Kids. I’ve been coaching since 2002, closing in on year 20. When I started, I had much more energy and could relate to the kids well because I was a kid, and it was easy. Getting older as a coach means reinventing yourself all the time. But as I look back and think of all the fun slogans and t-shirts we made over the years with quotes that we all made fun of, but became a rallying opportunity. Too many to go over.
The one that struck me the other day was one of my favorites, it was “nobody cares… work harder.” We did this because there are a million reasons why you don’t win, or you shouldn’t win, but you need to figure it out and find a way to get it done. Usually working harder is the answer. A mass volume hours type deal. This came up to me the other day for two reasons, one I was thinking about it and how people in this time I’m sure are feeling alone. They get depressed because they are alone, the circumstances around all of us quite frankly are annoying and depressing usually anyway, but Covid has made it even worse.
Often, not always,
but often, we are not alone. We do have people who would hang out with us, but we don’t put ourselves out there, we don’t invite someone to participate, or we don’t try to be a part of something, or we don’t sign up for a group or a million things. Sometimes we forget that we have a bunch of people that care about us. Life gets busy and we forget to connect or forget to call to say hi. It is a real challenge to just call and say hi and start a conversation. I’m going to challenge any of you who are reading to do this after you finish reading this. Reach out to someone you enjoy and say hi. Check in and see how things are going. Create your own happiness.
This all circles back to Eli, I had a heck of a day at work and was exhausted, just wanted a break but I get home and this kid is wired and ready to go. He doesn’t care how my day went. He just wants to play and hang out with his dad. Full energy, full excitement, full everything really. He wants me to work harder. My excuses don’t matter. Got to bring the juice figuratively and literally. Where is my energy? Where is my excitement? He didn’t care just wanted me to put in the work and be dad.
I think one of the great things about having a kid is the tremendous amount of appreciation for your own parents that you never really thought of before. All the things they did you for to get you where you are today. Although I have mostly always appreciated the work my parents have put in it has been heightened recently. As we recently had Family Day in Canada and Valentine’s Day, there’s no better time to say thank you to the ones who put in the time and the effort and worked hard to get us all where we are today.
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