On Monday and Wednesday nights May through July, our church runs an amazing soccer ministry that has close to four hundred participants. For the workers involved it is an intense, exhausting labour of love. When I came across this article by Barnabas Piper, I though it might be an encouragement to our wonder, hard-working volunteers who make this ministry possible.
4 THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT WORK FROM A PEEWEE SOCCER TEAM
My first grade daughter just wrapped up her spring soccer season. If you’ve ever watched kids soccer you would not think there is much to learn about anything but the most rudimentary instructions.
“Wrong way!”
“Kick the Ball!”
“Run!”
Over the course of the season, though, I began to notice a few things that consistently occurred that turned the outcome of every game. Each of them is directly applicable to your work and mine.
Effort is a skill and we can all learn it.
When we think of skills we tend to think of nifty, maybe flashy, and definitely enviable. But one skill overrides all the others: Effort. It is a skill to try harder than everyone else, to not give up, to hustle, to walk away knowing you gave everything you had. My daughter is not the most skilled player, but I knew that is she played with the kind of effort I asked her to she could change games for her team.
Effort can be learned, and that is remarkably encouraging because we will all find ourselves in positions where we aren’t the best or aren’t highly skilled or don’t have innate talent. But we can outwork and outhustle everyone if we want. We may never be the top performer, but we can swing outcomes in our favor.
Focus is more important than talent.
Asking first graders to pay attention is about as fruitless as, well, asking first graders to pay attention. Time and again throughout these games a team would allow a goal because the defense was practicing ballet or the goalie was picking her nose. Even the most talented players got schooled by those who just paid attention to where the ball was and where they were supposed to be.
Like effort, we can all learn focus. In fact it is a big part of effort, the part that makes sure we trying at the right things and in the right ways. Focused effort trumps lackadaisical talent nearly every time. If you are talented and focused you are a super star. If you are only passably talented and focused you will still be an incredibly productive and valuable contributor.
Stay in your position.
Soccer, like most team sports, works best when the spacing and flow of the game is good. Players are in position and the other team are trying to get them out of position, to find angles and gaps in the defense. Well, first graders don’t think in terms of positions. They all orbit the soccer ball as it rolls around the field. It’s more like a scrum than a soccer match.
Read the Rest HERE.
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