Core Values In Your Football Program
By Brian Cain·
WHAT ARE YOUR PROGRAM CORE VALUES?
As you set your sights on the summit of The Mountain of Excellence, you must begin to prepare for your journey by establishing core values. A core value is a personal belief reinforced by how you spend your time and treat other people. You must identify your personal and program core values in order to realize what you stand for both now and in the future. These core values will provide an internal guide to direct you on your journey and will reflect how you approach your pursuit of excellence. These values will provide your safety net for when you fall. And make no mistake - when you hike the mountains that we will, you will fall. Falls are to be embraced, not avoided.
CAIN'S CHALK TALK:
Reflect upon the following question: How do you want to be remembered when your last journey is over? What do you want people to say about you at the celebration of your life as a player/coach who was committed to the pursuit of excellence? As you think about this, write down the core values you will strive to embody over the course of this season and how you want to be remembered.
CAIN'S COACHING POINT:
Answering the question of how you want to be remembered when your life's journey is complete will help provide clarity to what is most significant to you and how you will want to begin living your life today.
As you reflect upon this big question, consider how your core values transfer to your football performance. Think about how you would like people to acknowledge you and your contributions to your sport and your team over the duration of the current season.
DIFFERENT VALUES FOR DIFFERENT TIMES
The reason we transition focus to a set of core values for the present (off-season into the season or vice versa) and not for an entire lifetime is that a lifetime is a daunting time frame. A lifetime is too difficult to imagine and therefore presents an intimidating mountain to climb. It is important to focus on how you want to live over the course of the season in order to focus on how you must live in the present moment. Establishing this perspective will make climbing your mountain appear much more manageable.
Once you have identified what you want people to say about you and you have reflected this in your core values, start living by them "Today." These core values are fundamental principles that should be integrated into the routines of your daily life. If you are not regularly practicing these values, you will end up losing your way to the summit.
CAIN'S COACHING POINT:
The secrets of success are hidden in the routines of our daily lives. You will be as successful as your routines allow you to be on a daily basis. Start establishing routines and habits of excellence.
APPLYING CORE VALUES TO LIFE
When you look to the future, you may think it is difficult to have integrity for your entire life or to be responsible for your entire life or to have self-discipline for your entire life. This may be true, but you CAN live with integrity, responsibility and self-discipline "Today." With this perspective, you have an appropriately sized mountain to climb "Today." And then, do it all over again when tomorrow becomes "Today."
To begin applying core values to your sport and life, choose one or two and focus on them for a set period of time.
CAIN'S COACHING POINT:
I recommend working on your specific core values for 4-5 weeks. Research shows it takes 21-28 days for positive personal change to occur with a focused plan and accountability partner. Right now, look over your core values and ask yourself, "How do I apply my core values in my life at this present time?"
Imagine it is the month of December and one of your core values for December is being self-disciplined. As you commit yourself to working on your self-discipline this month, think about the following:
How would I define self-discipline?
What does self-discipline look like in the different aspects of my life?
If I am an athlete or a coach, what does self-discipline look like in competition, in training, in academics, at the nutritional table, in recovery, and in my personal life?
To provide myself a point of reference and to give me a chance at living that way, how do I identify specifically what it is to be self-disciplined in those areas?
Answering all of these questions is significant to defining exactly what it is and how it is you plan on living this core value. If you specifically outline your core values, you give yourself the best opportunity to live them.
By establishing what it looks like for you to live your core values, you set yourself up for success. It is easier to act your way into thinking and feeling than it is to think and feel your way into action. Knowing what action you must take and how you will take it to become the new-and-improved version of yourself sets the stage for a successful journey up the mountain.
When establishing your core values, I suggest you focus on between one and three for a given period of time. Initially, setting more than three would be an overwhelming endeavor. Giving yourself a more narrowed focus will increase your chances for successful mastery of a particular core value. If you can focus on self-discipline for the month of December, you are going to have the skill of self-discipline beyond December into January. You may work up to having five or six core values over time. As with most anything, start small, get some summits/wins under your belt, and then go bigger.