Welcome to the blog. Again.
This week, I had some great words passed along to me:
"People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of having selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;... Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do it anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway." --Mother Theresa
They came to me from Tom Melchert up in Davenport.
I was having a pretty stressful week. It's in the past now and was resolved properly, but I'm still reflecting on it.
The part of the quite that strikes me is "What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway."
Coaching is like that. Sometimes you build a program, move on, and your replacement(s) botch the job, ruining the edifice and foundation you left behind. Yup, lived that one.
I've lived the one where you have an assistant who acts like the serpent from Genesis, whispering seductive evil into the ears of players, turning them against me as the head coach (to be clear--this happened at Satan's School for Boys and Girls, not LLCC).
I've had parents bad-mouth me, players bad-mouth me, as a h.s. coach, club coach, and college coach. I've had a parent call the president on me out at Allen and at Lincoln Land, upset about playing time, that I was being unfair (yup--at Allen, the starter made all-conference and all-region, ditto at LLCC).
I don't understand the anger behind those things, the selfishness, the basic malfunction of the situation. Nah--that's not true. The reason is there in that quote. It takes years to build, a day to destroy. People are lazy and don't want to put the years in. A day is easier.
I thought about quitting--there's only so many times you can fight those fights before you say "Hey, there are better things I can be doing."
Except: "Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway."
I have a responsibility to do my best and to do it because I can, even though I know it is not enough. The Almighty does not really care about the end result--he cares about the attempt, your effort. The Almighty does not rejoice in the suffering I've been feeling--but does take joy in my fight, that I haven't given up.
And that's true for the other points, too.
I will forgive those who are cruel and lash out irrationally, even those who try and ruin me.
I will pursue success, even though some people will suck up to me, others be jealous. My friends are true--I can succeed with them, because of them, for them.
I will remain honest. That honesty-and the honesty of others--helped me through the week. If there's any lesson worth sharing, it is that ultimately that the truth WILL win the day.
I'm going to continue to pursue enlightenment...even if others don't understand it or why I do it.
The good I do--whether remembered or not, leads to others doing acts of goodness, a chain reaction that WILL change the world someday--for the better.
So as spring practice ends...I've got freshmen looking forward to next season, and every sophomore who wants to continue playing, playing on at schools they like, excited for next season.
We all need to remember--stick to the good, focus on it....eyes on the prize.
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