Monday, November 30, 2009

Choices

Tom Crean believes that it's the details, energy and passion that seperate the winners. Everyone wants to win, but not everybody is willing to do all the things that are necessary to win, not everybody is willing to do the little things time and time again, that's what is needed to reach excellence. It's the extra that seperates the ordinary from the extrordinary! Tony Dungy, the former coach of the Indianapolis Colts, believes that there are 4 traits of a winner and they are...
1.) Talent
2.) Intellegence
3.)Character and
4.) Toughness

What are your 4 traits of a winner?

My personal 4 traits of a winner are...
1. Energy: is how much passion and enthusiasm we commit towards something. Without energy, we cannot give our best because when you are energized you are engaged and it's essential to be engaged in order to compete at the highest level, which is excellence. Energy and enthusiasm then become contagious and can inspire others around you.

2. Effort: is simply hard work and "there is no substitute for hard work!"

3. Execution: is combining energy and effort to prepare to the best of your ability, which gives you discipline to execute at the highest level, which is excellence.

4. Toughness: is essential for a player or team to develop to reach potential. Toughness has nothing to do with size, strength or athleticism. Toughness is a choice that anybody can make. Toughness is a skill that anybody can develop and improve on. "Players play, but tough players win!"

Energy + Enthusiasm + Execution = Excellence

I refer to them as the 3 E's plus toughness. When equated together, the 3 E's always equals Excellence! You need toughness, however, to get you through the obstacles that all great teams are faced with overcoming. You need toughness to do the little things right and to do them consistently. The ultimate goal of a winner is to strive for excellence! When you combine passion (energy), hard work (effort) and preparation (execution), you give yourself an opportunity to achieve full potential, which is considered to be excellence!

Whatever your 4 traits may be, the most important thing is that it all comes down to one thing...choice! It comes down to you making the choice to believe in those things, stick to 'em and never waivering from them. Sometimes life deals us situations that are outside of our control, but our traits are always our choice. We can choose our attitude, we can choose our enthusiasm, we can choose what we are passionate about, we can choose how much energy we have, we can choose how much effort we put into something and we can certainly choose how much we prepare for something, we can also choose how tough we are or how tough we play. Everyday we make choices, some good, some bad, but it's our choices that determines our character, our attitude. It's our choices that determine how we handle adversity, how we overcome obstacles.

It's All About Character...
Watch your thoughts,
they become your words.
Watch your words,
they become your actions.
Watch your actions,
they become habits.
Watch your habits,
They become your character.
Watch your character,
it becomes your destiny.

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