Our goal in life should NOT be to achieve success by avoiding failure.  Our goal in life SHOULD be to respond appropriately to failure so we can achieve the greatest success.  We will always fail.  Failure happens more than success.  We will only succeed by learning and growing and adjusting our behavior and attitude to the many failures that we face and not cower away from difficulty or quit when we fail.  Successful people don't fail less.  They merely adjust better to failure and thus succeed more.

Bonus Feature:  Easter is a great time to reflect on how we respond to failure.  Specifically, how do we respond to those who fail us or who fail around us?  We fail and God responds with Grace, by sending His only Son to die on a cross for us.  Our friends, family, coworkers, teammates, colleagues, roommates, classmates, fellow human beings all fail us and fail around us.  We even fail ourselves.  How do we respond?  Judgement?  Satisfaction (ie - see, you aren't always right)?  Anger? Disgust?  Disappointment?  Or do we show a small measure of grace?

Tension refers to being "stretched tight".  Obviously, when things are overly stretched, they may break and that could be bad.  However, some things in our lives need to be stretched in order to allow room for growth or to grow themselves.  Tension in life is not only inevitable in certain areas but necessary for growth to occur in other areas. We should not avoid tension in every aspect in life but instead we must recognize when tension is beneficial to us and then embrace the tension.  Often times, life puts us in a situation where we are stretched and forced to respond to that tension and that is how we reach our full potential.    

Sacrificing one passion may be required to achieve perfection (completeness) in another passion.

Maturity comes with age but age does not insure maturity.  Maturity and "getting older" are not synonymous.   There are a lot of very immature thirty, forty and fifty year old people.  There are also very mature young people.  We characterize someone as being mature when they exercise a certain level of self-control and self-discipline.  We don't typically refer to a small child throwing a tantrum in the aisles of a grocery story as being "mature", not due to their age but due to their lack of self control in that moment.  In that moment, all that matters to the child is themselves. They are selfish.  In contrast, we refer to a person who is going through an adverse situation as being mature as they handle the difficult situation with patience and grace.  It isn't their age or the level of difficulty that dictates their attitude, but their ability to look at the big picture and not their own discomfort in that moment that makes them mature.  Self-control and self-discipline are a sign of selflessness.  When we look at others as equal to or more valuable than we are and that our issues or current circumstances are not as important or valuable as we deem them to be, we will act with more self-control and self-discipline.  

Be Intentional.  Don’t wait for good things to happen tomorrow.  Make good things happen TODAY.

​As a coach, one of the most frustrating occurrences to witness among athletes is an athlete who works extremely hard all week and then allows something to get into the way of executing in competition.  I can't imagine that anyone would go to work for an entire week and put in a solid eight hours a day and then when pay day rolls around at the end of the week, they refuse to pick up their paycheck.  What a waste.  That is what it feels like when watching an athlete work hard and do the right things on Monday through Friday and then they allow the opportunity to compete pass them by on Saturday.  We need to EARN the paycheck during the week (this is essential) and then PICK UP THE PAYCHECK on competition day.

"Contentment" and "Satisfaction" are often used interchangeably but they are not the same thing.  Satisfied refers to being "pleased or full".  When we are satisfied, we no longer want or feel the need for more.  As an athlete (and as a human who desires to reach their full potential), satisfaction prevents us from pushing forward.  When we determine something as full, there is not need to do more.  More causes overflow which becomes a waste.   If we are satisfied, we lack motivation to get better.  On the other hand, contentment refers to peace in our current situation.  Peace allows us to see the good in what we have accomplished but doesn't limit our desire to achieve more.  We should be content (have peace) but we should never be satisfied unless we are finished with the process of getting better.  Whether we win or lose, post a personal best or perform poorly, we must praise God for where we are and what we have been able to accomplish (contentment) but allow the win or lose, success or failure to fuel us to become even better and to not settle (satisfied) for where we are.

How does a #16 seed beat a #1 overall seed?  Sports Happens.  How do 15 lower ranked teams beat higher ranked teams out of 48 total games (nearly 1/3)?  Sports Happens.  How does a US curling team or a US Hockey team win the Gold medal when it was said it would be a "Miracle"?  How does a team down 25 points come back in the second half to win a Super Bowl?  How does someone drain a putt from 100 feet and in the next hole miss a 4 foot gimme?  Sports Happen.  Sports are a part of life and in life, nothing is guaranteed.  Life is full of countless variables and many of them we are not in the position to control.  However, we do have control of our attitude.  We have the choice to control our attitude DURING a practice or competition and we have the ability to respond with the proper attitude AFTER a practice or competition.  When we enter into any situation, we need to control those things that we can control and then pray about the rest.  

The "Flight or Fight" response is a physiological reaction to a perceived harmful event.  In other words, our BODY gets full of adrenaline so it can either run away from the charging saber-tooth tiger or stand and fight it.  Our body has been conditioned to react to fear.  Fear, however, is an emotional response to a perceived danger or harm.  That emotional response exists because of the lack of trust.  When we trust ourselves or others, we don't perceive events as being harmful to us.  Few people have fear about sitting in a chair as they trust the chair will hold them.  Many people fear public speaking because they don't trust how the audience will respond to what they say and/or they don't trust their own ability to deliver a coherent message.  We need to identify our fear and learn to control them by understanding what it is that we don't trust in the situation.  When we can understand the psychological response to fear and control it, we can then allow the physiological response to help us to FIGHT and not FLIGHT.   Allow fears be a fire that fuels you and propels you forward and upward, but don't allow fear to be a fuel that burns you up.