I was out running the other day and saw a guy wearing a shirt that said, “Want Is NOT Enough!” I thought it was great and couldn’t agree more. If I want to run a marathon, but I haven’t run more than a mile…I’m going to be pretty unsuccessful at that marathon. The same is true for our athletes and our teams. Here are a few reasons that wanting to be good isn’t enough to turn our teams into winners.
3 reasons why “want” must be combined with “work”
1. Want is easy, work is hard. Everyone wants to be good. Every team wants to win the championship…that’s the easy part. The hard part is the daily grind of practice, working out in the weight room, and meshing as a team. Each of those things requires both mental and physical commitments from each of your players. Your team has to be focused each day in practice…even when they’ve got midterms to study for or papers to write. They’ve got to hit it hard in the weight room even when the coach is there breathing down their necks. And they’ve got to be committed to building a strong team base by hanging out with each other off of the courts or fields.
2. Want is talk, work is walk. People who want to be good talk a real good game. Talkers generally find someone else to blame for why they aren’t walking their talk. Maybe the coach is playing favorites or just no good. Maybe the officials blew a call or didn’t call enough fouls. Whatever it is, it’s not the talker’s fault. Walkers on the other hand, they may face the same challenges but figure out how to work around it. They may think their coach is playing favorites, so the walker works so hard that they become a favorite. As an aside, all coaches play favorites! Our favorite players are the hard-working athletes who don’t complain, but contribute in a meaningful way every day.
3. Want is future, work is present. Want looks to the future, it sets goals and gives teams something to strive for. Work is the dirty side of want. Work pushes up its sleeves and goes about making the wants happen. Without work, our goals are just ink on paper or words floating in the air. But without the wants, work is mindless and pointless…the beauty is in the intersection! When want is combined with work, goals become real, living, and tangible.
There’s nothing wrong with having wants. As a matter of fact, wants are what bring teams together. But we can’t stop there! When we combine want with work…that’s when our goals and dreams are realized.
