Empowerment #1 - The Importance of Starting Positive

As a coach, I have seen so many teams fail 100% of the time because they started off with a negative motivation. That is, a negative mindset. I have worked under Joe Newton, the winningest High School cross country coach in the nation. He was so dominant, 28 state cross country titles in 50 years (43 total including second and third). He also won 27 national titles.

How does / did he and others win?

They started with a positive motivation. When everyone knows the workouts, when they know the rules, or the knew the percentage gains for a decision they make, this is the difference. We tend to think that shaming people into improvement will work, but that only works as a supplement and if they already believe in you. The other type of motivation is anger, but it must be directed toward a positive direction.

B-b-but only some will WIN!

Yes, only one team wins, a few win in investment, etc.... But! When I coached under Mr. Newton, and have witnessed other teams, this is what I found with positivity focused teams. For the most part, each person improves! Improvement leads to eventual "winning" success if the stars align, but improvement means realistic daily success.

How can this be applied?

It can be used to combat those people that say a thing will "never change," or that "black people can't never do ANYTHING together!" Untrue, both statements, and starting off there will give you a continuous feedback loop of failure. Some will "succeed", yes, but most will be stuck.

Let's instead say, "you can get what you're going after" but you have to work hard at it. "You are a hard working group of people!" "You can do it!" Then we can say things like, "if you don't work together and find the right team, you'll be stuck, but you have to find them" and "Are you really going to let yourself and your family / friends / love ones down like that? I'm disappointed..."

This is just a start of the formula. Stay tuned for future posts! Like, comment, follow and resteem!