Imagine If You Could Just Close Your Eyes…. And See What Your Potential Really Is
In the first Blog, the goal was to show the effects of a Change In Reality. For me, that was the catalyst of a journey of wanting to do better, to give better, to get a better result not only for me, but for my team. A journey that resulted in an amazing system to make managing simple, cause it is something that definitely is not easy.
I have often thought, where would I be today if I had not had that Change in Reality? What if I had chosen a different path. What if I had never had the opportunity to work with Gerry? More likely than not, I think I would be 20 years older, and still looking at things the way I did 20 years ago.
I was lucky. I had my Change In Reality, but when you are in a position where you have to lead a team and manage a project to try and get the results you expect, you realize very quickly that not everyone has had their Change in Reality moment. There are many who’s expectations of what can be achieved, what results can be produced, are no where near what you believe.
Sometimes our greatest enemy, our greatest detractor, our greatest discourager is the person we see in the mirror every morning and every night… ourselves. We are the ones who tell ourselves “this is the way it is”, “this is the way it will always be”, “I’m not smart enough to do better”, “I can’t be that person who succeeds”, “I will fail, and everyone will notice”. We are the ones who get to have the first statement to us when we get up, and the last statement to us when we go to bed. When we are our own greatest enemy, detractor, and discourager, it’s so difficult to see what our potential really is. But what if? What if we had the opportunity to be our greatest supporter, our greatest defender, our greatest encourager? Sometimes we really don’t know our potential. We never got to experience a Change in Reality. And because we didn’t, we never got the opportunity to be our greatest supporter, our greatest defender, our greatest encourager.
If you can, please ask those who may interrupt you in the next 15 minutes to hold off for those 15 minutes. Make this next 15 minutes completely uninterruptible by anyone or anything (phone calls, texts, tweets, Facebook posts, anything). It’s roughly about the time you will need to finish up this blog. Everyone needs to see that there are potentials in their life far greater that they every thought possible. Our wish for you is that in the next 15 minutes you feel that you have so much more potential than you have ever thought.
Please watch the video before moving on to the final part of the blog.
Imagine If You Could Just Close Your Eyes … And See What Your Potential Really Is
This video clip, from the movie “Facing The Giants” ( IMDB Website Link) is a masterful piece of explaining the raw tenderness we all feel during certain times in our lives. At the beginning of the video, we are like Brock. We are in and amongst our peers and externally we display to the group a feeling that is the consensus of that group. When faced with a situation, we make conclusions about what kind of results we can deliver. We accept that we can only deliver what we think the result will be, nothing more. Brock concluded, before even starting the football game, that there was no way to beat that team.
Then, a leader and mentor (his coach) asks Brock to take a challenge, a challenge Brock has seen many times before. But this time it is a challenge that has a completely different reason than Brock thought. Brock feels that he is possibly being punished for his feelings about his conclusion of the next game. This time, the coach asks him to add one more thing to the drill, something in front of his eyes. Something to remove the ability for him to see when he reached the only goal he thinks he can achieve.
But…
After the blindfold is on, and the coach begins to walk him through the paces, Brock begins to forget how far down field he has move. He continues to go until he has a physical feeling that he is beginning to get to his limits. As he begins to get closer and closer to wanting to call it quits, his coach now becomes his mentor…. continually telling him things to make him feel that he is close to his expected goal.. closer and closer.
Here is the amazing thing about this story.
Those team mates of his, who at the beginning felt they were not good enough to win the next game, began to witness what Brock was Really capable of… even though Brock himself didn’t know how much more he was achieving. His team mates began to be astonished by the results Brock was producing.
And when Brock gave everything he could and was finished… he was only concerned about getting to his expectation of the 30 yard line. He didn’t even think he could get to the 50 yard line.
When he was done and the blindfold was removed… only then did he realize that, with the passion of his coach and his determination to give his very best, he was capable of far greater things that even he saw. His coach then told him the truth about his own character. He was the team’s leader, and that by being a leader, his team mates would play to his level…. Brock had to show them the way with passion, determination, and leadership.
You see, sometimes we need to be blind folded so we loose the ability to see where we are and then accept that this is all we can achieve.
But to some, this is just a movie. Things like this don’t happen in real life. Wanna bet?
Here is one story of a hockey coach in the NHL (National Hockey League), where the team all year was not expected to make the playoffs. In some expert’s opinions were going to be in the bottom part of the league. He made an incredible difference. Everyone wrote them off, each and every game, but he convinced the team to put blinders on to their reality, and showed them what their potential really was. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/04/15/calgary-flames-follow-mas_n_7066372.html
But to others, this is a story about an experienced coach with professional athletes. This doesn’t happen to you and me. Wanna bet?
I personally had an experience in the 2013 – 2014 local minor hockey season. Although I had been the President of our local minor hockey league for a number of years, I never played ice hockey. I knew the sport but never experienced it as a player growing up. It was during this year I had the privilege of being an assistant coach for a midget hockey team ( players 15 – 17 years of age). We had a tournament one weekend and our coach and the main assistant coach could not make the tournament. The night before the tournament, the team played a very hard hockey game, so we knew some of the players would be tired.
When myself and the third assistant coach, Terry, arrived at the arena for our first game of the tournament, we were a little shocked to see we only had 8 players. 4 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 1 goalie. And our goalie was 13 years old and 2 years from playing in the midget division. Our regular goalie, my son, was injured and could not play the tournament.
This is an incredible story for me to tell, and maybe one day I will tell the entire story at an event or in the podcast. For me, even when I tell it I feel the same emotions I felt that weekend.
By then end of the 2 day tournament, we had played 5 hockey games. Each game being 3 – 20 minute stop time games ( except for the third game on the first day of the tournament due to minor hockey rules and the amount of games a team can play in 24 hours). The team continually over achieved. Winning each and every game getting to the final game, game 5 of the tournament.
Game 5 was just as magical as the previous 4. At the end of the second period of the game we were winning against a team that had 19 players. I remember walking off the ice with the captain of the team, a 16 year old, and he was in absolute shock.. asking me “how are we still in this game?”
We ended up running out of gas in the last 5 minutes of the game. We lost the game and the tournament, but not one of those players felt like they lost anything. The post game speech to the team by Terry and myself was nothing more than shaking each and every player’s hand. What they showed both Terry and I (an their parents as well) was absolutely amazing. As Terry and I walked out of the dressing room and talked about this tournament being a memory of a lifetime, we noticed the coach of the other team walking into our dressing room (something that really isn’t allowed). Terry and I began to turn around and walk back when we saw the coach come out of our dressing room and walk right toward us. He told us that he had never seen a display like that from that small a team (oh I forgot to tell you that the final 2 games we were down to 7 players). He had to shake every player’s hand and tell them how amazed he was. He also told us that had he not shortened the bench in the last 5 minutes (a hockey phrase that means only the best players played the last 5 minutes) we would have won the tournament. To us, we already had.
We tend to be our greatest enemy, our greatest detractor, our greatest discourager. I am here to tell you that when you put your blinders on and have those people beside you to be an mentor and motivator, you get to see what your potential really is. When you get to see what your potential really is, you get to experience your Change in Reality.
Our first blog about a change in reality is so important. Passion for a dream is based upon why we feel the way we do. Some may want to manage better just to see what is possible for them and their team. Others want to make sure that the struggles they have felt along the way never happen to anyone else. They will move mountains to get to that goal because of those feelings.
Managing Made Simple is not for those who want a quick fix… a couple of tips to solve their problems. Managing Made Simple is for those who don’t think they are capable of great things, but really want to achieve them.
Till We Meet Again Next Week…
Managing Made Simple