Today Matters Podcast With Steve Pinkston

What you say to yourself determines how you perform. In this episode, Coach Steve dives into the science and stories behind self-talk—showing how elite performers like Russell Wilson, Michael Jordan, and Tom Brady use neutral language to stay calm and confident under pressure.
Today’s Action Step: 
Write down the 3 most common negative phrases you say during games or practice.
Rewrite them neutrally—not fake positive, just factual.
Say them out loud until they become habits.
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.

Everyone makes mistakes—but champions recover fast. In this episode, Coach Steve explains how elite performers like Kobe Bryant, Russell Wilson, and Serena Williams reset using neutral awareness and the Next Play mindset.
Today’s Action Step: 
Create a reset cue. A breath, word, or gesture that says, “Next.”
Evaluate later. Don’t analyze mistakes mid-game—review film after.
Practice pressure. Simulate failure in training and rehearse your reset.
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.

Pressure doesn’t break you—emotion does. In this episode, Coach Steve teaches how to anchor your mindset to facts, not feelings, so you can respond with clarity instead of chaos.
Today’s Action Step: 
After every performance, list three facts—no emotion.
Rate your feelings (1–10).
Compare the two. Ask, “Do my feelings match reality?”
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.

Athletes live on emotional rollercoasters—sky-high after wins, crushed after losses. But champions stay steady. In this episode, Coach Steve breaks down neutral thinking: what it is, why it works, and how it separates consistent performers from emotional ones.
Today’s Action Step: 
State the facts. After every practice or game, write one objective statement—no judgment.
Ask the question. “What’s my next best action?”
Repeat daily. Neutral thinking is a muscle—train it like one.
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.

In the final episode of the Today Matters: Gift of Failure series, Coach Steve Pinkston takes a spiritual look at struggle and failure. Drawing from powerful Bible stories and Scripture, he reveals how God often uses failure as His greatest classroom — shaping faith, character, and purpose through challenge. For athletes, parents, and anyone in a hard season, this episode offers hope, perspective, and peace: your struggle has meaning.
Today’s Action Step: 
Reframe your failure.
Replace shame with surrender.
Respond with faith.
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.

In this episode of Today Matters, Coach Steve Pinkston bridges the lessons from sports to the bigger game of life. Whether it’s school, relationships, or work, the same principles apply: growth happens through struggle, not shortcuts. Learn how to use the mindset of “The Gift of Failure” to build resilience, humility, and purpose beyond the scoreboard.
Today’s Action Step: 
Connect the dots.
Transfer the skill. 
Teach it forward.
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.

In this episode of Today Matters, Coach Steve Pinkston speaks directly to sport parents about one of the hardest lessons in raising resilient kids: learning to let them struggle. When parents rush to fix every problem or protect their kids from discomfort, they unintentionally rob them of the strength, grit, and independence they’ll need for life. Coach Steve shares stories, strategies, and mindset shifts to help parents turn “rescue” moments into growth opportunities.
Today’s Action Step: 
Press pause before you rescue.
Guide with questions, not answers.
Separate love from performance.
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.

In this episode of Today Matters, Coach Steve Pinkston challenges the perfection mindset that holds so many athletes back. Learn why chasing perfection kills progress — and how focusing on the process, not the product, helps you grow stronger, freer, and more confident in both sport and life. This is your reminder that mastery takes time, mistakes are part of the mission, and the best athletes aren’t perfect — they’re persistent.
Today’s Action Step: 
Redefine success.
Build a process routine.
Reflect daily.
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.

In this episode of Today Matters, Coach Steve Pinkston breaks down the truth about confidence: it’s not built on compliments or hype — it’s built on competence. When athletes learn to base their belief on real work, not empty praise, they develop the kind of quiet, unshakable confidence that wins under pressure. Learn how to build it, coach it, and live it — on the field, in the classroom, and in life.
Today’s Action Step: 
Audit your confidence.
Stack evidence.
Praise effort, not identity.
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.

In this episode of Today Matters, Coach Steve Pinkston tackles one of the biggest lies in modern sports and parenting: that protecting kids from pain builds confidence. The truth? It does the opposite. When athletes are shielded from struggle, they learn to fear it. Coach Steve breaks down the “confidence trap” — why real confidence must be earned through competence — and how parents, coaches, and athletes can stop confusing comfort with courage.
Today’s Action Step: 
Notice when you’re rescuing.
Redefine success.
Let discomfort do its work.
About Today Matters Today Matters is your 2–4 minute daily boost of motivation for athletes, parents, and coaches. Hosted by Coach Steve Pinkston, each episode delivers a simple mental performance strategy to help you win the day.
Learn More & Work with Coach Pinkston 👉 CoachPinkston.com for strategies, skills, and drills to improve your mental performance.
1-on-1 Coaching Programs
Team Consulting
Leadership Development
Sign up for the Trust The Process Newsletter, so you can wake up every Monday morning to a message that will motivate you all week.
Stay Connected Instagram: @Mental.Strength.Coach X: @CoachPinkston Facebook: Steve Pinkston
Enjoying the Show? Share this episode with someone who needs a lift today. And don’t forget to hit Follow so you never miss your daily motivation.