Attitude and Effort

We consistently reinforce with our players that there are two main variables they have control over every day. The attitude they choose and the the effort they give. These are the two main requirements we have, approach each workout or practice with a positive attitude and give your best effort in every thing we do. It is interesting how these two variables are related. It seems if a player (or any of us for that matter) realize there is a certain amount of work that has to be done so we might as well do it the best they can, it changes our attitude. It makes us realize that hard work is productive, it makes us better. It makes us tougher. We feel a certain amount of self-satifiction with overcoming our reservations and doing what has to be done with our best effort. This is how people build confidence and that "can-do" spirit. If we feel good about ourselves, we have a positive attitude. A positive attitude is contagious and empowers those around us.
Whining,complaining, imitating an ostrich and putting our head in the sand only serves to destroy our attitude and our confidence. Besides that it is infectious. It brings the people around us down. No one likes to be around a whiner or a slacker. I didn't begin teaching until I was 30 and like many people worked a lot of different manual labor type jobs while trying to "figure it out". I was working on a crew one time that was assigned to clean out drained river beds. Talk about nasty, dirty, HARD, work! The supervise told us we were staying until the work was done so we might as well "screw it and do it." I will never forget that lesson. I have added one part to the saying though, "screw it and do it the best you can!"