Attitude

Change the Attitude in Order to Change the Performance
by CoachFree


John Maxwell opens his book The Winning Attitude with the following story:

It was a beautiful day in San Diego, and my friend Paul wanted to take me for a ride in his airplane. Being new to Southern California, I decided to see our home territory from a different perspective. We sat in the cockpit as Paul completed his instrument checks. Everything was A-okay, so Paul revved the engines and we headed down the runway. As the plane lifted off, I noticed the nose was higher than the rest of the airplane. I also noticed that while the countryside was truly magnificent, Paul continually watched the instrument panel.

Since I am not a pilot, I decided to turn the pleasure ride into a learning experience. “All those gadgets,” I began, “what do they tell you? I notice you keep looking at that one instrument more than the others. What is it?”

“That’s the attitude indicator,” he replied.

“How can a plane have an attitude?”

“In flying, the attitude of the airplane is what we call the position of the aircraft in relation to the horizon.”

By now my curiosity had been aroused, so I asked him to explain more.

“When the airplane is climbing,” he said, “it has a nose-high attitude because the nose of the airplane is pointed above the horizon.”

So,” I jumped in, “when the aircraft is diving, you would call that a nose-down attitude.”

“That’s right,” My instructor continued. “Pilots are concerned about attitude of the airplane because that indicates its performance.”

“Now I understand why the attitude indicator is in such a prominent place on the panel,” I replied.

Paul sensing I was an eager student continued, “Since the performance of the airplane depends on its attitude, it is necessary to change the attitude in order to change the performance.”

He demonstrated this by bringing the aircraft into a nose-high attitude. Sure enough, the plane began to climb and speed decreased. He changed the attitude, and that changed the performance.

This story relates to point number four of our BFS Magic Formula for Winning: 1.) Decide exactly what you want; 2.) Plan, in detail, how you are going to get it; 3.) engage in massive action; 4.) Evaluate the feedback; 5.) Change your approach till you get what you want. Maxwell’s story focuses on the fact that if you change your attitude, you change the performance. Everyone is involved in a performance everyday. All of us are totally successful all day, every day. Each of us has successfully lived each day all day, every day, every minute, every hour, successfully lived. We have always produced a set of behaviors that have gotten us through the each day, week, month, year till this moment in time.

Now all behavior has consequences. If the consequences of your behaviors are not what you want, planned or desired, why is that? You need to evaluate the feedback, i.e., to study the consequences of your behavior. If you are not getting desired results, then simply change your approach until you get what you want. And it all begins with attitude. When you change the attitude, you change the performance.

Let’s say that you have studied and prepared for a test. You take it and do not score near what you wanted. Let’s say it is the SAT or ACT test. Your score is low. What are you going to do?

To raise your score you would need to change your approach, take SAT prep classes, but some SAT prep materials, hone your skills to better prepare yourself, take and retake the sample tests. Then, better prepared, you take the test again to post a better score.

Most people are unaware of the fact that the military academies each have a preparatory school that exists to elevate the scores of potential candidates so that they would be better prepared for the academia of the academies. Part of the program is to keep retaking the SAT test during the year to attain the required score for appointment to the regular academy. Change your approach till you get what you want.

Very often it all begins with attitude. When exercising the BFS Magic Formula for Winning perhaps the first feedback check should be on our attitude. If your change your attitude, you change your performance.

Motivationalist Zig Ziglar says the most debilitating illness is “Stink’in think’in that leads to a hardening of the attitudes requiring a checkup from the neck-up.” Keep in mind that if you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got. Change your attitude and you’ll change your performance. You can do everything wrong and still succeed if you have the right mental attitude.

Very often people are not going where they truly want to go, not doing what they truly want to do, are not being what they want to be or have what they want to have. They get caught up in the current most happen’in thing. They get caught up in the job trap:

“Coach, can’t go out for the team this year.”

“Why’s that?”

“Got a job.”

“Why did you get a job?”

“To pay for my car.”

“Why do you have a car?”

“So I can get to my job.”

Vicious cycle, snared, entrapped in behaviors they never intended. They have lost sight of their intended result. They take their eyes off the goal and suddenly see the obstacles. They forgot that the major reason for failure in life is giving up what you want most for what you want at the moment.

Is what you are doing taking you closer to or farther away from what you truly desire? Evaluate the results you are getting. If you do not have what you truly desire, change your approach to get what you want and that initial change usually deals with attitude.

Did I mention there is a shortcut to the formula? Simply copy the successful behaviors of those who have already achieved what you wish to achieve.

Do what they do. People do what people see. This is where BFS can really help. BFS has helped hundreds of programs achieve state championship performance levels. Thousands upon thousands of athletes have elevated their performance with the BFS Total Strength and Conditioning Program and the Be An 11 Seminars. The program is in place; the planning has been done. Get yourself to take action then follow through and perform at levels previously thought to be impossible. Astound those around you.

Like in the story of David and Goliath. With Goliath standing over nine feet tall, David’s friends, relatives and countrymen thought Goliath was too big to hit. He might become angrier and take it out on everyone. David’s attitude? Goliath was too big to miss! By the way, ever wonder why David picked up five stones? Goliath had four oversized brothers who might have come to Goliath’s aid. Now that’s going into the fray with the right mental attitude, one stone for each Philistine.

To get more of what you want use Power Axiom #3: Focus on the desired outcome and then change your approach, beginning with your attitude till you get what you want. Do not allow yourself to be anything less than you are truly capable of being.

In all that you do --- Be An 11!

Today's story is actually a link to the Time Management Talk given by Randy Pausch - Lots of great tips there on how to better manage one's time:



Here is a link to Randy's notes on a Time Management Talk given by Randy Pausch - Lots of great tips there on how to better manage one's time: MOTIVATION

The Value of Being An 11 Team

John C. Maxwell in his book, "The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork," writes:

As much as any team likes to measure itself by its best people, the truth is that the strength of the team is impacted by its weakest link. No matter how much people try to rationalize it, compensate for it, or hide it, a weak link will eventually come to light That’s the law of the Chain (#5).

Weak team members always take more of the team’s time than strong ones. One reason is that the more competent people have to give their time to compensate for those who don’t carry their share of the load. The greater difference in competence between the more accomplished performers and the less accomplished ones, the greater the detriment to the team. For example, if you rate people on a scale from 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best), a 5 among 10s really hurts the team where an 8 among 10s often does not.

Let me show you how this works. When you first put together a group of people, their talents come together in a way that is analogous to addition. So visually a 5 among 10s looks like this:

10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 45

The difference between this team and great ones with five 10s is like the difference between 50 and 45. That’s a difference of 10 percent. But once a team comes together and starts to develop chemistry, synergy, and momentum, it’s analogous to multiplication. That’s when a weak link really starts to hurt the team. It’s the difference between this:

10 X 10 X 10 X 10 X 10 = 100,000

and this:

10 X 10 X 10 X 10 X 5 = 50,000

That’s a difference of 50 percent! The power and momentum of the team may be able to compensate for a weak link for a while, but not forever. A weakling eventually robs the team of momentum – and potential.

Now, what would happen if each of those team members committed to Being An 11? Is that possible? Can ALL team members choose to Be An 11? The answer is, CERTAINLY! Being An 11 is an attitude, an expectation, a commitment. When all team members develop an 11 approach the effect on the team would look like this:

11 X 11 X 11 X 11 X 11 X = 161,051

That’s a difference of more than 61%! The whole IS greater than the sum of its parts. The power and momentum of the team is accelerated beyond what was previously thought to be possible. Members of the team no longer have to compensate, in fact, they feed off each other and their efforts multiply. The dream, the goal, the vision is achieved in an unbelievably sort period of time. It is the development of this BFS, Be An 11 Attitude that is re sponsible for those remarkable turnaround seasons that are chronicled in this BFS Journal year after year.
As BFS Clinician Jeff Scuran points out the answers are simple but not necessarily easy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Not everyone is willing to put self aside, to make those sacrifices that are necessary, to adopt that BFS Attitude of:

No matter how long it takes;
No matter how hard it is;
No matter how much it costs;
No matter what I personally have to personally sacrifice;
I’ll do whatever it takes to achieve our goals.
It’s going to be because of me.
The Best is yet to be!

When you can get a bunch of people together willing to make that kind of commitment, as a group, then you have the makings of a Championship caliber team.

On chemistry, Synergy, and Momentum

Synergy is the action of two or more to achieve an effect of which each is individually incapable.

Classic Example: Canadian geese. Few sights evoke as much attention, and awe, as that of a large flock of Canadian geese winging their way in the V-formation to the North or South. They speak of the changing seasons, and also of the value of teamwork.

Milton Olson has put together the following “Lessons From Geese” for those of us engaged in teamwork to ponder.

This fall when you see geese heading South for the winter, flying along in that “V” formation, you might be interested in knowing what science and psychology have discovered about why they fly that way. Scientists have discovered as each bird flaps its wings, an “uplift” is created for the birds following. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if the bird flew alone.

Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of another.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the “lifting” power of the bird immediately in front.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed where we want to go (and be willing to accept their help as well as give ours to the others).

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position.

Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks, and sharing the leadership - - with people, as with geese, we are interdependent with each other.

The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging – not something else.
When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. One of them is very often the mate of the wounded bird, since geese mate for life and are extremely loyal to their mates. Once on the ground, the healthy birds help protect him and care for him as much as possible, even to the point of throwing themselves between the weakened bird and possible predators. They stay with it until it is able to fly again or dies. Then, and only then, do they launch out on their own. In most cases, they wait for another group of geese to fly overhead and they join them, adding to the safety and flying efficiency of their numbers.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese we too will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

Success

I am often asked how are BFS/Be 11 schools able to turn things around in a very short period of time? After some recent discussions in our Be An 11 Class, conversations with coaches and some recent clinic experiences, I can offer up the following explanation.
I recently read a piece by Jim Rohn entitled “How to Turn Nothing Into Something” which got me to thinking about how I have used BFS/Be 11 principles to reestablish winning traditions at several schools that I have had the privilege to coach or taken schools with winning records to ever higher levels of performance previously thought to be unattainable. Of course, there are hundreds of coaches across the nation that are doing the same as well.

It is especially gratifying to turn a program completely around. There is no greater thrill for a coach than to see the change that takes place on the faces and in the hearts of kids when they go from O-For to Champions, to literally turn what others may think is a “Nothing” program into “Something,” a Championship program.

The process begins with an idea, a vision, one that is so real, so compelling that it stirs you to action. I now live at the end of the Oregon Trail and have often wondered what kept those pioneers going day after day, 10 to 15 miles a day, hardship after hardship, tossing out their belongings along the way to lighten the load. The next time you speed along the interstate at 70 mph between Missouri and Oregon, remember it took more than five days to travel what you do in less than an hour. What kept them going? It was the vision of a better tomorrow. They had dreamed of making a better life at the end of the trail. They were now on that trail in the active process of bringing that dream to life. As Rohn states, “Dreams are a projection of the kind of life you want to lead. They can make you skip over obstacles, they unleash a creative force that can overpower anything in your path.”

So it is with BFS. Invariably at BFS Clinics and Seminars athletes achieve at levels they had not previously not thought about much less envision. Once at a recent clinic there was a group of O-Line athletes whose goal for the year was to dead lift 350 pounds. On the night of the clinic two of the athletes pulled 405 pounds and two more went on to pull 525 pounds. They astounded themselves . . . and their teammates . . . . and their coaches as well as everyone else in attendance. They all began, right there, to think of themselves differently and what they might possibly be able to do as a team, as a school, if they committed themselves to Being An 11 and making that effort to help each other achieve at the highest levels, to encourage each other to make a State Championship Effort each day. Creating this vision of what might be possible is putting Power Axiom #1 into action: Establish Noble Goals (Visions).

BFS reignites the fires of the imagination and people envision all the possibilities. Coaches, athletes, communities catch on fire with what is possible. When athletes see their teammates smash their records, they begin to adopt an attitude, a belief, that “If they can do it, I can to.” Everyone then goes to work to perform at levels previously thought to be out of reach.

They also begin to create a picture of what their future athletic seasons will be with their newly created size, strength, speed and explosiveness. Like those Oregon Trail pioneers who had a dream, these kids dare to dream again, BIG Dreams. Those pioneers created a compelling vision that pulled them along. In their minds they were already on the other side of the mountains, living a better life in the Williamette River valley. Their bodies just hadn’t gotten there yet. Stories in the Be An 11 Guidebook like Kevin Wilson, Jeffrie Banks and Andrew illustrate that point. When Kevin Wilson was in the hospital and wrote “Today I Win,” he created a vision of what was possible, of what was going to be. His body just had to catch up to the vision. He overcame the greatest obstacles to don the uniform again when everyone said it would be impossible. He created a compelling vision of the future to pull him along into reality.

BFS helps people believe in themselves and their teammates. Once everyone on the team starts to realize the benefits. Once those eight or more records a week begin to fall, teams begin to imagine all the possibilities. As their individual and team strength develops, so does their vision of the future. They allow themselves to Dream the Biggest Dream again. They develop a picture of the perfect end result that pulls them along. The harder they work together (Power Axiom #2: Work Ethic) the more clearer and compelling the vision becomes. Just like those Oregon Trail pioneers, BFS/Be 11 athletes are already in the Champions’ Circle. Their bodies just haven’t gotten there yet.

Rohn concludes, “So the first step is to allow yourself the freedom to imagine all the possibilities, the second is to have the faith that what is possible is possible for you, the third step is to go to work to make it real. You go to work to make it a movement, you make it tangible. You make it viable. You breathe life into it and then you construct it.” Think about it. You are performing CPR on your own dream making process; that same process that you used when you were five years old and able to envision worlds to conquer on a daily basis.

When you put this process to work, you will achieve success previously thought to be impossible. Outside people will search for reasons why. They will call you lucky. They will say it’s a “miracle season.” They are people who do not have the strength of will to create a vision and work hard to breathe life into it and make it real.

The process works. It has been done hundreds of times in hundreds of schools across the nation. There are schools right now in the process of realizing their next Dream Season. We will write about them in the Journal. It all begins with an attitude, an expectation, a dream coupled with a commitment to work to make it happen. What are you waiting for?