6 life and career lessons I learned from watching sports on TV

1. We are what we do over and over again.
I interviewed Chance Taureau for Job Radio (the show launched in February 2015). His coaching clients include professional athletes and are paid as much as he would pay to run a small government program. Do you think they don’t practice their skills before they become second nature in any situation? Whether you’re interviewing or performing a job, are you practicing to make it second nature?

2. Successful people find a way to win. Losers have excuses.
Have you ever noticed how often a bad team leads early in a game but ends up losing the game? Have you ever watched an unknown tennis player only win the first set? To be defeated and defeated. Winners know how to summon muscle memory to win. One of the ways they do this is that they know losers will evoke similar muscle memory to fail at the end. Turning around a failing culture takes time. It’s usually better to shake off a mediocre performance and rebuild. Mediocre performers will try to lower newcomers’ standards to their level because they feel threatened. Cut them off rather than letting them contaminate others.

3. You are who your records say you are.
This quote from Bill Parcels, former head coach of several great professional teams, is one of the most important things people need to accept. It doesn’t matter how close you are to success. You lose and the number in column “L” increases by 1. In life and business, you will often be judged by your results. Companies may tell you they want to hire team players, but they’re lying. Ask any CEO whether he or she would hire a great employee with mediocre performance, or the next Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, or Larry Ellison, and I suspect you know the answer. Start setting higher goals.

4. The pursuit of excellence comes at a cost.

By corollary, it’s what we do when no one is looking that makes a huge difference. Ask any professional athlete what they do to get ready. Do you think Derek Jeter just decided to make that cutoff play that resulted in the Oakland Athletics losing the series to the Yankees by one game? No, this is something practiced off the field. How about Jerry Rice’s incredible endurance? No, he did train on the two-and-a-half-mile hill as part of his training, which became an admiration and role model for other pros.

5. We can control our choices.
You say you want to be successful, but will probably go home tonight and watch TV instead of doing anything to change your life or routine. Choose one thing. Change your diet for tomorrow. Ask friends to support you in making changes. Research online courses. Maybe the change you need to make is recognizing that you are a workaholic and spending more time with your wife, husband, partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, or children. Do something different. Again, pick one thing and make a change. Do it over and over again until it becomes a habit.

6. Hire a coach.
Most people think they can make changes on their own. They lost 10 pounds and gained 12 pounds. They learn to play an instrument, then put it down and never pick it up. They crave promotion but do little or nothing to earn it, and they complain when their nominal efforts don’t pay off immediately. Giving up and falling back into old habits is not the path to success. Successful athletes have coaches. What do they know that you don’t? Act like a professional, not an amateur. Commit yourself and hire a coach to help you improve.