"You get yourself in a rut and you almost want something so badly again that you end up trying too hard." - Matty Potts
Matty Potts has been on a journey over the past two years as he fought through setbacks to get back to the pinnacle of cricket.
And he has learned a valuable lesson during that experience: you can only control the controllables.
The pace bowler was rewarded for his resilience and determination with a place in the England squad for the recent Ashes series in Australia.
And Matty knows that the highs and lows are part and parcel of being an elite athlete.
"I have been on a journey, yeah," he told The Edge. "I had a setback and then had a strong look at myself.
"You can get yourself in a rut and you almost want something so badly again that you end up trying too hard, and then you find that things don't go your way, and then you're kind of in this spiral, this snowball effect of trying really hard to get where you want to be.
"I can feel really focused and driven, and it doesn't work out and then it snowballs again, and then you get back into that rut where you're a bit down about it, you try again, and it keeps on building and building and building until something's got to give either way."
One way to navigate that path is to appreciate that you can't influence everything.
"Exactly, whatever happens is going to happen," he says. "And once I reach that point of 'right, sod it, whatever's going to happen is going to happen', I can try my best and I can control that. But anything externally, I can't control that.
"You control the controllables, and that's very specific to sports, and dealing with stress.
"What can I do to actually fix this situation? Anything else? I can't do anything about it sometimes. And so I can find myself in that snowball effect, and to break out of that cycle can be pretty hard.
"But luckily, my family are absolutely amazing. My mates have been great as well. And actually being around the boys and messaging the lads, and being around them, that gets you through it."
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