Gratitude.
That word is popping up a lot lately…In books that I read (Jon Gordon’s “Positive Dog”), in other blogs that I follow (check out Natural Typologies blog post), quotes on Twitter (follow @JoshuaMedcalf and/or @jdgilbert19 for daily motivation), or just within normal conversation.
As much as I have seen it lately, I almost take that as a sign. For me, it has been a simple adjustment, but I wanted to take it a step further and implement it into my team’s daily commitments. Our daily commitments are something that we strive to do everyday and we know if all else fails and we complete that list, then the day is a success. We have “won the day”.
Our society and Division I Athletics in general, is very results focused. Our goal as a team is to focus on the little things that will make us great people and it is our hope then the results will follow. That is what our daily commitments are all about:
Our Team’s Daily Commitments
- One Word
- “What Went Well” Journals
- Be FOCUSED and PRESENT at practice
- Have and COMMIT to a practice plan
- Treat people the way you wish to be treated
- Have a great ATTITUDE of GRATITUDE
- RISE ABOVE negative thoughts and actions
- REMEMBER WHY YOU’RE HERE
These daily commitments are simple and focused. If we take care of these 8 things daily, then we will not only have great attitudes, but we will also be focused and committed.
“One Word” is a concept made popular by author Jon Gordon and his book “One Word That Will Change Your Life”. After reading that book, I decided it would be the perfect thing to present to our team full of busy student-athletes. They choose their one word for the school year and focus on it daily. We do this instead of a long list of goals. It keeps the focused narrowed and simple. For example, my word for the school year is “Purpose”. If I stay focused on my purpose in life, then there is no way that I can’t wake up in the morning ready to conquer the day!
Our second daily commitment is our “What Went Well” Journals. Many psychologists have recommended this daily journaling activity, but it first came to light when I started regularly reading blog posts from Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert of the Train to be Clutch team. We started these journals last semester and it was an eye-opening experience. Even on days where we struggled, we were able to dig deep and stay positive. That type of attitude is contagious and we all felt it was one of our most rewarding and rich team bonding semesters yet.
An extra addition to our journals this year will include, what we are grateful for. Not only will we write down things that went well for the day, what we learned, and an area of growth we discovered, but we will also include something that we are thankful for. These student-athletes cannot forget how lucky they are to be playing their sport and getting a degree at the same time. They cannot forget that they have a roof over their heads. I hope they understand that they are lucky enough to have amazing facilities at their disposal to stay healthy and perfect their craft.
If you are grateful, you are heart-full!
We will never feel stress, if we are always feeling blessed!
We are only 4 days into our practices and workouts for the semester and I can honestly say that I have seen more smiles, I have seen amazing work ethic, and I have seen positive attitudes. These attitudes are contagious and it is only going to grow and when it does, we will start seeing that anything is possible and our scores will drop.
I can’t wait to write this down in my journal tonight!
#golflady 