Address the Foundation
that will Sustain Your Opportunity
Right Place; Wrong Time
Have you ever wondered how many times you’ve shown up at the right place, only to learn it was the wrong time? Or perhaps worse, you showed up in the right place at the right time…but you were completely unprepared for the moment?
This thought was inspired earlier in the week when I noticed a spectacular sunrise out the kitchen window (top left). After taking the picture, I went about my business, focused on the tasks before me. Moments later I happened to look out the same window and saw the morning sky (top right)…beautiful in its own way, but nothing like the view I’d seen only moments earlier.
Perhaps this is a strange thought to you, but I instantly wondered how many people leaving on their daily commute to work, had a clue what they missed-out on that morning. Probably very few if any, because most of us have plenty to occupy our thoughts. Regardless, those who failed to be in a position to see the sunrise missed an amazing sight.
The idea of “opportunities” was inspired by the sunrise this morning. If we aren’t in the right place in the right moment, we can completely missed out on incredible opportunities, and sometimes be completely unaware.
Here’s another example of this point through nature (no doubt there are many):
Moonset
Have you ever been out in the early morning hours to witness a full moon preparing to set behind the mountains to the west? (For those of us who live with mountains to the west…) At one moment, the moon is hanging in all it’s brilliance over the jagged edges of the horizon, introducing the sun that’s about to make it’s appearance for the day. Then, within moments, the moon disappears beyond the horizon with no proof remaining of its amazing existence only moments earlier. Again, people begin the commute to work, walk their dog, or go exercising, and they have no idea of the scene that took place only moments earlier.
Opportunity…Now You See Them; Now You Don’t
As I compared the two pictures of the sunrise, thoughts began stirring about principles I suspected I’d be sharing in appointments later that day. Opportunities can be present one moment, and the next…gone; and many times, we may never know how close we were to them.
Preparation for the Unexpected
The probability of opportunities can be increased by making solid decisions to be in the right place, at the right time, and be prepared. That said, we don’t always know what we’ll face each day. We can have a good idea of what to expect, and this leads to preparation for the expected, but we must also anticipate the unexpected…and be prepared for the fact we may face things that aren’t on our radar.
How do you do that? How do you prepare for something you can’t expect? Where do you even begin to anticipate the unexpected? The “unexpected” knows no boundaries…it could come from any direction…health, employment, relationships, accidents, etc…so how do you prepare for this?
The Fundamentals
As a player and a coach, everything began with the fundamentals. No matter how improved our skill set was becoming, we could never lose sight of the fundamentals…they had to be addressed every day, at the beginning of every practice. Fundamentals were the building blocks to anything we hoped to achieve through daily practice plans, whether at the beginning of the season, or as we prepared for the state tournament.
As a kid growing up, one of my least favorite words as an athlete was the word “drills”. I’m not sure I understood the concept of “fundamentals” in those years…nor did I care at the time, but “drills” were the day-in and day-out activities we would go through in practice…and from my short-sighted middle school perspective, they stole the joy from playing the game. It wasn’t until I grew older that I appreciated the presence of “fundamentals” in every fancy pass, great offensive move, and jumpshot made. Strong fundamentals are the unscene evidence when gifts and talents are on display.
Fundamentals are the Foundation
The foundation of an amazing building like the One World Trade Center (pictured above) goes unnoticed by most tourists who come to visit. Yet, without the foundation, this amazing building would never be…it could not withstand the process required to reach for the stars. As vital as the foundation is to the building, no one (except perhaps some engineer-geeks) go to the building site, and marvel at the foundation. I believe the same can be said about fundamentals.
You’ll Play How You Practice
I used to tell my players that gametime will expose how they practice throughout the week. If they go through the motion in practice, if they’re content to operate at 3/4 speed on the drills, if they goof around and socialize instead of focusing on free throws, ball-handling, taking hard V-Cuts while practicing the offense, their habits and their shortcuts will happily be exposed by their opponent on game night.
Real Life Mindset
We have to identify what the fundamentals are in the game we’re competing in. We have to elevate those fundamentals to a high priority in our daily routine, and we cannot afford to go through the motion in practicing those fundamentals. To do so is to lower our expectation for outcomes. For some, making the team was good enough, but for others, winning championships was the goal…and you could see the difference in how each approached practice. Some were prepared for surprises and they trusted in their fundamentals to improvise while others were completely rattled when things did not go as expected…and this led to questioning their own abilities.
Can you see how this plays out in life? This is about so much more than a silly game…it’s a mentality for life. Things will be thrown at us that we were not expecting, but those who have established in their own mind what the fundamentals are for their daily routine will embrace the unexpected…they will trust in their preparation, and they will adapt and overcome adversity.
Honesty is a Priority
If you’ve taken any of this to heart, then one more thing to add to this mix is the concept of honesty. However, this is not simply being honest with others…it’s about being honest with ourselves. We can come up with creative excuses to give for why outcomes played out as they did, but if we truly want to be prepared for future opportunities, we’ll find a place to take ownership for why we lost, why we came up short, why we weren’t in a position to win…and we’ll learn from it.
In the sports world, it’s such an easy card to play to blame a ref for a bad call, or blame the head coach for a poor performance while failing to notice the many times where fundamentals broke down on the field or on the court leaving players out of position when big plays needed to be made.
Yeah…….all that from two snapshots of the same sunrise…..