Today I watched my kid suck at football. It was, for me, a valuable life lesson both as a dad and really just as a human being. See, he was playing against arguably the worst football team in the league. His squad lost that game 18-6. It was closer than the score indicated, because for moments during the game he played hard. He was sick, but that isn’t even an excuse. The real issue to me was that he expected to win. He expected weak competition and he acted like it did not matter.
This is how he behaves on a daily basis. He lowers himself to the level at which he plays, works, thinks, etc. I know exactly where he gets it. He is embodying the worst parts of me. He is taking them in and making them his own and living as that portion of myself and I hate it. I absolutely cannot stand excuse making and half efforts. Yet I am guilty of these things in my own life. I don’t choose it as my life course but there is enough of it that it has rubbed off on my children in the wrong way.
So that is the lesson at play here: I cannot continue to be lazy and show them this person who doesn’t work hard, who doesn’t absolutely bring it in everything that he does, and still feigns success. I’m going to quote the Rock now: “Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” He’s worked his ass off and hasn’t stopped working. He’s incredibly successful. He is absolutely not everyone’s favorite person, but he has built himself up and created the lifestyle and message and, yes, type of success he wanted. He did him and he worked hard to get there. Moreover, he doesn’t give a crap if you don’t like it or if you don’t care, because it ain’t about you.
So, that is where I need to get back to. I need to get back to being the best version of me and putting in the work to do it. I’ve said it before on this very blog: The time for lazy and inefficient is over. It is grinding season.