Before You Press Play
- Performance: Bergeron narrating his own book gives it the energy of a coaching session rather than a performance, which is exactly right for this material.
- What it covers: Character over talent, process over outcome, the psychology of high performance
- Feel: Energizing and direct, like a very focused 90-minute seminar
- Our call: A concentrated listen that delivers its core ideas efficiently, best suited to athletes and coaches who want the philosophy without the padding.
I finished Chasing Excellence on a Wednesday morning after a run that had not gone particularly well. I had set a pace target, missed it within the first mile, and spent the next forty minutes in negotiation with myself about whether to stop. I did not stop, but I did not enjoy the experience. Bergeron's book, which I queued up immediately after, was either perfectly timed or deeply ironic, depending on your view of coincidence. His central argument, that the mental state you bring to a performance matters more than the performance outcome itself, is the kind of idea that sounds obvious until you try to actually implement it in the moment when your legs are telling you something different.
Ben Bergeron coaches elite CrossFit athletes, most notably Mat Fraser and Katrin Davidsdottir, who both won the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games title in their respective categories. He uses the drama of that competition as the narrative spine of the book: each chapter moves between the theoretical framework and the specific decisions and mindset adjustments that defined the championship performances. The book is short, under four hours, and it is deliberately so. Bergeron is not interested in padding his ideas.
Is Chasing Excellence Worth Your Time?
The framework Bergeron builds is not new material if you have read widely in sports psychology or coaching literature. The concept that winning is a result rather than a goal, that character traits like coachability, grit, and positivity are what coaches actually develop rather than simply athletic capacity, and that daily process discipline matters more than peak performance moments, all have deep roots in the literature from Tim Grover to Lanny Bassham. What Bergeron does is apply these principles through the specific, concrete detail of CrossFit training and competition, which gives the abstraction a grounding it sometimes lacks in more theoretical treatments. One reviewer described the book as having great examples without a map or path to follow, which I think is accurate: this is philosophy supported by story, not a step-by-step program.
Why Chasing Excellence Works as an Audiobook
Bergeron narrating his own book is the right decision. His delivery has the quality of someone who has told these stories in coaching conversations many times and knows exactly which details matter. He is not performing the material; he is sharing it, which is a meaningful distinction. The 2016 CrossFit Games backdrop provides genuine dramatic stakes, and even listeners with no prior interest in CrossFit will find the competition narrative engaging because Bergeron frames every physical challenge in terms of the mental response it required. One reviewer notes they are not a Crossfitter but found the messages broadly applicable, which reflects how successfully Bergeron generalizes beyond the sport without losing the sport-specific grounding.
Weak Spots in Chasing Excellence
The book is explicitly not a technical CrossFit training manual. Listeners hoping for programming advice or physical coaching instruction should look elsewhere. What Bergeron offers is entirely in the domain of psychology, character, and mindset. The shortness is a feature rather than a limitation: under four hours means you can listen to the whole book in a single morning and then go apply it, which is arguably more useful than a twelve-hour deep dive that requires multiple sessions to complete.
The ideas are not new, as Bergeron himself seems to acknowledge by framing them as principles rather than discoveries. If you have already read deeply in sports performance psychology, you may find the book more confirmatory than revelatory. But as one reviewer on a weight-loss journey noted, hearing familiar ideas re-anchored to specific examples can give them new practical force, and that is what Bergeron does well.
The Right Listener for Chasing Excellence
Athletes at any level who want to understand the mental component of performance more clearly will find this useful. Coaches specifically will appreciate the framework Bergeron uses to think about character development as a coaching responsibility rather than as something athletes either have or lack. The book is also accessible to non-athletes who are drawn to the performance psychology literature, particularly if they respond better to sports-grounded examples than to the more abstract self-help register that dominates the genre. At under four hours, the time commitment is low enough that there is little risk in trying it.
A Few Questions About Chasing Excellence
Do I need to know CrossFit or follow the CrossFit Games to get value from this book?
No. Bergeron uses the 2016 Games as illustration for broader principles, and the competition narrative is accessible without prior knowledge of CrossFit. The framework he builds applies to any performance domain.
Is this book primarily about coaching or about athlete mindset?
Both perspectives are present, but the emphasis shifts depending on the chapter. Bergeron writes from a coach's perspective throughout, but the mindset tools he describes are intended for athletes to adopt independently. Coaches and athletes will each find material directly applicable to their role.
Is the book worth listening to if you have already read widely in sports psychology?
The core ideas will be familiar territory. The value for experienced readers lies in the specific CrossFit Games examples and Bergeron's coaching voice rather than in the novelty of the framework. It works well as a focused refresher or as a source of concrete illustrations.
