stroll through the park? - Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Hello everyone,

Sorry about the delay in updating my blog and in answering questions.  I get quite a few questions so don’t feel slighted if I don’t post yours.  When choosing which questions to answer I usually go for the ones that I haven’t answered before.  As you can see, I have answered questions on this site for several years.  I don’t have it organized by category or topic but if you stroll through you will see there is a lot of information.

I keep debating whether or not to continue writing this blog.  I am leaning towards not just because it weighs on my mind and between my job as coach, and my family, it gets to be a lot.  Anyway, so my updates will be less frequent at the least.  I do appreciate the number of people that have followed the blog. 

“The greater the feat you desire to achieve, the greater the mental preparation required for overcoming obstacles and persevering over the long haul.  If you want to take a stroll in your neighborhood, you can reasonably expect to have few, if any, problems.  But that’s not the case if you intend to climb Mount Everest.”    —John C. Maxwell

I am a big fan of John C. Maxwell.  This quote is profound, yet a simple truth.  The more you plan to accomplish, the more you are going to have to overcome to do it.  Prepare for obstacles.  Prepare for unexpected obstacles and work through them. 

The interesting thing is that our obstacles rarely come in a form that we expect.  Things change.  Remember that everything doesn’t have to be perfect to be successful.  I think I’ve written a blog on that subject.  It’s very important.  Do the best you can with whatever circumstances you find.  The intensity of your obstacles will equal the intensity of how high you set your goals.  And those obstacles will not come in an expected form. 

I grew up dreaming and planning to be an Olympic Champion.  Growing up I expected my obstacles to be the opponents that weigh-in in my weight class.  It should be that simple but it usually isn’t.  The real opponent is usually your own brain.   It’s amazing how difficult we can make life for ourselves.  The majority of our obstacles come from self-imposed pressure.   

I remember growing up and hearing about athletes in the Superbowl, the Olympics, and major sporting events who felt a lot of pressure, or who didn’t quite perform like they were capable of because of pressure.  I remember thinking  “Are you kidding me!! You’re in the stinking Superbowl (or the Olympics or whatever) and you are worried about pressure?! You have an opportunity to do something awesome that millions of people can only dream about, and you are going to let pressure/expectations affect your performance?! That’s crazy!”  That type of stuff.  If my childhood self would have been able to see my pre-Olympic self and that I was being distracted by pressure, the childhood me would have smacked the Olympic hopeful me, probably many times.  I had become the person that disgusted my youthful self.

 As you move closer to your goals and obstacles start popping up, go back to the basics.  The basics are realizing that everything is an opportunity, do the best you can, focus on the simplest form of the process that will help you perform at your best, and have fun!   

Just because the circumstances change it doesn’t mean you have to change your focus.  Attack your goals like the grade school kid dreaming of something big.  Swing for the fence.  You should want to be the person who shoots the ball when your team is down by two and you have 10 seconds left.  It’s all just a game.  We were sent here to take what we have and do the very best that we can with it.

 Think like a child.  Have fun and play hard. 

“Who you are is God’s gift to you; what you become is your gift to God.”–unknown (I heard it from the great Bonnie Epstein)

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