A standard is defined as “a level of quality or attainment.” It’s a measure of accountability that directly influences your impact in sports and in the game of life. When you have low standards, you will have low success. However, the opposite is also true. As the level of your standards increase, so increases your success. That’s because with higher standards, comes a higher level of accountability, training, commitment, grit, and focus on goal achievement. Your success in the game of life is directly related to the standards you hold yourself to.

Who is the most valuable person in your life? You might say your mom, your grandfather, or maybe even your girlfriend or boyfriend. Sure, there’s always an easy answer to that question, but the easy answer may not always be the most accurate. If we zoomed out of your life and looked at the person you value the most, do the most for, and focus on the most, you’d most likely be looking in the mirror. If you want to find success in the game of life, then you must learn to treat every person you meet, from the custodian to the coach that’s recruiting you, the same. Treat every person you meet like they are the most valuable person you’ve ever met.

Pillar:  Servant Leadership

Key Topic: servant leadership, serving others, service, team goals, putting others first, communication

There are two types of mindsets people operate from: a fixed-mindset and a growth-mindset. But there is only one mindset that leads to success: the growth mindset. That’s because the growth mindset isn’t focused on where you’ve been or what you have, it’s focused on where you’re going. It’s focused not on what you have in this moment, but instead on what you’re going to gain in every moment between now and then. “Become perfect” is a growth mindset. “Become perfect” says “I may not be there today, but I’m going to get there soon.”

Are you a pretender or a contender? Everybody will say that they are contenders, but what do their actions show? At first glance, pretenders and contenders look the same, but that’s only on the surface. If we look a bit deeper, the differences become clear. Whether you are a pretender or a contender has nothing to do with your words and everything to do with your actions. If you want to be a contender, follow your integrity, embrace what you can become, and be patient in pursuit of your goals.

Everyday, we have a choice to make as to whether we want to impress people or impact people’s lives. When we focus on trying to impress others, we care about our reputations (and ourselves) more than we care about the impact we can have on the lives of others. The desire to impress others means that our purpose in life is one of selfishness and striving to be enough based on what other people see, rather than what we actually are. When we instead focus on trying to have an impact on others, we care about our character and the people we can assist more than we care about the records we can break to gain attention. When we desire to be impactful, our purpose is one of selflessness and striving to make the world a better place because we genuinely care about others.

Too often we’re disproportionately focused on talent over character. We view talent as the way to make it. We strive to develop our talent; maximize our skill; because we think it’s the thing that will drive us to succeed in life. All the while it’s easy to neglect character. How many division one athletes do you know who are untalented? You see, at a certain level, talent levels out. To maximize your talent, you must maximize your character. The strength of your character will determine the success of your talents.

A Do-For will only do things for what they get out of it, such as working hard for the praise. The problem is that eventually what we do the thing for will not be enough. On the flip side, a Do-Right does the right thing because it’s right regardless of where they are or what they will get out of it. To do right requires pride, time, and failure.

It’s not fair. Why is this happening to me? These are common thoughts when reality doesn’t meet up with your expectations. Common, but unhelpful. Life isn’t fair. Bad things happen to good people. Everyone makes mistakes. Even if you do everything right, you may still fail, but you have an opportunity to learn from this event and prepare for similar situations in the future. One method for seizing opportunities like this is the OODA Loop, originally developed by U.S. Air Force Col. John Boyd. OODA stands for: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.

Anger isn’t any more inherently wrong than fire. But like fire, it can be destructive if it’s not kept within boundaries. You have certain rights when it comes to your anger, but those rights can be forfeited if you let your anger control you instead of the other way around. The more you control your anger, the more even-keeled you will be. The more you can be angry without committing any of these anger rights violations, the more even-keeled you will be able to remain. And, the more even your temperament is, the better leader and teammate you will be.

Pillar: Personal Code

Key Topics: anger, anger rights, patience, control your anger, count the eyes, anger management, emotional release