Sunday, Dec 2, 2012
Garza County News

TGP

Becoming a Winner

The Coach's Corner

Published March 14, 2012 @ 7:05 p.m.

Former President Harry S. Truman said, “A winner is the one who makes opportunities of crises.  A loser is the one who makes crises of his opportunities.”  It is not always the baseball player with the highest average who is called upon to pinch hit in a tough spot.  It is not always the basketball player with the best shooting percentage asked to take the last shot.  Some students do great with daily work, but freeze up for an examination and there are others who do average work but excel on important tests.

There is no inherent quality that explains the difference between these people, but rather a matter of how the respond crisis.  Do they react negatively, or do they respond with confidence?  For something to be a crisis, it must have three factors; 1) It must be happening to you. 2) It must be happening currently. 3) It is a make or break situation for success or failure.

In order to perform well in a crisis, we need to learn certain skills and practice them with focus and diligence.  Next, we need to respond to the situation with an aggressive effort and focus on the positive outcome and never take a defensive attitude.  Lastly, we need to learn to evaluate crisis situations in their true perspective, which is to say to not make mountains out of mole hills, or reacting as if every small challenge were a matter of life or death.

A good example of this is a last second shot in basketball or a two point conversion in football.  Teams that practice these situations every week and who run their plays in practice to simulate these times will be able to perform and execute the winning play.  If they had not practiced this play, the pressure would be the focus and not the execution and success would be a lot less likely.

A crisis situation is not to be feared.  Many people have made the mistake of misinterpreting the feeling of excitement as fear and anxiety.  Any normal person who is intelligent enough to understand the situation becomes excited or nervous in a crisis situation.  Until you direct it toward a goal, this excitement is neither fear, anxiety, courage, confidence, nor anything more than a hyped up supply of emotional steam in your boiler.  It is NOT a sign of weakness.  It is a sign of additional strength to be used in any way you choose.  Do not interpret nervous energy as fear, but harness it into energy to use in a positive way.

Sometimes when we think of what could be the worst thing that could happen we realize it is not as critical as we thought.  Many people spend their lives making mountains out of mole hills.  The man who goes for a job interview doesn’t have the job before he goes in, so if he does not get the job, he is no worse off that he was before he went in for the interview.

Paint the picture of the desired end result, and your success instinct will work until it is reached.  Use the crisis to make yourself perform as a winner.  Practice to be a winner in these situations and have an aggressive attitude and resolve to conquer the situation.

In important situations and during crisis we must be Bold.  Do not be scared or have fear or think negative things when presented a challenge.  Be Bold and use the opportunity to become great, to achieve success in reaching for the Gold.  Have confidence, class, and mind set to never settle but to strive for the win, to grasp excellence, to win the Gold.  This is what we aspire to do because we are POST and we are BOLD GOLD.

 
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