Quote of the Day

Inaction breeds doubt and fear.  Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

~Dale Carnegie

Thought of the Day

LIfe Lessons from the Super Bowl

I love football ... mostly because my son, Devon LOVES football.   Football has always been a huge part of our life.  He started playing football when he was 8 years old with the LMFA Banting Bulldogs. Now he plays for Banting High School.  This fall he had the opportunity to win the Junior Football City Championship Game and then dress and play with the senior team winnning 2 city championships in one day.  I read this article and thought it was a great "Life Lesson" paralleling the Superbowl.  I shared the article with Devon and wanted to share it here too.

Enjoy!
Article from http://adamadgroup.com/

The difference between winning and losing is often fractional, but the lessons we learn from losing can be truly life or game changing.

Only one team wins the Super Bowl.

For each player on the NY Giants going to Disney World after the game there is a player on the New England Patriots going home disappointed without the joy of victory.

It's a lot like life.

Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.

Sometimes we win the account, the game, the job promotion, the award and sometimes we lose the very thing we want most.

Winning matters. Losing matters. But in life what matters most is what we do with our wins and losses.

When we win do we become complacent or stay humble and hungry?

People often say that success breeds success but often it breeds complacency. After a win people think they can just show up and achieve the same result, forgetting the effort, determination and mindset it took to achieve the win.

To continue winning it's essential to turn the euphoria of winning into a fire of burning desire that fuels your continuous improvement, passion, and quest for excellence.

Even more important than what we do after our wins is how we respond to our losses.

Do we give up or come back stronger?

Do we allow the loss to act like a cancer that eats away at us for the rest of our life or do we turn it into a learning opportunity that leads to our healthy growth?

I certainly know what it feels like to lose. I've lost many arguments with my wife. : )  My book The Energy Bus was rejected by the first 30 publishers. As a sales person years ago I lost as many accounts as I won. I lost too many games as a Lacrosse player at Cornell and now I watch my children lose tennis matches and lacrosse games.

Everyone loses but the key is to make the loss stand for something and in my family LOSS now stands for:

LOSS (Learning Opportunity, Stay Strong)

When we lose we ask what we can learn from this loss and how we can improve because of it. Then we stay strong and work harder to come back and try to win.

This leads to more wins in the future...and also eventually more loses...and more learning opportunities and opportunities to stay strong and develop our character.

Through this process of winning and losing we learn the greatest lesson of all:

No matter how hard we work and how much we improve there will be times when we experience the worst of defeats instead of the greatest of victories. But ultimately life is about more than winning or losing. It’s about the lessons we learn, the character and strength we build and the people we become along the way.

Whether we win the Super Bowl or not, when we realize this we will surely be a winner in the game of life!