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.
The Advantages of Age
Getting older is often viewed with fear and negativity. We are surrounded by images of youth and beauty, leading many of us to worry about the inevitable passage of time. Let me give you a different point of view: Aging is not a curse but a privilege. The gift of getting older allows us to accumulate knowledge, gain perspective, and forge unforgettable memories. Embracing the aging journey can make us stronger and enable us to live a life of excitement and enjoyment.
Living on the Cutting Edge
In today’s sports and business world, the “status quo” is often the path of many organizations, while thinking outside the box is seen as treasonous. Yet, for those willing to step outside their comfort zones, calculated risks are not merely an option but a key to innovation and growth. Imagine standing at the crossroads of opportunity and fear. Each path represents a choice that could either catapult you to the top of your profession or keep you firmly anchored in the same old, tired ways of maximal effort and minimal growth. But how do you know which path to take?
Success Has Its Own Schedule
Those driven to success will find themselves caught in a constant race toward milestones. When I was 8 years old, I told Nate Low I would win a Super Bowl. If success were on our schedule, I would have won one in my 20s, not when I was almost 50. John Wayne wouldn’t have had to wait until he was 62 to win his only Academy Award. Bruce Springsteen, who has sung his heart out for over 50 years, would have had at least one song make it to number one.
Success is one fickle bitch!
The Art of Choosing Your Battles
We are bombarded daily with opinions, debates, and disagreements; it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of arguments and internal battles we face. Social media platforms buzz with fiery discussions, information-gathering meetings can turn into battlegrounds of contrasting beliefs, and even family gatherings can turn into battlegrounds of contrasting beliefs. Even with all of this going on, there is the simple truth: “You don’t need to attend every argument you’re invited to.”
Lead With Enthusiasm and Success Will Follow
In leadership, where vision and strategy often take center stage, one crucial element frequently goes unnoticed—the Gift of Enthusiasm. This powerful trait can transform not only the leader but also the entire team, igniting a fire that propels individuals toward shared goals.
Empty Your Cup
In the hustle and bustle of our careers, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing we’ve reached our peak. After all, isn’t there a certain comfort in knowing we’re “good enough”? But what if I told you that true excellence is more than just reaching a destination; it's about the continuous journey of learning? Just as one cannot pour tea into a full cup, we cannot become who we are meant to be if we are unwilling to empty our minds and make room for new knowledge.
The Game of Life: And How to Win
I look at life like a game. It is a complex, multi-layered adventure with challenges, strategies, and playmakers. The big question is how to win and play the game purposefully and gracefully. I have been the proverbial “fly on the wall” as I watched individuals in the sporting world, in business, and in life climb to the top or fall on their faces. I have found that those who were seen as “successful” or those who failed again and again had three things in common: A Unique Passion, a deep Understanding of the Process, and the Willingness to Outwork everyone. These three traits formed a foundation for success, but those who did not embrace the three never developed a foundation that would lead to their success.
Success: Focus on the Right, Not on the Easy
In a world where instant gratification and shortcuts are often glorified, it can be tempting to choose the easy path. However, I have seen true success and fulfillment come from focusing on what is right, not what is easy. This mindset shift requires dedication, perseverance, and a willingness to embrace the challenges that life throws at us.
Stacking Your Professional Deck
Like always, I transposed the topic of poker to having a successful life. In life, like in poker, the way the cards come out is random. In magic, you use a sleight of hand to manipulate the deck to get what you want. To control your success, you must control the factors that allow you to have all the success you want when you want it.
From Stuck to Significance
Young and old alike began to realize that life was not working out like they had imagined. They were quickly moving from stuck to stagnation. Stuck is when there is little movement. Stagnation occurs when all movement stops, and you begin to accept your plight.
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.
Live Your Best Life
It’s totally up to YOU. If you aren’t moving towards your plan, the only person you can blame is the person who you are looking at in the mirror. If you are accomplishing the steps to make the plan real, it’s the person you are looking at in the mirror that needs to get the credit. Trust yourself. You can do this!
Dualism: Trust and Faith
I was watching a movie the other night about the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. It took the Israelites 40 years to travel from Sinai to Canaan. If you were to walk it today. It would take you ELEVEN DAYS!
Why did it take them 40-years? The people who followed Moses had a lack of Trust and Faith.
They did not trust their leaders – who led them out of the slavery of the Pharaoh.
And they lacked faith in their God. The One who opened the Red Sea allowing them to escape the army of Egypt. The One who, when they were thirsty, brought water from a rock. The One who, when they were hungry, provided manna from the heavens.
Because of a lack of Trust and Faith it took the Israelites 40-years to go a distance that should have taken them 11-days, to get to their promised land.
This Trust and Faith thing is a constant battle in our lives, just like it was to Moses.
Trust is something that you control.
Faith is an inner belief.
What a Great Gift
Change is good. Especially when we aren’t happy where we are at.
Here is the problem: We don’t move on our own because we aren’t quite sick enough of the old job because it pays the bills. This is the first signs of being “Stuck”. “Stagnation” is the second step. It comes after you have been in the job so long that you can’t afford to change jobs. The final step is “Death”. This is when your dreams and goals have fallen along the wayside and you succumb to the numbness of working for someone else’s dreams as your professional dreams die.
Failure Is Not Fatal
Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill
Before my career changing run in with a chicken house fan, my overall coaching record, in the first eleven years of my coaching career, was 33 Wins – 77 Loses and 1 Tie. I was averaging 3 wins a season. Not a great resume statistic.
The one thing that was constant in my life was my belief in myself and my ability to become a winning coach. You may have noticed that I didn’t say a “successful coach”. I knew I was doing some good stuff. I knew I had learned a lot in my first 11 years of my career. I just needed the right place to put it all together.
When it all came together my wins skyrocketed (251 wins) to a career average of 11 wins a season. Like Churchill says, “Failure is not fatal.” The only thing that is fatal is if we stop trying. I could have looked at my three wins a season and said, “I suck”, and left coaching and taken a job I wasn’t passionate about. At that time, I would have failed myself because I would have given up on my passion. When we give up on ourselves than we truly have failed.
Coaching Handbook: Lessons Learned
A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life. – John Wooden
Coaching is the most amazing profession in the world. You literally can change an individual’s life, for the better, in six months. There are books that can give you examples of how to coach, but until you are knee deep in the profession you will never understand truly what it takes to be a successful coach. The lessons come to you in two ways. First, your individual experiences with players, parents and the organizations that you are with. Second, and probably the most important teacher; the coaches that you are working with and around every day.
Success: Faith and Trust
Did you hear the story about the leader who took forty years to get his group to their optimal destination? We might think that this guy was tenacious. This guy had grit and determination. One who doesn’t know the meaning of quit … right?
What happens if I told you that he could have gotten his group to their destination in eleven days, instead of forty years?
The Game Within the Game
Scotty Conley taught me to stop watching the football during football games. He showed me that one can get too focused on the result rather than understanding the process that produced the result. If you watch the receiver catch the ball and run untouched into the endzone you only saw the tip of the iceberg. So, instead of watching the "show" we need to watch the “process" that made the “show” possible. The game within the game.
Culture is the Key to Success
Winning or losing a sporting event or the success or failure of a business can be seen in two different ways. The most obvious reason is the decisions made by the people in leadership positions. The second way, which is less obvious, is the CULTURE within the team or the company.
Analysts will dissect all of the decisions made by the shot-callers every time there is good fortune or rough seas. The pundits write beautifully about the genius of those who show value, while questioning the abilities of those who struggle.
What they don’t look at, until they are doing the “post-mortem” (when the leadership is cut loose), is what was going on behind closed doors.