Will this choice really lead to my dominance?

I love when a blog resonates with people! Last week I sent out a blog about how our bad choices, even small or ‘one degree’, can and will eventually cause us to end up way off course. Read about it here.

I received numerous emails from people in how they have seen that in their own life. So if that was Part 1, then here is Part 2. Although I am confident there will be future writings to further unpack the good and bad choices in our life.

Now for the Dominance portion

On a recent flight to California, I watched ‘In Search of Greatness.’ This documentary was about how elite athletes become great, yet not how you would expect. The documentary highlights many greats, but the athletes interviewed were Pele, Wayne Gretzky, and Jerry Rice. Here is a 3-minute trailer about the movie.

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The thesis of the documentary is that we spend all this time trying to measure the elite athletes and what makes them great in order to find the next elite athlete, i.e. the NFL combine. However, the documentary provides evidence and theory to prove that many of the elite athletes score low in those tests and competitions.

A perfect current day example is Tom Brady, who may go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks ever, yet was drafted in 6th round due to his ‘stats’.

Since these elite athletes did not have the great ‘stats’, the documentary showed how these athletes consistently worked on things that helped them overcome their weaknesses. These athletes possessed this balance between passion for the sport and raging desire to perfect themselves.

Wayne Gretzky was small for the typical NHL player, so he knew he would not beat people on the ice with his size. So he studied the game. Shockingly, he somehow watched every game film of his hockey career! Where should he have been on the ice? Where were the other teammates and opponents? Based on his study, he was the first player to really hone the strategy of playing ‘behind the net’ since it would not put his size to a disadvantage.

Jerry Rice was not the fastest, nor from a D-I school. He knew to standout he would have to have the best hands and best routes of any NFL receiver. Jerry actually used to toss the ball back and forth in his hands, in the dark, while laying in bed. He constantly practiced running his routes so they were clean and sharp, in order to beat the opponent.

Each day, these elite athletes were making choices to help them get to their dominance. Wayne Gretzky would skip out on going out with buddies to practice shooting. Jerry Rice got to practice early and left late.

What about you?

What choices are you making to build towards dominance? Are you working to perfect your craft?

How are you positively investing in your marriage each day? How are you pouring into your kids each day? What steps are you taking to increase your relational capital with some friends? How are you growing in your business? How are you growing spiritually? What are the non-negotiables you need to hit every day in order to be great?

We get better one degree at a time. The greats did not become great overnight. They worked at it each day.

The great news is we can do the same.

If you enjoyed seeing the benefit of our good choices, learn about the consequences of our bad choices. Read this blog.

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