Last night we played our first game of the year. There were the usual emotions before a game of excitement, nervousness, but mostly I felt confident and prepared. We struggled to shoot the ball early even though I felt we were getting great shots. Our guys were relentless throughout the game and effort was not an issue. We lost by 29. I would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t surprised about the final outcome. I thought we played will in our previous scrimmages, had a great week of practice, we watched film, and have 9 guys on the roster that all bring something unique to help us win. In the locker room after the game, we discussed how this was a journey and that what is most important is that we grow and individually reflect on how each of us could be better. The 24 hour rule I talked about last week couldn’t be more fitting.
Each year the makeup of our team is different, much like each year as a teacher is very different. Our biggest strength at the JV level is that we have great character guys who respond after failure, mistakes, and 29 point losses. I’m excited for practice today. The great thing about basketball is we don’t have to wait long to get another chance to respond to a big loss. I tried to find some inspiration on The Google and found this quote that is probably inside a fortune cookie somewhere but fitting to this post. “The humble man makes room for progress, the proud man believes he is already there.” I know as the year goes on we will have some great wins and some more bad beats. I also know we have players that no matter what will be relentless in practice, games, and off the court. It’s time to learn from yesterday’s failures and be better today.
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“You’re never as bad as you think you are and you’re never as good as you think you are.”This is the photo I wanted to use in my original post "Stuff". It doesn't make sense for this blog but I hope it makes you smile. This is actually my second blog post this week. The first one was titled, “Stuff”. It was awesome and heartfelt and detailed and added value until…...it was deleted from my drafts. I invested over an hour into it, proofread, did some research and it even had a picture of my Christmas tree this year. Rather than rewriting the entire post trying to remember exactly what I wrote, I thought it would be much more fitting and authentic to post about, “When “Stuff” Doesn’t Work Out”. Do you see what I did there?
Unfortunately, we have all had stuff not work out how we had originally planned it. My first response were some choice words aloud and frustration. I’m not proud of the response but I’m sure you can relate. You may have been in a marriage or relationship that didn’t work out, your interview didn’t go as planned, or you bombed a presentation/test you prepared hours for. In my basketball playing days, a coach once told me, “You’re never as bad as you think you are and you’re never as good as you think you are.” This was great perspective to always keep me grounded and humble. So when things don’t work out, your aloud to be upset about it, you’re human. The trick is that you can’t let it keep you upset. If you are looking for a strategy you can use the 24 hour rule. Whether things go really, really well and exactly as planned or if they go so poorly you want to crawl into bed and never go out, you have 24 hours to either celebrate or cry and then move on. The rule fits in well with the idea of not living in the past. As Rob Lowe in Parks in Recreation says, there is LITERALLY...nothing you can do about it. As a result of the blog mishap, I am now using Google Docs and then copying and pasting when ready. I know my blog deleting isn’t a real crisis and you may be experiencing much more pain now. I encourage you to implement the 24 hour rule and surround yourself with people who will make you better. When my blog deleted and I was cursing the tech gods, my wife only said two words, “I’m sorry” in an empathetic tone. It was a little thing, but it helped me move on. Be that person for someone struggling in your life today. |