The rule
This is a rule that Bo Eason (a former NFL player, acclaimed Broadway playwright and performer, and an international presence/story coach) was taught by his father and attributes it to his success. As a kid, his father would buy him and his brother (also a NFL player) a new football at christmas and would be the only football they would have all year. Since elementary school, Bo had a dream to become a pro footballer the he actually planned out on paper. You know what? He followed the plan! It required a lot of practice on a daily basis with the one football he had. Letting the ball hit the ground would wear out the ball prematurely.
Breaking it down
His dream was broken down to small actions that needed to be done daily. These actions then became linked to the bigger dream and also attached the same importance. So when he let the ball hit the ground, he felt as if he failed in working toward his dream. If this attachment did not exist he could easily tell himself that his brother had thrown the ball too far and not made the maximum effort to catch it. The ball would have worn out, he would not have been able to practice as much and would never have made the NFL.
The lesson
How is this relevant in everyday life? In our quest to change our life stories we have created goals and dreams that can also be broken down into smaller pieces. We need to attach importance to these details. You see, Bo had his father teach him this link and it was in hindsight that he attributed the rule to his success. If you are like me, you need to unlearn the it’s ok to drop the ball mentality that is so prevalent in our world. We all drop the ball every day. We want to get into shape but we don’t make the effort to go to the gym. We get to the gym, and we don’t push ourselves. Take any activity that you do and ask yourself, “I am I giving my all?”. What am I teaching myself (and others around you)? Is this a success habit I’m developing?
The Quest
Of course it is not possible to be 100% true to your dream and make every waking moment count towards achieving it! Make your dream real enough with plans, vision boards and deadlines then be present to how you feel when you do tasks towards obtaining your dream. If your dream is to get into shape then when you are doing your exercise and you think you can’t do another repetition, do one more! Make the effort and feel that if you don’t do one more rep that you will not get into shape. Don’t drop the ball!
Have you ever seen some of the crazy catches that NFL players have to make? We see them perform miracles in the weekly game but rest assured that in practice, every throw is just as important as the final throw in the super bowl.
You can hear Bo Eason talking about this here