Blog
Read Blog Posts by Category:
Passion: Articles that deal with the inner drive that we all need to want to MOVE from where we currently are to where we dream to be.
Preparation: These posts reference articles, books, documentaries, speakers, quotes, and other inspirational and formative ideas that I have found that helped me and the people around me.
Practice: Articles in this category have a heavy sports and performance training lean.
Performance: These articles focus on how you go about your work. From networking to communications to finding a better way to do what you do.
Perseverance: Articles in this category speak to the mechanics that we go through both mentally and physically to stay on track and not get STUCK.
Building Your Team
During my coaching tenure, I devised a strategy to ensure I always had a diverse and talented group of coaches and advisors around me. The key to success is not just surrounding yourself with the best but also with those who bring unique perspectives and skills. It's about having the confidence to attract individuals who are smarter than you in specific areas.
Climbing Your Professional Mountain
Climbing your professional mountain is a journey that requires dedication, hard work, and strategic planning. In today's competitive business world, it's essential to have a roadmap to help you reach your career goals faster.
Embrace the Struggle
The table was set for a pity party. What a great way to start a Monday.
I looked around at the other gym occupants … and you know what? Nobody had noticed. They were doing their thing, living their own struggles.
That’s life. Nobody knows the struggles that you go through. And … spoiler alert … nobody really cares.
How did I deal with my struggle? I took a deep breath. And laughed at myself.
I had two choices. Let this ruin my day or attack the problem. I chose the latter.
Finding Your Space
I believe your environment is a huge part of finding your creativity.
When I am outdoors, my mind is open, and nothing is impossible. Of course, this has grown out of thirty-five years in coaching. Every time I could take my athletes outside to work, we were outside.
Because of this “space” that I had created, I could always think and see the possibilities that could happen. For some reason, I felt muted when I was in my office. I started to carry small notebooks in my pockets to write down the things that came to me while watching one of our workouts or practice.
Dualism: Compress and Expand
This concept, Compression and Expansion, when taken off the draftsman table and applied to life is what makes life exciting.
Always Prepare for the Possible
Too many, after receiving negative feedback or rejection: shutdown. They throw up their hands and quit.
Why?
Nothing is over until it is truly over.
We become so spun up in our feelings about what just happened that we don’t take the time to plan for what might happen in the future. If we live in the past, we can’t live in the present which will adversely affect our future.
Instead of giving up, give yourself a chance by being prepared for the possible.
Life Hack: Change Your Mindset
Derek Jeter once said, “The last thing you think is the first thing you will do.”
If you think you will fail, you will most likely fail.
Your mind will not just “play along”. It will go where you want to take it. When you set a positive mindset, you will succeed more times than not.
Set the Bar Higher
Did you hear that?
That collective sigh of relief.
That sound came from 99% of the population after hearing that “they only need to compete with themselves”. I can hear them, they’re saying, “Finally, I don’t have to try to be much better than I am right now.”
Leadership: Developing a Team Culture
Coach Tom Landry put it best when he said, “My job is to get men to do what they don’t want to do so they can become who they want to be.” That is coaching in a nutshell. Athletes are humans and all humans have basic weaknesses. For most it takes someone or something to make them push past their self-imposed barriers so that they can become all that they were meant to be.
Finding The Missing Piece to Your Puzzle
I am the king of stupid questions.
I wear that crown with pride. How did I earn it? Simply by being willing to “look stupid” by asking a question that I didn’t know the answer to.
What came out of this “stupidity” … I accomplished all my professional goals and dreams. It doesn’t seem like much of a cost when you look at it in that way does it? If I told you that you could be the best at whatever you wanted by asking questions, how many of you would raise your hand?
If you want to be the best, how hard is it to raise your hand and ask: “Why?” or “How?” or “Can you repeat that?” or “How does that cause this?”
When we were children, we went through the questioning everything phase. Then when we became young adults, we again questioned everything. Why is it then when we become adults, we stop asking questions?
How To Be the Best
I was blessed to be in the coaching / teaching profession for 35 years. During that time, I saw how the worst prepared and I have seen what it takes to be the best.
The one thing that determined either outcome was not an outside opponent or element. The key was how much coaching would each individual accept.
If the individual or the team didn’t care about the results, then the ending was set in stone. My issue comes with those who expect to be the best, but aren’t willing to receive constructive criticism to help them get out of their own way.
To be the best means you are putting out your optimal effort in everything that you are doing in pursuit of being the best. Effort alone does not make one the best.
Love the Person in the Mirror
Truth Time: When you look at yourself in the mirror do you admire all the good parts or do you start nitpicking the tiny flaws?
Don’t be embarrassed if you only see the negative parts. Most of us do.
The more I go out and speak and the more clients I become associated with I continue to find how many truly are embarrassed or genuinely dislike the person that they look at in the mirror.
And by this I don’t mean the physical features they see … I’m talking about the “person”.
This negative messaging is literally killing us.
I am a truth teller and I tell them as much. How can you continue to be the best version of you when your early morning pep talk to yourself is, “I hate everything about you.”
Stepping Away from the Chaos
But in most cases, individuals cause their own chaos. They’ll argue and give you “excuses” for why they are always running out of time. Why their work is substandard. Why they had to stay late. Why they came to the meeting late. Why they lost the information that they needed. Why their car ran out of gas.
Yes, they always seem to have legit excuses for all the chaos. Shit does happen. But not the same shit every week. When it becomes repetitive then it’s not the “shit” that is happening, it becomes the “shit” that you are neglecting to do when you have time to do it is not getting done. This traffic jam of projects that need to be done builds up, which leads to the chaos. The problem is not “chance”, it’s caused by the person.
Don’t Use a Spoon to Cut a Steak
Don’t use a spoon to cut a steak! That makes sense right? Nobody in their right mind would try to cut a piece of steak with a spoon when there was a steak knife right on the table in front of them … right?
Sure, it can be done, for all my contrarians out there. But, if you try to cut that steak with a spoon it’s going to be messy, sloppy and you, and the people depending on you to get the job done right, will be disappointed.
Can we agree that attempting to cut a steak with a spoon is ridiculous?
Or is it?
Each week I am either talking with or watching a business leader, corporate leader or sports coach who tries to cut their steak with a spoon. Not literally but metaphorically.
They continue to put the wrong person in the wrong place to do a job that they are not intended to do.
Conquer Your Fears
Do you watch TV news anymore? That’s some scary stuff. The doom, gloom and general hopelessness that is expounded in every word will leave you afraid of the world coming to an end any second.
Think of the fear that is being spewed out to those who actually watch these programs. It could make you shelter in place and never leave your house again.
“Fear” is a powerful emotion. It can stop you from moving forward. It can close off new ideas. It can keep you awake. It can keep you stuck. It can be such a force that your life stops completely.
That is what “fear” can do when you allow it to control you. But when you control your mindset, your fears will vanish.
Narrowing Your Focus
In life when we try to make everyone happy, we end up disappointing most everyone.
In business if we try to take on too much, we end up going broke.
With our goals in life if we have too many, we don’t accomplish any of them.
Chase The Match
Some people will find their motivational sparks from EXTERNAL sources. These might be found in videos on the internet, a motivational speaker, or a book that you just read. Watching and listening to speakers such as Eric Thomas or Les Brown always help to push me through some slow times.
You might find your spark from an INTERNAL source. It may be a person you work with who always gets excited about being better at what you are doing. These INTERNAL motivators can come from anyone. It also may be a negative comment that sparks us to say, “We’ll see about that.”
Whatever gives you your spark, continue to use it so you don’t get stuck along your journey.
Keep Climbing: Overcoming The Struggles in Your Life
In every story of success there is a point of struggle followed by an action where the storyteller overcame the issue that caused the struggle. In every story of a person getting stuck there is a point of struggle followed by inaction, where the storyteller allowed the issue to stop them.
Read that again. I’ll wait.
Yes, it is that simple. MOVE. Keep moving forward. It may be in small steps, but you must find a way to continue to fight through whatever it is that is slowing you down.
Reach Back
Mentoring is not telling someone what to do. Mentoring, for the most part, is listening. Listen, to whoever has come to you, to understand – not to respond.
Too many people are just looking for a reason to tell the other person “How to do things right”. To listen to understand means that when you speak you ask questions that help you get to understand what the person really needs from you.
It’s Been ANOTHER Year
Wow, that was fast!
365 days have spun by so fast! As I said in an earlier Thursday Thought, “It is true that time does fly. But when you spend time with those that you love, time becomes the memories that make life worth living.” This year has been full of memories that I will always cherish. New friends and old friends have made this year fly by. Laughs and stories have filled my life as one day turned to the next!