 The WaterlineStory Catalyst
What are you doing to keep the main thing the main thing? Gordon MacDonald starts his book, The Life God Blesses, with a story about a mariner consumed with building a sailboat. I’ve paraphrased the parable below: The man set out to build a yacht. He was well liked by all who knew him and intended to build the grandest boat that ever sailed from his yacht club. He named his yacht, Persona and spared no expense to make it look stunningly beautiful. It was fitted with fine brass trim, colorful sails, and every convenience you could imagine in the cabin. The man’s excitement for the completion of his yacht centered on the anticipation of admiration that the Persona would garner. The more he thought about that day, the more focused he became in making certain to add anything that would make her look good. Since no one would ever see the underside of his yacht, the man wasted no money on the design of the keel or hull. “Why should I waste time and money on those things that are out of sight, below the water line?”, he reasoned. So consumed with the appearance, the man failed to ever consider the seaworthiness of the grand Persona. His plan was working. As construction neared completion crowds came to look at the spectacle that was the Persona. Many thought the man brilliant and envied his accomplishments. Finally the day came for the launch of the Persona. As she entered the water, the man’s pride swelled as the crowd admired her. A few other boats joined her on this initial sail. All was well, until she reached the mouth of the harbor where the wind kicked up and the waves grew in size. Suddenly the Persona started to falter. The boats sailing with her, pulled away, returning to the harbor, but the man who had built this grand yacht was so enthralled with his boat, he continued to sail towards the sea and into the growing storm. Within minutes it was obvious the man was in serious trouble, as the Persona began to take on water. As the waves tossed her about, she was unable to right herself as a sturdy vessel should. In a matter of moments, this small storm had taken the grand Persona down. A closer look into her destruction revealed the sad story of the mistaken man. All his efforts were focused on what could be seen, the beauty above the waterline. His vanity kept him from investing in those things that would have made her a solid boat that could weather the storms. And so, the man who so craved the applause of his friends instead was remembered simply as a fool. Insight Trifecta Below are three questions that dive deeper into the topic at hand. My responses are included. I hope you’ll take the time to explore your responses to each as well.
This is the essence of trusting the process and surrendering the outcome. Control of the outcome is an illusion, so why not surrender it? The external presentation is only impacted by how we choose to show up for the process. Clarity of purpose drives clarity of process.
I do everything I can to avoid doing this anymore. I’m constantly gathering feedback and reflecting to be sure I’m honoring the foundational work our program is built on. Incentivizing above the waterline behaviors without the foundational, below the waterline focus is poison for any culture.
I always wonder - is it really work? It doesn’t feel like it. It feels like chasing a purpose or pursuing a calling. I’ve never thought of any of it as work. It’s just what needs to be done to be the best I can be. Question to Carry A final question for you to consider over the next week: How does consistently attending to your unseen work shift your sense of genuine capability versus your concern about external perceptions? In our life, the waterline draws a clear break between substance and immaterial, what we can control and what we can’t, what truly impacts our life and what doesn’t. It would do us all good to become aware of exactly where our waterline is located. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!
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 What Details Matter?Story Catalyst
Is how you do anything really how you do everything? The message from the text of a former player is clear: this is NOT what we do. It’s 9pm on a random Thursday night in April and I receive a video from one of our former players who happened to be in the gym working out. The video scans our locker room showing various items laying on the floor - a cardinal sin in our program. The video was followed with a series of messages:
The message came from one of our “guys” - a ten year member of our program, who worked his way to the top, who earned his influence and impact with the way he showed up every day, who made one of the biggest shots in the history of our school, and … is a state champion. The coolest part: he’s been out of high school for three years and he still cares. Our locker room is a sacred space - he knows this. Not only for the experience and relationships forged inside those four walls, but for what the room itself represents. He knows that room was given to him by the guys before him. It’s not something he, or anyone on the current team, earned. The guys that came before him played and carried themselves in such a way that someone wanted to donate money to build the locker room for them. They’re reaping the rewards for work they didn’t do. That calls for gratitude … for being thankful. And, how do you show you’re thankful for something? That’s right - you take care of it. You handle things like a prized possession you own, not a cheap commodity you rent. You pick up trash, whether it’s yours or not. You keep your area clean out of respect for your teammates and the guys that came before you. A simple, yet profound, observation is the connection between the attention to details on the court and the attention to details in the locker room. Sloppy locker rooms almost always translate to sloppy focus and play on the court. Our ‘guy’ knows this well. He believes it fully. So much so, that he wants those coming after him to gain the same appreciation. The correlation between details and results occurs so often, coincidence can be ruled out. A more appropriate question would be - is anything a detail? Insight Trifecta Below are three questions that dive deeper into the topic at hand. My responses are included. I hope they will generate some thought and prompt you to take the time to explore your responses to each as well.
I will add, from a conceptual framework, focusing on details and seeing the big picture are both critical. They must be merged rather than approached individually. The best I’ve been around have made a focus on details an integral part of the big picture … and the big picture a daily touch point.
Do the best you can in the moment. When you can do better … do that.
An investment in the details, and their connection to the big picture, is viewed by people as an investment in them. Without them a leader is viewed as incapable of helping them reach their goals. Question to Carry A final question for you to consider over the next week: How does my attention to detail shape both what my team focuses on and what they might be overlooking? Detailed people tend to be detailed. Lazy people tend to be lazy. I wouldn’t say it’s a guarantee, but it’s not far from it. What we do matters - even the things that we don’t think do. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  The YoYo LifeThe season is off to a great start. We’ve competed at a high level in every one of our games so far. The guys really seem to be getting it. They’re sharing the ball, executing the game plan, and defending on every possession. It’s such a fun group to coach.
Two days later … We’re awful. We have no idea what truly competing even looks like, let alone possess the ability to actually do it. Just about every guy on the team is indifferent, terrible at basketball, or both. We have no passion for anything. The season can’t get over quick enough. OK, I think we can all agree that we spend the majority of our time somewhere in between. However, for most of us, our perspective, attitude, and emotions fluctuate so much it’s really hard to maintain a consistently accurate view point. We’re distracted by any number of things, few of which we can do anything about. More often than not, life resembles a reasonably calm sea with a few waves from time to time. Some are bigger than others and sometimes we have a bunch of them in a row. The waves are unavoidable, but the vessel and the way we navigate is a clear choice. Unfortunately, we typically fail to realize the choice before us or operate with the intentionality to allow our choices to steady our boat. We’re left with simply dealing with them instead. Such is the YoYo Life. Why Should We Care? An anchor would be helpful. Anchors serve to hold a boat’s location, to prevent it from drifting. We need to minimize our drifting. That’s what happens to us as leaders, isn’t it - we drift? From year to year, month to month, day to day … heck, hour to hour; we drift. What we establish with good intentions as the priority at the start of the project on Monday is all but forgotten by the time we wade through all the bureaucracy and personal challenges and get to Friday. We don’t mean for it to happen - we don’t want to drift. It’s more a matter of us not knowing how to recognize that we’re doing it or how to stop it when we do. By the time we know we need to drop the anchor we’re so far from where we want to be that it’s too late. Of course, the next question we have to answer is: what is our anchor? REAL TALK - Action Steps The good news is we have no shortage of options for potential anchors and the world has all but exhausted all of them at this point. Some, of course, are better than others. A lot of the anchors will keep you from drifting in shallow water, but if you’re going to be venturing into the depths of leadership you’re going to need a stronger anchor than most. Here are a few of the most common anchors I’ve noticed people choose to drop:
A solid foundation is what we are all looking for - to lead and live. Who or what is that for you? We all need an anchor. Some are far stronger than others.. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  The Race to SaturdayMy alarm pulls me from my slumber. I jump out of bed, eager to see what the week holds. Mondays offer opportunities. I look forward to the unknowns of the week ahead. Uncomfortable, yet exciting, with something to discover. I know I’m going to struggle and stretch myself. Those first few years of teaching are as exciting as they are scary.
My alarm drags me from my temporary coma. I slink out of bed, creeping into another week. Mondays are the beginning of the end. All I see is the monotonous repetition of the daily grind - same day, different week. I’m trapped in a recurring cycle of senseless routines that add value to no one. The next few years of teaching are merely a race to the weekend. My alarm jolts me from my sleep. I spring out of bed, ready to attack the week ahead. Mondays are another day to make a difference. Each of those precious days holds its own opportunity to serve and impact the people around me. I’m present and intentional, giving and grateful. The rest of my years teaching, and doing anything else I choose, are simply a platform for me to live out my purpose. It’s a ministry, not a job. What a work-life cycle! Grateful to not be counted among the lucky few who get stuck in that dreadful middle stage. Why Should We Care? How many people do you know who spend the week working their job so they can do what really matters to them on the weekends? They repeatedly sacrifice the one hundred-twenty weekly hours for the measly forty-eight the weekend offers. Living forty percent of life doesn’t sound like that great of a proposition to me. Too many miss out on the meaning and direction an overriding purpose can provide. Most of us begin exploring our purpose out of desperation, when we realize everything we’ve done and accomplished is basically useless. In this moment we realize we know everything about life except how to live it. Make no mistake, it is a strong purpose that offers us full access to those one hundred-twenty weekday hours. Without it we remain prisoners to the weekend. With too small or vague of a purpose we end up being driven by someone else’s mission. We need nothing more than something to bring life together and provide focus for our daily actions. Our purpose is a matter of the soul, not the mind, and a confused soul offers no guidance. When everything goes sideways only what’s in the soul will count. When the monotony and trivial headaches of worklife surface, the soul is the only thing that can find meaningful purpose on a daily basis. REAL TALK - Action Steps All days are meant to be lived. All jobs are meant to matter. All roles are meant to impact. With the right purpose we can maximize all aspects of our life, every day. Here are a few questions to consider in identifying just the right purpose:
Weekends are great. But, when we’re living in line with our purpose, so are weekdays. All offer the same opportunity when viewed through the proper lens. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  When Your What's Your WhyTen years into my coaching career was the first time it even crossed my mind.
The room is about three-fourths full. Most have notebooks open on the table in front of them. A few stand, leaning against the wall ready to make a quick escape if the message isn’t worth hearing. At the front of the room, I sit at a small desk taking one final look at my notes. I brush off some natural nerves that anyone speaking in front of their peers experiences and stand as the MC approaches the microphone to introduce me. He begins with my career record followed by a few accolades. No one in the room cares. But, for whatever the reason, the introduction registers with me. It generates a simple, but profound question that I continue to wrestle with from time to time, even now: Is that really who I am - a series of numbers and meaningless awards? If I were to be honest at the time, the answer was definitely yes. My identity was absolutely tied to my coaching performance. Unfortunately, the introduction suited me perfectly. My ‘what’ was clearly my ‘why’. Why Should We Care? I realize now that I’m not the only one that has suffered from this skewed perspective. Almost everyone experiences it and virtually every leader must choose to intentionally fight it. When we are dedicated to our craft we often never even consider the hours we put into it. For most, it’s not even work … it’s who we are (ope!). Of course, sometimes the dedication itself becomes our identity. Our purpose may be nothing more than being viewed as a hard worker. All high performing people value achievement. As the leader, production is naturally important. The extent to which we prioritize the results provides a clear window as to the location of our ‘why’. It’s often easy for a performance-driven leader to become enamored with the label of leader. When we are living in-line with our why, what we are doing almost becomes irrelevant. At our best, our why can be applied to all aspects of our lives. The ‘how’ becomes the differentiating factor. The process and experiences are elevated. The results and outcomes are surrendered, yet often surpass even our own expectations. Unfortunately, when we aren’t living in-line with our why, what we are doing becomes irrelevant also. We may be well-known (for a while) or achieve great things (to soon be forgotten), but the resulting emptiness we are destined to feel will lead to questions we desperately wish we would’ve answered years earlier. When your ‘what’ is your ‘why’, you are a far cry from the success you are looking for. REAL TALK - Action Steps This isn’t a box to check and move on. Being sure your ‘what’ is not your ‘why’ requires a high level of self-awareness and intentionality. Not to mention continuous work. Here are few thoughts on consistently re-evaluating your intent:
When your ‘what’ is your ‘why’ your impact is compromised, but more importantly so is your self-worth. You are more than what you do as long as you choose to make it so. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  Displaced FocusThirty minutes before the opening tip is a stressful time. The questions abound:
Are we ready? Are we focused? Do we know the scouting report? Do we have our bodies in the best possible shape? Will we make enough shots? Will we play good enough defense? Will we do our jobs? Will we compete with energy? Will we help each other be our best? In a way, they help me. I know they’re coming and I know what I want the answer to be. I do my best to proactively answer these questions through practice before every game. They keep showing up, but they serve to sharpen the sword. That’s not the case with the other set of questions that used to run through my mind: What will others think of me if I lose? What does the team not performing well say about me as a coach? Do I really even know what I’m doing? Did I get our guys ready for what they’re going to do? Am I really even making a difference or could anyone do what I’m doing? These questions limited me. They shackled me with fear because, at the time, I never knew the answer. They kept showing up and I kept coming up short of my potential because I was indecisive, tentative, and fearful. Perspective finally saved me when I realized the difference in the two sets of questions. The first set centers on others and points to “we”. The second set centers on self and points to “me”. The focus was determining my emotion. When it was about others, opportunity and hope prevailed. When it was about me, fear of the potential failure dominated my mind. Why Should We Care? There’s a saying in coaching that what gets measured gets done. Of course, there has to be communication of an expectation and accountability to a standard, but neither of those matter if we’re not measuring it. By measuring whatever ‘it’ is, we’re really just declaring ‘it’ a priority. In leadership, it’s our priorities that get done. There are a lot of important things on every leader's plate. Elite leaders prioritize the right ones. Poor leaders are distracted and choose to focus on the wrong things or dilute their focus so much that nothing is a priority. The art is in choosing the right ones. While the checklist and getting things done is important, it pales in comparison to the real intent of a leader. Here the concept is the same, but the stakes are considerably higher. Displaced focus in our intent may not always compromise the immediate mission, but it will undoubtedly compromise the long term vision and our eventual impact. Leadership is always about others. Always. We step in front to take the criticism and fall behind to disperse the praise. Of course, the human desire is to flip those two. It’s a want we must intentionally fight daily. Our focus impacts more than just us. REAL TALK - Action Steps Consistently combating the tendency to make leadership about yourself is an ongoing fight for every leader - CEO, teacher, coach, manager, preacher, mother, father … it doesn’t matter. If you lead, you’re at risk for displacing your focus. Here are a few questions to prompt a recalibration:
With a focus on ourselves we become guarded and protected, in fear of what others might think or say or do. With a focus on others we are drawn to opportunity and hope. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  At Your BestThe music is blaring. Anticipation fills the air. The excitement is palbable. Friday night locker rooms are a special place. Relationships are forged for lifetimes while dreams are sometimes realized, other times crushed. Oddly enough, the repugnant smell draws you in.
Forty minutes before tip-off I make a pass through - in part to make sure our pre-game notes are on the board, but more importantly to check-in on the guys. I find them all in significantly different stages of preparation: some still in their sweatpants, some in just their game shorts, and some fully dressed with shoes laced and uniform on. I’ve noticed this discrepancy with other teams in the past, but it's still interesting nonetheless. While the variance of physical attire is of little concern, each player’s mental preparation is always vitally important. Even in team sports each individual player’s job before a game is to get themselves into the mindset that will allow them to be at their best when game time arrives. This requires a heightened level of awareness and discipline that young players sometimes struggle with and older players sometimes dismiss. Honestly, it’s reserved for the elite competitors at every level, in every arena. It seems the locker room has just the right imbalance. A few players are in the back gym with headphones on shooting, a few others are off to themselves stretching with no music playing, and a few more are singing and dancing in the locker room to the undistinguishable mumblings blasting from the speaker. We’re all over the board, which is exactly where most teams should be. Why Should We Care? Similar to the preparation for a game, our best varies significantly from person to person. However, there are some common areas of focus depending on the season of life you are in. Each new phase offers drastically varying perspectives on being at your best, at least from my observations. Yours may differ, but I think with some reflection you will come to similar conclusions.
REAL TALK - Action Steps Not surprisingly, we would all be at our best if we had the awareness to join the fifty and older crowds much earlier in life. Surrendering and giving hold far more power than we’re capable of realizing in our twenties. Here are a few benefits that I hope will speed your progression:
Being at your best is the pursuit in life. The sooner we understand what that looks like for ourselves, the longer we can live at our best. And, it’s only at our best that we can help others be their best. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  What Others WantThe buttery smell of popcorn draws you in; but the squeaking shoes, shrill call of a whistle, and dull thud of a bouncing ball keeps you there. Friday nights are for high school sports and this chilly December night is no different. It’s early in the season and you’re just hoping to get a look at the local team’s squad for the first time.
The pep band sets off the twenty minute clock as both teams circle the court and report to their end for pre-game warm-ups. You scan both ends, gauging the observable difference in size and athleticism while unknowingly forming your own prediction for how the game will play out. Forming an opinion on such a small sample is dangerous, but fairly accurate in most circumstances. At this point, the opposing team looks bigger and more athletic than your team. That doesn’t concern you though, your team doesn’t typically pass the ‘eye test’. You do have grounds for concern though: the warm-up routine at both ends looks ‘cool’. Smooth, fancy passes followed by missed layups and off-balance jump shots are the norm. You’ve watched your team enough to know that’s now how they traditionally warm-up. Your coach notices it too. Within five minutes of coming onto the court, the team is sent back to the locker room - not their customary routine. The opposing end continues preparation with their half speed, two line layups. Before you know it, your team returns to the floor. This time they look different though. There’s an obvious bounce in their step that was lacking before. The passes are on target and popping in and out of players’ hands. There is an urgency and purpose to your team’s warm-up now. They seem to have left the ‘cool’ in the locker room this time. Why Should We Care? Far too often, success becomes nothing more than presenting a life we think others want. Much like the warm-ups described above, what we think others want rarely leads to true success. Basketball players think what others want is for their performance to appear easy, effortless. That’s ‘cool’ - difficult shots with minimal efforts. Just like ‘cool’ cripples a basketball team, defining success by what others want does the same thing for your pursuit of excellence. In our pursuit to appease the masses we turn our back on ourselves. We exchange our own potential for a round of applause, our excellence for a few likes. It never feels as good as we thought it would. The gap resides in what we perceive as the source of fulfillment. Approval is usually our first guess. Why shouldn’t it be? That’s what we’ve been conditioned to value our whole life. Plus, that external praise always seems to deliver that little jolt of warm comfort that makes us feel good, at least for a moment. It never lasts. We need another hit the next moment. The good news? Eventually, we all - yes, all - realize the futility of this pursuit and are forced (or choose) to adjust. Eventually what others want becomes secondary to our priorities. At some point, we begin pursuing who we were created to be instead of who others want us to be. REAL TALK - Action Steps The real question is: when is that time for you? Have you already made the change? If not, then when? Now is as good of a time as any! Here are a few ideas to help you go for it:
Nobody on the road to excellence cares about ‘cool’. Majority opinion does not equate to fulfillment. For the best, what others want is of virtually no concern. What they need, maybe. What they want, not so much. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  Striving & ThrivingIt’s 5:15am on a weekday morning. From my bedroom I can smell the smokey goodness of the sausage patties and hear the crackling of the eggs hitting the skillet. My alarm clock, also known as mom, has just gently shaken me from my sleep coma to let me know that breakfast is almost ready. I roll out of bed, blindly dressing and stumbling to the bathroom. I eventually land at the table where a plate full of morning goodness greets me. I say thank you but gobble it up incapable of truly appreciating all that went into it.
This was my school day morning from seventh grade through my senior year of high school. I was getting up to workout and become the best basketball player I could be. Mom got up because I got up. It’s only in reflecting on those mornings that I can even begin to appreciate all each of those mornings entailed for her. Waking up - before 5:15am - so she could get breakfast started and wake me up right when I needed to get up, being sure we had all the food for breakfast - that I liked of course, and somehow smiling and acting like she wanted to be up … that early … again. I see now she was giving a masterclass in leadership. I was striving to become a college basketball player. She never questioned the work or where it may or may not take me. Instead, she loved, encouraged, and supported regardless of the circumstances - for me or her. She was being mom. While I was striving, she was thriving. Why Should We Care? Leadership is synonymous with service. If you aren’t serving, then you aren’t leading. Sure, you may be accomplishing great things, making tons of money, or receiving high praise; but you aren’t leading. The top performers in most fields are typically labeled with the ‘leadership’ tag strictly based on their performance or position, yet it is rarely fully accurate. As most climb the ladder, they like to proclaim their leadership moxy as another testament to their superiority. However, the climb itself is usually counter to the service mindset required of a leader. In order to climb, we must take. In order to lead, we must give. This is quite the dichotomy in our pursuit of growth. What to do, what to do? The right answer - yes, there is a right answer - as most usually discover far too late, is to give … and keep giving. The trajectory to the top may not be as steep but it will most certainly end up higher. And, if for some reason it doesn’t, you realize you didn’t need to go there anyway. Back to Brenda Cupps. Her leadership allowed me to strive. She constantly gives and though she’s never been CEO or president of a company, you won’t find anyone more dedicated to serving those she leads. My striving has been nourished by her thriving. REAL TALK - Action Steps The perspective is different in leadership. Most of the time you aren’t sailing the ship. Oh, I know, you think you are, but you’re not. The people you lead are. Your job is to help them sail it as well as they possibly can. In order to do that, you have to get over what you want. Here are a few questions to help you down that path:
Leaders thrive in helping others strive. This is the calling of every leader. Of course, we are all striving to be better, but as a leader we must be sure we are balancing the two. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  Advantage UsBasketball season is a long one.
Waking up for the morning workouts becomes harder and harder to get out of bed for. The early season, two and a half hour practices begin to drag on. And, the weight room sessions after practice twice a week is a bitter reminder of just how sore you are. The good news is the practices will eventually shorten. The bad news is that the other two things do not. Oh, and this goes on for all of November, December, January, February, and - if you’re lucky - some of March. Yes, the lucky ones get to keep doing it. While every season has its ups and downs, the Covid season of 2020-21 was marked with an unusual number of interruptions and distractions. Every team experienced disruptions and it became clear very quickly that the team managing the disruptions the best would have a distinct advantage. This insight proved to be true numerous times throughout the year. Our team alone experienced multiple shutdowns in which we weren’t allowed to practice or be together for several days in a row, only to jump right back into our schedule when the shutdown was complete. Our games, like most high schools across the country, were restricted to only parents and essential game personnel, making the gym eerily quiet for a varsity basketball game. We even had a directive from our governing body to not allow players to give each other high fives during play or coming in and out of the game … we weren’t the best at following through on that one. In the end, it wasn’t the disruptions that caused the problems. It was the response to the disruptions that ultimately limited most teams. Our group was proactive in this fight. We decided early on that we would face every distraction with a single, unifying and empowering mindset: ‘Advantage Us’ became our battle cry. Why Should We Care? Just imagine, for a second, a team that truly embodies an ‘Advantage Us’ mindset. No matter the circumstance, adversity, or challenge they remain undeterred. Their focus never waivers. Their belief never falters. Their commitment never comes into question. A team that sees each challenge as an advantage stays on the path. They aren’t distracted by trivial noise and obstacles. They aren’t even distracted by noise and obstacles that matter. Their conviction to the mission is unflappable. ‘Advantage Us’ teams deal in solutions, not problems. They are committed to finding a way, not an excuse. As a matter of fact, ‘Advantage Us’ teams don’t even see problems. The obstacles are simply just viewed as part of the process, not a mountain to be overcome but part of the path to be traversed. For many teams, struggle is a threat. A threat to their stability. A threat to their performance. A threat to each individual’s place in the group. Not so for ‘Advantage Us’ teams. ‘Advantage Us’ teams are strengthened, not weakened, by adversity. It tightens the joints, raises the standards, and secures the need for each individual’s role. ‘Advantage Us’ teams always win - if not in the moment, just give it time. It’s a simple choice, but not an easy one. REAL TALK - Action Steps On the surface, viewing all circumstances as an advantage for yourself and your team seems simple. And, it is simple. It’s a choice. One you can make at this moment. The problem is you have to make it again in the next moment. And, the next. And, the next. And, the next. There’s nothing easy about that. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind in order to choose ‘Advantage Us’ in every moment:
You know it’s the best way to approach challenges. You know it! It’s time to take action. No more excuses. No more blaming. No more complaining. Attack the opportunity: ‘Advantage Us’. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here! |
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