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.
Chase Your Passion
Why is it that some people are constantly moving towards achieving their dreams and others just dream about their dreams?
It’s simple … each of us is wired differently.
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.
Answer vs Reason
In your profession you are either the ANSWER to the problems or you are the REASON for the problems.
Dualism: Good vs Great
After the event, he was getting the pats on the back from the people who had just watched him speak for an hour. He turned to me with a big smile and said, “Well, how did you like it?” I nodded and said, “It was good.” His reflex was to say “thanks” and move on. Which he did.
And then he stopped and turned back to me and said, “Did you just say “good”?”
I nodded and I said, “Yep, you were good.”
He was the pulled away by organizers of the event, and I went my way.
The next day I got a call from my friend. Before we could even get into the pleasantries he said, “What do you mean I was, just good?”
For the next 20 minutes WE talked about the holes in his talk. And then he said, “You’re right, I mailed it in.”
Dualism: Win or Learn vs Win or Lose
When I was younger, I was so focused on not losing that I couldn’t enjoy the victories. This all changed when I studied Nelson Mandela. When he said, “I never lose, I either win or I learn”, it struck me like a lightning bolt.
I put down the book I was reading and just stared into space. These words were fighting an internal battle with what I had taken for granted since my first memories.
Dualism: Get To vs Got To
Life is a Get To vs a Got To proposition. I have used these two terms (Get To vs Got To) for 40 years. I have asked countless athletes and clients to help them understand the truth about their commitment to being successful.
Comprehending the “Get To vs Got To” concept will lead you directly to understanding “who” you truly are.
Dualism: Ancestors vs Ghosts
I went to New York to watch Bruce Springsteen on Broadway. During his show he spoke about Ancestors and Ghosts.
It took me a while to work this through, but when I did it made perfect sense.
Ancestors are those who came before us that we lean in to when we are growing in our personal or professional lives. They are the people who taught us the basics. How to pray, how to drive, how to work on an engine, how to cook. The taught us what it looked like when you were doing things right and how to push through the hard times.
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.
We Are All Originals
We are all originals. If we understand WHAT makes us original and use all those Crayons every single day, we will live our optimal life. Until that time we will continue to struggle to move forward.
What happens is that after we struggle and struggle, we eventually get tired of a lack of progress and we begin to slow down, we begin to make excuses and then we begin to blame others. When the truth of the matter is that we are the to blame.
Understand you are the answer to all of these problems. Miyamoto Musashi, the great Samurai, tells us as much in his seminal book “The Five Rings”, “There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.”
We have everything we need to be as successful as we want to be. If you don’t use all of your talents (Crayons) then that is your choice. But, be prepared to continue to be frustrated as you work to accomplish other people’s dreams while your years fade away. TRUST in YOU!
You Are Not Alone
One of the scariest things we have to do in our life is to do something for the first time, by ourselves. It may be walking to school or riding a bike or driving a car. As we get older, we have these same issues, whether it is personal or professional, where we feel that we are fighting our dragons all by ourselves.
It’s Been a Year
A year ago, today my book – Move or Die: A Game Plan from Stuck to Significance was released.
It’s been an amazing year! It actually has been an amazing 3 years.
The odyssey started when I first started to write the book. I was blessed to be supported by the best book editor in the world: Katie Rios. She “got me”. She knew where I was going with my story. When I was stuck, she knew how to move the ball forward. When I got out of character, she pulled me back on to the right path. The final 186-page book is so much better than the 600-page manuscript that I started with. I will never be able to tell Katie enough times how much I appreciate her guidance!
Full-Blooded Mutt
My mom’s side of the family were thrown out of Ireland a long time ago because we weren’t good enough. My dad’s side of the family was thrown out of France and then Canada. Somewhere along the way blood lines from Scotland, Germany and other northern European countries enter the mix. Eventually these two people got together to make a litter of full-blooded mutts.
Humble and Hungry
Two words summed up why you might not have heard of John Stucky: Humble / Hungry.
He lived these two words every day of his life. Because he lived these two words that’s probably why you don’t know who he is. He was humble beyond reproach and was never satisfied with his base of knowledge.
Resist the Tug
When I was young, my friends and I would go down to one of the three rivers that came together in Mason City, Iowa (aka “River City” from the Broadway show “The Music Man”) and catch “crawdads” or crayfish.
It wasn’t unusual to catch a bucket full in 5 – 10 minutes as we walked down the bank of the river. The one thing that I thought was interesting about these “rock lobsters” was that when one was working his way to the top of the bucket, to escape, one of his brethren would reach up and pull him back into the pile at the bottom of the bucket. I never really thought much about it until I got older and my professional career began to grow and flourish.
Finding Stillness
I remember riding my bike to East Park in my hometown. As I flew down the shaded park roads, I noticed people sitting on the park benches. I would silently wonder why. Why were they sitting quietly when there was so much life to live? Why weren’t they looking for next game? Why weren’t they exploring the old locomotive at the park entrance? Why weren’t they doing something with their life?
Then I got older. Life became more hectic. I was no longer hunting for things to do; I was now building my own world. There were very few opportunities to take a breath. From the time I woke up to the time I went to bed there was not a spare second. I actually needed more time on the clock. The 86,400 seconds sped away, just as I had done on my bike as a youth.
Stop Trying – Do It!
“No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.” - Yoda
I was talking to a group of athletes the other day and they used a “dirty” word. The athlete said they would, “try to work harder.” I stopped them right there. I asked them if being successful was important to them or if they just wanted to spend all their time and effort and get nothing out of it. Of course, they said, they “wanted” to be successful. Strike Two.
I looked at the coach and he shrugged and said, “That’s why you’re here.”
Thank goodness he reached out.
Move Beyond Easy
We all get caught up in our patterns of life. It’s easy to do. You find you rhythm of waking up, going to work, coming home and finishing your day. It’s easy!
It’s like pulling on that old sweatshirt. It just feels right. Everything fits. Your body, your mind, your partner, your kids, your dog or cat, your extended family, your friends, your work all find the same rhythm. It’s easy.
But is it right?
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.
Stop Procrastinating … NOW
The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself. – Rita Emmett
Have you ever been around a person who says, “I’m great under pressure”? Did you do a follow-up question and ask them, “Why were you behind in the first place?”
It’s those people who think that they can keep putting things off until the end, and then finish the project with seconds remaining, which in the long run will have a negative impact on the overall success of your company.
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.