these two areas. I would buy books that people get in their PhD programs. I would look it up on Amazon. It'd be like 300 bucks.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And I would get this big, thick book and I would go through it. And I would highlight stuff. I would write stuff on the side. And then I would figure out how can I put this into practice in my game tomorrow? And so over the next four years, studied the mental side of the game, studied the leadership piece. And I remember we had a tournament. We had a baseball tournament at Western Kentucky.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And this is when I first came across Jeff Mercer, who's now the head coach of Indiana. And during the time I was still reading the Heads Up baseball book and he saw me reading the Heads Up baseball book, putting the things into practice. And we connected. We crossed paths. At the time, he was a scout for the Hilltoppers. And so I ended up not going to Western Kentucky.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I got a scholarship to a junior college. In Illinois, Robinson, Illinois, Lincoln Trail Community College, two year college plan. The goal was to I'm going to dominate these two years and I'm going to get drafted my second year, my sophomore year. And while I was there, I came across an incredible coach, Kevin Bowers. I remember jumping in his office.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
We were having a good conversation one day and then he pulls a book from his bookshelf. He says, Diamond, like this is this is yours. Read this. I looked down and it's the it's the mental game of baseball by Harvey Dorfman. And it's this thick book talks about all of the specific mental skills that exist. And it's much thicker than than heads up baseball. Still just as good.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
But it talks about all the mental skills that you need to study in the game of baseball that separate the best of the best. Because some people say, you know, the game is 90 percent mental, 10 percent physical. The numbers are the numbers are interesting there. But so read this book.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And it ended up helping my game get to the next level and ended up getting a scholarship from there to Grand Lake State University, a division one down south in Louisiana, where I came across another amazing coach, James Cooper, who's now a manager within the within the Yankees organization. And he gave me he gave me two books. He gave me Relentless by Tim Grover.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
This is Kobe Bryant's former coach. former trainer, Michael Jordan's former trainer. And he broke, he broke the mindset pieces down in such a great way. I read the book and I was like, this dude is right. He wrote this book about me. I got to reach out. I got to, I got to talk to him on the phone. And so I reached out like 10 times, no response. The 11th time I reached out. And he responds.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
He said, yeah, I got some time to jump on the phone with you. So connected with him, picked his brain, taking notes the whole time and learned so much. And then the second book that he gave me was Body Mind Mastery by Dan Millman. This is now Dan Millman was a guy that Phil Jackson used to bring in with the Chicago Bulls. And you hear people talk about Phil Jackson being the Zen master.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And you hear Michael Jordan talking about being composed under pressure. All of these things, when you take that relentless mentality and then you combine it with this poise under pressure and this calmness and this ability to allow the moment to be the moment, then you get the Michael Jordans, the Kobe Bryants.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And it's no coincidence that they became who they were when they came across Phil Jackson. So study the mess out of that. And once my career was coming to an end, reconnected with Jeff Mercer, who was at Western Kentucky. Now he was the head coach. Now he was the head coach at Wright State University. And he was like, Diamond, look, let's do something that's never been done before.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I was like, I'm intrigued. I'm listening. And he was like, I want to bring you on staff as the first full time mental skills coordinator in college baseball. First time in history, this is going to be done. So you're going to be leading the charge. And I know you're only 23, but I believe you are the best fit for this. I believe you're the best fit for this role.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And I was like, okay, first things first, can we do a roster rundown? Can you run me through the roster that we have, the guys who we have, what they need to work on so I can customize the process? Super big on hyper-individualization. He said, yes. He's like, but before we do that, I want you to build this system. And this is what totally changed my career.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
He said, I want you to build our mental skills and leadership system on the foundation and reverse engineer from three things. He said, the first thing is championships. We want to win championships here, period. Number two, we want you to develop our guys' development into the most mentally tough group in all of college baseball. Look, we're a mid-major.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
We don't have the same resources that LSU has, that Cal has, that some of these SEC schools have. This is going to be a game changer for us. And he said, number three, we want our guys to get drafted. And so those three things were the fundamental things that I reverse engineered our system off of. And if I wouldn't have come across Mercer, my brain would not have worked that way.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And so I was there for two years and stepped off staff and I was like, I got to share this stuff with the world. And stepped off staff, created an online business and created a book, created an online course and traveling the world, was making a ton of money. But then I was like, man, there's something, there's just something missing here that I had at Wright State that I don't have right now.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I don't know what it is. So I searched for two to three weeks. And what I figured out was that I have a deep, innate desire and need to be in person, in the trenches with whoever I'm working with, where I can see them develop. And so I can coach them up in the moment so that they can become the best versions of themselves in front of my eyes. And I have I can mold them.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I can, you know, and that was something that I was not getting when I was doing everything virtual. So once I figured that out, I was like, okay, I've got to fill that need because that's something that allows me to fulfill my purpose.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
So stepped on staff at IMG as a leadership coach, was there for three years, built a really great relationship with Dave Surgeon, who at the time was our national baseball head coach. And before that, he was with the Pirates. I mean, very runs a tight ship. Runs a tight ship and very strategic. You talk about chess.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
He was one of the best in the world at problem solving and making moves, like 12 moves ahead. And I learned so much from coaching, from working under him. And he had a very similar philosophy that Mercer had. He was like, look, I want you to build the system based on us being able to reverse engineer from winning a national championship.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I think that's a fantastic idea. And if you're watching right now, there should be some excitement bubbling up and boiling up inside of you.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Like that's the ultimate national championship in development. We are here to develop these guys and to win championships. So I reverse engineered our system based on those two things. And the first year, we had so many top prospects. We had some of the best prospects in the country. And we ended up losing two games. And so to give you context, at IMG, we don't get to play in like...
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
We didn't get to play in like the state championships, et cetera, et cetera. We had to win out. We had to go 25 and 0 in order to be considered for a national championship. So we lost two games in that first year and we didn't get we didn't get the national championship. And I remember texting. I remember texting Terrence back and forth after that year was over.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And we've got our we've got we've got the screenshots. We've got the thread of talking about like next year at this time, we will be national champions. And I told him I was honest with him. I'm going to do everything in my power. to optimize what we have, to optimize our systems so that we can pull this off. And he was like, I believe in you, D, et cetera, et cetera.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Know you're gonna do everything that you can. And a year later, We pulled it off, won a national championship. And on paper, we weren't on paper. We didn't have the best prospects, the best prospects in the country. But what we did have was we had elite teamwork. Everybody was on the same page. We dominated every single day and treated every single day like it was a championship day.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Every single rep mattered.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Every single thing that we did, it played a role in us reverse engineering from winning the national championship. One of the things that Terge used to say was it's going to take all of all of us to make this thing become a reality. And so we got everybody on board and we ended up pulling it off.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And I was so grateful that year to be able to, to be able to work under Tersh, to be able to learn from Tersh, to be able to work with that staff, to be able to work with that group because so many great things came from it. So many relationships were built. So many connections were made that wouldn't have been made otherwise if I wasn't, if I didn't have that opportunity to do so.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
So until a year goes by and I get a call from the Orioles and, um, Get a call from the oral, say, hey, we've been following you these past, you know, these past few years since you were at Wright State. And we want to, you've got a blank canvas coming in when it comes to this, when it comes to this role. We believe you're the best person for the job.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And, you know, thought on it, went through the interview process, ended up getting the green light. And here we are, just finished up the first year.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
The number one thing would be to treat every single day as though you were on a one-day contract. This is what I call the one-day contract mentality.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
This is something that when you engage in this and you commit to this every single day, you have the guaranteed success probabilities that go through the roof because while your teammates, while the people around you are taking every other day off and you're looking at every single day as though you were on a one-day contract,
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Your performance, the way you go about your work, your coachability, your openness to listening and to putting into practice, the feedback that you do get from your teammates, from your coaches, your work ethic, your standards, your values, they will shoot through the roof. And so every day the contract starts over. It's not a 10-day contract. It's not a one-year contract.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
If you treat every single day like you are being heavily evaluated by wherever you want to get to, whether we got professional scouts, whether we got college scouts, the specific colleges, the specific organizations that you want to be a part of, I want you to imagine in your mind that they are there with a video camera watching everything that you do. What would your behavior look like?
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Yeah, so I guess the place to start is, to your point, I was 14 years old, was a football player. Up until this point, my mission was And my vision was to get to the NFL so I could take care of my family. And I remember it like it was yesterday. We were playing. We were playing McNick. They had green jerseys, white, white letters. And I lined up as a slot receiver.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
How would you treat your teammates? How would your leadership look? when your teammate is down at the end of the dugout or, or whatever sport you play, when your teammate is over there on the bench and he's down and you've got a video camera on you, and then the video camera is panning back over to your teammate, back over to you. What will you do in that moment?
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Will you go over and will you sit next to him? Will you put your arm around him? Will you give him some words of encouragement? Like that's, that's how I want you to engage in the one day contract mentality. And that's not just applicable for
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
For these two who we're talking to right now, for the athletes who we're talking to, that's applicable for every leader across every industry, every performer across every industry. If you treated every single day like today was the last day on your contract and you're being heavily evaluated, you're being videoed, you've got a lavalier microphone right here, they can hear everything you say.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
They can see everything that you're doing on your computer. They can see everything that you're doing on your phone. They see exactly how you're using your time. In fact, at the end of the day, you're going to get a timesheet of every single thing and every single thing that you did, every single behavior that you engaged in throughout the course of the day with the timestamp right next to it.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
What would that day look like? The one day contract mentality. You put this into practice for 365 days straight, and then you've got people next to you who don't even know this mentality exists. Let me tell you, after that 365 days, you will be light years. It'll send you through a time warp. You will be light years ahead of your competition.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Your competition is going to be taking like full weeks off. They're going to be taking three days a week off. They might take a full month off. I'm taking this month off. I'm not going to. While you're operating on this one day contract mentality, it will totally separate you and put you inside of the 1% of the 1% of your peers.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
The second tip is be as coachable as you possibly can be. If there's one thing I've learned through working with some of the best athletes in the world, the top 1% of the top 1%, having conversations with some of the best coaches, some of the best coaches in the world, some of the best executives in the world, they are always, always, always seeking to learn. They're curious to get better.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
They're seeking feedback. Dave Turgeon always used to say this, and I'll never forget it. He said, the best of the best want to be coached. Michael Jordan wanted to be coached every day. LeBron James wants to be coached every day. Tom Brady wanted to be coached every day. In fact, there's a video of him sitting and I just watched the Netflix roast. It was hilarious.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
But there was a video I remember seeing on Instagram of him being in Belichick's office and them going over the strategies for the upcoming Sunday. Just those two. And this was at the prime of his career.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
You get some people who get to the prime of their careers and they're focusing on a totally different set of behaviors, totally different set of things that don't include them sitting in their head coach's office, mapping out the strategies for the upcoming Sunday. Steph Curry wants to be coached. Bill Belichick has a coach. Bill Belichick has mentors. Phil Jackson had mentors.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Like the best of the best have coaches. The best of the best want to be coached. The best of the best are coachable. Love it.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
So lined up as a slot and I was running the streak. And so my quarterback, he pulled back and he throws it to our tight end who ran a slant. And so I look back, I see our tight end catch the ball and then he gets hit super hard. Right. fumbles. And so for me, I'm running full speed towards the, towards the football. And I dive head first, like feet extended above the ground, arms out extended.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Yeah, so just got the Instagram back, was hacked for two years. It was at 30K two years ago and I got hacked like that. Learned so many things for being off of social media, but grateful to be back. and see some of the faces and build some of the relationships that I've built. So every platform is Diamond Hall, D-I-A-M-Y-N-H-A-L-L. Feel free to reach out.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Most importantly, if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a DM and ask questions. Always open to responding and giving you everything that I have.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
In that moment, the because was my family. It was my mom.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And I remember seeing, as I was, as I was diving for the football, I remember seeing another guy on the other team. He was diving for the football as well. A little bit smaller than me, sized them up. Like, you know, when you hit the matrix button and everything goes in slow motion, I excised him. I was like, oh, okay, I'm definitely gonna get this. And I remember hearing a loud crack.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And I was used to getting hit hard, was used to hitting other people hard. And everything blocked out. And I remember staring at the sky. And all of a sudden, my teammates come into my field of vision. And... you hear the crowd go, ooh. And my teammates come over and they're looking down at me. I'll never forget this moment.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
One of my best teammates, one of my best friends at the time, Ryan Bayer, he's looking down at me and he's like, Diamond, get up. Diamond, get up. And I can see my field of vision shaking. So I knew he was like, he had his hands on me and he was shaking. And I remember in that moment thinking to myself like, oh my God, like I'm paralyzed.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
It was my little brother. It was, how do I become the best version of myself over these next few years?
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And I think I was the first one, I think it was the first one to notice. And I remember looking back over Ryan and saying, Ryan, I can't get up. I can't move. And then he like takes this step back and I see like his eyes start to tear up and I can see the emotion like boiling inside of him. Like, oh my goodness, this is my best friend. He's like, he can't move.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Like, start athlete. I was 14 years old, was a football player. Up until this point, my mission and my vision was to get to the NFL so I could take care of my family.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And I know we were thinking this at the same time. Like, this is the stuff you see on TV. This is the stuff that you see in people's careers. And now in my brain, I'm thinking to myself, look, I'm going to be staring at the ceiling for the rest of my life. Somebody's going to have to feed me through a tube. And I'm 14 years old, having to come to peace with this all at one time.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And I remember the ambulance came and got me, put me on the stretcher, took me to the hospital. And when we were in the ambulance truck, you know, my mom was in the, she was in there with me. And I remember looking over at her and telling her everything was going to be OK. And at this moment, I knew everything was not going to be OK. But I still said it.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I still it still came out just to give her some form of comfort in that moment. And she starts pouring down crying because in her mind, she knew everything wasn't going to be OK. I knew everything wasn't going to be OK. So we get to the hospital and 24 to 48 hours later, something amazing happens.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I ended up getting my feeling back in my fingers, then my arms, then my upper body, then my feet, then my legs. And I remember the doctors coming in. and saying like, this is a miracle. Like diamond, like you're not supposed, like that was supposed to be it. We have something called congenital stenosis. We did all the scans. We ran all the numbers. We have something called congenital stenosis.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
The number one thing would be to treat every single day. This is what I call the one day contract mentality. The second tip is be as coachable as you possibly can be. If there's one thing I've learned through working with some of the best athletes in the world, some of the best coaches in the world, some of the best executives in the world, they are always, always, always seeking to learn.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And I'm like, in my mind, like what's congenital stenosis? What is that? And so he explains it to us quickly. He says, you've got, everybody has a little bit of fluid around their spine that keeps them safe from being paralyzed when they have head-on collisions. Everybody's got a certain amount. He said,
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
The amount that you have around your spine is abnormally much less than the average person, which is why this happened, which is why you went head on with this guy and you're temporarily paralyzed from the neck down. And I was like, okay, perfect. I'm good. I've got my feeling back. Listen, when can I get back on the field? And I remember the doctor taking like this big, deep breath.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
He looks down like this. Looks over at us. And you could tell he's like mustering up the courage to tell me something. And my mom was like, oh my goodness. And so he looks over at me and he goes, Diamond, I got good news and I got bad news for you. I said, well, Doc, let's start with the good news. What's the good news? He said, the good news is you're moving. You're walking. Your hands work.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Your feet work. Everything from your neck down works. It wasn't supposed to be this way. It was supposed to be the opposite. He said, the bad news is Is that based on you having congenital stenosis and the danger that it would put you in if we let you back on the field? He said, I can't clear to play this game anymore. And for me, I'll never forget those words.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I remember in that moment, I got lightheaded. I had to sit down and I was thinking to myself, what in the world am I going to do now?
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
Like I'm supposed to be the one to provide for my family. I'm supposed to be the one to get to the NFL. I'm supposed to be the one to make all of this money so our family can be great and life can be awesome. What am I going to do now? I've put all of my time, all of my effort, all of my energy into this game. Nothing else. Just this game. I get there early before everybody else.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I stay later than everybody else. I put in more effort. I study film more than anybody else. That game that I just had, we had Ohio State there. There was Cincinnati there, Alabama. I was born to do this. This is who I am. I am a football player.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And so I remember over the next few months, it was one of the wildest months I've ever had in my life because I was, what I was doing was I was having like, my identity was gone. Yeah. When you asked me who was Diamond Hall at that time when I'm 14, being one of the best running backs in the country, I'm going to tell you I'm a football player. I'm a running back. I'm a stud, right? Yeah.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
That's what's coming out of my mouth. At the time, did I know what it meant to tie those things to my identity? I had no idea. And so what I was going through was my identity was gone. So I had to develop a new identity. And I remember coming across a leadership coach at the time. And he reached out to me and he was like, Diamond, I want to work with you. I know who you are.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
But I think I think I've got some things that can help you through this time frame and weaponize you for the things that you're about to have to endure. And for the potential that you have and who you can become was open to it. One of the best leadership coaches in the world. And he walked me through this exercise and I'll never forget this framework that he shared with me that I now share with.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
all the athletes that I work with. He was like, the reason why this is so tough for you, it's not because of the time. It's not because of the effort. It's not because of all of the energy that you put into this game. What it is that you're going through and that it's so tough for you to get through, it's your identity. You believe you are a football player and that's not true.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
He said, I want to share with you a framework, a three-step framework that I share with all of my highest performing athletes around the world that allow them to be the 1% of the 1%. He said, there are three identities that you have to adopt from this day forward, only if you're willing to though.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
They're curious to get better. They're seeking feedback. The best of the best want to be coached.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
He said, number one, you have to be willing to look yourself in the mirror and say, I am a lifelong learner. I am a goal grower. Okay, I already do that. I got it. He said, number two, you have to be willing to look at yourself in the mirror and say, I am a lifelong achiever. I am a go-getter. I said, I can do that. I've done that. But you're saying I got to adopt this to my identity, to who I am.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
He's like, yes. He was like, this third thing is the thing that people typically miss. And some people throughout the course of their life, they never adopt this into who they are. And I leaned in and he goes, I am a go-giver. I am a lifelong contributor, meaning you are everything that you do comes from a foundation of service, servant leadership, contribution, adding value, giving.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
He said, if you can adopt these three identities, you will be perfectly fine for the rest of your life, no matter what life throws at you, no matter what you do, no matter what you want to be the best in the world at. He was like, are you committed to adopting these three identities? And in that moment, I felt like I was becoming somebody totally new. I said, absolutely.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And so what I didn't realize at the time is that something that I realize now and something I know now that research tells us is that our behavior does not drive our performances. Our identity does. That's right. And so with those three identities that I adopted totally changed my world forever. And so if you're listening to this right now, I want to ask you a question.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I want to ask you, who are you? When somebody says, who are you? What do you say? For me, I don't say I'm a mental performance coach for the Baltimore Orioles. I don't say I'm a speaker. I don't say I'm an author. I don't say I don't say any of those things. I say I'm a giver. I'm a learner and I'm an achiever. Nothing more, nothing less.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
But it wasn't until I asked myself, it wasn't until I was posed these questions. And for you, if you're listening right now, it's not until you ask yourself and you get a sheet of paper, you get a sheet of paper, a notebook, and you write down the question at the top.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
And you get in bullet point format and you actually list off what comes to mind for you. Then you'll be able to see where you stand. and what things you need to adjust in order to become the best version of yourself. Because I'll share this with you. One of the things that most people don't know is that the version that you're currently experiencing right now is not the best version of you.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
In fact... There is a version of you that exists right now that is 100 times better than the version of you that you're currently experiencing. The question that you have to ask yourself is, what are you willing to do? Who are you willing to become? To get there, right? To get there, to unlock that version of yourself. And so that's my long-winded way of sharing with you how I got here.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
I appreciate you asking me that question.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
In that moment, the because was... It was my family. It was my mom. It was my little brother.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
It was, how do I become the best version of myself over these next few years to the point where it will impact them in a positive way? And I thought a little bit further. How do I become this next best version of myself so that it impacts my children in a positive way, in their children's children, in their children's children? And this developed over a
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
But now my because has grown into developing generational wealth. When I say wealth, most people are going to hear, the problem is most people are going to hear just finances. That is so far from what this actually is. It's a piece of it, but it's just a piece.
Mick Unplugged
Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey
The other piece of creating generational wealth, other pieces of creating generational wealth are generational wealth and riches and resources. Most importantly, generational wealth and riches and relationships and your habits and In your body, in your career, the things that you do daily that make who you are. So for me, then that was my because and now my because.