bcg blog

Just Getting Started

It seems everyone in the sports world now is “just gettin’ started”. 

The player winning NBA Rookie of the Year this season will likely claim he’s “just getting started”.
On a similar note, the 2nd grader winning the Carrysville Southeast All Star Elite Fall White Division Showcase MVP is also “just getting started.”

The team winning their first NFL playoff game will surely proclaim they are “just getting started”. But, so will the 3rd grade Wee Tiger Flag Football Silver Division Runners-up. 

It’s such a popular calling card that there are even a number of songs titled “just getting started”. Country music stars Jason Aldean and Blake Shelton to Christian singer Jeremy Camp to rapper RJAE have all recorded songs titled “Just Getting Started”.

There’s even a few movies with the title, one starring Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones. And of course, who could forget, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, Just Getting Started.

That’s correct: High School Musical 3: Senior Year is … just getting started.

Why Should We Care?
While most people, and teams, seem to be pulled towards the motto we are doing everything we can to distance ourselves from it. I see the hope it attempts to provide and I understand the allure of embarking on a new, promising commitment to excellence. 

But, that’s not where we are and, I’m guessing, it’s not where you are either.

We are not “just getting started”. 
Not even close actually. 
We’re still going. 

I’ll use our morning breakfast club workouts as a quick example. Most of our players began attending when they were freshmen, those beginning before that simply extrapolate the example. With one hundred eighty two days of school, we’ll use one hundred fifty as our number for breakfast club workouts each year. We don’t miss many days but with dead periods, gym conflicts, and personal schedules a few days throughout the year will be breakfast club free. 

The breakfast club is simply a one hour workout our players perform with a partner. Nothing fancy, or tricky, just consistent. If a player attends for 150 days for four years he will have devoted an additional six hundred hours of work to his game. That’s twenty five full days of development a regular breakfast club attendee gets that someone who doesn’t attend would receive. 

Now for the team implications. Our breakfast club typically has twenty to thirty players every morning. So, take those extra six hundred hours and multiply them by, we’ll say twenty-five. That’s fifteen thousand hours of breakfast club work for our team. Fifteen thousand hours. 

That’s not just getting started.
We’re still going.

(As side note, when we were truly “just getting started” Breakfast Club had one attendee for two straight years - shout out to Joey, our Breakfast Club OG)

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Don’t get me wrong, we all have to start some time. But, I’ve noticed a significant difference between the people who proclaim their start as a means to seek recognition and approval and the people who just start and seek the benefit of the process that follows. Here are a few ideas on staying fixed on the latter:

• Do Not Negotiate 
  
  • Decide and do. Once you’ve made a decision to do something, refuse to negotiate or justify alternative actions. Do what you said you were going to do. We are our most dangerous enemy. With this in mind, “just getting started” occurs in a single moment. From that point on it’s in the past, we are doing.
    

• Be the River
  
  • Between the rock and the river, the river always wins. Keep getting up. Keep showing up. Keep bringing your best. Keep working. Keep hoping. Keep helping. Keep challenging. Keep caring. Keep serving. Or, as we would say in our program - Keep Chopping. The rock just started. The river is still going. The beauty of delayed gratification is glorious. It’s just not immediate.
    

• Mind the Mud
  
  • Our commitment is always tested in the mud, the hard times. The temptation to start new, to try another path can be overwhelming. Our faith in our process will be determined in our adversity. Hold fast and stay true. It’s in these times that we must trust our process the most.
    

We do realize who isn’t saying “just getting started”, right? Correct, the people that have been doing it - quietly and consistently. Those people are still going. And, as long we are always “just getting started” we won’t realize the compound effects of still going.

For more information on building excellence in your teams, visit us at www.bluecollargrit.com. 
We would love to know how we could help!

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