There has never been a gift offered that makes you swallow your pride to the depths that the gift of Jesus Christ requires us to do. Christmas means that we are so lost, so unable to save ourselves, that nothing less than the death of the Son of God himself could save us. That means you are not somebody who can pull yourself together and live a moral and good life.
Christmas, therefore, is the most unsentimental, realistic way of looking at life. It does
not say, “Cheer up! If we all pull together we can make the world a better place.” The Bible never counsels indifference to the forces of darkness, only resistance, but it supports no illusions that we can defeat them ourselves. Christianity does not agree with the optimistic thinkers who say, “We can fix things if we try hard enough.” Nor does it agree with the pessimists who see only a dystopian future.
The message of Christianity is, instead, “Things really are this bad, and we can’t heal or save ourselves. Things really are this dark — nevertheless, there is hope.” The Christmas message is that “on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
Here's an absolutely awesome commencement address delivered by Admiral William H. McRaven to the University of Texas graduating class of 2014:
Herer are the ten lessons he learned from basic SEAL training:
1. Start off by making your bed.
2. Find someone to help you paddle.
3. Measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.
4. Get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.
5. Don’t be afraid of the circuses.
6. Sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.
7. Don’t back down from the sharks.
8. Be your very best in the darkest moment.
9. Start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.
10. Don’t ever, ever ring the bell.
I love The Players' Tribune. If you've never visited the site, you should check it out. It's a:
New media company that provides athletes with a platform to connect directly with their fans, in their own words. Founded by Derek Jeter, The Players’ Tribune publishes first-person stories from athletes, providing unique insight into the daily sports conversation. Through impactful and powerful long- and short-form stories, video series and podcasts, The Players’ Tribune brings fans closer than ever to the games they love.
Here's an article written by Richard Sherman called How We Play Football in Seattle. I especially like two sections. The first:
By the end of my second season, Coach Carroll’s philosophy had started to manifest
itself. You could tell, because it felt like college. When you’re getting ready to make the jump to the NFL, people tell you that it’s a business. That you’re not going to make friends. That everybody is trying to butter their own bread, trying to feed their families. That it’s every man for himself. Then, you get to Seattle and play for Pete Carroll and ...
Nah. It ain’t like that. Not here.
I've heard a lot of the same thing since moving to Pittsburgh: basically, "this isn't college"; "pros are selfish"; "you can't force them to think that way"; "you can't build a really great team culture at the professional level." I disagree with all of it. I love reading about what Pete Carroll (long time college coach) has done in professional football.
The other section is about Earl Thomas:
If you’re having a tough day at practice, Earl [Thomas] might come over and clap his hands together — SMACK! — right in your face. “C’mon. Wake up!” On another team or in another camp, a guy might see that as a sign of disrespect. His machismo might kick in and he might get defensive like, Why you comin’ at me like that, bro? But in Seattle, when somebody like Earl does that, there’s no conflict or confrontation because you know he’s coming from a place of love. He’s trying to wake you up and get you to where you’re supposed to be. Everyone knows Earl is the energy — the spark plug in our practices — and that you can depend on him to be flying around, giving it 100% every day. If there’s a day when you feel like you just don’t have it, you can look to Earl and find it. He’s a guy who’ll break his back to help you, and he expects the same in return. Nothing less. You respect that.
I had the opportunity to coach at the US Naval Academy for a year and half. It was a fascinating experience and I now see references to the Academy all over the place -- references that went clear over my head a few years ago. This morning, I read a great article on The Player's Tribune featuring USNA alum David Robinson. Here are a couple of my favorite parts:
How do you build a solid vocabulary? The same way you build a house. Brick by brick. Word by word. Night after night. The same rule applies to learning to swim, or developing a post move, or building a business. Preparation is everything. This is a simple but undeniable truth that is completely lost on you at 18 years old.
When you fail the swim test, don’t get too bent out of shape. Just remember how your father built up your vocabulary with that thick dictionary. Practice, son.
Here's a good article written for The Players' Tribune on Kobe Bryant's practice habits: The Secret I Learned From Kobe Bryant by Buddy Hield. Kobe's greatness (winning + impact + endurance) is a direct result of his individual excellence ("deliberate actions, ordinary in themselves, performed consistently and carefully, compounded together, added up over time" - Daniel Chambliss).
Here's some inspiration from a commencement speech given by Charlie Day, creator of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia:
The section I wanted to highlight begins at 16:41, but there are good stories earlier in the speech as well. Here's the part I especially liked:
People will tell you to do what makes you happy, but all this has been hard work. And I'm not always happy. I don't think you should just do what makes you happy. Do what makes you great. Do what's uncomfortable and scary and hard but pays off in the long run. Be willing to fail. Let yourself fail. Fail in the way and place where you would be proud to fail. Fail and pick yourself up and fail again.
I've watched nearly every video on Brett Ledbetter's whatdriveswinning.com and nearly every one is gold. Here's a good one featuring PJ Fleck from the 2016 conference:
I can appreciate his approach to building a program from ground zero and I think it's a really good perspective to keep in mind. Here are a few quotes:
Success isn't a straight line.
[Despite being 1-11 in year one,] behind the scenes we were winning; the process of winning was taking form.
This core value comes from Jack Clark, head coach of the Cal men's rugby team. Since he took over the program in 1984, Cal Rugby has won 22 National Championships (through 2013). Beyond winning, Clark does a really good job articulating his approach to building a high performance culture. Jen Sinkler did a great interview with Clark for her website. Here's a section:
Our mindset is how we filter our values and how we talk about them. I think it’s important now, more than ever before, because there is a lot of entitlement. But we say our mindset is “entitled to nothing, grateful for everything.” We’re really happy when people do something for us and somebody washes our clothes or somebody puts on a meal for us. Anything that we get, we feel really grateful for it but we don’t really think we’re entitled to much. I mean you ask how do you become resilient? Well, that’s
kind of it. I mean, you don’t expect much — not from the ref, not from the opposition. If you’re playing into the wind in both halves, that’s just how it is. We just don’t expect to get a break. That makes you tougher in a way. We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what happened to us and why did it happen to us and woe is us. We just get on with what’s the next most important thing, which is our definition, by the way, for mental toughness. We borrowed that definition from a really good Australian cricketer. I always thought it was the cleanest definition of mental toughness I ever heard.
And here's Clark speaking at Brett Ledbetter's What Drives Winning Conference in 2015:
A few years back, I read QBQ: The Question Behind The Question by John Miller after hearing it was mandatory reading for employees working at Dave Ramsey's company. The book is about personal accountability. It's about asking what you can do to improve the situation rather than assigning blame. The opposite of taking personal accountability is playing the victim. A good line from the book:
We always have a choice. Always. Realizing this and taking responsibility for our choices is a big step toward making great things happen in our lives.
On high performance teams, it's not enough to take accountability for your actions alone. You must also take accountability for the actions of your teammates. If your teammate fails, the team fails. You fail. The verse on our crest at Messiah was Proverbs 27:17:
As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.
It's interesting: after including 'we take personal accountability for our actions and the actions of our teammates' in the Starting XI, I came across the Navy SEAL's SEAL Code. One of their values is very similar (almost identical):
Take personal responsibility for your actions and the actions of your teammates.
'We sweep the sheds' is about servant leadership and it's the first core value of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team. Few (if any) teams in any sport can match the All Blacks record of dominance over the last 100 years. Looking at recent history, their win rate is over 86 percent since rugby's professional era began in 1995. Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us about the Business of Life by James Kerr provides great insight into the All Blacks organizational culture. Ian Brooks wrote a great summary of the book, highlighting the teams' core values (The First XV). Brooks writes:
Before leaving the dressing room at the end of a game, some of the top players in the team – including Richie McCaw and Dan Carter – stop and tidy up. They literally and figuratively 'sweep the sheds.' It is an example of personal humility, a cardinal All Blacks value. Though it might seem strange for a team of imperious dominance, humility is core to their culture. The All Blacks believe that it’s impossible to achieve success without
having your feet planted firmly on the ground.
Also on servant leadership, there's a great passage in Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield:
I will tell his majesty what a king is. A king does not abide within his tent while his men bleed and die upon the field. A king does not dine while his men go hungry, nor sleep when they stand at watch upon the wall. A king does not command his men’s loyalty through fear, nor purchase it with gold; he earns their love by the sweat of his own back and the pains he endures for their sake. That which comprises the harshest burden a king lifts first and sets down last. A king does not require service of those he leads, but provides it to them. He serves them, not they him.
And finally, I just recently bought Why Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek and I'm excited to read it. Here's what's on the back cover:
Leaders are the ones who run headfirst into the unknown. They rush toward danger. They put their own interests aside to protect us or pull us into the future. Leaders would sooner sacrifice what is theirs to save what is ours. And they would never sacrifice what is ours to save what is theirs. This is what it means to be a leader. It means they choose to go first into danger, headfirst into the unknown. And when we feel sure they will keep us safe, we will march behind them and walk tirelessly to see their visions come to life and proudly call ourselves their followers.
Here's a video presentation by Sinek on "Why Leaders Eat Last":
