Life, Leadership, and Football

It's been way too long since my last post. Here's to a more consistent blog in 2015! It's New Year's Eve, and I just couldn't let the year pass without putting together one more post. I haven't written (well, finished might be a better word) anything since August. If you're wondering why it's been so long, you might have missed the part in earlier posts where I spoke about being a football coach. Nonetheless, I'm back, and I think you're going to like this one (or you might actually hate it). Winning and Standardized Tests Most people would never put those two things together. I never would have before last week either. Just the mention of Standardized testing can (and usually does) spark an impassioned debate. I am not here to promote testing or to speak against it. In fact, my opinion, your opinion, or anybody else's opinion on the subject really doesn't have anything to do with what I'm going to talk about. Follow along wi...

Drew is fired up because he just finished putting that "big boy" puzzle together "all by himself" (almost). I am still pretty new at being a parent. Drew is my oldest child, and he just turned three a couple months ago. The last three years have been a crash course in parenthood. Every day I learn something new, and every day I realize more and more just how important his mother and I are to his overall development. That responsibility weighs heavily on me. I love my son, and I want him to experience the absolute best things that life has to offer. Just like every other parent out there, I want him to be successful at everything he does, and as I sat at the kitchen table with him tonight while he worked on his puzzle, I wrestled with a very tough thought: No matter how much I want him to succeed, there is no way I can guarantee his lifelong success or happiness. How'd we go from the simple, joyful task of putting together a puzzle to dwelling on such a...

I read an article once that featured Richard Robinson, the CEO of Scholastic Books. In the article Robinson tells about a time when he was visiting their distribution center in Jefferson City, Missouri. As he was touring the facility, he started talking to a man driving a forklift, and during that conversation, he asked him, "What is your job? What are you doing here?" I'll never forget what the forklift driver said. "My job is to help children love to read."   What a statement! If Robinson was asking us the same question in our own workplaces, how many of us would have responded with such a statement? Most of us would respond with something along the lines of "I'm a teacher," "I'm a coach," "I'm a forklift driver," or "I'm an insurance salesman." All too often we allow our job titles to define us. It's easy to do because most of us take great pride in our job titles. I know I am proud of...

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU for all of the encouraging feedback that I have received for my first post, " Live Like A Champion. "  I couldn't believe how many people read it, and I was humbled when I saw complete strangers retweeting the link. Thank you so much! I hope I can produce more posts that folks can relate to and learn from in the future. Now lets get down to business. Raise your hand if you've ever sent a text, read a text, checked an email, or looked at any of your social media accounts on your phone while driving you car? If you didn't raise you hand, that means one of three things: 1) You do not have a license. 2) You're not human. 3) You're guilty, but you think it's stupid to raise your hand while sitting by yourself, reading some guy's blog. Next question: How many of you, upon committing this abhorrent deed, thought the following (or something similar) to yourself? "What a jerk! I am so inconsiderate of t...