Life, Leadership, and Football

Seriously. I love learning. I wish I could say I have always been that way, but to be completely honest, I haven't. I was always very good at playing the game of "school," but I never had a genuine love for learning as I grew up. I was driven to do well by my desire to please my parents, my teachers, and my coaches, and I knew that if I wanted to "be successful" in life I had to "do well in school." I had what Dr. Carol Dweck would call a very "fixed mindset," and it stuck with me all the way through my college years. I was a good student, but I focused on achieving, not learning. I hated reading with a passion. Again, I was good at it (maybe just "good enough"), but I hated it. Being a double major in history and psychology was not good for someone who hated reading, but I managed to survive. Thankfully, I had a few professors who were masterful presenters that could keep my attention, and I had the motivation of my football coac...

I love John Wooden. His ideas have shaped my thinking as a teacher and coach more than anyone else. I believe he got more out of his athletes than probably any other coach ever has (and he had the championships to back that up). His teams worked hard, but he also did things differently than most coaches were doing at the time. He knew that there was more to it than hard work.  Hard work is not enough. That may come as a shock to some people, but it's the truth. Often times, we falsely tell ourselves (and others) that if we just work hard enough, we will be successful. However, that isn't necessarily true.  We tell our football players all the time that hard work is not enough. Right now, every football program in Texas (that's worth a darn) is working extremely hard. Every one of them is going through a grueling off-season. Young men are lifting and running like their lives depend on it. How then can some teams pull to the front of the pack if everyone else...

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...

"'Am' always follows 'do' in American culture." - Alex Himaya, Senior Pastor, theCHURCH.at I was sitting in church a couple weeks ago, and when our pastor said this, I knew I had to include it in this post.  I don't think it's a profound statement, but I do think it points out a troubling truth. Our culture tends to define us by our accomplishments.  We see it all the time.  Let's use Dan Marino as a quick, easy example. Dan Marino is arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, but every time the debate comes up, the first argument against Marino is the fact that he never won a Super Bowl.  The critics ask, "How can he be the greatest if he never won a Super Bowl?"  Really?!  Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl, and if I had to pick between the two, I'd take Marino every time (no offense, Trent). "If you ain't first, you're last." - Ricky Bobby The problem, as Pastor Alex went on to point...