Ep. 5 - Two Quotes We're Living By | Ideas from Curt Cignetti & Brianna Wiest

A good quote may make you stop. A great one might make you do something differently. In this episode of *The Practice Ground*, Ken and Kari each share a quote that has been guiding them lately.  More than just words they find inspiring, these are ideas they’ve been putting into practice — and discovering what can happen when something that resonates begins to change the way we live.  **The quotes we’re presently living by** **Kari:** Paraphrasing a principle she’s taken from Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti’s approach to preparation and success: **“We’re not surprised by success.”** Kari shares how Cignetti’s philosophy helped her recognize a shift in the season of personal growth she’s in. After years of learning to acknowledge herself instead of continually focusing on what she wasn’t doing, she’s now discovering a different kind of reward: becoming someone who decides what she wants, prepares the conditions for success, executes the plan, and does it again the next day. Her running habit becomes one example of a larger change — ordinary execution becoming less surprising, less taxing, and increasingly something she can expect from herself. **Ken:** Brianna Wiest: **“Fall in love with the unknown, for the fact that it will almost always bring you things better than you could have imagined…”** As a confidence coach, Ken deliberately looks for opportunities that stretch him beyond the places where he already feels confident — because that’s where courage, rather than certainty, is required. With Bronnie Ware’s *The Top Five Regrets of the Dying* also in mind, he shares why avoiding regrets of omission matters to him, and how Wiest’s words help him approach the unknown not only with fear, but with excitement about what might exist beyond anything he can currently imagine. **What you’ll hear inside the episode:** - what Ken and Kari think makes a quote powerful enough to inspire action - how Cignetti’s approach to preparation and success became part of Kari’s habit-training practice - why a reward that once served us may not always match what we’re currently trying to train - the insight that the reward itself can evolve as our identity evolves - why growth often requires courage before confidence - why Ken deliberately seeks opportunities that take him beyond what he already knows he can do - how Wiest’s quote helps Ken get excited about the unknown by shifting his focus from potential detriments to possibilities greater than he could currently imagine - what changes when an idea we once had to take on faith begins to accumulate evidence from our own lives **References for this episode:** ***From Ken's quote*** Book | 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest Book | The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed By The Dearly Departing by Bronnie Ware Article | Fall in Love with the Unknown: Create Something More Amazing Than You Could Possibly Have Imagined by Ken Li Article | Why Some Self-Help Books Help and Others Don't - Hint: It's Not the Books by Ken Li Article | What Preparing For a Podcast Revealed About How Far I've Come: Three Coaching Concepts I Lived Without Realizing It by Ken Li Article | "That's Boring!" Four Boring Lessons From My Workshop on Mindset by Ken Li ***From Kari's quote:*** Notes and Quotes from Coach Cignetti's Peach Bowl Press Conference via Hoosier Huddle (January 3, 2026) Transcript | What Curt Cignetti Said Before Indiana Football Plays Miami in National Championship via Sports Illustrated (January 17, 2026) Transcript | Cignetti Introductory Press Conference at Indiana University-Bloomington (December 1, 2023) Press Conference | What Curt Cignetti Had to Say as No. 23 Indiana Prepares for Northwestern (September 30, 2024) Press Conference | Indiana University Football Media Conference via ASAP Sports (February 5, 2025) \----- **Ken Li is a confidence coach.** Connect with Ken on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares mindset tools, resources, and strategies to help professionals who second-guess themselves feel as confident inside as they look. **Kari Watterson is a mindset and habits coach.** Connect with Kari on Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer). where she shares her ongoing series, *The Habit Training Diaries,* or visit her website at KariWatterson.com.