Fishers High School

SCORE SOME PRIDE POINTS What is it that really makes a champion a champion? What are the qualities and characteristics that make someone worthy of winning - that make you worthy of winning - on the playing field or in any other area of life? In his outstanding book titled, How Good Do You Want to Be?, Hall of Fame football coach Nick Saban outlines those unique attributes that separate the very best from everyone else. “Recognize certain traits that seem to be in every champion,” he writes. “Passion, commitment, confidence, pride in performance, high standards of excellence, relentlessness, perseverance, and the ability to perform in adverse conditions.” Whew. What a list! It’s worth taking a minute today to consider how you stack up in each of those important areas. Specifically, I want to highlight the power of what Saban calls pride in performance. "Being the best you can be is something that you can personally evaluate,” he says. "After all, who better can determine if you truly did your best? - and having pride means never settling for less." What he’s describing here is not some external recognition or public praise for your performance. It’s not about what anyone else thinks. It’s what you know to be true about what you've done and how you've done it. Pride in performance is so important because it raises the standard you set for yourself. You can fool other people into thinking you’ve given your very best, but you can’t fool yourself. The more personal pride you develop, the more committed you become to earning the approval of the person that matters most: the one looking back at you in the mirror. Nick Saban knows that the person driven to meet their own high standard will outwork and outperform the person working to meet someone else’s. Personal pride is so important, but it isn't something anyone else can give us. It's something we have to earn for ourselves. That means there’s value for each of us in doing the hard work it takes to cultivate it in our own lives. And while it’s true that we can take pride in anything and everything we choose to do, it’s also worth recognizing that some choices strengthen that winning quality at an accelerated rate. Here are three practical ways you can score some pride points for yourself, starting today… 1) Do something difficult. While human nature is constantly bargaining with us to take the easy way out, to pursue comfort, and to avoid difficulty at all costs, it’s important to see that choosing to do something difficult is a powerful pride producer. Each of us regularly needs to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone - either physically or mentally - if for no other reason than to remind ourselves that we are the kind of people capable of doing hard things. Especiallly when we choose it willingly for ourselves, we bolster that important belief. 2) Do something scary. I’m not talking about riding a roller coaster or watching a horror movie here today. I’m talking about mustering up the courage it takes to do the uncomfortable yet important things you’ve been avoiding. I’m talking about having that difficult conversation, or making that important phone call, or finally choosing to share your work in public. I bet there's something important fear has encouraged you to put off. There is undoubtedly a cost to cultivating your personal pride, and overcoming some fear might be part of it for you. But typically, once we've mustered up the courage to do it, we find that the price we had to pay was well worth the return. 3) Do something kind. One of the most effective ways to score some pride points is to forget about yourself once in a while, and focus instead on doing something for someone else. Helping your elderly neighbor, writing someone a thank you note, or buying the drink for the person behind you in line is a small act that can go a long way - not only for them, but for you, too. Especially when what you’ve chosen to do is done with no expectation for something in return - when you do it because that’s just the kind of person you are - your personal pride continues to compound. Nick Saban is right. Personal pride is a critical component of the champion’s identity. If you want to be someone worthy of winning in the important areas of your own life, then it needs to be a part of your identity, too. So keep looking for ways to score some pride points. Choose to do something difficult, something scary, or something kind. Keep cultivating that winning quality, and use it to elevate your standard for who you are and how you perform. That’s an approach you can be proud of. That's an approach that wins.