I always say that what you do at any given time reflects who
you really are as a person. You are what you do, and you do what you learn.
I want you to learn good things, but it has to start
somewhere, and it always starts with Attitude. What you learn from the game can
be transferred to your everyday life.
1.
Team: “Where one goes, we all go” “Love”, “Defend
each other” “Association” “Learn to Love and Respect one another, encourage
each other, not criticize. We all win together, celebrate together, laugh and
cry, and grow, sweat, work. Learn and lose together, as a team. We only look
for the best in each other, and not on how it shouldn’t be done, etc.
2.
Recognition: Kids never get recognized for the
good things enough times, but are always pointed out for what they’ve done
wrong, that only discourages them and conditions them to be failures. For example,
when the kids do their math problem solving on paper and the teacher corrects
the paper, he/she always points or marks what’s wrong. Never tells the kid that
he/she has this many… right.
3.
Love: Means everything. Not only you must love
what you do, you must also put love in what you do. Passion, Love Yourself and
others, do to others what you want them to do to you… Love them.
4.
Focus: Focus on the majors and the minors will
dissolve. After playing a game, all I remember is the great plays I did, the
passes I gave, the goals I scored, etc. but I don’t think about the shot I
missed or the goal I could’ve had… the more I thought about the good plays I had,
the more I forgot about the bad ones, and so instead of having fear the next time around, I had more confidence. I began to look forward to getting the
ball because I knew I could do as good or better than before.
5.
Why? To know why, is one of the most (if not the
most) valuable thing in life. “People that know how to work for the people that
know why” We must know why, kids specifically need to start conditioning
themselves to be champions in life, to have specific reasons of why they will
be doing, whatever they choose in life, and to know what would be the outcome of that choice.
6.
Goal Setting: It has to do with the why of life.
Get out a piece of paper and write down your Dreams and put a date when you are
going to achieve them. Every day when you get up you should know why, and what you are shooting for in life. We need to have these Dreams and Goals with us at all
times and go over them, because after having a day full of challenges and obstacles
and we get hurt, disappointed, we will ask ourselves… “Why am I doing this?” …
and we’ll know. It’s our Dreams and Goals that will make us keep charging after
with a passion, not reasoning. Bottom line is, everybody wants to have, no one
wants to work for it. When you're down, you look at your Dreams and Goals and say, “that’s why I’m doing this”, and it won’t matter
anymore, the fact that you got slapped in the face. You are looking
beyond the present, you are shooting for your future.
7.
Faith, Belief: We must have faith in something
that will inspire us to achieve, like our Dreams and Goals, like having Faith
and Belief in ourselves, our friends, parents, our team.
8.
Respect, Self Esteem, Discipline, Principles, No
Drugs, No Alcohol, No Smoking: It all starts with education and loving
ourselves and others. “How do I learn to love myself?” Well it's not easy, but
it’s doable, in fact, ANYBODY CAN DO IT.
Read: personal growth books,
motivational books, etc. Listen to inspirational messages, that will motivate and teach us
about ourselves. We must first accept ourselves, not just for what we are but
for what we are becoming and what we can be. I’m 43 years old and have never had a drink, been high or under any kind of artificial influence. I’ve never had an
alcoholic drink in all my years and never smoked. Many teens today are
drinking, smoking and using drugs so they can “Fit In” I don’t by that. We
learn to love ourselves and respect for what we are now and where we are going
in life, without any artificial substances. Drugs, alcohol, smoking, TV, video games, and
“fitting in” will not make us happy. “What is every human being’s hope, goal,
dream or purpose in life? “It is to be HAPPY!” Those things I just mentioned
don’t get us there, only holds us back in time and puts our finish line (life
goals) farther and farther away. If kids believed in themselves more and were
trained to be champions in life, have definite written goals of were they are
going and made the DECISION every day, they would forget about things that don't help them in the long or short term. Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking, TV, video games and
“fitting in” will not give us food, home, security, family, our kids education,
our financial independence etc…