No, that’s not me in this picture. In fact, I’ve never even played lacrosse. This picture is actually from my younger son’s tournament this past weekend, where his team won it all. You may be thinking, “I thought I was clicking on a leadership blog, not a sports blog.” Or, “Shouldn’t I be posting this on Facebook if I wanted to brag about my son, not a blog?” You would be somewhat correct, I did post it on Facebook. However, what you don’t see is the picture of my older son. They lost all three of their games on the first day of this tournament, and that’s where the lesson lies.
If I had taken that picture of my older son it would be of a defeated, tired, head down boy. His attitude was one of frustration, discouragement, and doubt. He was questioning the coach, the team, and thinking about why he put so much hard work into this tournament. Much like many of us after failing at something. We start to question the team, maybe ourselves, the process, the decisions that may have led up to that failure.
That night I sat with him. I explained, from my experience, character is not determined by how you respond when everything is going well. It’s really built on the foundation of how you respond to adversity. What do you say, and how do you act, when things aren’t going your way? All too often I see people tuck tail and run, or, start playing the blame game when things don’t go according to plan. I don’t quote Mike Tyson often, but he did say, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” My son had a choice. How would he respond the next day after he, and the team, got punched in the mouth? What would his character reveal about him?
In case you’re wondering, I’m happy to say his character took a big step forward that next day in the tournament. He showed up early, excited, and head held high. He rallied around his team. Although the outcome wasn’t going to be what they hoped when they started, they still won the two games they played that day. Unfortunately, they didn’t win any trophy or medal. However, in my mind they walked away with something far better, character. I couldn’t have been more proud.
Jeremy L Peterson's Blog 