Coach Kip

I mean I have, you know, fallen, but you get up. You don’t fall, you don’t learn anything

The world is full of lessons if you listen hard enough.  This lesson is from a Vet who now has artificial legs.  No it is not that you have to go through some tremendous tragedy before you can enjoy life.  The lesson is that if you are not failing on a consistent basis you are not learning.  I know I forget sometimes that when I fail at something it does not make me a failure.  I am only a failure if I stop trying.  Failing only means that there is another lesson to be learned.

If everything is going perfectly for you, then you are not growing, you are not getting better.  From an athletic perspective think of it this way:  Let’s take the bench press for example.  If you are a power lifter you want to be able to press as much as possible one time.  Lets say your goal is 500 pounds.  If you are an NFL prospect the scouts want to see how many times you can press 225 pounds.  Lets say your goal is 25 times.  Body builders may just want to use the bench press to gain mass and then use more specific lifts to sculpt their bodies for competition.

What we all know is that in none of these examples do any of the athletes simply go out and hit their goal on the first try.  They have to work at it over  time.  They have many failures along the way.  Many times they will have workouts where the goal is to fail.  And they happily accomplish failure because they know that they cannot succeed until they have failed.

Listen to the interview of Nick Staback on NPR.  Listen to how it begins as another Vet who has come home and has changed.  There seems to be nothing unique about the story until you learn that he has lost his legs.  Then listen to how the tone and the interview changes.  It is not the loss of his legs that has made the big difference, it is not the change to his perspective of life.  It is that he has learned that he needs to keep pushing himself to learn how to use his new legs better.  He knows that he is strong and will have a normal life and falling is part of succeeding in his new life.

So rejoice failure, failing, and challenge yourself.  See if you can fail.  See where failure can lead you.

NPR Interview - http://www.npr.org/2012/10/24/163469815/vet-walks-on-new-legs-with-a-little-help-from-mom

Believing in oneself, in a goal, in a dream, in anything is the most important and most overlooked step toward success.  Belief creates everything.

If you do not believe there is no motivation.

If you do not believe there is no vision.

If you do not believe there is no reason to set a goal.

Believe in yourself.

Believe in your abilities.

Believe that anything is possible.

Creating belief changes everything around you.  When people see that you believe in a cause, or in a goal, they rally around you.  Things begin to change for you with belief.  You begin to notice differences in your actions.  You begin to notice differences in your thoughts.  You begin to notice differences in the people around you.  Everything changes.

Ok I can get off tangent and go for a long time like this.  It truly is amazing when you understand the power of simply believing in something.  But how is it done?

Fake it.  When you are first starting and you are not sure what to do, or how to act, or you have some doubts yourself.  Fake it.  Act as if you have total belief that something is going to happen.  Act as if you completely believe with all your body, soul, and actions that it is going to happen.

While you are faking it something will happen.  You will begin to believe it yourself.  You will begin to take action.  You will begin to subconsciously take control of your actions and begin to move toward your goals.

Don’t believe me?  Try it, take control, begin Believing, strange things will happen.  You will find yourself acting in different ways.  How bad do you want success?

Believe in yourself, you may just surprise yourself with what you can do.

Believe It!

Coach Kip