More About Habits

There's a great book by Eric Greitens called Resilience. The chapter on habits is one of my favorites. Here are a few lines from that chapter:

“The direction of a person’s life is shaped not by a single turning point, but by thousands of days, each filled with small, unspectacular decisions and small, unremarkable acts that make us who we are.”

“Your life builds not by dramatic acts, but by accumulation.”

“How many people have put off the necessary, glamorous work of building habits because they spend their lives waiting for an epiphany that never comes? Don’t wait. Don’t wait a single day.”

“For most people engaged in pursuits of excellence, we are not dealing with a single important day of decision. We are instead dealing with days and weeks and months and years of accumulated effort, consistent practice, and wise habit formation.”

Steph Curry's Practice Habits

I love this video. It’s about Steph Curry’s practice habits at 16 years old:

My favorite line from the video: “Are the habits that you have today on par with the dreams you have for tomorrow? That’s something you need to ask yourself every single day. Because whatever you do on a regular basis today will determine where you will be tomorrow.” If you ask yourself that question and the answer is no (there is a disconnect between your habits and your dreams), you have two choices:

1. Change your habits
2. Change your dreams

"If your habits don't line up with your dream, then you need to either change your habits or change your dream." - John Maxwell 

You don’t get to have bad habits and big dreams. Of course, the good news is you’re in control and success is a choice. The good news is “anything is ours ... providing we are willing to pay the price” (Red Blaik).

Are the habits that I have today on par with the dreams I have for tomorrow?

Program Philosophy: Introduction

This is my program (coaching) philosophy. Though it’s certainly in line with what we’re doing in Pittsburgh, it doesn't belong to any particular team right now. I created it with a hypothetical team in mind and envision using it when I have a team of my own one day. I don’t claim much other than the arrangement to be original; rather, it’s a collection of ideas borrowed from people like: Pat Riley, Brett Ledbetter, Shaka Smart, Simon Sinek, Jim Collins, C.S. Lewis, J.J. Reddick, P.J. Fleck, Daniel Pink, Eugene Peterson, Angela Duckworth, Viktor Frankl, John Wooden, the New Zealand All Blacks, John Miller, the Navy Seals, Jack Clark, Anson Dorrance, Nick Saban, Daniel Chambliss, Jerry Garcia, Urban Meyer, Chris Petersen, Bono -- and most significantly Dave Brandt (it's not unfair to call this a reorganization of ideas he talks about). I’m sure there are many others who’ve influenced it as well, but I’ll fail to give them all credit.

I began creating this document when I became head coach of the Eastern Nazarene men’s soccer
program in March 2013. At first, I did little more than copy the core values used by Coach Brandt during my playing days at Messiah. Slowly, however, I made it more and more my own. As much as anything, I wanted to put concepts like purpose, identity, pride, core values, culture, excellence, organizational greatness and success in context with each other and the bigger picture. This document has gone through many iterations and what I’ve posted here is only the most recent version.

I plan to write more about it in future posts.