Quick answer: Across twenty years coaching athletes and consulting with business owners, I’ve asked direct questions and tracked real patterns rather than relying on secondhand research. These aren’t formal academic studies, they’re observations from real conversations and real client work, gathered because most performance advice runs on assumption instead of asking people directly.
A note on methodology before the numbers: these come from my own conversations, questionnaires, and coaching history, not peer-reviewed research. Where a specific method was used, like a direct yes/no question to a defined group, it’s noted. Where a number is my own professional estimate rather than something counted, that’s noted too.
Goal Clarity
On a first phone call, 93% of the athletes and business owners I talk to can’t clearly articulate their number one goal. For people specifically trying to lose weight, that number climbs to 98%. Before any diagnostic can run, most people haven’t actually named what they’re aiming at. See the full breakdown in Three Questions: The EFFORT Audit.
Training Quality Among Endurance Athletes
Of all the endurance athletes I’ve personally coached, 97% came to me already on a generic or cookie-cutter training plan, or no real plan at all. Only 3% were on something genuinely custom, and some of those were only semi-custom. Nearly all were training Hard. Very few were training Smart. Full context in The EFFORT Framework and Habits of Elite Athletes vs Executives.
Belief and Potential
In my own estimate, roughly 99% of people, athletes included, aim below what they’re actually capable of achieving. A concrete version of this: about 9 out of 10 high school basketball players I work with who have genuine Division 1 potential end up aiming for Division 2 or Division 3 instead, largely because neither the athlete nor their parents fully believe Division 1 is reachable. More in Team All-American.
Belief Among Coaches
I asked 50 college team coaches a direct question: did they think their team had a real chance of winning the national championship that year. 42 of them, 84%, said no. Not unlikely. No. Some of those were genuinely strong teams with genuinely good coaches. More in Building a Championship Culture at Work.
This page will grow as more of my client data gets documented. If you’re evaluating the EFFORT Framework for your team, organization, or event, the full system is in The EFFORT Framework: The Complete Guide to Hard, Smart, Consistent.