Habits

"Men don't really decide their future, they decide their habits and their habits decide their future."

It is amazing to me that in all my years of coaching I have never seen a player that refused to work to hard in the off-season was rewarded during the season. It is interesting how hard players work when no one else is around.

You can see how bad players want it when no one is looking. Hanging around a campus, a weight room or gym in the summertime you get to see different athletes from different sports. It usually is true that those who pay the price are the ones rewarded in the season.

If you can not find the time and effort to work at your game and your physical conditioning in the off-season how can you be expected to be rewarded when the season is heating up? While watching the NBA Finals you have to think that these players have been going full speed since the beginning of October. They have had to be in tip top shape. Mentally they have to be there. Emotionally they have to be even keel for their teammates. Physically they must stay at their peak in order to compete with the best of the best.

As far as your habits go you will either form them or they will form you. It is one or the other. There is no in between. Either you are going to work hard or you are not. Either you are going to pay the price or you are not. Either you are going to be mentally, emotionally, physically at your best when your best is needed or you will not. It is plain and simple.

When it comes to competition you have to be at the top of your game in order to compete. If you want to be successful and reach your potential it takes an all out determined spirit. Not a half-way committed effort. I have yet to see the person put in a 50% commitment and get anything out of the effort. You have to dive in and it starts with your habits.

If I could teach my players and young players anything it is that if you want to experience the joy of winning you have to experience the habit of discipline. If you can not master the habit of discipline you can not master or ever reach your potential in athletics. It is just not going to happen.

I see talented players all the time waste their talent all the time because of an inability to stay disciplined and develop the right habits. I see players dying to apply their strong habits, but just don't have the talent. To be able to combine both is a unique gift. When you see both (LeBron, Kobe) it is amazing to watch. That is why we marvel at the great ones so much. They only come along so much. It is great if you want to practice all day long and work at your game all day long. It is great if you are super talented and have freakish athletic ability. Those two apart from each other are not a big deal. Combine them and we will pay what ever the price to watch. We will stay up late. We will get up early. We will tell all of our friends we saw you play. If you combine the both (talent and hard-working habits) we will do whatever it takes to watch.

Separate they don't mean as much. Even having proper habits without talent is a big deal, but it still can not compare to mixing it with talent.

I shudder to think of the wasted talent that occurred because of the people that would not exercise proper habits. I feel for the ones that had those incredible habits and would pay whatever the price, but just did not have the talent.

The thing is we all have a talent we just don't know what that talent may be or we refuse to acknowledge we have a talent. Oh, we have one alright we just are too scared to admit that we have one for the great fear that we may be called to use it one day. That one day we may be called on to be great. What happens when someone’s expects greatness out of us? Can we rise to that occasion? Can we be there for that one moment? Some of us get too scared when that moment occurs and we would rather hide behind the curtain or stay on the bench.

If I don't go out on the stage or out on the field or on the floor no one will notice if I am a failure of not. They will not even notice me at all. I can go another day without being seen. For some it is better to be never seen than to have never tried. How sad that is that we let ourselves get to that place.

Never hide behind the stage. Never hide on the bench or on the sideline you never know when your opportunity be the inspiration for someone is there. You can be the push that someone needs to get them started on a great life. You may be the spark that starts a major movement or Spiritual awakening for the next generation.

Each of us has inside of us untapped potential that is usually never ever used. As a coach I see it year after year. Kids come through the program and you can not get them to see the light until it is too late sometimes. They don't catch on until they have used up their eligibility. Once they start to get a grasp of what it is all about is when it is the time someone takes up their shoes and gives them to someone else.

May you never be the kind of person that someone can say he/she was so talented and they just never realized how much they had. Dig has deep down as you can to get as much as you can out of all that you can. Be Blessed.