HELP WANTED. Perfect people need not apply!

I remember jumping over those chairs thinking, “Watch me eat it in front of my team.” They were thinking the same thing. Or were they? You know what? I think we give ourselves too much credit when it comes to knowing the thoughts of others. I never even asked the dynamic people on that missionary team to Santa Rem, Brazil in 2000 if they thought I was about to eat a grass “samich”.

The older I get and the more I reflect on being involved with basketball particularly, the more I see how much of my life was impacted by conversations that never happened. You know the ones where you get to put words in the mouths of other people before you even (if you even) talk with them in real life. Don’t get me wrong; I know that often times people root against you and not for you in this world. But you can’t really know that someone is planning your demise until you at least ask them, I mean if an Autobot asks a Deceptigon if he really hates humans, I’m thinking the Autobot will get the truth. Or take Bin Laden. I bet he’d be pretty straight up about where he stands on Westerners.

I think what makes us better able to fight on in athletics or any other realm in which you find yourself is accepting the fact that you’re still learning.  It doesn’t mean you accept being average but rather that you’re still learning. In 2000, I was clueless about how to lead a team of college-aged adults to a foreign country ensuring their safety and giving them opportunities to grow spiritually and as responsible men/women. I was only 24 years old myself. My flaws were glaring because they were glaring to me. Again, however, who’s to really say what my team observed in me. I never held a debriefing and said, “Okay team, lay it on me. Did I suck at leading this trip or what?” Nope, I just made up my own opinion of how the trip went and was ashamed that I didn’t do a good enough job in being who the team needed me to be.

Here’s what I know now. As a teacher and coach, being “real” is the thing that helps my athletes and students the most. They seem to relate to the stories, the past failures and the continued struggles as I and they attempt to be excellent. I jumped over the chairs for so many different reasons: time to kill, somebody dared me, I was just trying to show off, etc. Whatever man! It was fun and all during the journey of a lifetime being in a part of Brazil where people needed compassion more than perfection. The Warrior is not perfect but he/she is probably a “learner” – someone who can grow from experiences both good and bad. I remember learning in Brazil this one thing and translating it to my team, “We’ll probably learn more than we teach on this trip.” That much was true. At least I was right about something…make that two things because I cleared the chairs too.