Mateus: Hey man, I just want to say sorry about what I said at practice.
Rudy: Don’t be sorry.
Mateus: Do you understand that if you don’t cool it out there you’re going to get yourself killed?
Rudy: If I cool it out there, then I won’t be helping you guys win next week’s game. Got it?
This is one of my favorite exchanges from the movie Rudy. In the previous scene, Mateus took it easy on Rudy after he thought he might hurt him. Rudy responded: “What are you doing? I’m playing defense for Purdue!” I thought of this during my son’s football practice when the coaches were encouraging the boys to go 100% for all of practice. The boys were reminded how they are cheating their teammates when they don’t. I want my son (and his teammates) to learn this. It is one of the most important lessons our children can take home from sports. It is an example that I want to practice daily in my own life.
I wholeheartedly believe in the motto: Be your best today; be better tomorrow. Anything less is cheating at life.
I challenge each of us to pick just one thing to do better today than we did yesterday. If we are honest with ourselves, I am certain we could come up with an expansive list, but baby steps. If we just pick one thing at a time and start to consistently do this one thing better, we will very quickly begin to better ourselves and those around us.
We must push ourselves and not be afraid to push those around us. I hope this for my son in football (as well as wrestling and lacrosse), but also in school and in everything he does. If we have the attitude of always doing our best, we will continue to improve and improve those around us. We will undoubtedly fall short quite often, but it is the attitude of self-improvement that is most important. Some might say “fake it ‘til you make it”. Believe you can and you will. If you are not the best (and most of us will never be “the best”), we, nonetheless, owe our best to others.
Carpe momento!
“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”—Vince Lombardi
Image source: Rudy