Monday Mush -- wining streaks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL5lwQdd1Ws (:55)

De La Salle was known (and still is) as one of the best high school football programs of all time.  They hold a record that will probably stand for many, many years to come.  They won 151 games in a row and countless state championships in California.  The movie “When the Game Stands Tall” is about what happens to a team when that streaks stops because they lose.  It is a new team of younger players, and they don’t give 100% in their practice and commitments.  So, they lose.  The above scene is a depiction of the locker room after that loss. 

Here are some “take aways” that I had:

1.       We don’t need anger to solve our problems…”we don’t do that here.”  Anger clouds our perception…it clouds our reasoning ability…it clouds our focus…we can’t see what is truly important, if we let anger get the best of us.

2.       It is ok to show emotion…bad things happen, and sometimes we need a moment to collect ourselves and reset.  As we see from this team, how you “get up” when you are “knocked down” makes all the difference in the world.

3.       We need to speak truth about our shortcomings/mistakes.  If we lose, we lose.  We don’t have to sugar coat that.  We need to be honest with stakeholders as they are putting their trust in us.

4.       A game doesn’t define us…we are defined by much more than that.  “Let the way that you live your lives define you.”  I am very glad that I am not defined by one single moment in my life.  I am not always perfect and on my “A game,” so I am glad I get to look at a much larger sampling of my life.   

5.        It isn’t about a record or a streak.  We don’t “play” our game for the numbers or for the status of it.  We play to become better at being a supportive member of society….a better team mate.  We learn that the world is bigger than us, and that we have an important role to fill.  We need our kids to know that too.

In the movie, the players make “commitment cards” that they give to another player to hold them accountable to.  They may be like “I will not drop any passes in the next game, and I will do an extra 20 wind sprints after practice is over.”  They look for a way to go above and beyond the expectations of the team…they look for a way to do more….The way to get better is to do more….I thought that was a great thing to do with kids too.  Find a way to have kids hold themselves and each other accountable to doing more, and you will just have to get out of the way and watch the magic happen.

Thank you for all you do!  Happy Monday!