245 - Striving

Here is a poem by William Martin, called, 'Do not ask your children to strive' Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself. I don’t have kids yet. I try to take my nieces and nephews outside and show them the wonders around them, so they develop an appreciation for simple things that are really the essence of being alive. My first year as a head coach, I kept a notebook. Every day after practice or a game, I’d write 1-2 sentences that summarized the day or of an event that happened that day that stuck out to me. Most days were very ordinary. At the end of the season, I had 60+ days worth of ‘ordinary’ to reflect on. I used that notebook to write my end of the season speech, which may have been the best one I’ve ever given. It was because we found extraordinary in the ordinary. We found beauty in the average day. We could see our love for each other grow, our respect for the game and our opponents grow. My challenge for you - are you teaching your players to strive for extraordinary? Are you showing them that the extraordinary will take care of itself if they do the ordinary exceptionally well?