Process

By: Joel Luedke

Football season started for most back in the middle of August.  No more two a days this year but still plenty of time spent in the athletic training room, the sports performance center, meeting rooms and the practice field.  Take all those things and extrapolate it out over the next 3 months while adding school to the list and that has the recipe for a long season.

Our season at UWL has ended and each year we have the privilege of listening to the seniors talk

about their experience and pass on information and advice to not only the younger players but also the staff that will be back next year.  There seems to always be consistent themes going through those message and one is embrace the grind.  Another is buy into the 'process' and that is what we are going to talk about today, 'the process'.

Very little in life comes quick and almost never easy.  What you do on a daily basis will almost always be a direct reflection on the results that you will get.  Angela Duckworth in her book 'Grit' talks directly about this.  It is the micro improvements on a daily basis that leads to the results you are looking to achieve and the days you don't want to do those little things are the days you need to the most.  That is embracing the grind and adding to the process.

One of my favorite strength coaches out there, Nick Winkelman had the best description of looking at your "job".  In an interview Coach Winkelman discusses his two passions in life, his family and his profession.  He makes it very clear that it is not his "job" as he doesn't believe that description does his work justice.  He is very proud of his profession and embraces that he gets to be in a constant process of evolution and growth in his work.  This outlook has made him extremely successful and a highly respected coach.

I think we all too often forget to enjoy the day to day grind.  We look past what we can get done today in an effort to see what tomorrow might bring us.  Time goes by quickly and we often find out that we thought was going to last forever doesn't and we feel like it slipped away without any of our own control.  When it comes to your life and your pursuit of anything whether it be your profession, your family, or you health make sure to embrace every minute of it.

A phrase I've tried to work in this year and need to continue to improve on it "can I/we do it better".  I tried to work this in not to ever downplay what I/we/my team is doing, that isn't the purpose.  We implemented it as a way of constantly challenging ourselves of can we better the process.  Can we make small changes on a daily basis that will lead to much bigger outcomes.  I think if you add something like this to your life the improvement and success is almost sure to follow.

Embrace the grind, enjoy the process and when it comes down to it, get after it every single day.