Life Is Meant To Be Lived

For ten years I was a high school teacher and for five years I was a college soccer coach. Throw in my own ceremonies and those of my family members and friends and I have attended more than fifty graduations. Every single time the main speaker spoke about dreams and reaching beyond their grasp and going after life like it is an adventure. Every single time it was corny and old-fashioned. And every single time I loved it! Life is meant to be lived. We're supposed to dream and reach beyond where we are today.

During my last year as a teacher I made a rather dumb statement about goals and dreams. I said the key is to identify what the obstacles and parameters are first and then figure out what you need to do to get past them. A great art teacher, Joan Bugnitz, said, "I disagree. I think the key is to remove the parameters and start with the biggest possible dream. I tell my students to start with a really big piece of white paper and just see what emerges." Now that was great advice. Don't focus on your limitations and self-imposed parameters. Instead start with a great big sheet of paper and start writing down what you want to achieve or do. Write down where you want to go and whom you want to meet.

My favorite cinematic moment is in the film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" starring Harrison Ford. He portrays a high school history teacher and part-time archaeologist named Indiana Jones. Early in the film he decides to pursue his dream of finding the lost ark that contains the original Ten Commandments. After surviving one grueling event after another, he seems to have reached an impossible situation. His partners turn to him and say, "Indy, what are you are going to do now?" Harrison Ford slowly turns his head and says, "I don't know. I'm making this up as I go along." That's the attitude of a person who is going after life.

Don't know about you, but I definitely know that I have no idea what adventures, opportunities, crises and challenges await me over the next five years. Ten years ago that would have been disconcerting for me. It would have worried me. Now it exhilarates me. I have virtually no idea what life will look like for me in five years. And that's ok. Think back to January 1, 2000. Did you ever think that the United States would endure three years of economic stagnation? Did you ever think that the World Trade Center Twin Towers would be gone? No one really knows what the future holds. All we can do is live life every day.

Dream of the possibilities. It is an exhilarating exercise that adds fuel to your life, your career, your groups and your organizations. Don't focus on what supposedly can't be done. Did you ever think that kids would buy 800 page books by the millions? But they do. Whatever dreams you have need to be crystallized and fueled everyday.

Remember, we're making this up as we go. Last night I watched a live, outdoor production of "Cinderella" with my wife, Barb, and our four-year-old daughter, Sarah, and our two-year-old son, Ben. The closing line was, "Impossible dreams happen everyday." How true that it is, but it all starts with having the dream. So take out a really big white piece of paper and start describing things the way you want them. Let your dreams grow. And then go after life everyday. Remember, life is meant to be lived.

New White Paper – Accelerate Your Strengths

On June 16th I gave a half-day seminar on “Accelerate Your Strengths: practical ideas to boost business momentum” for GE Capital. It was such an interesting project that I wrote a white paper for the group after the seminar based on what we talked about. In turn, that white paper was forwarded on to 7,000 GE employees. Consequently, I thought you might like to read the paper, except this version has all the references to GE taken out. Here is the link for the

Accelerate Your Strengths white paper: http://thecoughlincompany.com/accellerate_your_strengths.html

New Book, Find a Way to Win: Management Insights from Terry Michler, America's All-Time Winningest Soccer Coach

This book focuses on business lessons that can be learned from soccer. The foundation of the book is how Terry Michler used the powerful simplicity of Dutch soccer to win more games than any other U.S. coach in history.

On July 11th, the finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa between Holland and Spain was watched by more than 700 million people. While I was cheering for Holland at the beginning of the game, a major decision by their coach led me to learning a valuable lesson all over again.

Dutch soccer, which is highlighted in my book, is all based on extraordinary technical skill, efficiency, and precise attacking soccer. This is how a country with only 16 million people competes so extraordinarily well with the world's super powers in soccer including number-one ranked Brazil, whom they beat in the quarterfinals. However, in the World Cup finals Holland abandoned what made them great and instead focused on playing brutal, violent soccer. They wanted to intimidate Spain, and in the end they lost the game and the respect of so many people who love Dutch soccer. What happened and why did they do it?

They felt they couldn't compete with Spain if they allowed them to get into their normal passing game. So they consciously decided to physically attack the Spanish players with violent tackles all over the field. One Dutch player even shoved his metal cleats into the chest of a Spanish player. They received numerous yellow cards, a red card, and ridicule from the world-wide soccer press after the game.

What's the lesson to learn here for every business? Stay true to who you are. When the prize is close don't abandon what got you to be one of the best organizations in your industry. Too many companies in the past ten years have decided that what made them very, very good wasn't going to be enough to make them number one in their industry, and so they got away from their strengths. Big mistake.

I believe Holland will return to their traditional style of play, focus on precise, skillful, attacking soccer, and get away from their violent style of play. I think they learned a huge lesson. And hopefully every business that got away from its core strength in the pursuit of being bigger and more successful financially than anyone else in the industry will also return to its core and get back to winning again.

You can learn more about Find a Way to Win at http://thecoughlincompany.com/book_store.html

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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