#32 Earning and Owning What You Do

If you wanted to be a medicine man (a Shaman) you couldn't get there without some help. You needed to be recognized by your community as a Shaman before you could officially call yourself a Shaman. Someone else would have to see the Shaman in you and name what they saw. Your community would give you the title. In this way, you would know that you have earned it. 

No matter what your passion - being an artist or a shaman - being recognized by the people you serve as the thing you strive to become is the most truthful way to earn a title. Business leaders who take a title not given are not respected. Earn the title you seek. 

The truest joy of being a coach is realized when you see the love and admiration you feel for your players reflected back to you in their faces. This principle holds true for any job or calling we pursue. When you see it come back to you, you have achieved a deeper level of success than any piece of paper can bestow. 

This phenomenon of finding the reflection of your positive energy in the faces of the people you serve is not limited to coaching - although I believe coaching to be a great example. Nor is it an endorsement of narcissism - of an ego driven need to see more of ourselves in other people. 

The phenomenon I am hoping to communicate involves delivering something of value to others through service and a form of love for them. When this is reflected back, it's in the act of taking on the best of what you have to offer as their own. 

In my case this past weekend, I heard a few speeches from my players and got to read a card they all signed. Without prompting, my players told me that they heard what I was trying to teach them. That soccer is bigger than a game. That life lessons are all around us if we can see them. They showed that lessons I was trying to teach found their way into who they are and who they will become.