The final P, the one I deem most important is Persistence. It overcomes resistance, and needs the other 3 for it to be the fourth leg for the animal to stand. Persistence in fact is patient practice, as you need those elements to unlock persistence.
Persistence implies failure; an anti-fantastical word that’s associated with losing. But it all depends on how you perceive that failure. When someone embarks on a new endeavor, practice makes permanent. Patience with that new endeavor, compounded with being surrounded by supportive people can push you along the way; for these are the ingredients in becoming persistent.
When I was school aged – the same age as my son is today (6), I used to be a wiz at math. When it came to adding and subtracting, I would be able to calculate
“You can only go as far as your mind takes you.” – B. Jones
I think of the other endeavors that have been embarked over the years; writing for one. Writing the most. I’m going to show you my first poem, to show y’all that I once too was all sorts of awful. But, that didn’t prevent me from continually writing poor prose. I wanted to be like the pros at that prose, and so, I wrote, and wrote, then read, and took patience, and
Back to Math. I often thought that people saw me, unceremoniously in awe, of my writing skills. I always pleaded to those that thought of me as a writing deity that I started somewhere. I wasn’t always able to boogie, like this, in my formative. I’m not good at math, is what everyone says, and I was no different. But then I decided to be good at it. The only difference between writing and math, previously, was my attitude learning the subject matter. I never thought I wasn’t good at writing; I just wrote.
And so, with the same gusto and alacrity, I started to work on my Math skills. I’d play brain games on the iPhone such as Elevate, Lumosity, and Peak, just so I can get better. I read a book by Barbara Oakley entitled, A Mind for Numbers, and there were so many illuminating things within the pages of them that I realized that not only did I have the capacity to do well in math, I could excel at it. And so, we apply that same type of tenacity, in officiating:
OFF THE CLOCK
ATTITUDE – If you say that you aren’t cut to be a good official you won’t. if you already have the mindset, the vision, the clarity that you will be, you are halfway there. You will find that every move you make, every transaction that’s executed will get you one step closer to what you were saying in your head all along – You. Will. Be. Great.
MINDSET – Your attitude goes hand and hand with it. Again, if you think you’ll be bad you will be. Prophecies become self-fulfilling either way, you reap what you sow. And if you sow doubt, you’ll already know what it’s about. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Have a goal in your head, that you want to be the best you can be. The VERY fact that you are striving to do so, is everything. And even if you aren’t perfect at it in that go round, you damn near were, and you tried to die tryin’.
ON THE CLOCK
NOT YET – Your only as good as your last foul call, or rule application, but don’t be a prisoner to incorrect calls; be even-tempered in approach even if you make a flub for the ages. Know that you haven’t seen everything under the sun. Know that this mistake won’t be the last. You will be successful, but you have to be persistent enough to see the success. Saying not
KING REPETITION – Heavy is the crown, when you keep doing the same heavy lifting over, and over again. But as you go on, further and further, atrophy doesn’t happen in the mind. Rather, hypertrophy takes the place, and those things that once seemed mundane, now you find pleasure in doing things that you once found monotonous. Theirs a beauty in the process, so
ENJOY. THE. RIDE.
Until next week –
“The difference between history’s boldest accomplishments and its most staggering failures is often, simply, the diligent will to persevere.”
– Abraham Lincoln
