This season I coached seven year-olds, the JV-B soccer team at Upper Arlington High School, I coached Intramural Sports at Jones Middle School, and I became the Administrator for the Pre-Academy program with Columbus Crew SC Player Development. Obviously, it taught me how important time management skills are to your everyday life. Scheduling, prioritizing, execution, and review become vital to the development of my "career". Why do I put quotes around "career", you ask? Well, my "career" is something I put before everything since I arrived in Columbus. Developing my skill set and gaining experience for the future was important to me. While I'm not arguing that that is not it true and I regret it, but that I learned a valuable lesson since my arrival in this city: life is not always fair.
For those of you who do not know, I came to Columbus from Colorado for an unpaid internship at Columbus Crew SC. I was given a chance to to move across country after I graduated college to work in a a part of business that excited me the most: youth soccer. Many people thought I was crazy. "Why did you move from beautiful Colorado to Ohio?" many ask. Good question.
It was an opportunity for me to start fresh, to learn something new about myself, and to be exposed to an environment that was unknown to me. Columbus Crew SC gave me an opportunity to make something of myself and to build a platform that would help me transition into the business world. I have been involved in more things than I could have ever imagined and this would not have happened if I had not take this opportunity. An opportunity that would eventually teach more lessons than I would have ever thought.
This opportunity came as a result of having ambition and a desired result. Laying out goals for myself has helped me accomplish what I want in life. This is what I began to instill in my players at Upper Arlington High School. At the beginning of the season, I met with each player to discuss their team and individual goals for the season. This gave the players something to work towards rather than just playing another soccer season. This season was an example of an opportunity each player worked towards and created for themselves. Each player had goals at the beginning of the season and by the end of the season, evaluate their progress. If they met those goals great. If they did not, it is not the end of the world. They will think, "Why did I not achieve those goals? What happened that prevented me from succeeding?" Then they will fix those issues and improve upon them in the future, making their self-reflection period important in their development.
Even with all the preparation, the work ethic, and the desire to reach those goals, the positive outcome may not always be shoveled out. Unfortunately, you may work your butt off but you will not get the desired outcome you expected. And that may hurt your self-esteem. You may not be able to get back from it until you reach the next opportunity. Life is not fair, but you can not get discouraged when the opportunities are not always positive. Life does not care when you are feeling sorry for yourself when you do not get what you want. Life goes on and it will leave you behind if you choose to wallow in your own self-pity. Once you feel sorry for yourself, you start going backwards rather than move forwards with a positive attitude. The "only disability in life is a bad attitude" and that alone will cripple you for life.
An ESPN Video shows this similar message in a different light: A Reason To Win.
Now I ask: do you view every mistake you make as a negative? Or do you see those mistakes as something you can learn from and make strides forward towards the next opportunity? With ambitions, the only way to go is up.
So, take a step back. Look around you and think about what you have in your life. Go ahead, smile. I know you want to. That smile is infectious and I guarantee others will smile back.
