As I have watched sports, I have come to admire those athletes who prove to be true competitors. These are the athletes who have stories told about them that focus on all they have overcome. The other athletes are not remembered because they settled on the excuses. I find myself cringing when people complain after a loss
There is no amalgam of best and less than best. That’s the siren call of mediocrity and it is seductive. There is no best of both worlds when it comes to choices that demonstrate our quality. Do we want to be our best self? A better question is are we willing to do what it takes to
I struggle with my diet and I want the irrational reality where I can eat all the cookies and lose weight. This is the struggle everyone deals with at some point. We all have to make choices and teams must constantly choose who they want to be. Do they want to be the version of themselves that
Those who chronically fall short have learned that it is acceptable to fall short. They have learned all about excuses and justifying compromises and disappointment. They have learned that people will understand what they were up against and that the reasonable response to their challenge was to disappoint the team because challenges are hard. They might have
Once I have accomplished a certain objective, I can fall into the trap of relaxing without a care for possible unknowns. That attitude isn’t worried about the high standard. That attitude is more concerned about completing what has become a boring task. A commitment to a high standard must come with a willingness to not be entertained
Our circumstances are not completely within our control, but we do have responsibility for the chosen level of effort we put forth. The main reason we lower our standards in the midst of our challenging circumstances is because we failed in our preparations prior to the event. This could be due to lack of experience or procrastination
I have noticed our circumstances affect our standards far more than our stated values and convictions. This doesn’t make us phony because we all believe that we have higher standards but we may not be aware of how much the pressure of our circumstances causes us to aim much lower than we would ever care to admit.
We always want to mean what we say and say what we mean…except when something comes up that we didn’t think of when we said something by way of a commitment. Exceptions are important to understand because we will all be faced with making exceptions whenever we make a commitment. The “why” behind an exception is important.
America has groomed a generation to believe that self-esteem and acceptance are higher values than hard work and effort. Trophies have lost their value because far too many have been given out for too many reasons. Achievement that used to be admired has been villified because of how it made little kids and their disappointed parents feel
Great teams don’t allow sentiment to creep in when their vision is challenged by the current reality. They understand that there is always a reason to abandon the commitment to changing that reality. That’s why that reality currently exists. It’s not that no one had the idea to change the future. Those game-changing ideas are rarely original.