Winning At All Costs

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Winning At All Costs

By Jared McCaleb

Long-time Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, famously said, “Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”

Winning is what makes us go as an athlete, it is what makes us tick. We understand some things about motivation and drive that other people do not. We understand that as an athlete we must work extremely hard day after day to achieve our greatest goals. Athletes understand that winning is not a sometimes thing, we all want to win on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, winning can get the best of us at times. I am reminded by the many post-game press conferences by famous coaches that have gone south in a hurry. In some cases, coaches were fined for the things they said. I think about the ones that are on people’s top ten lists. Ones like Herman Edwards, “you play to win the game,” he said. Or there is Jim Mora, “Playoffs… Playoffs… We can’t even win a game, and you are asking me about playoffs?”

What about cheating to win? Think about all of the baseball players that were involved in the BALCO scandal. These were people who took winning to the extreme, taking performance enhancing drugs to be gain a competitive edge against their opponents.

We never play to lose the game as athletes. We have the mindset of doing what it takes to win. Lombardi said again, “It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner.”

As an athlete it is important to always press forward, not looking back, but to have faith and confidence that you are doing the very best that you can. Muhammad Ali said, “I hated every minute of training, but I said, "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”

Andy Stanley, pastor of a church in an Atlanta Suburb said this; “You can’t aim for a target until you have identified it.”

As an athlete, what are you aiming for? What does winning look like in your life?

Jared McCaleb

Student Pastor

FBC The Woodlands

Twitter: jaredmccaleb

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Website: www.jaredmccaleb.com