Always Our Best

We have all heard the adage, “Do your job and do it well.” In life, you can count on having to do things that you would rather not do; but in becoming your best self, you should strive to do ALL things with excellence.  In officiating, we have unwanted responsibilities that still must be done with excellence--cleaning locker room after a long game, still studying rules halfway through the season, taking quizzes upon quizzes to test our knowledge, cleaning shoes to rid of turf stains, etc. Keeping the attitude of “everything matters” keeps us striving to be the best.  Even if we have achieved a certain level of success in our profession, we must keep taking pride in all that we do and keep pushing ourselves to do even better.

When we live as if everything matters, we take personal responsibility for all we do.  But we should also push others to reach their greatest potential too. However, this is a big commitment!  So, what is one important trait it takes to meet this challenge?  Being unselfish.  A person not centered on just self takes pride in all things, never thinking anything is beneath him or her.  Being unselfish takes all the credit away from yourself and how much you get noticed, meaning you may not get the credit for a smooth-running clock or incorrect calls waived off. Sometimes, another person may even get the credit for your well-done job. But still, our responsibility is to continue to do our best understanding that “just doing our job” is not excellent enough.

Proverbs 13:4
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

If we approach all situations, projects, and tasks attempting to be our best and performing with excellence, we can be confident in our body of work.  There may be setbacks, our weaknesses may be exposed, and others may even get credit for our successes, but it should never be because of the lack of “doing our job and doing it well.”

Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing and wherever we are going, do it well!

Seeing for Real

Do we make better decisions when we base them on objective thoughts or when we base them on our perceptions?  Before answering, let us look at what objective and perceptive decisions include:

Objective

·         Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering fact

·         Seeing events clear of distractions, exaggerations, and misperceptions

·         Taking “me” out of the equation

Perceptive

·         Characterized by sympathetic understanding or insight

·         Adding information to the event that is not needed

·         Applies judgments or opinions

When we observe a situation objectively, we see facts. When we add perception to a situation, we bring other issues into account.  How often do we see what we think instead of what is actual?  The key to remaining objective is to handle our emotions.  When we let our feelings get in the way, our perceptions give us information that is not needed or not necessarily true.  Processing situations this way in real-life situations and even in football often dictates the way we respond. For example, a deer observes bright lights and senses danger.  Whether by instinct or by perception, the deer runs in fear and darts right in front of an oncoming car.  Perception can lead us into a path we do not want to go.  If the deer would think objectively, it would run away from the source of the bright lights instead of into the path of them.

Titus 2:7-8:  Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

In these verses, Paul instructs Titus (and us) to be above reproach in how we act and speak. A key factor of being the “model” Paul refers to is being factual and not negatively influenced in our thoughts and actions.  Thinking objectively takes “me” out of the equation and keeps my opinions and feelings out of the equation.  When we handle difficult situations in an objective manner with our spouse, family, friends, co-workers, crewmates, coaches, and players, they will feel safe around us and therefore learn to trust our words and our actions.  And in the end, “nothing evil can be said about us.”

The perceiving eye is weak, the objective eye is strong. (Miyamoto Musashi)

Credit: “The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holiday

Unexpected Preparation

 “What’s the worst that can happen?”  As a crew, when we practice potential difficult or bad situations ahead of time (hindsight in advance), we are much more prepared when something difficult actually happens.  By practicing and thinking of the bad and then possible solutions, we can actually be better prepared and more optimistic.

In the medical field, the term postmortem is used to examine a dead body to determine the cause of death—especially when the death is unexpected.  The goal is to learn and improve for when a similar situation occurs in the future.  In our officiating world, this process is referred to as post-game review and grading.

Examining premortem means we look at what could or will go wrong before an activity/project/game starts. If something goes unexpected, what is our plan, how do we handle, what are the options? We should practice hindsight in advance.

In a world often focused on the negative, many will question why to focus on potentially bad situations. But, preparing for disruption can be a positive.  Would we rather have a pleasant or unpleasant surprise? When examining premortem, ask “what if, then” questions:

What if………Then, I will….

What if………Instead, I’ll just…..

What if………No problem, we can always….

As a crew of officials, we should strive to create a positive and up-lifting environment because negativity can lead to friction.  We do not want to be pessimistic, but we do want to be prepared for adversity.  The key is to anticipate and prepare.  We examine what, when, and how a situation could happen and our potential responses to it.  Anticipation creates a range of potential outcomes to minimize surprise.

Proverbs 24:27
Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

In this verse, Solomon explains that before we build our house, we prepare and then we go to work.  Preparation and getting ready as officials include examining those things that could go wrong and are difficult to handle.  However, it does not end there.  Take the next step to determine our plan to handle and our options to respond.

Prepare for disruption by working disruption into our plans.

 Credit:  “The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holiday