Good Blog Posts

I read the post on Coach Ritchie's talk.

What was the most significant statement made? I thought that the most significant statement made was the one that summed up one of Coach Ritchie's core values and one of his most important beliefs. Life is NOTHING without relationships with others. This is a very important lesson that Coach has taught me throughout my years with him, and I believe it is something that he lives by everyday and the author of this blog really seemed to notice this.

How does this impact ME right now? for the future? I think it reminds me the value of personal relationships and building bonds between other people. These relationships are not only important now, but all throughout some one's life.

What must I change NOW to start implementing this truth?  I believe that I am already trying to make the building of relationships of high importance. I could become better at communication with people, being more friendly, and striving to be more approachable.

Comment on Time Well Spent

I particularly liked the point where you talked about attempted multi-tasking. I am going to stereotype for a minute and say that, in general, men are not good at multi-tasking. Men focus on one job really well, put all their effort and energy into it, and stick with it until the job is completed. Where as women are more likely to jump around and try to manage several tasks. While trying to do several tasks, they may put less effort and attention to each individual task. Women do many tasks at once and do each one poorer, men do one at a time effectively. Although this is not true for everyone, I think it is a general consensus. It all depends on how you want to use your time.

The last line was also a good lesson when you said, "Time is never wasted when it's used to accomplish a vision of mentoring the lives of other people." That is a life lesson everyone should live by.

No Regrets

One thing that I have done throughout my life, especially during my senior year is to try to life without any regrets. I try to think before I do most things like speak or react as to not have any regrets on how I could have handled a situation better or trained harder. They say during your last game to "leave nothing on the field/court/mat." That means play your heart out, run your hardest, go until you have nothing left, and live without regrets. This should be applied to whatever you do, as well as training. Have no regrets on how you could have done something better. If you try your hardest every time, in what ever you do, you will not have any regrets.

Mind over Matter

Many times in life, in order to be a good leader, you have to suck it up and go. You have to put adversity behind you and must remain mentally strong. A solid example of this occurs to me everyday during wrestling practice. When it is very hot, sweaty, gross, your physically exhausted, and you can not feel like you can keep wrestling, Coach Eck will say, alright,get on the wall. Every wrestler that has ever wrestled at Williamsburg since 2001 knows what that means. Wall sprints. After a tough practice of hard wrestling, it is time to do timed conditioning sprints. They are tough and most people have trouble getting through them or any conditioning for that matter. My personal motto during conditioning is, mind over matter. If you do not think about how much it sucks, how hot, how tired you are, it makes it that much less difficult. I just let my mind go blank and just work hard. It helps me out and takes my mind off of my pain. I think about something else and condition my ass off. It is all about mind over matter.

Getting it done

Sometimes a leader can do everything right and be flawless in their leadership ability. But when adversity comes, you just got to get it done. By this, I mean when it comes to coming through in the clutch, a good leader needs to show results. Everything can be perfect, a good leader is not considered a great leader if they can not be trusted to shoot the game winner shot, get the pin to win the dual, or drive his team down the field to kick a game winning field goal. A great leader comes through in the clutch. If a leader never wins the "big game" they may be forever remembered as just a good leader. Peyton Manning was never considered a great quarterback until he won a Super Bowl. Many leaders and athletes are historically judged on their leadership abilities on how well they perform when the "game is on the line." Whether it is presidents or professional athletes, if you want to be a good leader you need to find a way to just get it done.

Comment on Habit #7

It is really important to recharge your whole body and spirit. The worries, stress, and troubles of everyday life can take its toll on a person's body spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally. I attend church service every weekend. I have only missed about 3 or 4 weeks my entire life. I see this as spiritual renewal. It is calming and makes me feel better. Attending church on a regular basis gives my spirit and emotion an extra reboot that I need to get through the next week. I work out all the time, especially during wrestling. During the summer, sometimes I would just hop on my bike and ride and not know where I was going. I would just ride until I was tired and turn around and head home. This was also renewing for my mind. Before I go asleep I think about my day and how I can make the next day better than the previous one. I do these practices so I get renewed and become as stress free as possible. Sometimes I just watch the Office for hours just because it takes my stress away. I think everyone should find their own ways to renew themselves spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Upsets

Sometimes when the perfect opportunity arises, a major underdog can defeat a powerhouse in what is known as an upset. Upsets happen when hard work meets opportunity. Upsets do not happen by accident. They are from years of training, the right mentality, and heart to beat someone you know is better than you. The biggest upset in recent sports history is Iowa State defeating the #2 Oklahoma State Cowboys in triple overtime. Iowa State played their hearts out, played as a team, and went all in for to pull this amazing upset over one of the best teams in college football. They believed in themselves and thought that they would win when almost no one in the country outside of their team thought they had a prayer, and they proved everyone wrong. That must be one of the greatest feelings ever. To pull an amazing upset is something that you will never forget. On Thursday, I wrestle the #3 ranked wrestler in the state at 170 lbs. No one expects me to have a chance. I do my best to go all out, wrestling my hardest, and maybe I will pull off an amazing upset of my own.