Whatever it takes

The secret to success is relatively simple, achieving success is not. We all know what it takes, but few of us are willing to do what it takes to get there.
The three young men featured in the “Showing up and showing out” article this week have each, in their own way, proven to be models that anyone can look to for how to be successful in achieving your goals.
One’s journey came from necessity, one as a by-product of another goal, and one as a goal since birth. Regardless of how the goal took shape, what they share in common is grit and a determination not to be held back.
 
Greatness as a 
by-product …
Setting a new school record that has stood for 29 years may not have been on the radar early in Cade Ostenson’s life, but being the best he could be in basketball was. 
In addition to being up early on Sunday mornings after a late night basketball trip putting up hundreds of shots in the gym, Ostenson could be found in the weight room four evenings a week after practice working on getting stronger and jumping higher and getting faster.
Without a doubt he was tired, but he knew what it would take to get where he wanted to be, and he gutted it out to do the work to get there.
The effort he put in to increase his vertical jump and increase his speed translated beautifully to track and benefitted his long jump. The realization that the school record was within reach hit Ostenson at the end of his junior year in track. Once the realization hit, he added it to his list of “things to do” in his senior year. 
By the way, his dedication to basketball also paid off as he became the Dogies’ all-time leading scorer, racking up 1,384 points over his four-year career.
 
Shining a light through
dark times
After a week of painful, and physically exhaustive chemotherapy treatments, it would have been easy for Kolby Pisciotti to succumb to his cancer and embrace the victim role. Instead he remained positive, focusing on football, family and friends with a determination to get back to the life he had started and planned for himself.
Those plans took on a different look. No longer would he wear the uniform of the Dogies as he had found his calling on the sidelines as a manager. And he did it well, even from 650 miles away.
He became a student of the game — watching film, talking strategy with Coach Conzelman and listening to the game every Friday night. 
Football was a welcome distraction and a way for Pisciotti to stay in a positive frame of mind which has a correlational relationship with overcoming health issues, even when it’s as extreme as cancer.
He didn’t lie back and mourn his situation … he determinedly took on cancer head on, and he won.
 
Still so much to do
Kale Corley’s goals are bred from being born into a wrestling legacy family. He was 4 years old when he put on his first singlet and competed with the Fall Guys. His older brother Wyatt blazed a trail of wrestling achievements, and Kale followed determinedly in his wake. Not in his shadow, but standing on his own.
Though as a sophomore Corley watched his goal of becoming a four-time state champion slip away when he lost in the semifinals of the state tournament in February, he did not let it deter him from continuing to be the best he could be. 
In fact it probably fueled the fire even more to get himself back on top, because just one month after his third place finish at the state tourney he was named as an All-American at the AAU National Duals. 
Corley knows his goals of becoming a three-time state champ will not happen if he doesn’t put in the work. He practices year round, seeks out opportunities like the tournament he just attended, attends camps with his team and individually, and understands that in order to be the best, he has to beat the best. 
That doesn’t happen without constant commitment and dedication.
The takeaway from these three “champions” is that success is not easy, but those who are willing to do whatever it takes are more likely than not to achieve what they set out to do.