With the arrival of his new book, “Thank You Coach: Learning How to Live by Being Taught How to Play,” Angus Reid explains how much of what he learned while being coached in football can be applied in the real world to achieve greatness in a professional and personal capacity.
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Know What You Want
Many people try to chase a career based on a title that sounds like what they want to do. While this may work in some cases, the better way to go about it is to first look at what makes you tick as a person.
What did you like to do when you were a child? Did you like to build things? Solve puzzles? What did you do before it mattered?
Study yourself and understand not only what you like to do, but why you enjoy doing it.
The Difference Between a Vision and a Goal
Once you understand what makes you tick, what really drives you, it’s time to create a vision for yourself. But what is a vision? And how is it different from your goals?
Creating a vision requires you to make use of your imagination and creativity to really see yourself doing what you love to do--and all of the minute details that go along with it, whereas a goal might be less clearly defined or not as fleshed out, and it may only pertain to a single aspect of your life.
“Carving” out a vision like this, as Angus puts it, not only solidifies this plan in your mind, but, if it’s a realistic enough rendering, it naturally provides a source of both accountability and motivation that will help move you along on the path to achieving your highest potential.
Going All In
For Angus, “happiness is leaving nothing on the table.” To do anything great, you must sacrifice other attributes and go all in on your vision.
This means maximizing on the gifts you’ve been given and aligning them with an outlet that allows you to express them in a way that is beneficial to others and creates a sense of satisfaction within you.
But going all in on anything requires trust, and trust is a skill. Building the trust muscle is an iterative process. Much in the same way a football huddle works, learning to trust requires (sometimes brutal) honesty, focus, and frequency.
Assess specifically what you’re trying to get done. Look at which things matter, then mitigate weaknesses and play to strengths.
The intersection of happiness and success lies somewhere between understanding what makes you tick and finding the right outlet that allows you to express that in the best way possible.
Perhaps Angus said it best: “Know what matters to you and do it every day.”
