Every student-athlete who graduated from high school and played a sport all four years has a cohesion amongst them all. This cohesion which bonds teams together; helps teams learn; bounces teams back from a loss; and drives teams to win are the values learned over the many years of a student-athlete's career. Human values are the foundation which student-athletes run their entire lives in a professional career, family and community. These are the values that so many people talk about when sharing why someone was successful in a professional career. And the same values that organizations invest big sums of money into their employees professional development in hope to learn, implement and execute these values on a day-to-day basis in the company and amongst their teams. Of course, in all hopes of helping the organization to win.The variables such as timing and outside forces cannot be controlled in an every day life, but these human values learned over many years of athletics can be controlled. Which human values; about every single value that drives success in a professional career. Team work, student-athletes have been a part of a team over their entire athletic careers. Discipline, student-athletes understand discipline is what separates them from the majority by going the extra mile while others don't. Coachable, student-athletes had a coach their entire athletic career. Priorities, student-athletes understand what's important and what's not, and focus on what will help the team. Communication, student-athletes understand verbal and non-verbal communication. Burning desire to win, student-athletes would not have climbed to the top of their athletic field, if they did not know how to win. And the values go on and on, what an athlete learned over many years from athletics are critical in a professional career, especially in today's super-competitive environment. Student-athletes know how to compete too!
In my book, TPC, we learned many lessons over our entire athletic career which we all apply in our every day individual and professional lives. Here's a few of the 42 lessons learned:
TPC Principle #13: Team is about sacrifice; sacrifice your body, spirit, and ego for the team.
TPC Principle #16: Don't be satisfied when you reach a goal. Greater success is followed with greater challenges, and you must work harder to reach higher goals.
TPC Principle #20: Leaders correct mistakes with their teammates by talking about their mistakes, and taking actions to ensure these mistakes do not happen again; rather than the authoritative measure of scolding without explanation.
TPC Principle #23: No matter how good you are, never become complacent. There's always someone out there practicing when you're not, and becoming better than you.
TPC Principle #24: After achievement comes recognition. Recognize the whole team as the reason for achievement rather than individual performance.
TPC Principle #25: Remain humble when life is good, and hungry when life is bad.
TPC Principle #28: Do not focus on problems at hand; rather, view problems as a challenge or obstacle that presents an opportunity to overcome.
TPC Principle #31: Take one practice and one game at a time. Focus on the task at hand, and do NOT overlook the current objective.
TPC Principle #32: Everyone has set-backs at some point in their career. Work harder to come back stronger, and learn what caused the previous set-backs.
TPC Principle #33: Dream BIG, and dream even BIGGER after you reach that dream.
TPC Principle #35: Team chemistry leads to team confidence, team confidence leads to team control.
TPC Principle #36: Instead of beating yourself up when down, use your energy on what needs to be done to reach the top again.
TPC Principle #37: View losing as an opportunity to get better. Losing is a chance to learn from your mistakes, losing takes cockiness back to reality, and losing brings out the best in winners.
TPC Principle #40: Do not allow a high pressure situation cause panic. Keep a focused and confident approach to handle any pressure situation.
TPC Principle #42: Build a strong foundation for when the storm comes, the strong foundation does not collapse.
To find out the stories behind the lessons learned and the remaining 27 lessons learned, please order here. And remember, each book sold raises money for the Columbia School system, my roots and alumni. We will always support you for the children's future.
Thank you for your support,
- TPC Team
