It’s Superbowl Sunday!!! I hope you enjoy the game and the commercials and don’t be a part of the statistic of making this one of the largest food and beverage consumptin days of the year!
I’m away in Orlando right now for what is kind of like the “Superbowl” of Dance for High School Dance Teams. Peters Township Jazz Team headed by our very own FitHouse Trainer Jalyn Williams has made it in to the finals and will perform later on today.
Congrats to all of them up to this point we are super excited for them. They are now standing in the top 22 out of about 80 Teams around the country and will compete for their final spots. The competition is strong and they should be proud to have made it to this point.
I have spent the past two weeks with a lot of travel all centered around dance and team competitions. I have had to rely on a lot of teams to be able to make these trips.
One of my biggest take aways over the past two weeks has been the importance of a solid, focused TEAM when it comes to success. This includes everyone from the leader to each individual on the team. We are all on a Team and some of us are on many teams. We have work teams, family teams, sports teams, church teams, friendship teams etc.! Being a part of a team means that everyone has an important role and is focused on one common vision or goal.
Together those roles make the team. Often on the greatest teams the strengths are not all the same but rather different and that is what makes a team so great. It is not always easy to accept that someone does something better than you, or to give up your own power because it is best for the team. It is not always easy to see that your attitude, lack of focus or lack of teamwork may be having a negative impact on the entire team.
It is not easy to let go of your ego and allow someone else to shine because it is best for the team. It’s not easy to accept that your strength is not always the one that is needed.
Being part of a Team is an amazing thing. When you are part of a team you become responsible for a lot more than just yourself. Your responsibility includes showing up, being on time and being prepared. It means that you share one common vision, one desire and one passion to make your team the BEST! To be responsible to the team also means that you share new information that you discover that may influence the team’s direction and/or impact the team’s decisions.
There is no such thing as free lunch.
If an individual wants to benefit from the team they must give to the team. To be a part of a Team is a privilege.
I am grateful for the many outstanding teams that I am a part of and that surround me some which I lead and some which I am a member, my FitHouse Team, my family, my friends, my childrens dance families and my fitness families! Together we learn, we live, we fail, we grow and we succeed! I could not be who and what I am without these teams and when you get the opportunity to be surrounded by those who support you and make you better…life is good!
I want to share one last story about Teamwork…Who’s Packing Your Parachute?!?!?!
In the daily grind of life we sometimes fail in being grateful and recognizing all of the good that is done on our behalf. Here is an inspirational story I heard the other day that demonstrates that there are many working on a team that we often times fail to recognize for their good work.
This teamwork story is about a US Naval Academy graduate and jet fighter pilot in Vietnam by the name of Charles Plumb. He had completed 75 combat missions when he was shot down. Plumb was ejected and parachuted into enemy hands afterwards spending six years in a Vietnamese prison. Fortunately he survived and today lectures on the many lessons he learned.
One day while eating at a restaurant with his wife a man came up and said, “Your Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”
“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb. “I packed your parachute,” the man replied. Charles Plumb in surprise and gratitude had to catch his breath.
The man then shook his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb assured him it had and said, “if your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”
That night Plumb could not sleep. He said, “I kept pondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform – a Dixie cup hat, a bib in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said good morning, how are you or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.”
Plumb thought a lot about that man who had packed his parachute and the hours he spent at a wooden table at the bottom of the ship carefully packing his and others chutes. He held in his hands the chute; the fate of someone he did not even know.
Charles Plumb is now a motivational speaker telling this story to hundreds. He always ask his audiences after telling it, “Who’s packing your parachute?”
In our life many people have a hand in our parachutes. Are we taking the time to acknowledge them, thank them, reward them? It is very easy to overlook the work of many. When an athletic team has won a championship do you ever hear them thank the trainer, the cook, the bus driver? Do they take the time to reward them too? It takes a lot of people to create a championship team.
Who on your team works on your parachute?
Let’s make 2018 the STRONGEST year of our lives
See You in the HOUSE!!!