We Can All Be One

In 2005, I led a high school indoor percussion group to a national championship in the Scholastic A division.  I could and have written about the unlikeliness of our program reaching this level of recognition, but instead, tonight I can't stop thinking about the theme of our show, which was titled ONE. 

On the floor, we painted a student inspired 1* and at the time, none of knew why, but just as an * usually means to look further down the page for further information, now I am wondering if our * was about more than we realized at the time.

At a rehearsal that year, I saw a member of our drumline struggling with a passage.  She kept trying to make her hands do what she could hear in her head, but was getting frustrated.  I felt for her as we could all see that she was giving it her best effort and knew she was practicing like mad outside of rehearsals.  In an effort to calm her down I said, "Don't get down on yourself.  It may not happen in one day, but one day it will happen." 

The next day, another member had written on our white board: "It may not happen in ONE day, but ONE day it will happen - S. Woodard".  I thought at first, "did I say that?" and then I remembered the rehearsal from the previous day.  We discussed that this could be a cool phrase for our season since our show was titled ONE.  I found a good spot to insert this into our show and not long after that added what would become the closer of our show: "We can all be one."  It was a pretty organic process and just sounded good at the time.

We had a great ride that year.  It was a talented group, playing well-written music (brag moment: composed by my son) and we worked very hard to bring the music and message to life in each performance.  When we got to the national championships, everything became surreal as our little group from Arizona was squarely in position to win it all and ONE won.

Why am I writing about this 7 years later?  Because tonight I couldn't stop thinking about how our message resonated with our audiences and the judges too.  It was a joyful, uplifting show, that ended with the group chanting, "I am one, you are one . . . we can all be one!"  No one in the group or outside the group ever challenged the meaning of the chant.  I find this interesting to contemplate now, as I know plenty of people who do not believe this message can happen and others who don't even want it to happen.

Is it possible on some other level beyond consciousness, cultural norms, upbringing, environments and such, that we do understand that we are all one?  Science now knows that there are 3 million bases in our DNA and that 99% of those are identical in all humans!  Isn't that amazing?  99% of 3 million - that's a lot of shared DNA.

Wouldn't it be amazing if we behaved like we understood this?  What if we realized how alike we are despite our obvious (1%) differences?  Could we continue condemning and harming human beings  that are 99% the same as ourselves?  Many in the consciousness movement don't believe that December 21, 2012 is the end of the world, but rather our rebirth into this very understanding. 

Perhaps our 2005 show was our small taste of what could be.  Perhaps we should have shouted, "I am ONE, You are ONE . . .

*We - ARE - ONE!" 

 Shout out to the staff and members of the 2005 Page High School Indoor Percussion program.  It was a forever memory.

This F-Word

Nope, not the 4-letter F word (I know that's what you're thinking); I'm talking about the 5-letter word we need everyday - FOCUS!

When we were younger you might remember getting "Focus!" yelled at you by a parent, a teacher or a coach.  "Stop talking and focus."  "What are you doing?  Stay focused!"   I'm  suggesting now that we choose to whisper this word to ourselves, "shhhh . . . stay still . . . focus."

There are so many distractions in our daily lives that we must make the commitment to improving our focus if we stand a chance of getting significant work done - not once in a while, but everyday.  Our phones beep and sing and ring at us, our email "blings" you've got another new email, here comes an instant message, a tweet and on and on.

Ironically, I've resorted to using the rain app on my phone to drown out the noise when I just want to focus on what I'm working on, reading or God forbid, resting.  Focus takes intention and practice - special thanks to my clarinet days; I thought I was practicing scales and difficult passages, but really I was practicing how to Focus. 

It helps to practice focusing in our childhood years, but improving our focus doesn't take buying an expensive instrument or taking a course - it takes committing time to one thing at a time and sticking to that commitment, despite the incoming distractions.

Besides the obvious tasks at work and needs of our home environment, there are lots of daily applications for focus.  Some I suggest are writing, meditating and reading.  When instructing young leaders, I emphasize focused listening - something that can be done haphazardly or with a high level of focus and intent.  Also, I'd appreciate it if some of you would focus more as you drive (you know who you are)!

Focus doesn't have to be the bad F-word and we don't need it yelled at us commando style.  Commit to improving your ability to focus without caving to distractions, focus on extending your ability to focus for longer periods of time, and to really enjoy the process, focus intently on challenges that matter to you, those tasks that make a difference for yourself and others.

Shhh . . . stay still . . . focus.

focused on coaching: http://www.facebook.com/CoachWSolutions







 

You've Got to Play the Wind

I wrote a blog for a while called Be One with the Chaos.  I don't advocate asking for it, but to deny that it exists or wish that it doesn't cross your path is a sure path to failure.

When I was a young softball coach, I can remember hitting ball after ball to my outfielders on the windiest of days.  I'd aim for left field and it would drift to right; fly after fly.  It was frustrating and tiring, sometimes funny and cartoonish, but I kept hitting them anyway.  We could have packed it in and I've seen plenty of teams do just that, but if there are 20-mile an hour gusts at our Monday practice, couldn't it do the same on our Friday game?  Our outfield was ready for that.

I heard the coach for unarguably the best swimmer ever, Michael Phelps, say he made Michael late to meets on purpose. If some random chaos slowed his arrival to a competition, Michael could still get in the pool and swim his best.  He also made him swim hundreds of laps with his goggles fogged up.  That's the edge that great coaching can provide - preparing for chaos and swimming on to victory despite its' arrival.

"Adversity, injustice, bad hops and rotten calls, even good breaks and lucky bounces all comprise the ground over which the campaign must be waged."  Steven Pressfield from the WAR of ART

What is your "campaign"?  Are you prepared to play the wind, go on stage, take the field, the court, go  into court, or to the most important meeting of your life regardless of what gets thrown at you?

Identify your gusts of wind.
Name them.
Write down the terrible referees.
Embrace them!  Prepare for identified chaos (and expect some you didn't know existed.)

"Oh thank you for being assigned to this crucial, stressful day!
. . . because I'm prepared to play in the wind, with the blind ref, with my shoes untied."

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Bad habit? Change It.

Do you have a little annoying habit you want to get rid of?
How about a BIG one that's really blocking your chance of a great life?

Pick something small to prove to yourself you can do it.
Better yet - choose something BIG and go for it! 

Either way the key is to start tomorrow - no excuses.

Get up 30 minutes earlier and create a plan for the day that will include what you WANT to do, what action will replace the bad habit.  Be specific.  Write down your plan or tell someone else or both.

At the end of the day, honor your effort, no matter if it felt easy, hard or you were only somewhat successful.  Commit to get up tomorrow and go for it again.  Don't forget to appreciate your efforts and success at the end of the day.  This will help your resolve the next morning.

Every habit was born from repeated actions.  They can ALL be undone!
Be brave and give yourself a great new habit starting right away.

Free Book for You

Today's post is a free book offer for you.  Sign up on the right for Coach W posts by email and I'll send you:

THE DNA of SUCCESS STORIES
How to Maximize Success in Your Life
by Jack Zufelt

This book is a series of 20 stories featuring Brian Tracy, author of over 40 books and Jack Canfield, the co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  Each story has a different author who come from a variety of backgrounds and careers. 

The final chapter of the book is mine - titled "Embrace the Journey." 

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