| "All In" |
As we gear up for the NFL conference championships this weekend, everyone is excited to see their particular team play. If we didn’t expect our teams to win or if we didn’t have faith that they would attempt to win we wouldn’t watch them play, right? At the games highest level the goal hasn’t changed. Herman Edwards, former player and former head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs once said, “We play to win the game”.
I hear so many people trying to down play the concept of winning like it’s something that people should be ashamed of. We often hear the old colloquialism, “It’s not whether you win or lose but it’s how you play the game. We’ll… that was written by a person that became comfortable with losing. It was his or her way of justifying that losing wasn’t such a bad thing. I’m going to say it for the rest of us, losing isn’t fun and should never be acceptable.
Years ago when my oldest son started playing organized football I coached his first team. Our team won the championship that year. He was only in second grade at the time. We won the title because our goal from the first day of practice was to win the championship. We told our players and their parents that our intent was to win the championship and nothing less would be acceptable. Therefore, there was a certain level of commitment that we needed from everyone involved. In order to become champions there were certain things that had to happen.
We needed everyone to be at practice on time and ready to give 100% everyday. Our effort would dictate our results. I told them everyday that if you give 100% all of the time, you’ll always win far more than you’ll lose. We never promised the kids that we would win every game but we did tell them that we’d win more than we’d lose. Our team went 8-1 and we won the championship trophy at the end of the season.
On the other side of that equation the other teams in the league told their players and parents that all they wanted to do was have fun. They promised the parents and the children that they would learn how to play the game of football and that they’d have fun. Everyone bought into that. However, they only accomplished one of their goals. They did teach them the game of football but they didn’t have fun. You can’t have fun losing. By teaching the kids that it’s only about having fun, they taught them that what they were doing wasn’t important. I’ve always been taught that you will play like you practice. If it wasn’t important during the week then it wasn’t important on game day.
“The way you do anything is the way you do everything”. Winning is a by-product of your efforts and it’s a culmination of events. The things that we taught our team will hopefully stay with them for the rest of their lives. We taught them that once you commit to the team you’re in and there’s no backing out. Always do your best because others are depending on your effort. Give 100% every time you come to play because you can get hurt just standing around. Does any of that sound like life to you? This has nothing to do with football or sports. That’s the simple formula for successful living.
Winning IS everything! Understanding that concept will become the difference between success and failure. People that become accustomed to losing become those that can’t find fulfillment because of a lack of their effort. They never commit to the team and often get hurt because they get blindsided from standing around. They are the ones that never maximize their potential because losing never bothered them.
Jimmy Connors, the famous tennis player, once said, “I hate losing more than I like winning”. We have to experience loss in order to understand what it is. However, by the mere experience of it we should never to be willingly to accept it. That doesn’t mean that it won’t ever happen. Often times we’re presented with two options to choose from and there’s no in-between. You can choose to pass or fail, go to Heaven or hell or you can win or lose! What’s your opinion?
Jay Graves
Follow me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport
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