You see it all the time in sports, a loss to most athletes and coaches, is a failure. When a team does not win the last game of the season, they see it as a failed season. But what the great coaches and athletes understand, is that losing does not make them a loser. A loser is someone who accepts losing and gives up. There is not one coach or athlete in the history of sports, that has never suffered defeat and losing. The teams with the most wins, still have lost at some points, but they turn their loses into learning experiences. That is what failure does for us, it gives a fire in our hearts and a motivation to be successful. Some of the greatest minds in science and inventing, were labeled as failures in school. But thank God that He never labels us as a failure. We can always turn a bad situation around. God is a god of another chance, He knows we are going to make mistakes, so we must find a way to get back to winning and successful ways when we blow it through Him.
Some of us have achieved our goals or some us have found out achieving our goals is too hard so our personal standard of success goes down. God did not make anyone on this earth to be average, humans either use their God given free will to be average or they follow God's concept of we have never arrived and believe they can be great. Every single person on this earth can be great. Believe it or not, I know you may be in a position or area that tells you not to believe in that, but God says you can be great!
I want you to think about that dream you had as a kid, maybe it was to be an astronaut, maybe it was to be a professional athlete, or maybe you wanted to be president of the United States as you got older. But think about this...Did anyone teach you to have that dream? No one has to teach us to have a dream, but the people around us will teach us NOT to believe in that dream. I train and coach kids that want to be college and professional athletes, and I am sure that they have people around them saying that it is too hard to get to that level. I am sure they show the percentages of the unlikeliness of getting to that level. Because I was being taught to not believe in my dream of one day playing in The Pit. I never lost sight, I just kept working hard and kept striving for my goals to get to UNM. I set a GPA to achieve, I set a time to achieve in running a mile. I set a certain number of pounds of muscle to gain. Once I achieved those goals, I did not say I arrived, I then set new ones. My point is, that you should not lower your personal standard of success but rather higher your personal standard of success. My goal right now is to be high school head coach, and once I get that, I will set a new goal of getting to the next level. I do not want to ever arrive, because I enjoy the process. I am so glad that hard work pays off, because I love working hard. I believe I love it because I know that there are rewards for it.
There are things you have to put on hold or do differently to be in the elite class of success. I loved working out on Saturday nights, because I knew that is when some others could be at home doing nothing or out at a party. In the summer, I loved working out in the early mornings because that is when my competition was asleep. If you want more than others, you are going to have to do more than others. If you want to win championships or win a promotion, you should have no sense of entitlement. You need to believe that your reward will come from doing more than others.
My junior year in high school, there was an article in the newspaper about a player on a rival team, and it talked about how hard he was working to get better. Talking about the conditioning and basketball workouts he was doing for two hours a day. It got me fired up to work out three hours a day and I did not care if they did an article on me, I rather work hard in silence and when no one is watching, so I can surprise them when the lights are on. Too many of us have the need to feel noticed for our extra work, we need a coach or a boss to see the extra work we are putting in. I believe that our extra work reveals our true character or ability. If you are working hard in the summer and no one knows about it, then when you walk on campus and start practicing, your hard work will show. Coaches can tell who works harder than the rest, just by simply seeing improvement and growth in your ability. Realize that there is most likely someone out there, working harder than you, trying to take your spot, trying to take your job, trying to take your championship. Do not let that happen, if you want to be successful, you have to have a competitive drive to be better than everybody else. When you start to believe you are better than everybody else, there is someone that is striving to be better than you. We never arrive at a destination when it comes to success.
The next level above success is significance. It is great to win championships and awards, but the next great thing is do something significant with your achievements. Inspire somebody else to be a champion, tell them that it is possible, teach them the ways to be successful. That is where your significance plays in because if you do nothing with your earnings, you start to feel less significant and less successful.
Being a walk-on student-athlete at UNM for 4 years and winning 3 Mountain West Championships can be defined as a success in my book. Now I am using my success to be significant. I am coaching, teaching, and preaching about stuff I have learned throughout my journey. I see so many young athletes that want to be great, and I believe that I have a call from God to help them believe they can get there. The first thing, put down your phone and start working. While others are on their phone, you are getting work done. Put in the extra batting practice, put in the extra shots, put in the extra reps; it is the only way you can have a great career and not an average one. Go to tutoring and study harder, so your grades can help you get into college. Coaches and colleges really take in account to your grades, it could be the deciding factor in recruiting you, verses someone else with the same ability but does not have the good grades
These are things I am teaching because I have seen it work in my life and in other people's lives. I see that Kobe Bryant's competitive drive has kept him at an elite level that not a lot of athletes ever get to. There are athletes with the same athleticism as Kobe, but he wanted to be better than everybody else. A three-peat was not enough, he wanted to win more, and I am sure he will say that he should have 7 championships instead of 5. He has taught me to compete, he has taught me that no failure can ever stop someone and no success can stop someone.
Success can even be more dangerous than failing. The failure wants to get back up and try again while the successful person is content on where they are at. Do not be stuck in your failure or your success. You can turn your failures around and there is always more you can achieve!
Thank you for reading! I hope this article blesses you!
Sincerely,
Christopher Edward Perez
Twitter: @C_P_2
Facebook: Chris E Perez
Instagram/Snapchat: cperez02
Email; cperez0116@yahoo.com
