In 1968, the Notre Dame football team created a sign “Play Like A Champion Today” and posted it on the wall above their locker room exit. Each player and coach touches the sign on their way to the field before their practices or games. It is meant to motivate them right before they go to the field.
They have lots of practices and a long season before they can even have a chance to play for the national championship so why post this? Think about the typical effort a player may put in when they are deep into their practices and think about the effort they put in when it’s the big championship game. The coach’s point was to play everyday, including practices and workout days, as hard as you do for the big game.
The key word on the sign is “today”, not tomorrow or a year from now, but today. Not when you finish your degree, not when you get a certification, not when so and so happens, but today!
Guess what? You don’t have to be an athlete at a major university for this message to mean something to you. You can each Be Great…Today!
Over the last several months I have shared my Keys to Success, and now it is time for you to put them all together. These 5 keys are what has enabled me to get to where I am today.
These keys have led me to achieving an undergraduate degree in Management, a MBA, my SPHR and SHRM-SCP certifications, and becoming a Chief People Officer. Personally, they have helped me run 10 half marathons over the last few years, serve on my local SHRM chapter board for 10 years, speak at events and conferences, and my most important accomplishments of all; my family. I have been married for almost 23 years, at the time of writing this, to my beautiful wife and we have three wonderful young boys.
I will close out the Key to Success by sharing my personal story of how I applied these keys to enable me to complete those 10 half marathons I mentioned.
When my oldest boy was two years old, he liked for me to chase him around our kitchen island. And I don’t know if you have noticed, but a two year old has an unlimited supply of energy. After we had been running around the island for several days, I had a crazy thought that I wanted to run a 5K. After all, the number one rule to survive the zombie apocalypse is cardio. Plus it is good to be healthy and I want to be able to keep up with my kids for a long long time.
So the first thing I did was throw on my tennis shoes and just start running like Forrest Gump, right? No. First I had to research several different running applications for my phone. This included reviewing screenshots and reading review after review. Then I actually downloaded a couple to see if I liked any of them. I had to make sure they tracked the way I wanted, had the right program I thought I could accomplish, and most important of all that it allowed me to play my own music while running. I knew I would need my tunes in order to complete my runs!
Ok, so now I hit the road, right? Wrong, now I needed to research the right clothing, compression shorts, and the right running shoes for me. I will say, the right running shoes that fit your specific feet and running style are very important, but what I was doing was a lot of research. I had the right mindset of running to stay healthy and fit and the right solutions to start running, but I knew it was going to be hard. I had a fear of failure and I kept hiding behind the research.
I realized I was getting stuck behind the fear of failure and needed to just move forward and start taking action. I made myself open the running app, add my heavy metal running playlist, don my running clothes and shoes and went for my first run.
It was a couch to 5K program so not a lot of running involved at the beginning of the program as it builds up over 8 to 10 weeks. I enjoyed the first week, and then during the second week something came up and I missed a day. So what did that mean? Well, I had to stop for the rest of the week of course and start back at week 1 when another Monday rolled around.
Have any of you done this? I have done it on diets too. Things have been going great for a month, and then oops I just bombed my calorie intake for the day. Forget about the accomplished month because I just messed up so now I have to just drop this diet and wait until I can start out on the right day of the month again. Sound familiar?
Again, hiding behind the fear of failure. So I start my running app over and start fresh on the right day and make it this time to week 3 before I had to miss a scheduled day. You know how life just happens to get in the way. This time I caught myself though when I said that I would need to scrap it and just start all over again. I didn’t start all over again this time because I knew I needed to keep moving forward so I went out and ran the scheduled run the very next day.
Once I completed my training and put a check mark next to the goal of completing my first 5K, I noticed I started dropping from running four times a week down to three or maybe even twice a week and I didn’t want to stop running. I knew I needed to create my next goal(s). I signed up and paid for three different 5K races about a month apart. I created my training plan (daily goals) to finish those races and completed all of those.
Then I decided the next goal would be to complete a half marathon. I quickly found a program this time and started my ramp-up schedule. Again, knowing if I missed a day I would be ok. I had already signed up for my first half marathon right as my ramp up program finished so I knew I couldn’t reset the program. I had to succeed.
There were times during my ramp up that were hard for me to complete. I remember one run in the middle of the day (not the best time to run), in the middle of summer under a blazing sun and no clouds in the sky. I was hot and tired from the heat zapping me. I had about a mile left to run and was at the point of stopping the run and just walking the rest of the way back. Then visions of my wife and little boy popped into my head and my phrase of Be Great…Today!
That was all I needed to jolt me forward and pick up my pace to finish strong. I literally chanted Be Great…Today! out loud several times. Luckily it was so hot no one else was around to hear me talking to myself. But I use the Be Great…Today and the thoughts of my family as my motivational trigger any time I start to struggle.
So I completed my first half marathon, and remember I said I wanted to run it once. As soon as I finished, I was signing up for another one. And while running my first half marathon, I saw several people with Half Fanatic shirts on who got special VIP treatment at the race and I thought that was awesome. My next goal was to complete a minimum of three half marathons in 90 days to qualify for the Half Fanatic group. I ended up running 6 half marathons in 12 months that year.
To make an impact on myself during this time, I started reading Runner’s World magazine to educate myself on better and healthier running tips and techniques. I also learned about the importance of whole body workouts to prevent injury and incorporated those into my workout regime.
I share all of this to show that you can accomplish a lot if you really want to. To be great…today, you need to work towards mastering these 5 Keys to Success. You must have the right mindset, be solutions focused, take action, complete goals daily and make a positive impact on you and others.
Always look for solutions and move forward. Do things to make a positive impact not only on you, but also for everyone around you. Do something. Even if it is a small action; do it. You can’t fear action because inaction is an action in itself; you can’t avoid it. Instead, embrace it and make it yours.
It is a lot of hard work, but if you focus on making each day great utilizing the 5 Keys to Success you will
Be Great….Today!
Brandon Brazeel, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
Chief People Officer
It’s always insightful to read these, Thanks Brandon