Below you will find (1) a FULL WEEK of the 2Words Character Development Curriculum and (2) samples of lessons from Season 1. Each school year, we create 36 new lessons! We will NEVER repeat a lesson!
THE GAMEPLAN
Your athletic department will have online access to all 36 lessons (36 videos and 36 workbooks), and is licensed to download and save for future reference, or use in the classroom.
TAKE A LOOK AT A FEW CLIPS FROM THE REST OF THIS SEMESTER
Week 1: Higher Standards
A standard is defined as “a level of quality or attainment.” It’s a measure of accountability that directly impacts the your impact in sports and in the game of life. When you have low standards, you will low success. However, the opposite is also true. As the level of your standards increase, so increases your success. That because with higher standards, comes a higher level of accountability, training, commitment, grit, and focus on goal achievement. Your success in the game of life is directly related to the standards you hold yourself to.
Week 2: 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 your goals, then you will sacrifice your goals.
Week 3: Most Valuable
Who is the most valuable person in your life? You might say your mom, your grandfather, or maybe even your girlfriend or boyfriend. Sure, there’s always an easy answer to that question, but the easy answer may not always be the most accurate. If we zoomed out of your life and looked at the person you value the most, do the most for, and focus on the most, you’d most likely be looking in the mirror. If you want to find success in the game of life, then you must learn to treat every person you meet, from the custodian to the coach that’s recruiting you, the same. Treat every person you meet like they are the most valuable person you’ve ever met.
Week 4: Knock Knock
We’ve all heard the saying, “When opportunity knocks, you better open the door.” That phrase claims if you’re not in the right place at the right time, you’ll miss your shot. Let’s get one thing straight: opportunity it not a unicorn. It’s not rare, and it’s definitely not a once in a lifetime chance. Opportunity is everywhere. The question is not, when will opportunity knock? The real question is, what doors am I building for opportunity to knock on? The more doors you build, the more opportunities you will have. The people that believe opportunity is a matter of luck haven’t picked up a hammer to make their own way. They’ve complained more than they’ve constructed.
Week 5: Become Perfect
There are two types of mindsets people operate from: a fixed-mindset and a growth-mindset. But there is only one mindset that leads to success: the growth mindset. That’s because the growth mindset isn’t focused on where you’ve been or what you have, it’s focused on where you’re going. It’s focused not on what you have in this moment, but instead on what you’re going to gain in every moment between now and then. “Become perfect” is a growth mindset. “Become perfect” says “I may not be there today, but I’m going to get there soon.”
Week 6: Let Go
If we’re gripping onto something too tightly, whether that thing is good or bad, we’re not paying attention to other things around us that could be even better. When our hand is closed into a tight fist, we can’t accept any gifts. When our mind is latched onto a particular moment, we can’t focus on any other moments.
So, the question probably isn’t: Am I holding on to something I should let go of?
Instead, the question is: How do I let go of this thing?
Week 7: Pretender or Contender
Are you a pretender or a contender? Everybody will say that they are contenders, but what do their actions show? At first glance, pretenders and contenders look the same, but that’s only on the surface. If we look a bit deeper, the differences become clear.
Whether you are a pretender or a contender has nothing to do with your words and everything to do with your actions. If you want to be a contender, follow your integrity, embrace what you can become, and be patient in pursuit of your goals.
Week 8: Stand Tall
Our body language will communicate things that our words never will. Words can be misunderstood, misinterpreted, or manipulated, but our body language will always tell the truth. It will always give us away. It’s a universal language.
Your legs are burning, lungs on fire and your primary instinct is to bend over, put your hands on your knees, and catch your breath. At that moment, what does coach say?
“Stand tall!”
Why? Because when you bend over, you’re communicating much more than you think: “I’m giving up”, “My circumstances are winning”, or even “You can’t count on me.” But when you decide to stand tall, it communicates to everybody around you that you can be trusted. That you will be there when things get difficult.
Week 9: Impress or Impact
Everyday, we have a choice to make as to whether we want to impress people or impact people’s lives. When we focus on trying to impress others, we care about our reputations (and ourselves) more than we care about the impact we can have on the lives of others. The desire to impress others means that our purpose in life is one of selfishness and striving to be enough based on what other people see, rather than what we actually are. No matter what we do, it will never be enough because we will never receive enough accolades or applause to feel that we have really and truly succeeded. When we instead focus on trying to have an impact on others, we care about our character and the people we can assist more than we care about the records we can break to gain attention. When we desire to be impactful, our purpose is one of selflessness a
Week 10: Good Luck
Whether it’s before a game, a big exam, or a job interview, people like to use the phrase “good luck” to show that they wish us the best. The problem with that phrase is that it hints that we aren’t really the masters of our own success. “Good luck” says we aren’t really in control of whether or not we win the game, pass the test, or get the job offer. The truth is, we are in control. We control how much time we spend practicing drills and running plays before game, how hard we push to get faster, better, and stronger. We are not passive participants in our futures. We are active creators.
Week 11: Character vs Talent
To maximize the impact you can have on the world, yourself and your team, It’s not complicated; it’s as simple as two words: character vs. talent. Too often we’re disproportionately focused on talent over character. We view talent as the way to make it. We strive to develop our talent; maximize our skill; because we think it’s the thing that will drive us to succeed in life. All the while it’s easy to neglect character. How many division one athletes do you know who are untalented? You see, at a certain level, talent levels out. To maximize your talent, you have to must maximize your character. The strength of your character will determine the success of your talents.
Week 12: Purposed Pain
Have you ever wondered the difference between those people who are rushed by adversity and those who are catapulted by it? What makes some people fall apart when pain and adversity comes their way, while other people seem to be made stronger by it? Zig Ziglar said, “Tough times don’t last; tough people do.” Perhaps the single greatest characteristic of a “tough person” is their ability to transform their pain into “purposed pain.” When a person, 18 or 80, can point their pain in a positive direction they forge a strength that will allow them to be overcome any obstacle, achieve any goal, and become more than they ever imagined.
Week 13: Big Question
What kind of teammate are you? This questions impacts you as an individual, but it also impacts your team. How you answer this question makes all the difference both on and off the field. You have a lot of teams, though you may not think of them that way. Aside from the obvious sports teams, your family, friends, and classmates are also your teams. The type of teammate you are impacts the people around you. So the big question to ask is: What kind of teammate are you? Regardless of what team you are on, there are four answers to this question: content, complicit, committed, compelled.
Week 14: Fail Forward
We hear people say “failure is not an option” so often it’s become cliche. It’s right in one sense, though not the way most people mean it when they say the words. Failure is not an option (or is not optional) because failure is a fact of life. We will all fail at some point.
The only thing optional about failure is how we fail. We can either fail forwards or backwards. If we choose to fail forward, our failures can help us become better. If we choose to fail backwards, our failures will anchor us to our worst moments. The difference lies in whether we allow ourselves to learn from the failure.
Week 15: 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
Week 16: Step Up
We step up because we can push our own boundaries. We can go further. We can be faster. We can get better. And we don’t need anyone else to push us to do those things. We have the motivation and discipline inside us to get there.
Reminding ourselves to step up is less about having to get better than about knowing we can get better and proving it to ourselves every time we step on the court, field, or track. We can do whatever we can imagine, and the idea of stepping up is just accepting that fact and proving it to ourselves.
“Step up” isn’t a negative challenge we should be hearing from other people; it’s a positive challenge we should be giving ourselves everyday.
Week 17: Grow Up
Growing up is a choice. You can choose to stay in a childlike mentality, never growing up, just getting older. But what kind of life is that? Age doesn’t mean you stop seeing shiny things or hearing discouraging words or thinking the grass will be greener on the other side of the fence. To achieve something great, you have to overcome great obstacles, and one of those obstacles will often be your own mentality. Pinpoint in which area(s) of your life you have a childlike mentality, and grow up!
