What a fantastic morning of accountability. Those athletes that chose to get better this morning had a fantastic morning. I saw squats going parallel, teammates holding each other accountable, and great effort. The one thing I have noticed is that some athletes need to make sure they are going full go on every rep. It is uncomfortable to do things at a high level all the time. It is also what is necessary to build something that we want to build. It is necessary to have 100% effort all the time in order to be elite. We will be unveiling our Standards of Excellence soon. These are three standards that will allow us to focus on the process and the pursuit of success instead of the fear of failure. Failure is what people that are results driven are motivated by. We had a discussion with our team last year and a handful of athletes said that they were afraid of failure. I think this is twofold. I think that they are afraid to put in 100%, give maximum effort and fail. Our athletes are afraid to put in their max effort, their sweat equity, their blood, their soul and fail. They don't want to be in a position where they find out they just weren't good enough. It is an unfortunate realization at times in your life when we have that realization that we just don't have the skill yet. But that's the great thing about sports, you can always build skill. The athletes that perform at the highest level are continually working on building their skill. We, at the high school level, have the access to build skill all year round. What do we need? Fancy drills? Personal trainers? Hours and hours in the gym or on the field? No. I used to believe in the saying that practice makes perfect. No, practice makes permanent. We need to have perfect practice makes perfect. We need to be intentional with our work on building skill. The second part of our fear of failure is that right now is that we are so results driven that we don't think of anything else. We have struggled in some sports lately here at WMU. We are to the point where we want to win and we want to win badly. But we can't just want to win, we have to prepare correctly. Our preparation means we need to be intentional with practice, intentional with our film watching, our training, our nutrition and our behavior outside of our sports. I talked to an athlete the other day and he expressed to me that he doesn't respect his opponents because he doesn't fear anyone. Respecting and fearing are two different things. This young man needs to improve his discipline outside of the sport he participates in. He has amazing discipline when it comes to his sport, but his school work and personal life need some work.
Anyway, there are some thoughts about the fear of failure and WMU. Hopefully we are striving for success and not the fear of failure. If we work on the process of improvement everyday and not worry about winning and losing we will improve. We can't control winning and losing. But that's another topic.
Do what is necessary, when it is necessary, for as long as necessary.
For those before us, those of us now, and those that follow, WE ARE WMU!
Anyway, there are some thoughts about the fear of failure and WMU. Hopefully we are striving for success and not the fear of failure. If we work on the process of improvement everyday and not worry about winning and losing we will improve. We can't control winning and losing. But that's another topic.
Do what is necessary, when it is necessary, for as long as necessary.
For those before us, those of us now, and those that follow, WE ARE WMU!