Attitudes have the power to lift up or tear down a team. If there is one common thread of successful players is their choice to control their attitude, effort, and focus each and every day. Believe it or not, success is not built around a gifted birth, high I.Q., or in talent alone. The edge that winners have is in their attitude, not aptitude. I have come across many players over the years that for some reason or another, they just do not understand or fail to see the connection between attitude and the potential success of a team or individual.
Unfortunately, I think too many people resist the notion. They want to believe that talent alone (or talent with experience) is enough to reach the championship circle. Each year, you will find plenty of talented teams that never amount to anything or fall short of their ultimate goal because of the attitudes of their players. Interesting enough, in a team sport, it does not take many poor attitudes to sink the ship. If you want outstanding results, you need people with great talent and awesome attitudes. The potential of your team will go up or down depending on one simple fact – attitude!
Several things on a team are not contagious: talent, experience and willingness to practice with a purpose each and every day. There is only one thing that is more contagious than a good attitude – a bad attitude. Bad attitudes must be addressed. To put it simply – rotten attitude left alone, will ruin everything. If there is one lesson that we can teach young people is to control the controllable. You will be amazed at the amount of success you can attain if you just learn to control your attitude, effort, and focus every day.
John C. Maxwell put it very clearly as to the impact attitudes may have on a highly talented team:
Abilities+Attitudes=Results
- Great Talent+Rotten Attitude=Bad Team
- Great Talent+Bad Attitude=Average Team
- Great Talent+Average Attitude=Good Team
- Great Talent+Good Attitude=Great Team
It is very seldom that we have a team full of highly talented players. This makes attitude even more important in our quest for success. Often our attitude is the only difference between success and failure.
Until next month,
Coach Candrea