Give it all you’ve got

How do we level up? What is it that gets us to put forth our very best effort and be the best selves we can possibly be? How do we push ourselves when things get hard and we start to feel overwhelmed?

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.

I’ve also watched teams give up, and you can see that in their eyes and their demeanor as well.

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 topics I cover is 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 offensive night, or they are just “feeling it” better that night, but attitude, determination and your decision regarding what you control and what you can’t control goes a long way toward success.

You can’t control every aspect of the game, however, you can control how much energy and effort you put into it. You can control how much passion you bring to the field every day in practice and in every game you play.

If you give everything you have every time you don a practice jersey or a game jersey,
the chances of success are a lot higher than
if you phone it in and watch the game pass you by.

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 in my own life 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 — on or off the playing field or court — 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.