Serve, Coach, Lead Newsletter #21: An Apology

As I write this newsletter, we are preparing for our final weekend of the regular season.

An important part of writing this newsletter is me being transparent and vulnerable with all of you. My goal when I set out was to provide applicable lessons and ideas in leadership every week. The past couple of weeks, I have not managed my time well enough to get a newsletter out. As we prepare to play game 47 of a 50 game regular season, I am writing to apologize for not providing you with content the past two weeks.

While this could be due to my busy schedule, I believe that there is another factor that has led to the newsletter not getting published. Some of the best advice I have received for producing any kind of content is to make your audience as specific as possible. I feel that I have taken on the daunting task of trying to make my posts relevant to anyone that might read it. I was trying to write to coaches/teachers/business leaders/students/managers/parents/athletes all at the same time. This made me overanalyze the words I used, and the examples that I included.

My profession is coaching baseball. It is not who I am, and it does not define me. I believe that my identity is that I am a follower of Jesus Christ who strives to make a positive impact on everyone around me. Regardless of my vocation, I will always have the opportunity to show people God's love for us through my words and actions.

For me, it is important to focus on who I am, rather than what I am.

When coaching sports teams, a good strategy to help athletes understand their identity is to help them shift their perspective about themselves.

When asked, "Tell me about yourself?" Many young people may answer along the lines of:

"I am a basketball player."

"I play on the AAA hockey team."

"I am a collegiate soccer player."

While all of these statements are true, they focus more on what the person does, rather than who they are.

These same young people could probably answer the same question in these ways:

"I am a dependable person."

"I am a very hard worker."

"I take pride in my preparation."

Focusing on the character traits of these people will yield more positive results once their playing careers have concluded. While they will not be an athlete forever, they can hold onto the qualities that they developed through sports.

With all of this being said, moving forward this newsletter is going to be more focused towards coaches. In my opinion, anyone that oversees others in any way is a coach. If your role involves any sort of mentorship, then there are no doubt applicable lessons to be learned through sports. This new focus will allow me to use specific language and ideas for coaches to apply in their daily lives.

Your occupation does not define who you are. You do not have to be a coach to have a positive impact on the people around you. You don't even have to be in a position of authority or leadership to make a difference in other's lives. If we can focus more on the character traits that make us who we are (as opposed to the titles and labels put on us by our jobs and society) we can all lead lives of significance no matter what role we are in.

Thank you for continuing to read and follow this newsletter. If there are people in your lives that you believe would benefit from reading leadership lessons through sports each week, please pass this this link along to them.

Every Serve, Coach, Lead newsletter is available on the website, which can be found here. Feel free to share the website on social media to help reach more leaders!

If you would like to reread the last edition of the newsletter, you can find it here.

Thank you for your support, and I look forward to connecting with you all next week.

God Bless!