Like many others I enjoy learning new things; it’s not only good to grow, & evolve, but also for me it’s very refreshing & invigorating to add new things to my repertoire.
I just feel better when I do.
It gets my mind & body aligned, & sharpens my mentality.
It makes me feel productive, which is important to me, & makes me feel good.
Currently I have a rolodex of books, articles, & podcasts that I like to use on a regular basis to provoke new thoughts, new practices, & general ways to get ahead in the game of life. It helps me personally, professionally, & most importantly at home.
Inspiration comes in many different forms, but for me I find it extremely useful to use others’ knowledge & insight to help stoke the flame of inspiration.
I’ve always said I’m not smart enough to create new ideas or thoughts on my own, but I’m smart enough to piggy-back on others (while I may not be able to write the book, I can read it!)!
On the days that I struggle to find inspiration I know that a quick read or listen can surely get my thoughts rolling in the right direction.
We’ve all been told that if you aren’t constantly evolving then you’re slowly dying.
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Prior to his time with Kashbox, JP spent 28 years as an NCAA Lacrosse Coach (22 years as a Head Coach). During that span, JP had the opportunity to coach with & against some of the top lacrosse coaches in the country.
It’d be like neglecting to nourish your body – without constant food & water your body would shrivel up & die. On top of a little nourishment, the better you treat your body with exercise & other healthy habits the more your body responds in a positive way.
Same is true in between your ears: if you aren’t interacting, having dialogue, engaging your mind in various ways your mind will just lay dormant, & eventually succumb to darkness. The same thing would happen if you don’t find ways to constantly challenge your mind.
There are many different formats which you can choose from to challenge yourself & to spur growth.
A lot of the chatter that I hear about lately is self-help, self-care, & self-improvement related. What’s all the fuss about, & what exactly do these terms mean?
If you are like many of us out there who are looking to improve in your day-to-day world there are a few simple ways that both you & your inner circle can benefit from. For me, the simpler the better. With a little determination & effort you can make these part of your daily routine, make them habits worth keeping, & most importantly turn them into tools to improve your life.
1. Learn How to be Honest with Yourself (The Man in the Mirror)
Not just being honest with yourself, but learning HOW to be honest with yourself.
We all know the easy way out is to make excuses, to blame others, to tell yourself that you didn’t do anything wrong, to hide from your mistakes.
In Peter Dale Wimbrow’s poem “The Man in the Glass” Wimbrow talks about how the most important person judging you is yourself.
His anecdote says that no matter how others perceive you, at the end of the day it truly only matters if you are happy with yourself. This is a great way of recognizing the importance of being honest with oneself. If you are true to yourself, & give yourself an honest self-evaluation (good, bad, or neutral) then you can truly embrace a life of self-fulfillment.
If you fail to reach the state of honest self-evaluation then there is no way that you can recognize the positives or negatives in your life. Self- honesty is the key to personal growth. Only you know if you’ve done your best at any given task.
Did you truly give your best effort?
Were you totally focused on the task at hand?
Did you genuinely use the tools, knowledge, & wisdom at your disposal?
Or did you take the easy way out?
Cut some corners?
Look for shortcuts?
While you may be able to fool others – to make them believe that you are giving it your all, there really is no way to fool yourself.
So here, for those who choose to be honest with themselves, is how you really, truly grow. How you self-develop. How you can learn, but also how you can (& should) lead yourself. If you can’t be honest with yourself, who can you be honest with? & if you can’t be honest with yourself the rest of it really doesn’t matter.
2. Identify Your Strengths & Weaknesses
Think about this one for a minute.
If you don’t know what you’re good at (your strengths) how can you use them to your advantage?
We all have things in our life that we do better than others.
Maybe it’s because we enjoy those things, maybe it’s because they make more sense to us, maybe it’s because it just comes a little easier to us, or maybe it’s because we dedicate more time & effort into those things. Whatever the reason for your strengths it is very valuable to know what they are.
Think about it from a sports perspective.
Not all athletes or teams are built the same way. Some football players use their size & strength to their advantage while others use their speed.
For some the natural athletic ability, size, or speed may not be there, but their intuition, instinct, & knowledge of the game is heightened compared to their peers.
Regardless of the strength, it’s important that we all find them in ourselves. Again, back to the sports analogy – you wouldn’t play your fastest player on a football field on the O or D line most likely, just like you wouldn’t necessarily have your biggest, strongest player lined up out wide trying to cover the opponents quickest, shiftiest players.
Now once you’ve ID’d your strengths you must also ID those weaknesses.
Coming back to point #1, this is where it is VERY important, crucial, to be honest with yourself. Do not take shortcuts here, do not BS yourself, & do not hold back. Weaknesses are not necessarily a bad thing….if they’re identified, & if you work on improving them you can actually turn them into strengths.
If you don’t quite get to the point where weaknesses become strengths then you’ve at least learned some valuable tools that can help you improve in life. You don’t need to be perfect here, but you do need to be proactive here (more on that later).
Let’s use communication skills as an example: Let’s say you are the head of your family, & you do many things well.
You are caring, compassionate, loving, giving.
You’re a great leader for your family, but you are weak as a communicator.
If you don’t correct (or at least work to correct) your communication skills not only will you suffer, but your family likely will also.
Imagine a head of house with a heart as big & well-intended as possible, but who can’t communicate well with their kids, spouse, or partner. Nobody would want that, & we all know that without communication even the most well-intended action won’t be as effective as it would be with great communication. So insist on being honest with yourself when assessing weaknesses – it’ll pay off!
3. Play to Your Strengths
If you were the Head Coach for your favorite football team wouldn’t that be pretty cool?
Now, in that role I imagine you’d want to be successful, to win some football games right?
One of the most common themes in sports is playing to your strengths.
Let’s get back to that football team: let’s say you’ve got an elite pair of running backs with an over-sized offensive line who thrives in run blocking. Maybe a couple of injuries have set you back at the wide receiver position; maybe your quarterback doesn’t quite have the accuracy or arm-strength to make all the throws necessary. It sounds like your team is a little better suited to the run game than the passing game.
So…….instead of entering your next game with the mindset of a spread offense who is going to air the ball out & try to defeat your opponent through the air, don’t you think it sounds a little better if you focused on the running game?
Allowing those elite running backs & run block specialists on the line to dig in & see if running the ball at your opponent is effective?
Playing to your strengths makes all the sense in the world on any athletic field, court, or arena, so why wouldn’t it make sense in the game known as life?
You can draw a similar comparison to the football team here: let’s say you are very good at organizational & logistical skills but you don’t really thrive in public speaking. Would it make sense for you to try to book numerous talks, presentations, or speeches about your company while overlooking the operations side of things?
Doesn’t it make sense here that you should focus on the logistics since that is what you do well?
Don’t be bashful about playing to your strengths in any arena of your life.
Playing to your strengths instills self-confidence, & it allows others to see you thrive in something that you’re really good at. A big argument can be made that playing to strengths also helps cover up some weaknesses, but also maybe even helps you improve those weaknesses.
4. Attack Your Weaknesses
Many of the things we talk about in section 3 (Play to your Strengths) can be said here, just with a little different spin.
As important as it is to play to your strengths you can make the argument that it becomes even more important to attack your weaknesses.
We all have them.
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What sets us apart is that some people are willing to admit their faults, willing to accept their mistakes, & eager to grow from them. Others won’t admit that they have faults, are never wrong, & have never made a mistake in their lives; it’s always someone else’s fault. If you are humble enough to accept that you have faults, to accept that you aren’t always the smartest person in the room, & embrace the opportunities presented from growing from your mistakes, faults, or weaknesses then you’ll find that these weaknesses can actually become strengths.
Is it an admirable quality for a person to embrace change?
Is it admirable for a person to admit when they’re wrong?
How about when someone accepts responsibility for their actions?
We’ve all run into these folks, & safe to say our interactions with these types of people are almost always positive. People that can accept their weaknesses, choose to grow from these weaknesses, & attempt to overcome their weaknesses are quite simply the types of people we all want to be around.
How many of us have had that arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic boss who always is, & always has been, right?
Tough person to be around?
The type of person, regardless of title or status, that you’d rather avoid?
They’re probably the type of person who either can’t or won’t identify & attack their own weaknesses. Probably because in their mind they don’t have any weaknesses!!!
Don’t be that type of person.
Know & understand that we all have weaknesses (just like we all have strengths). Choose to attack your weaknesses, for those around you, but most importantly for yourself.
Rewinding all the way to the beginning of this piece, how rewarding is it to learn new things?
We all know the value of learning something new – it’s invigorating, empowering, constructive, efficient, etc, etc. We could go on & on.
How about learning something new about YOURSELF???
Nobody knows you as well as you know yourself, but by being honest with yourself, by looking yourself in the mirror, & by identifying what you do well (strengths) & what you do not so well (weaknesses) not only will you improve your life & the lives of those around you, but you’ll also teach yourself something new about YOURSELF.
The value of that, the ROI? Endless.
Along with his responsibilities as an NCAA Coach, JP has also been a small-business owner for the past 22 years. He founded & built a successful lacrosse camp business that, in addition to camps, expanded into travel teams, clinics, lessons, & consultations.
In both of his careers as an NCAA Coach & small-business owner, JP has helped to teach, coach, mentor, & develop hundreds of players & coaches.
