I Shall Return

 

"Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that upon other fields on other days will bear the fruits of victory," said Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Every cadet at West Point is required to memorize that quote. It is also required of all cadets to participate in some type of competitive athletics. The Academy believes that sports participation aids in leadership development. I happen to agree.

General MacArthur’s intent may have been preparation for military combat, but his words ring true for how sports can impact life. My friend Ken Bell has often said that sports are “life lessons.” That’s very true.

The opportunities for learning life lessons are everywhere in sports.  Look at teamwork. In sports, a team depends on effective teamwork for success. One of the beautiful aspects of sport is watching teamwork in action.

Think of a football play, where all eleven team members are moving in concert, moving parts executing with precision to achieve a common goal. Although it can look like chaos, movement on the soccer pitch is orchestrated to achieve the same objective.

Watch a volleyball match, where every movement is purposeful and coordinated.  I happen to think it is a thing of beauty. But take away that teamwork and execution and it all falls apart.

It doesn’t take much imagination to extrapolate those lessons to life, relationships, jobs, and just getting through a typical day. Learning to work as a team will carry you far. We are always better together. A five stranded rope is stronger than a single cord.

We learn social skills through sports. You have the opportunity to be a gracious winner and a good loser. You have the opportunity to learn how to be a good teammate.

We all want to win every time out but it is often through losing that we discover more about ourselves. We can learn what our shortcomings are. We can learn who we can depend on when things get tough. We can learn how best to work together.

If we’re paying attention, our failures will teach us what we need to work on. I remember working with a nephew one time on his strength training. A two-sport high school athlete, he only wanted to work on what he was good at. I insisted on working on the things that he hated to do.

He always wanted to do bench press and arm curls. He was good at those. But he needed better core strength and explosive power. He didn’t like those, but we did them anyway. I didn’t care how much he could bench but I did care how effectively he moved his body.

I’ve heard people say “we just need to learn how to be winners.” The context is that you need to learn how to win by winning, which might lead to an attitude of win at all costs. I don’t agree with that at all.

We learn how to be winners by learning HOW to win, not in the winning itself. Does that make sense? We learn how to be winners by understanding our strengths and weaknesses, learning how to work as a team, by being the best version of ourselves.

We learn how to be winners by executing, by being coachable, by being fully prepared, by being good teammates. We learn how to be winners by discovering how hard we can push through pain and hard times.  We learn how to be winners by doing the little things, like eating right, getting enough sleep, and by putting in the work.

Winning isn’t everything—striving to win is everything. Doing what you need to do to succeed is everything, whatever the game you’re playing.