Be the best ‘you’ you can

What inspires us? What is it that gets us to put forth our very best effort and be the best selves we can possibly be? 

Being involved in sports through the past several decades, I’ve watched teams that win, I’ve watched teams that almost win, I’ve watched teams that are on the brink of winning and then don’t get it done.

I’ve watched teams that are on the brink of winning and do get it done. 

I’ve watched teams that seemed to be down and out, turn things around to come out on top.

You can actually see in the eyes of the athletes what happens. You can see the determination and the “never say die” attitude.

You can preach it until the cows come home, but it doesn’t matter until individuals internalize it. 

It comes down to deciding whether we are going to make it happen or not. 

As a psychology teacher, one of the things I am teaching right now is about locus of control. You can adopt an internal or external locus of control. Internals believe that they are responsible for their fate, while externals believe that outside forces dictate what happens to them.

Obviously, there are situations where circumstances are beyond your control. There are better teams out there that you will run into, with better athletes, more athletes, teams who are having a great shooting night, or they are just “feeling it” better that night, but attitude and determination and your decision regarding what you control and what you don’t control goes a long way toward success.

I’ve felt it in my own life. I’m fully aware of the areas of my life where I’m willing to let fate decide, but there are other areas of my life where I fully determine what result is going to come about. 

That attitude has a great deal of influence on the outcome of what you are trying to achieve. I recognize where I have given up control and allowed external forces to determine my fate, and I’ve seen those results which usually are not anything that I had in mind.

I think that’s a vital part of the secret to success because it is what drives us to achieve our goals. We are more able to overcome obstacles, we are more creative in our thinking, we are better able to accept failure and learn from it in order to do better next time.

Sports is life. If you want to win, you need to develop a winning attitude, and once you have internalized that attitude, it will spill over into all aspects of your life.