What are YOU doing to get in the game?
It’s that time of the year again, the time when every major sport is at front and center. The major sports are in full swing or have just wrapped up. The regular season for basketball has just begun, Hockey and Football recently began their 98th and 95th seasons respectively and Baseball’s World Series and 145th glorious season is now in the record books.
What is remarkable about this season, especially the magic that happened this October, is the story that was told. We saw many great life lessons come to light during this time. We witnessed many close games, plot twists and unusual outcomes, so many that you literally needed a scorecard to keep track. None of the final four teams that played were expected to go as far as they did, certainly not the team that won, the San Francisco Giants. Although my friends may believe differently, at the All-Star break the Giants were not in a good spot. In each division there have been upsets, just look at the Kansas City Royals, the team that advanced for the first time in 29 years. What a great story.
Ultimately there will be one winner at the end of the season and they will be touted as the “champion.” I am sure each of you has played a game where there was a winner and a loser. The outcome of the game was probably not going to make a significant impact on your life but the idea of losing was more than likely something you wanted to avoid. Losing is not fun and our hearts ache for those who loose but losing is necessary.
It has been said that you learn more from losing than you do from winning. So embrace the fact that to get where you ultimately want to go you may encounter some setbacks or losses. Remember if you lose you are about to learn what may be a very valuable lesson, how to prevent it from happening again the same way. Now, don’t get me wrong here. I am certainly not saying that it’s o.k. to lose, I’m just trying to put losing in perspective. You must still go out and have the heart of a champion every day. Nobody ever got what they wanted by losing all the time.
Perspective is very important to have as it relates to winning and losing. A reference point can help you gauge where you are so you can see where you need to go. We can use another great baseball example to better understand the winning and losing perspective. Recently, Clayton Kershaw the Los Angeles Dodgers ace pitcher, whom many consider the best pitcher in baseball right now, put his signature on a 7-year contract worth $215 million prior to the 2014 season. During the playoffs, he lost both of the games he started in the series against the St. Louis Cardinals and didn’t pitch anywhere nearly as well as he did during the season. He lost and he did so on the biggest stage in baseball. The Dodgers were eliminated form 2014 World Series contention and that was devastating to him and the team.
So what next you may ask. What do you do when you fail? Experience tells us that we need to rebound. We need get up and play again. We need to get back in the batters box and strive to do better next time. It may be tough to do that alone. Many professional athletes seek the experience and guidance of others who have done well before them. Society calls these individuals who guide them coaches or mentors.
You are training to become a professional firefighter. Shouldn’t you have a coach too? At Fire Alumni we have created a unique community where we bring the coaches to the players and the players to the coaches. Your only other option would be to quit and that would be a tragedy. As the old saying goes “You can’t win if you don’t show up to play.”
Remember, life is lived between the lines not outside watching others as a spectator. Life can be a tough game sometimes with lessons that will try you and challenge you to rise above and be better. Sometimes you get hurt, sometimes you lose and sometimes you lose in a way that you think is career ending.
Don’t worry, you have lost a game or two before and this is no different. You will bounce back and live to tell about it. These losses are just part of the story you are creating. Our 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt, said “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” So get in the game, stay in the game and don’t ever give up, EVER! If you have the courage to play, then play with everything you have. You can only win when you leave it all on the field every day, not every other day, EVERY DAY!
Bob Atlas is a Battalion Chief for a large Northern California Metropolitan Fire Department and Co-Founder of Fire Alumni. For more information contact him at batlas@firealumni.com
