"Finish each day and be done with it."

"Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;  forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day;  begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered by your old nonsense."

That's my favorite quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I remember back in the middle of the football season when a local coach said of his quarterback "he can make a mistake and then put it completely out of his mind.  It's over.  It's on to the next play."

It was meant to be a compliment.  It certainly seems compatible with Emerson's advice.  Could there be any better advice in the middle of a big game?  It is often said of those athletes that can do that (forget about past mistakes and move on) have ice-water in their veins.

Forgot about it.  Put it behind you.  Move on.

One of my responsibilities with the MHS football team is the conditioning of the kickers.  Think about it.  Pretty much all they do at football practice is kick.

And I can tell you that it's easy to kick too much.  Sometimes we even count the number of kicks.   

So what happens is that the kickers get finished before the rest of the football team.

That's where I come in.  I take them through their conditioning and stretching drills.

What also happens is that I get close to them.  We become pals.  I don't coach them--we've got plenty of good folks that can do that--but I'm definitely there to encourage them.  Maybe pick them up when they get down.

I am part of their support system.  I know that I try to be the first one to greet them when they come off the field during a game, whether they had a good kick or not.

For a kicker that has just missed one or shanked a punt, nothing is more important than to live by Emerson's mantra.  Forget that last kick.  It's gone.  You can't do it again. Just nail the next one. 

We all make mistakes.  No one is perfect.  We're going to miss a free throw or strike out or double fault. 

But it's what we do next that is most important.  Do we shake it off?  Forget about it?  Move on to the next opportunity?

Or do we dwell on it.  Beat ourselves up for the miss.

I think we should all take Emerson's words to heart in our games and in our lives.  In the real world we're going to make mistakes.  We're going to screw up.  We're going to make bad choices. 

When we do, the best thing to do is to move on and do better the next time. 

I've said many times that sports are life lessons.  Maybe this is one of those lessons.  Learn from your mistakes and do better next time.  Figure out what you did wrong and fix it. 

But do move on.  Do forget about it.  What's happened has happened.   What you do next--how you respond to adversity--often defines the person you are and the person you are to become.