Ken Taylor (@TheSpeedDr) played for the Super Bowl Champion 1985 Chicago Bears and is now a private coach, specializing in speed training. He was a three-time Pac-10 Academic All America at Oregon State University as a football player and triple jumper/sprinter, while also earning a bachelors degree in exercise physiology and sport science.

Here, Ken covers the evolution of how athetic success can prompt a virtuous cycle or "upward spiral." Success begets confidence, which begets more success, etc. Soon, he notes, the spiral gets applied to other areas of life outside sports.

When he realized that the concentration ability that served him well in sports also applied to his academic work, success there began to spiral, too. Yes, winning the Super Bowl with the Bears was "crazy, crazy, crazy, fun, fun," but he remains just as proud of his academic achievement.