What has to happen for your team to "own the final minutes?" Sunday, March 27, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
ON DREAMS
Dreams
“If you can dream it; you can do it. remember, this whole thing was started by a mouse.” Walt Disney
Imagine that you are about to be inducted into a Sports Hall of Fame.
This could be the Hall of Fame at your school, in your state, for a national association, or the World Hall of fame. Write down what you would like to hear people say about you and what you accomplished. Think of the players and people you would want to be delivering your induction speech. What part of your personality would they comment on? What would they say about you as a competitor? What stories would they use to illustrate the strengths of your game? Would they talk about your tenacity, your accuracy, your work ethic? How would they describe your composure, your attitude, your guts? Think of as many details as possible that would capture you as an athlete.
Without being specifically asked, you have described your dreams. This is what you want to accomplish in your sporting career. Go pursue this with a vengeance.
Just as Ben Hogan was responsible for making (and remaking) himself into one of the greatest golfers of all time, you too are responsible for whatever greatness you hope to accomplish in your sports. His dream was to be one of the best ever in the sport he loved. Your dream can be whatever you would like it to be. It can literally be anything you desire. If does not have to be approved by others. It is all yours and no matter how worthwhile others perceive it to be does not mater. In fact, if some people question your dream, it is probably very worthwhile. And if everyone thinks it is a realistic or attainable dream, it may not be grand enough. Think big, dream big. Remember, you only get one shot at living your dreams.
A true dream, once you have envisioned it and imagined it, does not go away. You don’t have to remind yourself every day what your dream is. A true dream sticks in your mind like a song that you can’t quit singing. It is there, over and over, reminding you constantly of where you want to go.
Although a dream is always present, always there for you to ponder the possibilities, this does not mean your dream is “set.” Dreams are never set. They may have a dominant theme for many years, but they are always undergoing evaluation and adjustment as necessary. Again, if your dream doesn’t grow some as you make progress toward achieving it, you may need to reevaluate it.
A dream is like fuel, it provides energy - energy for you to withstand the rough times and pitfalls which are inevitable in any long-term pursuit. A dream will keep your motor running when you feel like you have no choice but to pull over and stop. However, also like fuel, a dream can do nothing by itself. You must make the dream, the fuel, come to life. You must drive the car powered by the fuel for it (dream) to become a reality.
Hopefully by now, you realize I am talking about chasing your dreams. Your grandest visions of all the things you love to have happen to yourself. The dreams you dreamed about when you were a kid. Making the shot to win the NBA Championship or the putt to win the Masters. I am not talking about goals that you Hope to check off a list. They are very clear in your mind, but they are so awesome they do not have limits or boundaries which would allow them to be checked off.
It is nearly impossible not to have dreams. As a human, one of the greatest gifts you have is your ability to imagine. You may feel like you don’t have any dreams, but you do. You just may be afraid to let yourself chase them. Don’t be afraid. What is the worst that can happen? You don’t achieve your dream? Wouldn’t it be better to have tried and “failed” than to never have tried at all?
You don’t have to quit your job or change your entire life to pursue your dreams. It is not always possible to make gigantic steps along this journey; I know that. It is possible, however, to plan for the future of your dreams. It may be just small steps that you can take which use only minutes or hours a day. Believe me there is no hard and fast rule about how much time or effort is required to achieve your dreams. Just follow your gut. You will know. If you are finding ways to squeeze out any minutes you possible can to chase your dreams, you are doing all you can. If you are making excuses that you don’t have time to chase your dreams, you don’t have a dream. Instead, you have a wish. But if you do have a dream, an awesome, all-you-can-think-about dream, go get it. If you don’t chase it, you’ll never know if you could have caught it.
Imagine . . . you are the editor for the yearbook and you have been assigned a page that chronicles you and your team’s accomplishments for the year. What would your page say about your season and you? email a copy of you Yearbook 'Dream' Page
“If you can dream it; you can do it. remember, this whole thing was started by a mouse.” Walt Disney
Imagine that you are about to be inducted into a Sports Hall of Fame.
This could be the Hall of Fame at your school, in your state, for a national association, or the World Hall of fame. Write down what you would like to hear people say about you and what you accomplished. Think of the players and people you would want to be delivering your induction speech. What part of your personality would they comment on? What would they say about you as a competitor? What stories would they use to illustrate the strengths of your game? Would they talk about your tenacity, your accuracy, your work ethic? How would they describe your composure, your attitude, your guts? Think of as many details as possible that would capture you as an athlete.
Without being specifically asked, you have described your dreams. This is what you want to accomplish in your sporting career. Go pursue this with a vengeance.
Just as Ben Hogan was responsible for making (and remaking) himself into one of the greatest golfers of all time, you too are responsible for whatever greatness you hope to accomplish in your sports. His dream was to be one of the best ever in the sport he loved. Your dream can be whatever you would like it to be. It can literally be anything you desire. If does not have to be approved by others. It is all yours and no matter how worthwhile others perceive it to be does not mater. In fact, if some people question your dream, it is probably very worthwhile. And if everyone thinks it is a realistic or attainable dream, it may not be grand enough. Think big, dream big. Remember, you only get one shot at living your dreams.
A true dream, once you have envisioned it and imagined it, does not go away. You don’t have to remind yourself every day what your dream is. A true dream sticks in your mind like a song that you can’t quit singing. It is there, over and over, reminding you constantly of where you want to go.
Although a dream is always present, always there for you to ponder the possibilities, this does not mean your dream is “set.” Dreams are never set. They may have a dominant theme for many years, but they are always undergoing evaluation and adjustment as necessary. Again, if your dream doesn’t grow some as you make progress toward achieving it, you may need to reevaluate it.
A dream is like fuel, it provides energy - energy for you to withstand the rough times and pitfalls which are inevitable in any long-term pursuit. A dream will keep your motor running when you feel like you have no choice but to pull over and stop. However, also like fuel, a dream can do nothing by itself. You must make the dream, the fuel, come to life. You must drive the car powered by the fuel for it (dream) to become a reality.
Hopefully by now, you realize I am talking about chasing your dreams. Your grandest visions of all the things you love to have happen to yourself. The dreams you dreamed about when you were a kid. Making the shot to win the NBA Championship or the putt to win the Masters. I am not talking about goals that you Hope to check off a list. They are very clear in your mind, but they are so awesome they do not have limits or boundaries which would allow them to be checked off.
It is nearly impossible not to have dreams. As a human, one of the greatest gifts you have is your ability to imagine. You may feel like you don’t have any dreams, but you do. You just may be afraid to let yourself chase them. Don’t be afraid. What is the worst that can happen? You don’t achieve your dream? Wouldn’t it be better to have tried and “failed” than to never have tried at all?
You don’t have to quit your job or change your entire life to pursue your dreams. It is not always possible to make gigantic steps along this journey; I know that. It is possible, however, to plan for the future of your dreams. It may be just small steps that you can take which use only minutes or hours a day. Believe me there is no hard and fast rule about how much time or effort is required to achieve your dreams. Just follow your gut. You will know. If you are finding ways to squeeze out any minutes you possible can to chase your dreams, you are doing all you can. If you are making excuses that you don’t have time to chase your dreams, you don’t have a dream. Instead, you have a wish. But if you do have a dream, an awesome, all-you-can-think-about dream, go get it. If you don’t chase it, you’ll never know if you could have caught it.
Imagine . . . you are the editor for the yearbook and you have been assigned a page that chronicles you and your team’s accomplishments for the year. What would your page say about your season and you? email a copy of you Yearbook 'Dream' Page
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Your Dream, Is It Big Enough?
ACHIEVING YOUR DREAMS
By Jim Rohn
While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way. Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for them. And here sits the much larger group, wondering how life can be so unfair, so complicated and unjust. What's the major difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little?
Despite all of the factors that affect our lives - like the kind of parents we have, the schools we attended, the part of the country we grew up in - none has as much potential power for affecting our futures as our ability to dream.
Dreams are a projection of the kind of life you want to lead. Dreams can drive you. Dreams can make you skip over obstacles. When you allow your dreams to pull you, they unleash a creative force that can overpower any obstacle in your path. To unleash this power, though, your dreams must be well defined. A fuzzy future has little pulling power. Well-defined dreams are not fuzzy. Wishes are fuzzy. To really achieve your dreams, to really have your future plans pull you forward, your dreams must be vivid.
If you've ever hiked a fourteen thousand-foot peak in the Rocky Mountains, one thought has surely come to mind, "How did the settlers of this country do it?" How did they get from the East Coast to the West Coast? Carrying one day's supply of food and water is hard enough. Can you imagine hauling all of your worldly goods with you...mile after mile, day after day, month after month? These people had big dreams. They had ambition. They didn't focus on the hardship of getting up the mountain.
In their minds, they were already on the other side - their bodies just hadn't gotten them there yet! Despite all of their pains and struggles, all of the births and deaths along the way, those who made it to the other side had a single vision: to reach the land of continuous sunshine and extraordinary wealth. To start over where anything and everything was possible. Their dreams were stronger than the obstacles in their way.
You've got to be a dreamer. You've got to envision the future. You've got to see California while you're climbing fourteen thousand-foot peaks. You've got to see the finish line while you're running the race. You've got to hear the cheers when you're in the middle of a monster project. And you've got to be willing to put yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. Because that's how you realize your dreams.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
A DREAM THAT WILL CATCH YOUR HEART
A DREAM THAT WILL CATCH YOUR HEART
by Steve Goodier
That all-too-quotable Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." There is something to be said for knowing where you're going. But even if you know where you want to end up, do you REALLY WANT to go there? Is the dream you are following IMPORTANT to you?
Motivator Tony Robbins says, "People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals -- that is, goals that do not inspire them." They don't accomplish what they set out to do because they lose interest. Their dream, their goal, is really not that important to them.
I think of Dennis Oehler. He ran the 100-meter dash in 11.73 seconds. Record-holder Carl Lewis ran it in 9.92 seconds, a full 1.8 seconds faster. So what's the big deal? Carl Lewis has two legs. Dennis Oehler has one. One leg...and a huge dream.
The truth is -- we are always highly motivated when something means a great deal to us. Any person who falls into deep water and does not know how to swim will become highly motivated in an instant! Why? Because now there is something this individual wants more than anything else in the world. He or she wants to survive, and nothing had better get in the way! A person gasping for air will become one of the most excited and enthusiastic persons imaginable!
So it is with us all. If we want something badly enough, we will find enough energy, excitement and drive to relentlessly pursue it.
Writer Tim Redmond says this about following worthwhile dreams: "There are many things that will catch my eye, but there are only a few that catch my heart...it is those I consider to pursue." Is your dream big enough -- important enough -- to capture your heart? If so, you will pursue it with abandon and will surprise even yourself at how successful you can be!
by Steve Goodier
That all-too-quotable Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." There is something to be said for knowing where you're going. But even if you know where you want to end up, do you REALLY WANT to go there? Is the dream you are following IMPORTANT to you?
Motivator Tony Robbins says, "People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals -- that is, goals that do not inspire them." They don't accomplish what they set out to do because they lose interest. Their dream, their goal, is really not that important to them.
I think of Dennis Oehler. He ran the 100-meter dash in 11.73 seconds. Record-holder Carl Lewis ran it in 9.92 seconds, a full 1.8 seconds faster. So what's the big deal? Carl Lewis has two legs. Dennis Oehler has one. One leg...and a huge dream.
The truth is -- we are always highly motivated when something means a great deal to us. Any person who falls into deep water and does not know how to swim will become highly motivated in an instant! Why? Because now there is something this individual wants more than anything else in the world. He or she wants to survive, and nothing had better get in the way! A person gasping for air will become one of the most excited and enthusiastic persons imaginable!
So it is with us all. If we want something badly enough, we will find enough energy, excitement and drive to relentlessly pursue it.
Writer Tim Redmond says this about following worthwhile dreams: "There are many things that will catch my eye, but there are only a few that catch my heart...it is those I consider to pursue." Is your dream big enough -- important enough -- to capture your heart? If so, you will pursue it with abandon and will surprise even yourself at how successful you can be!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Achieveing Dreams
SEVEN STEPS TO ACHIEVING YOUR DREAM
by Chris Widener
"Vision is the spectacular that inspires us to carry out the mundane."
Chris Widener
Can achievement be broken down into steps? Well, it isn't always that clean and easy, but I do know that those who achieve great things usually go through much of the same process, with many of the items listed below as part of that process. So if you have been struggling with achievement, look through the following and internalize the thoughts presented. Then begin to apply them. You will be on the road to achieving your dream!
1. Dream it - Everything begins in the heart and mind. Every great achievement began in the mind of one person. They dared to dream, to believe that it was possible. Take some time to allow yourself to ask "What if?" Think big. Don't let negative thinking discourage you. You want to be a "dreamer." Dream of the possibilities for yourself, your family, and for others. If you had a dream that you let grow cold, re-ignite the dream! Fan the flames. Life is too short to let it go. (Also, check out my article "Dare to Dream Again," which has been read by close to a million people in the last 4 months alone. You can see it at the website - http://www.madeforsuccess.com).
2. Believe it - Yes, your dream needs to be big. It needs to be something that is seemingly beyond your capabilities. But it also must be believable. You must be able to say that if certain things take place, if others help, if you work hard enough, though it is a big dream, it can still be done. Good example: A person with no college education can dream that he will build a 50 million-dollar a year company. That is big, but believable. Bad example: That a 90 year-old woman with arthritis will someday run a marathon in under 3 hours. It is big alright, but also impossible. She should instead focus on building a 50 million-dollar a year business! And she better get a move on!
3. See it - The great achievers have a habit. They "see" things. They picture themselves walking around their CEO office in their new 25 million-dollar corporate headquarters, even while they are sitting on a folding chair in their garage "headquarters." Great free-throw shooters in the NBA picture the ball going through the basket. PGA golfers picture the ball going straight down the fairway. World-class speakers picture themselves speaking with energy and emotion. All of this grooms the mind to control the body to carry out the dream.
4. Tell it - One reason many dreams never go anywhere is because the dreamer keeps it all to himself. It is a quiet dream that only lives inside of his mind. The ones who want to achieve their dreams must tell that dream to many people. One reason: As we continually say it, we begin to believe it more and more. If we are talking about it, then it must be possible. Another reason: It holds us accountable. When we have told others, it spurs us on to actually do it so we don't look foolish.
5. Plan it - Every dream must take the form of a plan. The old saying that you "get what you plan for" is so true. Your dream won't just happen. You need to sit down, on a regular basis, and plan out your strategy for achieving the dream. Think through all of the details. Break the whole plan down into small, workable parts. Then set a time frame for accomplishing each task on your "dream plan."
6. Work it - Boy, wouldn't life be grand if we could quit before this one! Unfortunately the successful are usually the hardest workers. While the rest of the world is sitting on their couch watching re-runs of Gilligan's Island, achievers are working on their goal - achieving their dream. I have an equation that I work with: Your short-term tasks, multiplied by time, equal your long-term accomplishments. If you work on it each day, eventually you will achieve your dream. "War and Peace" was written, in longhand, page by page.
7. Enjoy it - When you have reached your goal and you are living your dream, be sure to enjoy it. In fact, enjoy the trip too. Give yourself some rewards along the way. Give yourself a huge reward when you get there. Help others enjoy it. Be gracious and generous. Use your dream to better others. Then go back to number 1. And dream a little bigger this time!
by Chris Widener
"Vision is the spectacular that inspires us to carry out the mundane."
Chris Widener
Can achievement be broken down into steps? Well, it isn't always that clean and easy, but I do know that those who achieve great things usually go through much of the same process, with many of the items listed below as part of that process. So if you have been struggling with achievement, look through the following and internalize the thoughts presented. Then begin to apply them. You will be on the road to achieving your dream!
1. Dream it - Everything begins in the heart and mind. Every great achievement began in the mind of one person. They dared to dream, to believe that it was possible. Take some time to allow yourself to ask "What if?" Think big. Don't let negative thinking discourage you. You want to be a "dreamer." Dream of the possibilities for yourself, your family, and for others. If you had a dream that you let grow cold, re-ignite the dream! Fan the flames. Life is too short to let it go. (Also, check out my article "Dare to Dream Again," which has been read by close to a million people in the last 4 months alone. You can see it at the website - http://www.madeforsuccess.com).
2. Believe it - Yes, your dream needs to be big. It needs to be something that is seemingly beyond your capabilities. But it also must be believable. You must be able to say that if certain things take place, if others help, if you work hard enough, though it is a big dream, it can still be done. Good example: A person with no college education can dream that he will build a 50 million-dollar a year company. That is big, but believable. Bad example: That a 90 year-old woman with arthritis will someday run a marathon in under 3 hours. It is big alright, but also impossible. She should instead focus on building a 50 million-dollar a year business! And she better get a move on!
3. See it - The great achievers have a habit. They "see" things. They picture themselves walking around their CEO office in their new 25 million-dollar corporate headquarters, even while they are sitting on a folding chair in their garage "headquarters." Great free-throw shooters in the NBA picture the ball going through the basket. PGA golfers picture the ball going straight down the fairway. World-class speakers picture themselves speaking with energy and emotion. All of this grooms the mind to control the body to carry out the dream.
4. Tell it - One reason many dreams never go anywhere is because the dreamer keeps it all to himself. It is a quiet dream that only lives inside of his mind. The ones who want to achieve their dreams must tell that dream to many people. One reason: As we continually say it, we begin to believe it more and more. If we are talking about it, then it must be possible. Another reason: It holds us accountable. When we have told others, it spurs us on to actually do it so we don't look foolish.
5. Plan it - Every dream must take the form of a plan. The old saying that you "get what you plan for" is so true. Your dream won't just happen. You need to sit down, on a regular basis, and plan out your strategy for achieving the dream. Think through all of the details. Break the whole plan down into small, workable parts. Then set a time frame for accomplishing each task on your "dream plan."
6. Work it - Boy, wouldn't life be grand if we could quit before this one! Unfortunately the successful are usually the hardest workers. While the rest of the world is sitting on their couch watching re-runs of Gilligan's Island, achievers are working on their goal - achieving their dream. I have an equation that I work with: Your short-term tasks, multiplied by time, equal your long-term accomplishments. If you work on it each day, eventually you will achieve your dream. "War and Peace" was written, in longhand, page by page.
7. Enjoy it - When you have reached your goal and you are living your dream, be sure to enjoy it. In fact, enjoy the trip too. Give yourself some rewards along the way. Give yourself a huge reward when you get there. Help others enjoy it. Be gracious and generous. Use your dream to better others. Then go back to number 1. And dream a little bigger this time!
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