In the spring of 2010, I was selected by the NCAA to go to Indianapolis to attend the Career in Sports Forum. The NCAA Career in Sports Forum was a four day event through which selected student-athletes (400 from all NCAA Divisions) will explore and be educated on careers in sports, with a primary focus on collegiate athletics. This forum was provided to participants at no cost. However, for me, I was missing out on baseball since it was held in the spring.
Through the use of dual tracks, I was able to choose to examine the key functions of a coach or administrator within sports. I chose administration since baseball was not offered. (They said it was due to the sport being in season.) At the forum, we covered foundational skills such as communication, networking, recruiting, managing culture, transitioning, and budgeting, academics, compliance, facilities, life skills, marketing and promotions, and sports information.
At the forum, they also had a number of guest speakers. It was one of these speakers that changed my life. It wasn't so much the speech that got me. It was a question after the fact. Needless, to say he had faced high pressure situations and many years of failure. Who doesn't when they are coaching at such high profile schools? So after his speech, I thanked him for talking with us and I asked him, "How have you dealt with all of the adversity and failure?" Now, you have to realize that I had dealt with my fair share of failure during this time. Two arm surgeries and the feeling that I would never contribute to my baseball team was weighing heavily. With this thought in mind, I had to ask him for advice.
His response was like any other great educators... He asked a question back.
"Have you ever had a bad day?"
As you can imagine, I was caught quite off guard. I said with very little confidence, "Yes..."
He replied, "Well... you wouldn't make it on my team."
I went from being caught off guard to downright dumbstruck. I think he realized that too because he went on to explain.
He said everyone has bad seconds, minutes, hours, class period, or even games, but no one should have a bad day. He that we all have the ability to change our attitude. He said its a matter of what am I going to do to fix it.
The gentlemen finished by asking me again, "So, have you ever had a bad day?"
I said, "No."
It was then when Coach Ty Willingham proceeded to shank my hand and say, "Welcome to the team." Then we walked away. (Talk about a drop the mic kind of moment!)
As I stood there, I thought long and hard about what he said. I have the ability to change and fix it...
From then on, I have been able to use this to motivate me through all sorts of challenges and failures. Bad moments are going to come. They are inevitable. I do though have the power to change how I deal with them. Everyday I have something to be thankful for. Whether it's the roof over my head or food on the table, I am thankful and the day isn't all that bad.
There have been some times where this was tough. The surgery my grandfather had or the final weeks of my wife's pregnancy. Everyday I tried to remain positive. Ultimately, it worked. I was able to see things clearly and see all things through to the end with greater energy and joy.
Now I have told this story to my classes over the last couple of years. I also tell them that attitudes are contagious; make yours worth catching. This point is so true! I asked them if they have ever gone home and they were already mad or someone in there family was mad. It wouldn't take long for one person to set off the other and now we have a house of angry people.
I always tell my students to come to me if they have any problems. They need to get it off their chest and realize that my room is a safe place. If anything, they can forget about there trouble for the hour. If I do my math correctly and I make them forget how mad they were for one hour, then they have not had an entirely bad day... and I will for take that any day. #RiseTalk
Addition: 4/20/2014 Easter
I found it fascinating today that our pastor mentioned that every day should be a good day. Pastor Dean talked about how even if we feel only 90% or even 60%, we should be thankful for that 90 or 60% of great health. He said, "Each day is a resurrection; each day is a new day." Don't live day to day closing in on death. Live each day with joy and celebration for that Christ has blessed us with. This man did...
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