Opening Day

We burst through the paper ring, emblazoned in our school colors with a menacing image of our mascot, onto the basketball court for the season opener.  The pep band is playing our fight song, the cheerleaders are revving up the crowd, and our family and friends are cheering us on. It’s game time!

I can still feel the excitement, four decades later.  After months of practice, isolated in the gym for hours on end, we were finally getting the opportunity to show our stuff.  To prove to ourselves and our fans that the grueling workouts, endless line drills, repetitive skills training, monotonous running of plays, and scrimmages have paid off.  Let’s go!

But first, the pep talk.  The locker room was buzzing with nervous energy.  Some at sitting in quiet contemplation, while others slap lockers and each other.  One was pacing like a lion in a case, we stayed away from him.  Another was puking, we stayed far away from him.  Come on coach, we’re ready!  Is it time yet?  Let us out of here!

Coach reminded us of the shared vision and goals we had created as a team for this new season.  About all the hard work we had put in.  Of all the progress we had made; the daily lessons learned and improvement shown.  How each of us had grown and were important to the success of the team.

Then he went through our game plan.  The overall strategy and specific tactics we would employ to give us the best chance of victory.  Sometimes we’d emphasize offense, pushing the tempo.  Others times defense, controlling the pace of the game.  Once the strategy was to stall the entire game, only taking shots that couldn’t be missed, then playing keep away until the clock ran out.  It worked.  We won.  Boring, but effective, thus the invention of the shot clock.

Finally he’d remind us of our individual roles, such as; Froyen, get all over them on defense, get me some steals and rebounds, pass to the guys who can actually score, and don’t shoot unless you have a lay-up.  Got it Coach!  We’d conclude by reciting The Lord’s Prayer for a little help from above, and a single shouted word together, “Team!”

What’s this got to do with anything?  Well, I’m feeling the same anticipation for the opening of our world from our virus lockdown as I did in the locker room so many years ago.  Set me free!  I want to get back into the game of life on the outside world court.

This has got me thinking about what my game plan should be going forward.  What is my strategy?  Will I emphasize offense, defense, or stall?  How about the tactics, what specifically will I do?

It has been a tough “off-season” these last couple months.  So much has changed.  We want things to go back to normal, but what will normal be?  The only thing we can know for sure is that it won’t be what it used to be.  How will it be different?  I don’t know.  I do know that our collective behavior will determine what the new normal is.  And I have my personal hopes and dreams for what it will be.

My hope is that we have all learned what is truly important in our lives, and what is not.  That we will use this knowledge to lead more intentional and impactful lives going forward.  My dream is that we have a renewed sense of purpose that manifests itself in what we choose to do to provide value to each other in our quest to make the world a better and happier place.

A game plan is designed to give you the best chance of winning.  What is winning?   To me it is demonstrating improvement.  Improvement towards what?  Toward realizing my hopes and dreams.  To striving to become the best I can be and to provide value to others in their quest to become the best they can be.  And round and round it goes…

I decided a couple of years ago while writing the sAint Me?! book that my life strategy is to emphasize offense.  I encourage you to do the same.  Too many of us are playing defense or stalling.  We go into a prevent defense trying to protect the lead we believe we have attained in life, or we hold the ball hoping to run out the clock.  Unfortunately a prevent defense only prevents you from winning, and stalling is a boring waste of your time and talents.

My game plan therefore is to play offense through proactively striving to employ the following strategy and tactics.  I call the strategy, playground rules.  The tactics are daily reminders of what to do to live out the strategy and strive to win – continually improve towards achieving my hopes and dreams. Here they are for your consideration:

Strategy – Playground Rules

• Be virtuous, be good.
• Be selfish in development and expression of your true self.
  
• Be selfless, help others by being you and doing good.
• Don’t let anyone or anything bully you into being somebody else.
• Get better every day.

Tactics – Daily Reminders

1. Play your game. Be your true you. Do the things that make use of your talents and interests, and that provide value to others.
2. Be good and play nice. Live the heavenly virtues: humility, charity, kindness, patience, chastity, temperance, and diligence.  Be courageous and fearless.
3. DIG DEEP. Search, find, and live the truth.
4. Child size your life. Know your needs from your wants. Keep it simple.
5. Make everything a game. Practice, compete, enjoy.  Winning is improving – strive to get better every day.
6. Manage your bullies. Don’t let anyone or anything get you down.
7. Demonstrate selfish-less-ness. Be selfish in development of yourself in order to selflessly provide value to others.
8. PLAY every day. Ponder, Learn, Act, and Youthify.
9. Fill your TIP JAR. Work hard to make the world a better place for all.
10. Help someone every day.

I offer the above as an example of a game plan.  They are obviously summary points, and I hope mostly self-explanatory.  Oh, Dig Deep and Tip Jar are acronyms.  You can refer to the Playground Heaven book to learn more.

So that’s my plan, what is yours?

I urge you to take some time to think about all you have experienced and learned over these past months.  Who do you want to be going forward as a result?  Have you discovered what it truly important to you?  What are your hopes and dreams now?  How will you achieve them?  Do you need to do anything differently as a result?  How will you ensure you don’t go back to business as usual?

So many questions.  Now is the perfect time to consider them before “opening day.”  Give yourself the gift of taking the time to ask and answer them.  Make your own game plan.  Start with your hopes and dreams.  Envision your ideal future.  Then go on offense by developing a winning strategy and specific tactics designed to ensure your ongoing success.

Finally, here is your pre-game pep talk. There is no sugar coating this.  It has been a rough time in history.  You have endured many hardships, a roller-coaster of emotions, and physical isolation over these past several months.  But you have survived.  Yet another life challenge overcome.  Not without a struggle, but you did it.  And you are no doubt stronger as a result.

Now it’s time for a new beginning. It’s time to get back out onto the field of life and do what you were born to do.  To be yourself, your best and happiest self.  To develop and use your talents to provide value to others.  To enrich their lives through living yours to the best of your ability.

You have been preparing your entire lifetime for this moment.  Now is your time to shine.  You know what to do and how to do it.  No one can stop you but you.  Get out of your way and make it happen.  Run out there and show yourself and the world what you can do.  Be your best and give your best.  Make the world a better and happier place. That is winning. We can make it happen.  We can do it together.  Team!

I look forward to seeing you out in the real world very soon:-) Scott