Love the Journey

I just went to visit my Dad for his birthday.  When thinking about my Dad I started to think what is the most important lesson that he taught me in life.  It was to love the journey.  While my Dad was a result oriented person, he taught me to love practice.  Somehow I was the type of person who enjoyed shooting 500 jumpers a day and never once thought about all the people I knew who shooting a basketball came easy.  It makes me smile today when I hear students state, I would get as good as grades as (fill in the blank) if I studied as hard as them.  Almost like hard work was not a great attribute.

There have been times when I have realized that even though I think that I am working harder than I have ever have before the truth is that I needed to work harder.  That to get the desired output that I wanted that the work and effort I needed to put in had to increase.  Was it easier for others?  Absolutely but to be honest that was not something that my Dad would let cross my mind.  His question was always "what could have you done differently to get the output you wanted?"  What do you need to practice to get yourself better?  How do you make those around you better?

When I finally realized that I could compete in the classroom with the same intensity that I competed on the athletic field this came into play.  I was never (not once) the smartest kid in my class but I realized that if I outworked everyone in the class I would get the desired output of an A.  While many students are frustrated that work comes easier to others, I loved the fact that if I worked hard enough that I could get the same A as the smartest kid in the class.

There was no real talk about GRIT but instinctively my dad taught me that if you loved the journey you would excel.  So where Will Smith tells you never get off the treadmill, my Dad might have said sometimes you even have to speed that treadmill up, you need to work harder than you think to accomplish what you desire.