“Don’t lie to yourself”: When Urban Meyer took a clear stance on motivating athletes

Urban Meyer is one of the most successful college football head coaches in the history of the sport. He won two National Championships with the Florida Gators during his tenure from 2005 to 2010, then a third with Ohio State in 2014, during his stint with the Buckeyes from 2012 to 2018.

One of the reasons Meyer was able to be successful was because of his ability to motivate his players. Before his final season in 2018, he sat down for an interview with Lewis Howes to talk about how he motivates his players (starts at 14:50).

"There's a great quote over there that says, do your habits reflect your dreams and goals? If it's not then change. That's too easy. I changed the quote and my son has it up in his room next to his bed. If your habits don't reflect your dreams and goals, change your habits, and I added, or change your dreams and goals. Don't lie to yourself."

"I have people that say they want to play in the NFL but they're acting like this. Don't lie to yourself, lying to me is fine, but don't lie to yourself. That's when people start to think, wait a minute now, I get away with things and I'm not gonna tell people exactly what I'm doing but I got to look myself in the mirror and ask if I want to be a first-round draft pick. That usually hits home."

Urban Meyer went on to say that he has seen players' attitudes change quickly after he told them not to lie to themselves.

"Now if you're dealing that's really that far off the beaten path, it can take years. But I've seen transitions pretty quickly when I start saying, you want to do this, but don't lie to yourself."

Urban Meyer led the Buckeyes to a 13-1 record in his final season as head coach

After this interview, Urban Meyer entered his final season as the Ohio State head coach. He was placed on administrative leave for three games because of an investigation into allegations of spousal abuse by one of his assistant coaches. However, he later returned and his Buckeyes had a 13-1 record that season.

After the season, Meyer announced that he was retiring from coaching and Ryan Day took over as head coach. Meyer would return to coaching in 2021 as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars but was fired mid-season. He has not returned to coaching since.