"Leave it all on the court"

I heard this phrase so many times as I have played sports through the years, especially from playing highschool basketball for four years. A Coach's job is to develop each individual player to perform to his/her best and to help the team work as a cohesive group that performs at an even higher level together so they can beat all opponents. In life, we must develop that coach within ourselves.

During basketball season, our practices consisted of running drill after drill, scrimmaging, running plays, and then repeating for about 2-3 hours everyday. At the end of each practice, we would line up on the baseline and run "suicides". [This is a drill in which you run back and forth touching all the lines on the court in under 30 seconds] After several of those, the coach would pick a teammate and have them shoot a free throw while they were tired. If the shot went "in" we were done and could go shower... If the shot missed we ran more suicides. Coaches would always share analogies about our work ethic in practice and how it would relate to the game situations and real life, and I remember them saying when we were dead tired to "leave it all on the court".

We can apply this concept to our lives - work, relationships, family, volunteer work, church, etc. Last week was one of those tough weeks for me... I had so many different things to do, important presentations to prepare and deliver, something crucical for each of my clients that needed to be done NOW. As I spoke with my manager throughout the week, he realized that I was putting in the 15 -20 hours each day to get everything done. One night I woke up at 2:30am thinking about what I was going to present at noon the next day - I had not prepared the slide deck that was to be delivered because I could not decide on the right way to deliver my message. But, at 2:30am the ideas started to flow. As that happened, I lay there thinking how I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again for another hour, which would only leave another 30 mins before I was going to get up at 4am... So, I decided to start my day at 2:30am. I remember thinking that I can only do my best, and if it weren't good enough then I could be content knowing that I did everything that I could. I had laid it all on the court! I got up and went to my office and got busy -- prepared my slides and delivered my presentation to my client at noon. All went extremely well!

So, at the end of the week was I tired? Sure. The physical laws of nature and biology didn't evaporate. But, did I survive? Absolutely! And, now I am on to another week that was built upon the last. There is still a huge mountain to climb in front of me, but I know that I can conquer that mountain one step at a time. And, I know that I am not the only one who faces these types of challenges, so I hope any readers of this blog will gain the courage to keep pressing forward in their goals. Onward and upward!

Ok. Now off for a quick 5 mile run before sitting back down to do some work!