MENTAL HEALTH SERIES
Leaders are careful about what they commit to. They don’t commit to every good thing that is out there.
There will always be more to do or achieve, but leaders aren’t interested in more for the sake of more; they are interested in achieving their next goal, and nothing more. Leaders know that enough is enough, and they don’t make commitments that don’t help move them forward.
Sacrifice Required
There are a lot of things, when it comes to finding success in the game of life, that are optional. Whatever you might find on that exhaustive list, the one thing you will not find is sacrifice. Sacrifice is required for reaching your goals as an individual and as a team.
As challenging as this concept is, it is worth every painful moment. When you learn how to use sacrifice to your advantage, you unlock a door to success that few people are ever willing to walk through. The reality of sports and of the game of life, however, is that if you don’t sacrifice for you goals, then you will sacrifice your goals. Either way, sacrifice is required.
Five Star
It does you no good to be a 5-star athlete if you have 0-star character. Prowess on the field is temporary. Eventually, sports will end. When it does, you will still have the character lessons you learned while playing, and the skills picked up from the lessons will help you throughout your life… or not.
Compartmentalizing your life pushes everyone else out so the focus is only on you and what you want out of life. It’s about what you are good at. On the other hand, having a 5-star character requires caring about others. It means leading a life that makes the world a better place. You can’t do that if you’re focused on nothing but being the best at your sport.
Stop compartmentalizing. Do this, and you’re on your way to 5-star character.
Hard Work
The secret to success is simple. It’s the thing that everybody is trying to avoid. The thing that everybody is trying to figure out a way around. The secret to success is hard work.
But nobody can want hard work for you. Only you can decide that you want it. If you don’t want it, you’ll never choose it. BUt if you let the roots of hard work grow in you, they’ll blossom into a deep WHY. And with a deep enough WHY, you can accomplish any HOW.
Expectation vs. Reality
It’s not fair.
Why is this happening to me?
These are common thoughts when reality doesn’t meet up with your expectations. Common, but unhelpful. Life isn’t fair. Bad things happen to good people. Everyone makes mistakes.
Even if you do everything right, you may still fail, but you have an opportunity to learn from this event and prepare for similar situations in the future. One method for seizing opportunities like this is the OODA Loop, originally developed by U.S. Air Force Col. John Boyd.
Observe, Orient, Decide, Act
Two Chairs
Conflict is guaranteed, but our response to conflict is not. We choose how we respond when someone wrongs us or when reality isn’t meshing with our expectations. It’s important to understand conflict resolution and practice it well because it limits the damage caused to our relationships and helps us move on together. Conflict resolution teaches us when to respond, what to respond with, and how to respond.