It’s June, the middle of the year. It is a time when most organisations conduct their mid year review.
The more disciplined and focused individuals use this month to assess where they are in relation to where they wanted to be.
National sport organisations, national coaches and athletes on a long term athlete or sport development pathway would have developed the habit of measurement and evaluation.
It’s difficult to achieve medal-winning results without proper planning, preparation, and most importantly, measurement and evaluation. Many find it a challenge to stick to a programme and above all to measure and evaluate where they are.
None of us are as good at evaluating and measuring as we would like. Improvement can always be made.
Sport makes it difficult to hide behind results. You either win or lose, achieve the required time, weight, distance or height or you don’t.
We all make excuses or find reasons to explain or rationalise why we may not have achieved a desired objective. There are different approaches, methods, philosophy and perspectives to be considered.
However at the end of it all the results don’t lie. They are there for all to see.
It’s always important therefore to be honest, truthful and accountable. The difference between continuing to fail and learning from failure can be found in those three notions—honesty, truthfulness and being accountable.
Many people live their entire lives as complete strangers not only to themselves but to the truth.
John Mason put it this way: “Most failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. When you are good at making excuses, it’s hard to excel at anything else. It’s difficult to make progress when you are making excuses.”
On the question of not making excuses there is a Chinese proverb that I like: “it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” Why are so many afraid to engage in reviews, measurement and evaluation mid year or otherwise. Is it due to an unwillingness to address the reality of the results? Problems and failures are the price of progress. Adversity has advantages and can only make us better.
Reviews and evaluations should be embraced and looked forward to with enthusiasm. The results may not be what was intended; but turning an obstacle to your advantage is the first step toward victory.
There are no degrees of honesty. Truth overpowers failure. Whatever you want to accomplish in life will require persistence.
Reviews are important because they let you know where you are at; it’s a necessity for a national sport organisation, club, team or athlete.
So what if the results aren’t what it should be? Never give up. Your success will be measured by your willingness to keep trying. Anyone can quit. Those who succeed make a simple choice—never quit.
There is so much happening in local sport, a lot of it I would consider positive. But the truth is that we can do better. Moving to betterment shouldn’t be as difficult as it’s made out to be.
We just need to get past the reluctance to accept the responsibility for our success.
The excuses remain the same and are repeated time and time again.
I was telling someone over the long weekend that I wish the many people I know in local sport who can make a positive difference would just have the self-belief to set big goals and just go for it. If they did that and forget about the pettiness, failures, obstacles and doomsday pundits we would be so much further ahead.
Negativity, negative people and situations aren’t an excuse. Sport in T&T can be transformed; let’s just make it happen.