“Knowing the reason you were given a gift and a passion was for someone else’s platform.”
I recently viewed a spoken word piece from rapper Propaganda titled, “Was It All Worth It?” Propaganda is from my favorite group of musicians known as Humble Beast (one of the main sources of inspiration for the Salem Hoops Project). This specific piece by Propaganda caused me to reflect on myself as a coach and the purpose behind why I do it. I looked back on where my mind was a few years ago and the direction I wanted to go in coaching. My ambition was to build myself up as a great coach and trainer so that I could enable myself to earn a high position bringing me more recognition and a larger income. In other words, I coached to make myself look great rather then help my player become great. My desire to see players succeed actually stemmed from my selfish ambition to be seen as one of the greatest.
“What if you knew that greatness would never come, just struggle?”
Somewhere in the last year and a half I finally reached a new level as a coach. This had nothing to do with accolades, but with mindset. I finally understood that my job as a coach was to help others reach their goals while sacrificing my ambition for lofty achievements. I’m sure many coaches can relate to the trap I was in where I viewed my players’ achievements as a reflection of my own ability rather than the product of their growth and maturation.
I define #GrindRepeat as the consistent output of positive decisions and diligent actions. The end result of this is open to interpretation and dependent on your view of success. My new, personal challenge as a coach is to view my work as a means to help my players achieve their goals. In other words, understanding that the reason I was given a passion for the game is to be someone else’s platform.
“Would you sign up for little league knowing you’d never go pro?”
My challenge to players and coaches is to think about why they put everything they have into the game. Would you do it even if you knew that the result might not benefit you as much as it did others? Propaganda ends his piece by saying, “it’s a good thing we can’t see the future, cause we’d ruin it every chance we get.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2m0jywqvEk
