Losing is not an option
For the past ten years I have lived next to a Boilermaker fan and despite that fact, he’s an all right guy. I can’t really knock him for loving the Boilermakers. After all, most of the Boilermaker fans in Northern Indiana have one thing in common which, significantly differs from the overwhelming majority of Hoosier fans here in this part of the world, they all graduated from Purdue. Hoosier fans [that I know] typically went somewhere else…….which is exactly what I did. But this isn’t about the Boilermakers, it’s about PJ Fleck and how every single Purdue Boilermaker fan in the world wants PJ to become the new head football coach, everyone that I know that is, which includes my neighbor Randy, and now includes me.
UPDATE....PJ FLECK signed with the Minnesota Gophers today. Who has two thumbs and LOVES the Minnesota Gophers? This GUY!
I’ll let you be the judge. Would you want him to coach your alma mater?
For the record, The Players Tribune is a sports blog jacked with inspiration
I’ve coached my daughter’s soccer and my son’s football team for three consecutive years, and I’ve coached both of their basketball teams for that same amount of time. At the supposedly tender ages of 7 and 9, apparently it’s not important to keep score. Apparently we don't keep score because at this point in their life a game played is only about having fun, and it’s only about learning the game and respectfully I don't disagree with that notion. Then again, the first question asked at half-time by my players is "what’s the score?" Followed up with the first question immediately after the game with “did we win?" I'm not sure who came up with the thought that we don't need to keep score but it sure as heck wasn't me. We are having fun, we are learning, but were not teaching the importance of effort. For example, "Coach, did we win?" "No son, you lost by 20 points, which is EXACTLY why we need to improve." It's called practice.
Oh, I know the score, and I flat out tell my kids. You lost or you won, but they already know the answer. It’s really the kids that don’t understand the game quite yet that don’t know the answer to those questions. Sure that’s fine with me which, is why I don’t answer those questions when another kid asks me, "did we win?" Winning is important, it’s the reason you ultimately play, and losing is important, but only when it motivates you to want to win. We're not doing ourselves any favors by not keeping score, we’re just stunting our own personal development. With that mentality, we might as well just offer the kids a cigarette while we're at it.
Creating a transition from keeping score as a pre-teen athlete to keeping score in our lives has just over one trillion segue’s but please let me save this one for my punchline. In our individual lives a loss looks a lot like falling apart, giving up, a prison sentence, or sadly, it’s death. In our careers, it’s losing a sale, it’s losing out on a promotion, it’s not hitting revenue projections, it’s a wasted investment, or maybe it begins on the first page after chapter 10.
Losing to me isn’t necessarily a loss unless you let it become one. It’s like a game of PIG where you miss your shot to prove you’re not a loser. No one ever notices the initial action, they notice the reaction.
A true loss is only present where there is a lack of response. But everybody loses, everybody makes mistakes and I for one am the king of making mistakes and if you want to fact check me just read my personal blog (or better yet my last submission) and I will prove it to you.
I can assure you of this, when a winner loses you will always notice the response and for that, their record will always remain perfect. This is the character I desire to instill in my kids lives and inspire others to follow. Will Smith once said if you put him up against someone on a treadmill [and i’m paraphrasing] one of two things are going to happen, one, you’re going to fall off, or two he is going to die.
As we approach the end of 2016 and start to accept the reality of a bad year in whatever aspect whether it’s our career or it’s life, we can all take a piece of advice from PJ Fleck as we look forward to 2017 and ask ourselves the same question he asked his football team during halftime of a losing game back in 2014.
“When are you going to be tired of being average?"
I think we all need to "Row the Boat..."