Love of the Game
Serena Williams is about to win another Wimbledon Championship. It’s match point, the announcer says it’s currently “forty-love.” Love, you mean zero right? “In tennis, love is a word that represents a score of zero, and has been used as such since the late 1800s. It's not clear how this usage of love came to be, but the most accepted theory is that those with zero points were still playing for the "love of the game" despite their losing score."1
Have you ever watched someone put their heart and soul into something? I don’t know about you, but passion like that inspires me and stops me in my tracks. Seeing passion lived out makes us rethink how and why we are doing things. Passion makes you want to be passionate about something. Passionate people have the right motive, genuinely love what they do even if the results don’t come back as they expect, and are in it for the long haul.
Check your Motive
Motive: “a reason for doing something, especially one that is hidden or not obvious”.2 Why do you go to work, why are pursuing this goal, why do you want this position, why do you want this purchase? It is consequential to dig in into and start with the why. Would you still do it if no one saw or heard what you were doing? Many of us are even doing the right things but for the wrong reasons. So, what is the actual reason you are doing____?
The Win-Lose Dance
Winning and losing are a part of life. We should always strive to win; when losing happens, take a deep breath and learn from it. What could I have done differently? What did another person who won do? Most paths to success of a goal are not a straight line. They will look like 3 steps forward, 1 step back, 4 steps forward, and 2 steps back. You get the picture. We keep doing this pivot of the learning dance until we reach our goal. This is why checking your motive first is crucial. When failure smacks you in the face, you won’t quit.
Long Haul
In our world, overnight fame is real. here are so many stories of that one YouTube video that blew up and now the kid is going on Good Morning America. Dreams take time though. They require grit, perseverance, and having this sense of not knowing when the end is coming yet having faith that you will make it there. W When I have a dream but I’m in the middle of a grind season where it feels like there’s no end in sight, I like to pause and ask myself, “What story do I want to tell when this season is over?” We invest so much time in tv shows and movie storylines that we forget that we are in the middle of one in our own lives. Are you proud of the story you are living? My wife and I have a set of marriage values that we try to live by. One of our values is that “we act with integrity as if everyone is watching even if no one is.” Life is a marathon, so don’t cut corners, be present, and don’t rush through a season because once you’re out of it…you’re never able to go back.
Reaching your Dream
If you live these principles of having the right motive, win-lose dance, and in it for the long haul. When you reach your dream one day, you will be able to look back, be filled with joy and have people to celebrate with. You’ll be able to smile and laugh at your younger self from a number of years ago because of how much you grew. Hopefully, you can say I was doing X, Y, and Z for the “Love of the Game”.