My youngest son has recently (every since watching Friday Night Lights) expressed a desire to play football. Specifically, his goal is to be the starting quarterback on our nearby high school team. He has been homeschooled his entire academic life but we are seriously considering this. He’s never played before and we’re not – or weren’t – even a football watching family. We didn’t even play Madden on our xbox!
My response to his goal was “Go For It!!” I always want my children to dream big dreams. Realistically, it’s going to be a big challenge but he throws a better spiral than me (granted not too difficult to do but still…) and has been consistently hitting the weights in the garage. Is that all it takes? Of course not. There’ll be other skills, both physical and mental, that he’ll have to develop and that’s good. I want the challenge for him. I want him to be able to envision a long(er) range goal, work hard for it and either make it or miss it but have no regrets about it.
One of the side benefits of his interest is a chance to talk about people that I remember influencing me as a kid. One of them was Walter Payton, a running back for the Chicago Bears during the 80′s. In looking for some articles on “Sweetness,” I found this video on Walter’s work ethic that I immediately emailed to him. Obviously, there are direct lessons for my son here regarding his approach to football and training. A little more indirectly there are the same core values transferrable to our everyday life, goals and achievements.
Thought I’d share it here. Be challenged. I am.