Mastering the Mundane

A few months after losing a heartbreaking game to the Eagles in the NFL Championship Game (pre-Super Bowl days) to end their 1960 season, the Green Bay Packers convened for their 1961 training camp with a group of hungry veterans. They were out for redemption and eager to get a fresh start on a new season. Their legendary coach, Vince Lombardi, greeted his team by holding up a pigskin and declaring, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” With that, he set the precedent for the rest of training camp: they would be going back to refine and perfect the basics. No new fancy plays; they would review blocking and tackling and start on page one of the playbook. Six months later the Packers won the NFL Championship with a 37-0 blowout of the Giants. The Lombardi Era had begun.

John Wooden’s reputation as a basketball coach was mythical. They called him “The Wizard of Westwood.” He won ten NCAA championships in twelve years, including seven consecutive titles. His team once won 88 straight games, spanning four seasons. He coached countless future NBA players and several eventual Hall of Fame stars, but every year, with a fresh crop of top collegiate athletes, he would begin the season by having the players get barefoot. “I want you to remove your shoes and socks”, he would say, “We’re going to learn how to put them on properly.” Coach Wooden would then personally demonstrate how they were to put on their socks. “It all begins with the socks. Success begins from the ground up.” No detail was ignored or left to chance.

Navy recruits must go through a rigorous selection process called Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs Training (BUDs) before they can become SEALs and be awarded their Trident. It’s been described as a lifetime of mental and physical trials packed into six months. It’s where warriors meet their breaking point. However, every day starts with the sailors being tasked to make their beds absolutely perfectly. No wrinkles, no creases, no extra blanket hanging off, it must be flawless. They learn to start each morning with a perfectly executed task. It will set the tone for everything else they will have to overcome the rest of the day.

Excellence is in the details. It’s easy to look past small, mundane, basic elements of a project or process, but that is oftentimes where the battle is won. We get distracted by the big, bright and shiny but forget it’s all about the fundamentals. We all want to hit home runs but no one wants to spend the time working on holding the bat perfectly. If we can master the small things, the big things fall into place as well.

“Details Create Success” – John Wooden

Comments

Toxic Humility

We have all seen false humility: the guy who tries to hide his arrogance with feigned modesty. It’s usually pretty obvious and always obnoxious. But there is also another variation of false humility out there: toxic humility. This is often displayed in self-deprecating talk and a lack of self-confidence, belittling or undermining one’s own talents and abilities. The danger in this kind of behavior is twofold: it is too often accepted as true humility and like a virus, it spreads doubt and disbelief. To clarify, it is not that the bearer of this toxic humility isn’t honest about his view of himself. That is the very issue: he absolutely believes he has little value or utility. He thinks downplaying his own worth is humility but I disagree. CS Lewis said it best when he wrote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less.” His point being, true humility is not an ever-present raincloud of self-doubt that follows you around. It’s a focus on

Primed for Progress

Just as some pumps need to be primed to work effectively, our lives need to be “primed” to flow efficiently. Good mornings and productive days don’t happen by accident, and by “priming” your day, you can set yourself up for better results. Does it mean you won’t have bad days? Of course not, but it’s making your day happen instead of just waiting for what happens. Once again, it’s a choice of being proactive rather than reactive. You will still have challenges and difficulties, but how you face those hurdles and respond to the struggles will be different with a primed mindset. I am sure there are many ways to prime your day and set the tone for the hours ahead, and what works for one won’t necessarily work for all. However, the process of creating a plan or a model of how things should unfold is a great place for anyone to start. Also, as I have mentioned before, how you actually start the morning is critical - the battle with the alarm clock is your first chance at victory for

Flower Among Thorns

About six or seven years ago, my wife was around three months pregnant as we eagerly anticipated the birth of another child. One night, as I lay sleeping, I had a dream that our baby was born. It was a beautiful little girl with thin, wispy hair and large, bright eyes punctuating her beautiful face. I held her proudly in my arms and stared down at this precious little creation. I carefully handed her off to her older brother, who was just a toddler himself, as he sat on the coach, arms outstretched, anxiously awaiting the chance to hold his baby sister. I helped him prop up a pillow underneath his little arms to help support my daughter and then stepped back to take in the amazing sight as he gazed down at her with both pride and amazement in his eyes. As I stood there watching them, the dream quickly faded. When I woke up, my eyes met the tearful glance of my wife. “I’m bleeding,” she said as she fought back the emotions, “I think I am miscarrying.” Those words sunk deeply i

Mindset Matters

Search This Blog