Written by Jamison Price

The forever way to get better—physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I learned this the hard way.

There was a season when training and performance became my personality. The outcome became an obsession. And the obsession hollowed out everything under it.

I was getting “better” in performance metrics, but the things that actually mattered were suffocating underneath my need for performance to act as an anesthetic for my insecurities.

It took time—and a good bit of pain—to realize: the foundation matters more than the finish line.

So instead of starting with, “What do I want to accomplish?”
I decided to start with, “Who do I want to become?”

I think a lot of people who want change, growth, and transformation find themselves in this position. And I’m confident that hard-charging high performers end up here often.

In my experience, it’s because they start at the top of the pyramid—outcomes—when real progress is built from the bottom.

This framework is designed through the lens of training, but it applies to everything: your work, your relationships, your leadership, your life.

Because the real pursuit isn’t just stronger, faster, fitter. It’s becoming someone you respect. Making other people better because you’re in the room.

There’s a beautiful quote by Frederick Douglass that says, “Nothing can bring to man so much of happiness or so much of misery as man himself.”

We are ourselves no matter what we achieve, so it’s critical we start not with what we want, but with what and who we are.

At CompTrain, our mission is to build high-capacity, high-character humans who make the world better. And that’s the NOBULL mentality too, right? The daily work of getting better—physically, mentally, and emotionally.

If you want to improve in one of those areas without sacrificing the others—if you want to become someone with both capacity and character—this Performance Pyramid is a simple structure that helps you do exactly that.

The first step is to stop chasing the top.

It is so easy to obsess over the top of the pyramid:

• How strong am I?
• How fast am I?
• What’s my time?
• Where do I rank?
• Did I win?

But the people who last—the ones who keep improving for years, not weeks, and the people who don’t just perform well but do so while building lives of impact that outlast them—they build from the bottom up.

Here’s the Performance Pyramid.

1) Character

The standard when no one’s watching.

Character is who you are irrespective of circumstances or results. Who are you when the scoreboard is off?

• It’s how you treat the last-place finisher.
• How you respond to failure.
• The ownership you take over your role.
• How you act when you’re frustrated, tired, or losing.

This is the base layer that everything stands on. I’m not suggesting you can’t be successful without strong character—plenty of people are. But if your foundation is weak, the top will eventually crumble.

And even if it doesn’t, what’s the point if you haven’t enjoyed the process and lived it in a way that you—and those around you—are proud of?

Train character this week:

• Own one thing fast. “That’s on me. I’ll fix it.” No spin.
• Do one unseen rep. Extra recovery. Clean up without being asked. Encourage someone privately.
• Set one non-negotiable. Example: “I don’t talk negatively about people I train with.” Period.

2) Effort

The daily vote for who you’re becoming.

Effort is something only you are truly aware of. To others, it might look like you’re “giving it your all.” But inside, you know when you’re backing away from that final 1% that actually makes the difference.

We’ve all seen people rely on natural talent and phone in their effort. What a miss.

Effort is relative to your capacity on that day—but what really matters is walking away from every training session, every practice, and every room you enter feeling proud of what you gave.

Train effort this week:

• Pick one “hard thing” every session. Heaviest set. Last round. Last 400m.
• Rate your effort 1–10 after training. One sentence why. Be honest.

3) Impact

Success is better when shared.

Impact is what your character and effort do to the people around you. It’s the difference between: “How did I perform?” and “What changed for others because I was here?”

• Impact looks like making it easier for others to be their best selves.
• Celebrating someone else’s win louder than your own.
• Helping the nervous new person feel like they belong.

You don’t need a platform to have impact. You just need intention.

Train impact this week:

• Encourage one person per session. Do it with wild specificity—not “good job,” but exactly what they did that you’re calling out. “I saw how you finished that last set. That was awesome.”
• Go first. First to clean up. First to own a mistake. First to say hello.
• Ask one real question. “How are you actually doing?” Then listen.

4) Process

The ritual that carries you when motivation doesn’t.

Most people treat training like an event. High performers treat it like a ritual.

Process is the boring, powerful stuff:

• Simple plan
• Consistent execution
• Small adjustments
• Trust in compounding reps

This is where the NOBULL mentality lives: show up, do the work, repeat.

I often come back to this proverb: “The man who loves walking will walk further than the man who loves the destination.”

Even if you do make it to your final destination—if you didn’t love the journey—was it worth it?

I love the little stuff: studying the intended stimulus of the day’s training, activating specific musculature through intentional warm-ups, maintaining paces, tying my shoes, making the post-workout shake. It’s all a gift.

How lucky are we to have the process?

Train process this week:

• Choose one process non-negotiable. Something simple and repeatable:
• “I don’t skip the warm-up.”
• “I cool down for 5 minutes.”
• Do it without your phone. Nothing will distract you from enjoying the process by engaging with things that are outside of it. The phone will do this unlike any other thing.

5) Ability

Build what you’re missing. Don’t hide from it.

Ability matters. Genetics are real. Some people really are “built different.”

But raw talent without character, effort, impact, and process is fragile.

Stewardship is the goal: build the unsexy basics.

• Aerobic endurance
• Mobility
• Strength foundations
• Recovery
• Nutrition consistency

Sometimes the most “hardcore” thing you can do is take a true rest day instead of feeding your ego.

Train ability this week:

• Pick one weakness and hit it 10–20 minutes, 2–3x. Mobility, aerobic endurance, basic strength work, nutrition structure—something you avoid.
• Ask for feedback. “What’s the biggest thing holding me back?”
• Build a tiny plan around it. Small enough to sustain. Big enough to matter.

6) Outcome

A proxy, not the point.

Outcomes matter. They’re feedback. They’re data. They’re worth celebrating.

But they’re a terrible place to start because they’re unstable, emotional, and easy to worship.

The NOBULL mentality holds outcomes in the right place:

• Outcome is a checkpoint.
• Not your worth.
• Not your personality.
• Not your only proof that you should be proud of yourself.

Train your relationship with outcomes this week:

• Pick one target. Benchmark, lift, time trial—write it down.
• Debrief honestly afterward: What did it reveal about my character, effort, impact, process, and ability?
• When you talk about it, lead with the lesson, not the number.

A Simple Weekly Check-In

When I’m having a particularly difficult time being outcome-oriented, I’ll implement this simple check-in:

• Character: Did I act like who I want to be? Where did I blame or hide?
• Effort: What sessions would I be proud to replay? Where did I check out early?
• Impact: Who got better because I was there?
• Process: Did I follow my plan? What broke—sleep, schedule, discipline?
• Ability: What weakness did I actually address?
• Outcome: What did results reveal, and what’s my next adjustment?

Major in the Majors

If you remember nothing else, remember this:

Character. Effort. Impact. Process. These are the majors.

Ability and outcome matter—but they’re the minors.

Ability and outcome are awesome. We shouldn’t shirk away from our desire to be a high performer or achieve amazing things.

This pyramid isn’t suggesting you should settle for less than your potential.
It’s suggesting this is the way to actually realize it.

Build the bottom relentlessly, and the top gets easier to reach and healthier to hold.

Because when sport ends (and it always does), these foundations don’t disappear. They become how you lead and live.

Don’t just set goals. Build foundations.
And let your performance be the proof.

We can all be better.
Start today. Show up tomorrow. Repeat.

Author Bio:

Hey, I'm Jamison. I serve as Content & Community Director at CompTrain (comptrain.com), a strength & conditioning programming platform, where I get to think about how we communicate the deeper “why” behind training to a global community.

I’m the founder (along with my wife Lesley Price) and owner of Elysium Training (elysiumtraining.health), where we help people pursue strength, health, and human vitality through training that actually fits their lives.

I write The Better Way publication that sits at the intersection of these things. It's a place where I can explore what I’m learning about training, philosophy, life, faith, and (very importantly), dogs, and share it with people who care about living deliberately.

CompTrain - www.comptrain.com

Read more from Jamison - thebetterway.substack.com

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YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Jamison-Price