I’ve spent my life chasing performance. It includes on the ice, in business, and on stages across the world. Each pursuit taught me something about what it takes to win. But today, we’re facing a new kind of challenge that is not physical, but mental.
Artificial Intelligence is changing everything. It could be how we learn, think, and act. And as someone who now delivers inspirational talks and works with leaders across industries, I can see this shift defining the next generation of human performance. The first two parts of this series looked inward, including attention and motivation. This one looks outward. It’s about how technology shapes not just what we do, but who we become.
I use AI every day. I’m not against it, but far from it. It’s one of the most extraordinary tools of our time. I can ideate faster, organize complex ideas, simulate scenarios, and make decisions that once took hours in minutes. It's a professional speaker's dream: turning chaos into clarity.
But here's the paradox: as things get simpler, we risk losing what makes us powerful. When every answer is just a prompt away, curiosity begins to fade. The process of searching for that silent friction of not knowing is where growth occurs. Our willingness to wrestle with questions, to fail forward, is the oxygen of progress.
For young athletes growing up with instant access to everything, I worry about what’s being lost. When feedback is immediate and discovery is automated, the muscle of curiosity atrophies. That’s the same muscle that once pushed us to explore, to test limits, to innovate.
I see this not just in sports, but in leadership. During motivational events, I often remind people: the longer the distance between the known and unknown, the greater the gold you find in between. That space, filled with frustration, confusion, and effort, is where true learning happens.
There’s a concept called “desirable difficulty.” It’s the friction that makes learning stick. When we remove the friction, the lesson is lost. A 2024 Stanford AI study found that when problem-solving was automated, cognitive effort dropped by 40%. Output stayed high, but retention and adaptive creativity fell off a cliff. We’re getting better at doing, but worse at becoming.
The same holds true in sport. Athletes improve because training is hard. It’s not just about strength or speed. It’s about enduring the friction that produces feedback. That feedback becomes fuel.
If we remove that, if the algorithm tells us what to eat, how to train, what pace to hold, we risk creating athletes who are flawless in simulation but crumble in real-world chaos. And chaos is where champions are made.
Michael Jordan once played through a 103-degree fever in the NBA Finals and still won. Every logical system would have said “stop.” But human will said “go.” That’s what no machine can replicate - the human instinct to rise when everything says you shouldn’t. In motivation and leadership, that’s what separates the great from the good. You can’t automate the heart. You can’t outsource grit. You have to feel the friction and find your edge.
As I look ahead to the 2030s, this balancing act will be one for the history books. The question isn’t whether we should use AI. It’s how we’ll stay human while doing it. Here’s how I train myself, and what I share in my inspirational talks and motivational events:
These are the skills that can’t be automated, the parts of us that define motivation and leadership. The more comfort becomes our default, the more capability we lose. Comfort softens the body and dulls the mind. The only way to stay sharp is to keep leaning into resistance, to do things that stretch your limits.
As a professional speaker, I often see leaders overwhelmed by efficiency, addicted to speed and precision. But speed without depth creates fragility. You might reach your goal faster, but you won’t have built the strength to hold it. Friction isn’t the enemy. It’s the training ground for greatness.
AI will continue to accelerate everything. This could range from how we learn to how we compete. It will give us unimaginable precision, analysis, and insight. But those tools only matter if they serve a mind and body trained to handle uncertainty.
We can’t resist technology, but we can resist losing ourselves to it. The challenge of the next generation will be to integrate innovation without abandoning intention. The real gold isn’t found in the algorithm; it’s found in our ability to stay human amid automation.
The mind that thrives in the age of AI is one that knows how to embrace difficulty, adapt under pressure, and create meaning beyond data. In every one of my inspirational talks, I remind people: we can’t let comfort crush capability. Because the moment we stop pushing, we start shrinking.
The champions of tomorrow will be those who can harness technology without losing touch with struggle, who see resistance not as something to avoid, but as something to train through. So as we move toward a world where AI becomes a teammate, not a tool, remember this: the most advanced machine on earth still lives inside you. Train it. Challenge it. Trust it. That’s how we build gold from pressure, and that’s what Operation Gold is all about.