Does 100 Steps Really Matter? And What Lessons Are We Teaching Our Youth.

Does 100 steps really matter & what lessons are we teaching our youth?

So last week, I took a few days off and traveled to Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Massachusetts with my son for the last leg of his summer lacrosse season.??For one of the days, we were just outside Newport, Rhode Island on a beautiful campus overlooking the ocean with players from all over the country for a long day of practices, clinics and games.??As we pulled up to the campus early in the morning to park and register, the organizers had gate after gate closed off by cones and event parking signs all over the place.??Registration was super organized by graduation year, and within minutes we were parked, registered, and sat under an old tree on a stone wall waiting for the morning to get started.

The morning flew by, my son made new friends with players he played against the previous weekend in New York and would play later in the week in Delaware.??We had great conversations ranging from college majors to fart jokes –?he is a 16-year-old boy after all.???It was hot out so for lunch, we decided to eat back at the car in a little air conditioning.??I made us each a turkey sandwich with a side of pineapple, grapes and almonds –?clearly Dana did the packing!

As we walked from the fields to our car, you couldn’t help but notice a few big suburban’s tailgating like it was a Patriots-Buccaneers game in week 4 of the NFL season – tables, chairs and enough food for lunch and dinner.??One of the tailgaters teammates was walking next to us and yelled over to his teammate sitting at the suburban’s table –?“hey, how did you get that spot?”?and the player yelled back –?“my Mom moved the cones and parked here so we wouldn’t have to walk as far, pretty cool!”

We kept walking and once we were out of earshot, I asked my son Patrick –?“hey buddy, what did you think of the cool tailgaters?”??And he replied,?“pretty uncool if you ask me, just follow the rules and stop being show-offs.”

So why do I tell you about my lacrosse, suburban’s and moved cones???Simple – values and lessons – we are what we do, not what we say.??I am sure that the cone-moving-mom is a wonderful caring parent that doesn’t blatantly tell her lacrosse son to “cheat” on the field.??But does she “signal” to him that all the rules may not apply to him, that he can cut corners, that securing the best parking spot on campus is what winners do???And worse, her actions were in the OPEN for everyone to see, with a tablecloth and blue tooth speaker to boot, so what is she capable of when the results of her actions are not for everyone to see???

On our way back from lunch I decided to have a little fun.??As we got out of our car, I glanced at my Fitbit to see what my steps were for the day and as we walked past the tailgating suburban, I casually checked my Fitbit again – 100 steps exactly.

So, do 100 steps really matter while walking a couple miles around a campus for a full day of sports ACTIVITY???I don’t know, but I do know that kids are sponges, kids listen to more things than we think they do, they learn faster than we appreciate, and they are much smarter than we all probably give them credit for.?

As leaders, our actions are lessons others follow every day, so please never move the cones, park where you should, and enjoy time with your family.

b FEARLESS?& take the extra 100 steps.