Inspiration for your SuperBusy day....
Last week I had the exciting opportunity to travel to Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, FL to watch my daughter and her cheer team compete in the Pop Warner National Cheer Championships. Her team had gone from a very weak start in August to coming from .002 points away from the first place team at the Eastern Regional competition. No one would have anticipated that this squad of 33 girls from 5th through 8th grade would be competing at the National level.
It took discipline, commitment and dedication not only on the part of the girls but their parents, coaches and most of all, the instructors. Unlike many of the teams competing at this level, we did not have professional choreographers but local HS seniors who wrote and taught the show, then tweaked it following each competition based on the judges’ feedback.
The girls worked together but most of all, to the (sometimes) frustration of the coaches and instructors, they had fun. One of the coaches, Coach Patty, always had an inspirational message. By the end of the season, each and every girl could quote the 2-3 she used most often. The one that stuck with me is “What you put into it is what you’ll get out of it.”
How often is this true in our lives as well? Sometimes we do things half-way or incomplete; often times we don’t put our heart into what we’re doing but instead go through the routine motions to complete the task-at-hand. The cheerleaders were constantly being told to refin
e their movements, sharpen their jumps, hold their stunts and articulate more loudly and clearly. Then, when they hit the competition floor each time, it all came together with precision and pride. Although they goofed off at practice, when it mattered they always pulled it together. My saying from my competition days as a baton twirler was, “ Practice like you will perform”. This was rarely taken to heart but when they did, it brought tears to our eyes.
In the end, when the announcer said, FIRST PLACE, the Hillsborough Dukes, we knew that what they put into it is what they got out of it. They gained friendships, skills, sportsmanship along the way to being National Champions. The focus was on performing at their absolute best and that’s what they did!
So, what will you focus on so that you can give it your all? When you put your best effort into the task-at-hand, what rewards will you reap??
